The Civil Protection mason, the councillor with the rucksack, the voice of the Salce choir
On 15 June 2003 the Strada degli Scarrubbi on Monte Pasubio needed hands. Five volunteers from the Salce Alpini Group had left for the Triveneto Civil Protection exercise «Pasubio 2003»: Ernesto Barattin, Cesare Colbertaldo, Mario De Luca, Antonio «Toni» Fratta and Giuseppe Savaris. The base camp was at the sports grounds in Schio; the Salce team, part of the «Belluno» unit, was given the road that, together with the famous Road of the Tunnels, forms a ring around the mountain. The roadbed had to be rebuilt, the drainage channels cleared, the dry-stone walls put back up.
That is where the December issue of the Col Maòr found its best moment. Until then, it wrote, the work had been «unskilled labour only». Then two men took the stones in hand: Ernesto Barattin and Mario De Luca, «our “old masons”», who gave the job «a touch of “professionalism”». In the evening, back to camp, the toast that could not be missed, and the road home.
Almost all of Mario is in that scene: a trade learned properly, offered without making a fuss about it, and a company of friends with whom to work first and celebrate afterwards.
A member from Salce
His name appears in the Col Maòr in the early 1980s, on the page of family news: in 1980 the newsletter carried the Group’s condolences to members Giovanni and Mario De Luca on the death of their father Valentino. From then on Mario is a constant presence, the kind found in lists rather than in headlines: among those who work, those who organise, those who take the bookings.
In 1987 the Group finally found a home. The group leader Decimo Colbertaldo signed the lease on a small house in Col di Salce which, the Col Maòr wrote, was «like a wash-house»: it had to be cleaned, whitewashed and fitted out. Mario De Luca is on the list of members who worked there on Saturdays and Sundays, and he is there again the following year among those who also smartened up the outside of the new headquarters.
In 1988 the newsletter recorded another piece of news about him: in the local elections «member Mario De Luca» had been elected to the district council. Congratulations and best wishes, wrote the editor Mario Dell’Eva.
The councillor
At the general meeting of 28 November 1999 the members elected him to the Group’s Board, together with, among others, Ernesto Barattin, Toni Fratta and Toni Tamburlin. He stayed a long time: the Col Maòr finds him on the Board of 2004, elected again in 2011, in 2014 and for the three years 2018-2020.
You see him at work in simple things. In the food collection reported in the first issue of 2000, he and Toni Tamburlin are, in a shop in Via Vittorio Veneto in Belluno, the ones «in charge of sorting the goods». At the 2000 National Gathering in Brescia he carries the Salce banner with the others. In 2001, for the autumn outing to San Martino di Castrozza, bookings are taken by two people: Mario Dell’Eva and him.
The Civil Protection team
In the years when the Group set up its own Civil Protection team, with exercises at home and further afield, Mario was one of its pillars. Pasubio 2003 is the best-told page, but the recognition came later and put in writing what his companions already knew.
Col di Salce, 28 November 2015. The Group’s Board awards him a certificate of merit with this citation: «For the constant, professional and excellent work carried out over the years in the Civil Protection Team of the “Gen. Zaglio” Alpini Group of Salce». Three adjectives which, side by side, describe a way of working rather than a CV.
That was his trade: «in his work as a carpenter and mason», Cesare Colbertaldo would write, «Mario had no rivals». When, just after Cesare was elected group leader, he and the Board decided to restore the cemetery chapel, a job like that could only be tackled «if you have competent people like Mario, our unforgettable “nono” Ernesto Barattin and the indispensable help of our friend Ugo Reolon».
«Mario, load the rucksack»
Then there was the Mario of the National Gatherings, and the Col Maòr wrote about him with affection. At the 2007 Gathering in Cuneo, with the road closed at Pian della Regina, «our Mario “Messner” De Luca» climbed alone up to Pian del Re, leaving everyone «stunned» by his agility in the mountains. In 2010 the «classic Alpine surprise» of the «cornacchiette scampade» was his; in 2011, in Turin, his «polentissima» gathered a long table; in Bolzano in 2012 Saturday evening belonged to «the unmissable “polenta on the fire” of big Mario De Luca, with a game sauce».
Behind those dinners there was a rucksack. Cesare remembered it like this: Mario packed it carefully whether he was going hunting or to a Gathering, and at the Gatherings they went to together «“Mario, load the rucksack” meant that we might set off for an uncertain destination that day, but with the certainty that nobody would go hungry».
Part of his family often came too. His brother, Father Giorgio De Luca, a Capuchin friar, welcomed the Group at the friary in Bassano in 2008 and later in Verona; in Treviso, in 2017, the big surprise was the reunion of the brothers Mario and Paolo. In 2005, instead, the Col Maòr had had to report sad news: the sudden death of his brother Egidio, «a person very committed to voluntary work».
«Fon na cantadina»
In July 2021 the Col Maòr published, among its obituaries, a short headline: «Mario has gone ahead». It was signed by Cesare Colbertaldo. It was Mario’s daughter Laura who phoned him with the news. A few days earlier Mario had told him: «Commander, I have put the rucksack down for good», and he had understood that his friend had given in to his illness. In the annual report published in the same issue the Group remembers him among the members who had «gone ahead».
At the funeral, Father Giorgio recalled his passion for singing: «fon na cantadina», “let’s have a little sing”, Mario used to say. With Toni Tamburlin he was one of the «Alpine singers of the parish choir», and Cesare promised that at the first sing-song after the pandemic their thoughts would go to the two of them. «Goodbye Mario, your Alpine rucksack is a precious legacy you leave us».
Dates
Mario De Luca’s year of birth is not yet documented in the sources consulted.
| 1980 | The Col Maòr offers condolences to members Giovanni and Mario De Luca on the death of their father Valentino |
| 1987 | Among the volunteers who make the Group’s first headquarters in Col di Salce habitable; in 1988 he also works on the façade |
| 1988 | Elected to the district council |
| 28 November 1999 | Elected to the Group’s Board |
| 1999-2000 | Food collection: in charge of sorting the goods with Toni Tamburlin |
| 2000 | National Gathering in Brescia: carries the Salce banner |
| 15 June 2003 | «Pasubio 2003» exercise: one of the «old masons» with Ernesto Barattin |
| 2004 | On the Group’s Board |
| 2007 | Cuneo Gathering: climbs alone to Pian del Re |
| 2011, 2014, 2017 | Re-elected to the Board |
| 28 November 2015 | Certificate of merit from the Board for his work in the Civil Protection team |
| 2021 | Goes ahead; remembered in Col Maòr no. 2/2021 |
In the MEMORIA network
- Father Giorgio De Luca, his Capuchin brother, among the friends of the Alpini
- Ernesto Barattin, the other «old mason» of Pasubio
- Antonio «Toni» Fratta, with him on Pasubio and on the Board
- Antonio «Toni» Tamburlin, fellow councillor, food-collection partner and choir companion
- Decimo Colbertaldo, the group leader of the first headquarters
- Mario Dell’Eva, the editor who recorded his news
- The Salce Alpini Group
- The Col Maòr
Sources
- Col Maòr no. 4/1980, p. 10; no. 5/1987; nos. 3 and 4/1988; no. 6/1999; nos. 1 and 4/2000; no. 4/2001
- Col Maòr, December 2003, p. 11, «Pasubio 2003»
- Col Maòr nos. 1 and 4/2005; no. 2/2007 (Cuneo Gathering special); nos. 1 and 2/2008; no. 4/2009, p. 3; no. 2/2010; nos. 2 and 4/2011; no. 4/2012; nos. 2 and 4/2014; nos. 2 and 4/2017
- Certificate of merit of the Board, Col di Salce, 28 November 2015 (Group archive)
- Col Maòr no. 2/2021 (July 2021): annual report and «Mario è andato avanti», p. 10, signed Cesare
- 60th anniversary book of the Salce Alpini Group (2024), pp. 121, 154, 159
