Bartolo Giacomo - Tears of salt: a doctors story

The idea of recounting the past twenty-five years of my life and work arose from an interview with Lidia Tilotta at the clinic of Lampedusa, as we looked at Nino Randazzos photographs of the tragedy of October 3, 2013.

Those photographs started a conversation that continues to this day. It has been amplified by Gianfranco Rosi and his magnificent film Fire at Sea.

I would especially like to thank the members of the uniformed forces with whom I have worked for all these years: the port authoritys coast guard, the guardia di finanza, the police, the carabinieri, and the fire brigade. Those young men are the guardian angels of the sea. With courage, dedication, and humanity, they rescue men, women and children, in good weather and bad. And they dive into the depths to bring back their bodies.

I would like to thank my colleagues at the clinic, who help me, support me, and put up with me every day, as well as the volunteers who welcome refugees arriving by sea on Favoloro Pier, and the many interpreters. I would also like to thank the Lampedusans, who are an ever generous and welcoming people.

Thanks to Paola Masella; she knows why.

Thanks to my family: to Rita, my life companion, and to Grazia, Rosanna, and Giacomo, my children, who encourage and uphold me in my work and the choices I have made.

Thanks to the public health authorities in Palermo, on whom we depend and who constantly provide us with what we need, in the form of both equipment and manpower.

Finally, I would like to thank my dear friend Don Mimmo, who labors through the silence.

Pietro Bartolo

My thanks are due, first of all, to Pietro Bartolo, for entrusting his story to me and confiding in me the memories he has accumulated over the course of a lifetime. Every anecdote was recounted to me in a voice rich with unfiltered emotion Pietros voice. His testimony is both genuine and powerful. The process of collating and recording these recollections was challenging, and we revisited them together with Rita, who was forever at his side.

Next, my thanks go to our editor Nicoletta Lazzari, who guided me expertly through a complicated process with innumerable obstacles, going above and beyond the responsibilities of her role.

I want to thank my whole big family, who have supported, inspired, and encouraged me to keep going over the past months. Thanks to my life partner Salvo and my son Giuseppe, whose criticisms are always helpful. Thanks to my second father and brother Nino. My sister Carmela and my friend Silvana were involved in the beginning of this journey they know how.

I must thank my broadcaster, the RAI, and my news station, TGR, for allowing me to cover the stories of people fleeing war, dictatorship, and misery, over years spent on both sides of the Mediterraneans shores. They have made it possible for me to meet special people like Pietro Bartolo.

Thanks to Ezio Bosso, whose music was the soundtrack to the writing of these pages.

This book is an eyewitness account, put down on paper just as it is, black and white, without filters or embellishment. It has not been easy.

Lidia Tilotta

The authors would like to draw your attention to the work of the following charities

Confraternita di Misericordia di Lampedusa e Linosa
https://misericordialampedusa.org

Arci Associazione di Promozione Sociale
http://www.arci.it

Refugee Action
http://www.refugee-action.org.uk

Help Refugees
https://helprefugees.org.uk

Red Cross
http://www.redcross.org.uk/What-we-do/Refugee-support

Save the Children
http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/about-us/emergencies/rescue-at-sea

UNICEF
https://www.unicef.org.uk/child-refugees-europe

PIETRO BARTOLO, a doctor on Lampedusa, has been responsible for the islands clinic since 1991. In recognition of his work providing emergency medical care to refugees, he was decorated as Knight of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2016, and has received the Sergio Vieira de Mello Prize (Krakow, 2015), the Don Peppe Diana Prize, and the Special Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Italy Award. In 2017 he was appointed as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. He is featured in the Gianfranco Rosi film Fire at Sea, which won the Golden Bear at the 2016 Berlin International Film Festival and was a finalist for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2017.

LIDIA TILOTTA is a journalist at Tgr RAI, Italian public broadcastings regional news program. She has reported from Lampedusa on the stories of migrants who arrive there as well as those who lose their lives at sea. From Palermo she runs the program Mediterraneo on the channel RAI3, providing news and reportage from countries on both sides of the Mediterranean.

CHENXIN JIANG translates from Italian, German, and Chinese. Her translations have received awards including a PEN Translation Fund Grant and the Susan Sontag Prize. Chenxin studied comparative literature at Princeton University. She was born in Singapore and grew up in Hong Kong.

Dear Dottore Bartolo, what you said on television touched and wounded me. I was a child during the Second World War, and the Resistance was strong in my village. My brother and I had to watch the executions of eighteen young men. I waited to send this because I was not convinced I should, but now I am sure. I have enclosed fifty euros for a box of biscuits for a little one who has been rescued, from a very old Italian granny. Please forgive me for writing directly to you. God bless you and thank you for everything. C.

Looking into your eyes on television moved me, as I thought of how much pain and desperation they must have witnessed. I wish I could take your hands in mine and give you a great big hug. As long as there are people like you on earth, there is hope for us. I would love to meet you in person, but even though we are far apart, I am with you in spirit. Love, M.

I listened attentively to your heartfelt words about people like us, with hands, legs, eyes, mouths, and hearts like ours. They are less fortunate than we are, but otherwise akin to us in every way. You spoke of children, women, and men who suffer agonies inflicted not by God but by subhuman monsters. I am envious of your generosity, and only too aware of my own uselessness. You have shown so much understanding, solidarity, and sensitivity. I am proud of you and profoundly grateful for your selfless love toward these unloved people. A.

First published in Italian as Lacrime di sale: La mia storia quotidiana di
medico di Lampedusa fra dolore e speranza by Mondadori in 2016
First published in Great Britain as Lampedusa: Gateway to Europe in 2017
by MacLehose Press, an imprint of Quercus Publishing Ltd

Copyright 2016 by Mondadori Libri S.p.A., Milano
English translation copyright 2017 by Chenxin Jiang
Map Emily Faccini

First American Edition 2018

All rights reserved

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Production manager: Anna Oler
JACKET DESIGN BY MILAN BOZIC
JACKET ART: (BLUE PAGE): MASTERSKY / GETTY IMAGES; (CLIFF / SEA): GIANNI
MURATORE / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; (BIRD): ROBERT DZIEWULSKI / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

ISBN: 978-0-393-65128-7

ISBN: 978-0-393-65129-4 (e-book)

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