«Emilio Lussu, a man that Italy desperately needs today», wrote Alessandro Galante Garrone after the death of the Cavaliere dei Rossomori on 5 March 1975 .
Lussu, officer of the Sassari Brigade in the trenches of the Carso and on the Asiago plateau, leader of anti-fascism, writer. He lived through the tragic story of the Great War, he moved between fronts and borders in his long exile and in the years of "clandestine diplomacy", he opened up to the world while always maintaining a strong and stable relationship with his land .
«The Sardinia that I feel is not the geographical or poetic Sardinia of steep mountains and oak woods, the island of mastic and asphodel, but the harsh land of peasants, shepherds, miners and workers, Sardinia of the multifaceted work, from which fascist Rome took away the bread, freedom and life, to create an empire of smoke», says Lussu upon returning home in July 1944. He was born on December 4, 1890. Exactly 132 years ago .
Recurrences are not a mere formality. The Armungian cartoonist Sandro Dessì, who with his art recounted the lives of Gramsci and Lussu himself, today pays homage to the Cavaliere dei Rossomori with a portrait that describes the soul of the "Nuragic chieftain" (definition by Francesco Masala) .
"It's a way to renew memories and to let young people know his political and intellectual experience," explains Dessì. Marco Revelli, sociologist and writer, son of Nuto Revelli, Alpine and partisan, underlines that «Lussu is part of our political and civil heritage, of the memory of a clean and courageous Italy».
And on the fate of Armungia and Paraloup, the Piedmontese mountain village saved by the “Nuto Revelli” Foundation: «Paraloup is like Armungia, symbols of many small villages that risk disappearing. We have recovered Paraloup, where Duccio Galimberti and Dante Livio Bianco's partisan formation "Giustizia e Libertà" was born. The village was completely abandoned and depopulated . We have brought it back to life with the aim of bringing back the hope of rebirth in the inland areas where there is a profound history and an accumulation of experiences and traditions attributable to peasant and mountain civilization which has so many values to transmit to us. A great challenge of our time, political, cultural, social and economic».
Armungia also remembers Emilio Lussu with concrete acts, initiatives and projects.
Then there is the beautiful poem that Joyce Lussu dedicated to his lifelong companion:
There is nothing definitive
in this absence of yours
and mine is not a wait
but not even a leak or a chasm
where you are no longer
because you're
many things inside
words images ideas feelings
aspirations stimulate movements
present.