GARIBALDI, ANITA

(1821–1849)

The Brazilian-born first wife of Giuseppe Garibaldi, Anita Garibaldi (Anna Maria Ribeirao da Silva) was a heroine of the struggle for Italian unification. Already married when she met the Italian adventurer in 1839, she and Garibaldi had two sons and a daughter together. Both sons became prominent soldiers and statesmen on the model of their father. Menotti (1840–1903) was born out of wedlock (Garibaldi and Anita were only able to marry after the death of her first husband in 1842). He fought with his father in the “Expedition of the Thousand” to Sicily and won a gold medal for gallantry in the war against Austria of 1866. From 1876 to 1900, he was a parliamentary deputy. The second son, Raced (1847–1924), was also a war hero and adventurer who served in Parliament and took a leading role in the Italian–Turkish war when he was over 60 years old. Anita Garibaldi is remembered today, however, less for the exploits of her children than for her own extraordinary bravery and devotion. In 1849, against Garibaldi’s will, she followed him to Rome and took part in the defense of the city against the French army. She accompanied him on the tragic retreat through the Papal States to Ravenna, where, overcome by exhaustion and hunger, she died when she was not yet 30 years old. Lodged between petrochemical plants and the Adriatic, the small hut in which she was ravaged by fever is still standing and is the object of sporadic pilgrimages.