"Feet in Milan, a hideout in Paris, a heart in Barcelona": these are the
complex geographic and emotional coordinates of the captivating
character Agustino Barajas, known as Carnera - a Spanish anarchist with
"a mission to accomplish with the blunted weapons of someone who doesn't
know how to shoot, even though there is no alternative to storming the
heavens." ---- It is April 29, 1945, a monumental Sunday: on Piazzale
Loreto hang the corpses of Benito Mussolini and his followers, suspended
upside down, while within hours some attempt to harness that
unrepeatable energy of revolution and hope to extend the outcome of
history to all fascisms - Franco's in particular. Leading this attempt
at upheaval is the imposing yet nonviolent Carnera, an anarchist forger
who hates being called that and far prefers to see himself as an artist.
He despises money, follows only his meticulous care for detail, and
devotes his entire life to his one daughter: the Revolution.
An Endless Sunday is thus a novel inspired by the historical figure of
the Spanish anarchist Laureano Cerrada Santos and the venture he tried
to undertake with the partisan group of the Bruzzi Malatesta Brigade.
While Italy was celebrating liberation from fascism, they tried to
collapse the Spanish economy by stealing the printing plates of the
Banco de España hidden in Milan to clandestinely mint currency. Hours
likely filled with frenzy and masterful calculation, which could have
changed history forever if, after a series of anarchist assemblies, it
had not been decided to destroy the plates to prevent the economic
crisis they intended to trigger in Spain - one that would have
devastated the most disadvantaged classes.
Credit goes to writer and journalist Paolo Maggioni for uncovering this
historical gem and bringing it to light through a 200-page novel
(published by SEM in April 2025). It is a breathless read, rich in
intertwined stories and details that make identification inevitable, so
much so that one feels as though running alongside the main characters
as they dart through alleyways to carry out their anti-Franco maneuvers
and mingle with the dense crowds heading toward Piazzale Loreto to
celebrate freedom - always a little more fragile for anarchists who, as
Carnera himself says, are "rebels to all, brothers to none."
Alongside the Spanish master forger and inventive genius shine other
luminous characters: his partisan comrades Ercole, the Basque, the
Doctor, and the late Massimo Masini; as well as two highly inspiring
female figures - Marta Ripoldi, Masini's widow, mother of twins Zeno and
Anita, a tram driver and partisan courier, symbol of emancipation, grit,
and courage; and Stella, Marta's elderly neighbor, who rebuilds a family
nucleus with her by becoming the children's de facto grandmother and
supporting Marta in her hard life as a worker and single mother, in a
historical moment when female solitude cast great shadows over the
future and left room for all sorts of misfortunes.
There is also the fascinating portrayal of a character standing on the
opposite shore of the river of history: Daniele Colpani, a regime radio
broadcaster, the Voice of the fascist period. A fictional figure who
gives the author - likely drawing on his own profession - the chance to
describe the allure of the radio world and its cultural power, for
better or worse, in shaping a whole nation. Through his love for Carla
we glimpse another way of loving: more machista and intermittent, at
times purely aesthetic and thus cowardly, contrasted with the memory of
Marta and Masini's love, echoed later in the values that bind Marta to
Achille, a partisan comrade and head of the Resistance in the transport
company. Through Colpani we hear an entirely divergent perspective,
starkly opposed to the moods and aims of all other characters united by
the partisan struggle. Almost tangible is his emerging nostalgia for
fascism, his fear of losing everything, becoming real step by step as he
moves through the crowd, terrified of being recognized and eliminated
after a career sustained by the Duce's favor and public notoriety. This
fear, Colpani tries to counter with small escapes: an imagined radio
commentary of a street children's soccer game, or the satisfaction of
hearing everyone hum the current hit - the carefree "Solo me ne vo per
la città / passo tra la folla che non sa" by Natalino Otto - which he
himself had promoted on the radio, though in his mind it now takes on
dark tones and unsettling meaning as he seeks to save himself in anonymity.
The story's outcome - not fully revealed here - leaves room for
political reflection. Without descending into defeatism, it allows for a
richer exploration of the limits and possibilities of anarchism through
seemingly small yet inspiring historical events. It also prompts us to
question the complexity and necessity of resistance, and to recognize
that revolutions often spring from small, virtuous opportunities seized
with instinct, courage, and a good measure of conscious recklessness.
Above all, this novel risks - or promises - to ignite in readers' hearts
the courage embodied by a figure like Carnera: his enviable ability to
nourish divergent thinking to the point of making revolution without
ever wielding a weapon, sustained by the belief that "a gun can kill,
but a well-crafted forged document almost always saves a life." Along
with courage, this reading can leave you with the desire to draw
inspiration more tenaciously from figures like Carnera and his real-life
counterpart, Laureano Cerrada Santos - to try, like them, to be "a great
umbrella under which to take shelter from all the evil in the world."
Désirée Carruba Toscano
https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
complex geographic and emotional coordinates of the captivating
character Agustino Barajas, known as Carnera - a Spanish anarchist with
"a mission to accomplish with the blunted weapons of someone who doesn't
know how to shoot, even though there is no alternative to storming the
heavens." ---- It is April 29, 1945, a monumental Sunday: on Piazzale
Loreto hang the corpses of Benito Mussolini and his followers, suspended
upside down, while within hours some attempt to harness that
unrepeatable energy of revolution and hope to extend the outcome of
history to all fascisms - Franco's in particular. Leading this attempt
at upheaval is the imposing yet nonviolent Carnera, an anarchist forger
who hates being called that and far prefers to see himself as an artist.
He despises money, follows only his meticulous care for detail, and
devotes his entire life to his one daughter: the Revolution.
An Endless Sunday is thus a novel inspired by the historical figure of
the Spanish anarchist Laureano Cerrada Santos and the venture he tried
to undertake with the partisan group of the Bruzzi Malatesta Brigade.
While Italy was celebrating liberation from fascism, they tried to
collapse the Spanish economy by stealing the printing plates of the
Banco de España hidden in Milan to clandestinely mint currency. Hours
likely filled with frenzy and masterful calculation, which could have
changed history forever if, after a series of anarchist assemblies, it
had not been decided to destroy the plates to prevent the economic
crisis they intended to trigger in Spain - one that would have
devastated the most disadvantaged classes.
Credit goes to writer and journalist Paolo Maggioni for uncovering this
historical gem and bringing it to light through a 200-page novel
(published by SEM in April 2025). It is a breathless read, rich in
intertwined stories and details that make identification inevitable, so
much so that one feels as though running alongside the main characters
as they dart through alleyways to carry out their anti-Franco maneuvers
and mingle with the dense crowds heading toward Piazzale Loreto to
celebrate freedom - always a little more fragile for anarchists who, as
Carnera himself says, are "rebels to all, brothers to none."
Alongside the Spanish master forger and inventive genius shine other
luminous characters: his partisan comrades Ercole, the Basque, the
Doctor, and the late Massimo Masini; as well as two highly inspiring
female figures - Marta Ripoldi, Masini's widow, mother of twins Zeno and
Anita, a tram driver and partisan courier, symbol of emancipation, grit,
and courage; and Stella, Marta's elderly neighbor, who rebuilds a family
nucleus with her by becoming the children's de facto grandmother and
supporting Marta in her hard life as a worker and single mother, in a
historical moment when female solitude cast great shadows over the
future and left room for all sorts of misfortunes.
There is also the fascinating portrayal of a character standing on the
opposite shore of the river of history: Daniele Colpani, a regime radio
broadcaster, the Voice of the fascist period. A fictional figure who
gives the author - likely drawing on his own profession - the chance to
describe the allure of the radio world and its cultural power, for
better or worse, in shaping a whole nation. Through his love for Carla
we glimpse another way of loving: more machista and intermittent, at
times purely aesthetic and thus cowardly, contrasted with the memory of
Marta and Masini's love, echoed later in the values that bind Marta to
Achille, a partisan comrade and head of the Resistance in the transport
company. Through Colpani we hear an entirely divergent perspective,
starkly opposed to the moods and aims of all other characters united by
the partisan struggle. Almost tangible is his emerging nostalgia for
fascism, his fear of losing everything, becoming real step by step as he
moves through the crowd, terrified of being recognized and eliminated
after a career sustained by the Duce's favor and public notoriety. This
fear, Colpani tries to counter with small escapes: an imagined radio
commentary of a street children's soccer game, or the satisfaction of
hearing everyone hum the current hit - the carefree "Solo me ne vo per
la città / passo tra la folla che non sa" by Natalino Otto - which he
himself had promoted on the radio, though in his mind it now takes on
dark tones and unsettling meaning as he seeks to save himself in anonymity.
The story's outcome - not fully revealed here - leaves room for
political reflection. Without descending into defeatism, it allows for a
richer exploration of the limits and possibilities of anarchism through
seemingly small yet inspiring historical events. It also prompts us to
question the complexity and necessity of resistance, and to recognize
that revolutions often spring from small, virtuous opportunities seized
with instinct, courage, and a good measure of conscious recklessness.
Above all, this novel risks - or promises - to ignite in readers' hearts
the courage embodied by a figure like Carnera: his enviable ability to
nourish divergent thinking to the point of making revolution without
ever wielding a weapon, sustained by the belief that "a gun can kill,
but a well-crafted forged document almost always saves a life." Along
with courage, this reading can leave you with the desire to draw
inspiration more tenaciously from figures like Carnera and his real-life
counterpart, Laureano Cerrada Santos - to try, like them, to be "a great
umbrella under which to take shelter from all the evil in the world."
Désirée Carruba Toscano
https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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