In March 12, 1977, in the town of Gioiosa Jonica in the southern Italian region of Reggio Calabria, a Communist mill owner named Rocco Gatto was murdered in an old-style mafia hit. Born in 1926 as the oldest of 15 children, Gatto was killed for refusing to pay fees extorted by the ‘ndrangheta or local Calabrian mafia.
In 1978, Gatto’s death was memorialized by a group of local artists in Gioiosa Jonica when they painted murals on the facade of a theater in Piazza Vittorio Veneto. Now, some 30 years later, those murals have faded and fallen into disrepair and are in desperate need of restoration. The photos above show the state of degradation: the photo on the left shows the murals in 1977 and the photo on the right depicts their current state.
In the interest of preserving the memory of Rocco Gatto and the fight against the mafia, an organization called da Sud is raising funds to restore the murals. You can sign a petition by visiting the da Sud website or you can contribute funds (in Italy) by sending a donation through the Italian post office (C/C Postale n. 73340903 intestato a “Comitato pro murales teatro Gioiosa”. Causale “Campagna restauro Murales) or making a wire transfer to the following account: Abi 7601 Cab 16300.
