Mario Lupo

He wrote that "with the name "Giuittu", the Arabs indicated the black bitumen. They could have observed signs of hydro­carbon and that could have given the name of Gioitto to this zone?".

Already in the 1929, as a solitary researcher, tried to define the oil peculiarity of Sicily ("petro­liferità"): by sending his analysis and the first samples "of certain  oil origin" taken by him, to the Sicilian territory to the Experimental Station for the Fuels Of Milan.

As a political man, he tried, in every way, to bring to Bronte some economic benefits, deriving from the utilization of the hydrocarbons found on his territory.

Despite his studies and the persistent action in searching for the petroleum, remained however, "a prophet in his country", unheeded, having had vulgar interlocutors, not only locally.

Today the research, the utilization of oil fields, in Bronte and other zones of the island, and the use of methane have became Sicilian realities. In the territory were discovered impor­tant metha­ne fields (gasoline), rich of liquid pro­ducts degasified in a big plant, built, by the E.N.I., at a few kilometers from Bronte.

"The petroleum meant a pacific revo­lution; the industrial and economic revolution which would have changed the face of my land; it meant a better future.
It meant the revival: it was worth to dedicate  my modest efforts of technician to the first professional experience, the first love.

And it was, truly a persistent action, searching  for petroleum on my own, a  composite action that I judged civil and social, among technique, journalism and politics". (Mario Lupo)
 

He indicated solutions, always looking at the development of our country

«We are rich in land, water, raw materials, energy of arms and intellects; but we live like rags." Hydrocarbons, energy sources, water, agriculture, industrialization, tourism, ecology, culture and development, regional autonomy, were the main themes of Mario Lupo's interventions published in the press.

In his writings as in his actions, aspects of his personality, political and social commitment, secularism, correct attitude that never bordered on controversy and, above all, great moral integrity and great humanity were always present.

«Taken by ideal tensions - he wrote in the Espresso Sera of 27 January 1983 -, also working on youthful fantasies (or daydreams), in the Valley where the Simeto begins its course, I imagined steel towers (derriks) that drilled and pumps that they extracted oil and methane; I imagined a “flame” on a refinery tower, and a power station, and chemical factories: I imagined unemployment eliminated, and a new era of well-being for Bronte and the surrounding area; the sun of rebirth rising from the west, I was saying."

This is how the professor remembered it. Gaetano Longhitano in the comme­moration made in the City Council on 24 March 1986 a few days after his death:
«We have carefully reread his books as well as the more than one hundred articles he published in various magazines and newspapers, both local and national, and, from 1929 to a few days before his death, and we have never found a shadow of controversy but constructive criticism always aimed at raising problems and indicating solutions, always looking at the development of our country.

Of course, a sense of bitterness often transpires in his writings which never becomes despondency and pessimism, because he always had the strength to look ahead: "and then it will be day", he wrote in one of his 1966 articles.

Bitterness at the climate of incomprehension that surrounded him, especially among men in power, and very often among those men of culture to whom he addressed himself in a particular way, aware of the important role that the intellectual has in the processes of transformation of society.

Having failed all attempts to channel Bronte along the path of development, he feels the need to stop for a moment and reflect on why a country rich in resources continues to live in poverty."

«We are rich - he told me, shortly before his death, one day when I went to visit him at home - we are rich in land, water, raw materials, energy of arms and intellects; but we live like rags."

His dream

To reach and see his dreams realized by prof. Mario Lupo lavished his energies in a thou­sand ways: books, articles on the columns of newspapers and magazines, letters, peti­tions, proposals, organization of associations and conferences, interventions in public deba­tes, solicitations to politicians of the most varied extraction.

Yet, in spite of a total commitment, his greatest hopes were disregarded.

«He died without seeing his dream of wellness for Sicily realized - just wait to be picked up by the witness launched by prof. Lupo ", so, a few days after his death, titled La Sicilia on Satur­day, March 8, 1986 in an article signed by the then mayor of Bronte Pino Firrarello.

"There are still - wrote Firrarello, among others - those who put their entire lives at stake in the service of an idea, Mario Lupo is a shining example of it".