He put his whole life at stake in the service of an
idea: to improve his land Mario Lupo
Culture, political and social commitment, secularism
Mario
Lupo, (Bronte 1904 -- 1986), was a
professor of natural sciences in Bronte at the Capizzi Secondary school,
journalist, interested in politics (was deputy major of Bronte in the
years 1970) but, above all, was a great chemist.
With remarkable anticipation and insight, in postwar (1950 -1964) he was the first to talk about the oil fields of Bronte and of the island territory (the
"Sicily petroliferità"
as he called it) and to develop ideas and hypothesis, both flywheel of
economic and social growth.
He was also the first to guess and speak of the oil showings of the San Nicola
district (the "San Nicola fire")
and of the Gioitto zone. ("Idrocarburi in libertà-
Bronte oil center", Giannotta publisher, Catania, 1962).
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)
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Professor Mario Lupo (left) in 1960.
To his right the lawyer,
Fortunato Attinà, deputy mayor of Bronte in he same period; in center his
son Francesco Attinà. |
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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". |
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1962: Mario Lupo surrounded by professors and students of Real
Collegio Capizzi. |
 "Oil" hypothesis of 1949 by Mario Lupo on a territory of 5.000 square km. The
elliptical surface represents the Bronte-Gagliano Castelferrato
methane rich extensive district for about 1.000 square km, come to light
following big searches in the years 1955-56 |
The triangle of the Sicilian hydrocarbon
described by Mario Lupo in 1960 (from "Sicilia petrolifera",
Bronte, 1982)
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1956: The prof. Mario Lupo next to an active well
of methane extraction near Bronte. «When sowing the
important thing is that someone picks up. If we do not
celebrate the dreamed reality, it will be our children
or grandchildren»"(Mario Lupo). |
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