At the beginning of 2006 he arrived in Lanzarote and ended up turning this island into his home. Fourteen years later, in March 2020, his company sent him the same message that thousands of workers in Lanzarote and hundreds of thousands throughout Spain heard at that time. Some acronyms that have marked the last year: ERTE.
Gio, as his friends know him, worked in the tourism sector and has been subject to a Temporary Employment Regulation File for a year. An ERTE that has allowed many people to survive, but is not enough. When a thousand-euro earner starts earning 70% of their salary, the numbers don't add up. And neither does life. And the family pulls.
“I never thought I would leave this island”, he confesses while preparing to leave. It is not easy. A decade and a half is summed up in much more than the boxes that he is distributing today in the houses of his friends, hoping to be able to return soon to pick them up.
“They are my other family”, he confesses when talking about his friends. As the saying goes, “the animal is not from where it is born, but from where it grazes”. And he had been putting down roots on the island for a long time. He even dreams of returning when the situation improves.
The story of this Italian with a conejero soul is the story of many other people who are having to leave the island. He will be especially missed at La Voz de Lanzarote - which he joined through ties of friendship since he set foot on this land. In the journalists of this house, and in almost all the colleagues who have passed through La Voz during these years, he also leaves part of his family.
