Humble rise in society : Ġużeppi Bartolo taz-Zomblu

Abstract

Ġużeppi Bartolo for many years the President of the Imperial Band Club. Some people referred to him as Ġużeppi tal-Posta, because of a career as a postman and officer, others as Ġużeppi ta’ Selmun because he hailed from that tiny hamlet on the promontory that juts bout between Mellieħa Bay and St Paul’s Bay. But here the author prefer to refer to him as Ġużeppi taz-Zomblu, as was traditionally called his family in Selmun. Paul B. Borg had interviewed him in 2009, and the following article is the chapter he had written about Ġużeppi Bartolo in the book ‘Quest for Identity – the Mellieħa experience’, published by the Mellieħa Local Council in its series ‘Ħannieqa Kotba Melleħin’ the following year. In this study the author had analysed the characterstics of the environment and of many people from all walks of life, case studies mostly from Mellieħa, in order to identify so many features that are indicators and descriptors of the true identity of the inhabitants of these Islands as a Mediterranean archipelago. The protagonists of the study showed that despite insularity, and limited resources, the local inhabitant had participated in the social and cultural development of the universal human being in his endeavours to extract livelihood and subsistence from his environment.