The know-how in Sicily; The marble bread

The know-how in Sicily

The marble bread "Churned out" in Bellazita quarry in Custonaci

The story of Angelo Mangiapane
by Maiorana Ignazio

There we find it anywhere and everywhere it makes us look great. The marble is in church, at the cemetery, on monuments and on floors, in the bathroom as in the kitchen. It's ancient and modern, also it is eternal . It is cold and anemic or chromed and comfortable..

But how much work there is behind this hard material, to which the sculptor gives elegance and perfection to its final shape, in the art of telling the man and his history!

It is always Mother Earth that donate it to us, the hard "bread marble" that holds in its bowels. She, The Earth gives to us massive blocks to be transformed into delicate slabs of marbles. After the Nature is the quarryman the protagonist of the marble.

We were fascinate about this figure of quarryman and we went to look for it in Custonaci: Angelo Mangiapane was one of the first quarryman of Custonaci location Marble.

Today 79 Mr Angelo is years old and he has lived all main industry changes. Yesterday by his own hands, Today with his cars and his business intelligence.

I knew the activity of the quarries after finishing elementary school

- tells the entrepreneur -.

In that time it was an arms working with the aid of simple equipments. We could well tell to go in the early morning to "The forced workr for a piece of bread". Blocks of marble were extracted from the mountain by the application of large iron wedges, aligned and plunged inside the rock surface. Blocks were simultaneously hit by 4-5 workers with heavy clubs 10 kg each up to breack the marble rock with the help of "bindi", heavy tools crank, applied such as a lever to the block to be detach from the mountain.

After that arrived the jackhammer to facilitate a few of the hard job. of the quarryman Craft, even more without the knowledge of the marble from quarry material that was unearth after freeing the mountain from its scab. I worked as a labourer until the age of 15 years

- reminds Angelo Mangiapane -

When I looked at a piece of mountain where I could build my quarry and I agreed with the owner on the use of that area. They were difficult times that convinced me, at the age of 17 years, to suspend the activities of the marble and I decided tp go to work in France as metalworker in a steel mill where I thought to earn more. But, at the expiry date of the employment contract, I returned back to Custonaci and I start again to do the quarryman from where I had temporarily suspended the entrepreneurship. I still have the knowledge of French language. In that language I still getting through.

What technology makes more simple the work of the quarrymen?

At the beginning we start to cut the rock with helicoidal wire along hundreds of meters, which it was made to flow and activate by a motor. Along its conduit were poured sand and water for a better chafing. Lately, with the arrival of the diamond wire, even more resistant than the helicoical wire, now we can extract blocks of marble much faster.

Today our quarry is equipped with a chain saw with a blade that costs 200 thousand euro and that it cuts depth up to 7,5 mt. Progressively blocks are transported to sawmills fot marble, where they are squared and then become cut into slabs which, finally, They are made polished and delivered to the final customer.

Also the way to transport marble blocks is changed.

Yes, today we have mechanical shovels that lift up to 400 quintals. Once we made use of iron small wheels and other systems to scroll down lighter blocks'.
And so, forth, The Mangiapane company became the family business company named CUS.MAR (it means : Custonaci Marmi) which sees the administrative and managerial partnership of Angelo daughters, Cristina and Rosaria. The company of Cusmar is nowadays a leader among the other companies in the sector.

But there was never a moment of reconsideration or paricular difficult?

I never regretted working with marble, although the construction sector in recent years has to be having an hard time lately . Even during the II World War it has seen an economic crisis so heavy. However, Our company has never been put in knee, it remain active taking advantage of necessary staff.

Which did has been the greatest satisfaction in doing this job?

I daily feel joy, I love this job, I never had an hobby, This is my passion. In the early morning I am always here to do a tour in the district of Bellazita, extended 4 hectares. I move here me from only when I travel around the world to choose other kind marbles to market. I do not have interest to rest myself. There will be time to make it at the end of my existence.

Have you ever find signs of fossils in marble blocks?

Yes, It happened of everything, shells and even fossilized trees in to the Indian marble, such as if you could read the previous life of pages in each polished slab.

Do You still have lifelong dreams in the drawer, Notwithstanding your age?

A man has always lifelong dreams, if he stops dreaming he is ended. For example, if I was few years old , i will increase the production to make to go down the price and to be more competitive on the market. "I vigni si chiantanu quannu a racina va mircata" (the vineyard should be implant when the grape is required on the market demand). Just in a time of crisis I still will invest . It is not said that I don't will do it ! It will depend also by my daughters… Never say never.

We currently have a reserve of 10.000 tons of valuable marble blocks of Custonaci that will allow us to work for a good number of years. This is Pearl and Perlatino local marbles very weatherproof, of first-class quality, the best marble that we.

Then we also work the Sicilian Travertine and the Marble "Red sunset", Roman Travertine. Half of the raw material to be cut is from us imported from abroad in blocks (Morocco, Greece, Portugal, India, France, Iran, Egypt, etc.) and the foreign countries are our main end markets, considering that in Italy everything is idle. We ship marble slabs in containers through specialized maritime agencies.

For Mr Angelo Mangiapane any " bread" proves to be hard if you do not know how to make it soft. In his eyes of octogenarian we however read the serenity even though the Dominating Mount "Cofano" in Custonaci tears boulders for centuries into the sea.