Marcella Glisenti

Marcella Glisenti
Born	13 February 1925 Rome, Lazio, Italy
Died	October 2004 (Age 79)
Nationality	Italian
Alma mater	Sapienza University of Rome
Religion	Catholic
Children	Paolo Glisenti
Spouse	Giuseppe Glisenti
Party	Christian Democracy (Italy)
Italian catholic intellectual and third world solidarity activist. Wife of one of the founders of the deep state Christian Democrat party. Visitor to the 1977 Bilderberg

Marcella Ceccacci Glisenti was an Italian catholic intellectual, journalist and translator. She visited the 1977 Bilderberg meeting. Her husband, Giuseppe Glisenti, who was one of the founder of the deep state Christian Democrat party, attended the 1971 Bilderberg meeting.

Early life

She studied in Rome, graduating in Literature. Very young she worked from 1947 to 1951 as editorial secretary for the Dossettiana magazine "Cronache Sociali", of which her husband Giuseppe was director. In those years he collaborated with important figures of the Catholic political world such as Giorgio La Pira, Corrado Corghi, Amintore Fanfani, Giuseppe Lazzati,who at that time were engaged at elaborating the first part of the new Italian Constitution.

Activities

Since the mid-fifties she began to deal with the issues related to the third world, approaching, for this activity also to Lelio Basso, with whom she collaborated within the Italian section of the Russell Court. During the sixties Marcella Glisenti founded the Libreria Paesi Nuovi in Via Aurora in Rome, specialized in the literature of the Third World countries, which will become a meeting point for exhibitions, presentations and conferences on the issues of the North-South relationship; at the same time, she will be the promoter of the Italian Association Amies de Presence Africaine, linked to the important magazine published in Paris. In those years Marcella Glisenti represented an important point of reference for African leaders and men of culture, including the president of Senegal and poet Leopold Senghor, of whom Glisenti is the translator in Italian, but also among the exponents of the anti-colonial liberation movements.

Marcella Glisenti wase among the promoters of the Italian Europe-Latin America Committee, which, among other things, in collaboration with the Russell Court contributed to the dissemination of news on torture practiced by the military dictatorship in Brazil. Marcella knew Pope Paul VI from the years when he was pro-secretary of State, and told him of the torture in Brazil after the 1964 coup.

During the seventies, she was involved in supporting the exiles of the dictatorships resulting from the coups in Argentina and Chile, also by virtue of her previous contacts with the Chilean Christian Democracy.

In particular, Marcella Glisenti played, in those years, a very important role in relations with the Vatican. In January 1970, she delivered to Paul VI the dossier prepared by the Lapirian magazine "Notes of Culture" on torture in Brazil.A few months later, Marcella Glisenti, who was among the promoters in the previous months of the realization of the International Conference of Solidarity with the Peoples of the Portuguese colonies, and was the key figure for the organization of the private audience granted to the leaders of the liberation movements by Paul VI. On July 1, 1970, on the sidelines of the Conference, she met Amilcar Cabral of the PAIGC, Marcelino Dos Santos of FRELIMO and Agostinho Neto of the MPLA; in the subsequent historical reconstruction and in the testimonies of the protagonists this meeting represents a turning point, with the implicit condemnation of the Vatican to Portuguese colonial policy.

In 1971, the Libreria Paesi Nuovi hosted both the meeting in which Father Cesare Bertulli announced the decision of the White Fathers to abandon Mozambique, and the press conference for the arrival of the first seven FRELIMO guerrillas at the Arcispedale Santa Maria Nuova in Reggio Emilia.

In those same years, Marcella Glisenti participated in the foundation of the ISSOCO, promoted by Lelio Basso; but above all, Glisenti is among the founders of the IPALMO, entering the Board of Directors from the beginning; over the years, within the institute, she deals with development cooperation, with particular attention to the issues of cooperation in the school and university. In the second half of the Seventies "she works to get the support of the Italian government to the cause of Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union Zanu (Zanu) in Rhodesia". Glisenti remained active within the IPALMO until 1987.

From 1979 she was President of the National Committee of Solidarity with Nicaragua, which in 1980 and 1984 organizes two Friendship Ships at the end of two national campaigns to collect aid

 

Event Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/1977	22 April 1977	24 April 1977	Imperial Hotel Torquay United Kingdom	The 25th Bilderberg, held in Torquay, England.

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