Once again, in Calabria, there is a distinction between territories that count and territories they can wait. With the recent announcement of the regional councilor Caterina Capponiwe learn that 2.5 million euros will be allocated for the renovation of theaters … but only of those found in the five provincial capitals. The others? Nothing. Not even a penny. As if they didn’t exist.
Yet they exist. There are cities like Lamezia Termewhich despite the absence of the title of “capital”, has a theater like the Hailwhich is the beating heart of the Calabrian culture. A theater that I know centimeter by centimeter: my grandfather built it, I took care of it for decades, until it became municipal. And every restoration, any improvement, has been done without regional aid, with the only forces of my family.
And now that important funds arrive, those who represent culture in the region decides to exclude us. Why? Why don’t Lamezia have the “noble title” of the capital? This is not cultural programming: it is political myopia and territorial discrimination.
But the question is simple: the quality of culture is measured with the cap of the Municipality?
Maybe I was right, years ago, when I was fighting to make Lamezia a province. It was not a sterile battle: it was the awareness of a living, but constantly penalized reality. Like many others in Calabria.
For this reason today I do not speak only for Lamezia, but for all those municipalities that have no voice, because they are marginalized and forgotten. Municipalities that have theaters, associations, artists and public … but have no representation. So I ask the mayor of Lamezia to raise the voice. And I turn to President Occhiuto and the Capponi councilor: Change this law, open the funds also to theaters who do not fall into the capitals. Because the real culture is the one that spreads everywhere, even where the spotlights never come.
Lamezia Terme must be defended, as well as all those territories that every day keep the flame of culture on without ever having anything in return.