RECALLING PALERMO

Palermo is the city where I was born in the deep Italian south. It is a city that always leaves its mark. Me too, despite having lived a total of a few years. It is not difficult to hear Arab or Norman voices walking through its alleys, among its eighteenth-century Spanish palaces that have withstood the years but not the bombings "Anglo-American allies" of the end of World War II. Ghosts are still moving among the rubble of the areas in which this tragedy was most felt: among the shops of the Opera dei Pupi that survived television, and the internet, among the streets full of food to take away, the smells still accompany the traveler, feeling Goethe's words alive. The Palermo in these photographs is a Palermo infested by the mafia phenomenon. A city submitted to the power of the gangs, of the "families". A war between the Mafia and the State begins, culminating in the murders of Falcone and Borsellino

A family of Ballarò in Palermo, Sicily Island, Italy, 1980.

Copyright 1980 © Luciano del Castillo/Archivio DEL CASTILLO Copyright. Tutti i diritti riservati. Questo materiale non può essere pubblicato, trasmesso, riscritto o ridistribuito. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

A child sells tissues in the street to help the family in Palermo, Sicily Island, Italy, 1980. Copyright 1980 © Luciano del Castillo/Archivio DEL CASTILLO Copyright. Tutti i diritti riservati. Questo materiale non può essere pubblicato, trasmesso, riscritto o ridistribuito. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Prime Minister Bettino Craxi visits the city of Palermo, Italy, June 24, 1986

Copyright 1986 © Luciano del Castillo/Archivio DEL CASTILLO Copyright. Tutti i diritti riservati. Questo materiale non può essere pubblicato, trasmesso, riscritto o ridistribuito. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


A little girl is playing among the houses in the Kalsa neighborhood in Palermo, Sicily Island, Italy, 1980.

Copyright 1980 © Luciano del Castillo/Archivio DEL CASTILLO Copyright. Tutti i diritti riservati. Questo materiale non può essere pubblicato, trasmesso, riscritto o ridistribuito. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


A child plays in the alleys in the neighborhood of Ballarò in Palermo, Sicily, Italy, 1979.

Copyright 1979 © Luciano del Castillo/Archivio DEL CASTILLO Copyright. Tutti i diritti riservati. Questo materiale non può essere pubblicato, trasmesso, riscritto o ridistribuito. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Copyright 1982 © Luciano del Castillo/Archivio DEL CASTILLO Copyright. Tutti i diritti riservati. Questo materiale non può essere pubblicato, trasmesso, riscritto o ridistribuito. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Copyright 1986 © Luciano del Castillo/Archivio DEL CASTILLO Copyright. Tutti i diritti riservati. Questo materiale non può essere pubblicato, trasmesso, riscritto o ridistribuito. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Copyright 1986 © Luciano del Castillo/Archivio DEL CASTILLO Copyright. Tutti i diritti riservati. Questo materiale non può essere pubblicato, trasmesso, riscritto o ridistribuito. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Two children play "husband and wife" sitting in one of the popular streets in downtown Palermo, 1980.

Copyright 1980 © Luciano del Castillo/Archivio DEL CASTILLO Copyright. Tutti i diritti riservati. Questo materiale non può essere pubblicato, trasmesso, riscritto o ridistribuito. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

A woman with her daughter in the house on the street at Ballarò district in Palermo, Sicily, Italy, 1979.

Copyright 1979 © Luciano del Castillo/Archivio DEL CASTILLO Copyright. Tutti i diritti riservati. Questo materiale non può essere pubblicato, trasmesso, riscritto o ridistribuito. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


Catalan TVJournalist Paco Escribano and his TV3 Channel television crew shoots while a woman hidden by the shutters is watching them in a street where dozens of people in Palermo were killed in a feud in one year. It is estimated that killers killed each other once the mafia truce was broken in downtown Palermo, 1982.

Copyright 1982 © Luciano del Castillo/Archivio DEL CASTILLO Copyright. Tutti i diritti riservati. Questo materiale non può essere pubblicato, trasmesso, riscritto o ridistribuito. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

A toy vendor (C) near his stall jokes with his wife (R) pointing a toy gun at his mother-in-law in downtown Palermo, 1982.

Copyright 1982 © Luciano del Castillo/Archivio DEL CASTILLO Copyright. Tutti i diritti riservati. Questo materiale non può essere pubblicato, trasmesso, riscritto o ridistribuito. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


A group of children playing at war raises their toy weapons as a sign of victory in downtown Palermo, 1980.

Copyright 1980 © Luciano del Castillo/Archivio DEL CASTILLO Copyright. Tutti i diritti riservati. Questo materiale non può essere pubblicato, trasmesso, riscritto o ridistribuito. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The commercial port where the container ships arrive in Palermo, 1980.

Copyright 1980 © Luciano del Castillo/Archivio DEL CASTILLO Copyright. Tutti i diritti riservati. Questo materiale non può essere pubblicato, trasmesso, riscritto o ridistribuito. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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