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| Raffaele Bracale |
Raffaele Bracale was born in Naples in 1945 where he completed his studies and graduated in law. He worked for over twenty years for Banco di Napoli, the largest credit institution in the South and resigned in 1992 to commit himself more actively in the artistic field, ranging from painting to photography, from fiction to poetry and theater (until serious health problems forced him into inactivity). He collaborated with Neapolitan newspapers and magazines with articles about customs and has received certificates and awards in various national competitions both as a poet and as a painter, as well as a director and a theatrical author. For the theater, he has written, staged and performed half a dozen works for l'Applauso and then later for numerous other theater companies.
A writer of novels, books about gastronomy, and much more about Neapolitan language and heritage, Raffaele Bracale, was the inspirer, moral supporter and member of the Neapolitan Academy, (Accademia Napoletana) managed by Massimiliano Verde.
The Neapolitan Academy is a scientific group to teach and promote Neapolitan Language and Heritage. In 2017 Verde implemented with the approval of Dr. Raffaele Bracale the first course on the Neapolitan Language according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Language (CEFR), recognized by the city of Naples and then by academies, sociolinguists and professors from all over the world. The Accademia was in the USA in 2019 for a tour of conferences which included the UN in New York City to defend the cultural and social rights of Neapolitans according the Charter of Rights of the Child and the convention for human and cultural rights. This work aimed by Verde to address the suppression of Neapolitan in Italy often caused by a Lombrosian ideology against the southern people or Duosiciliani. Verde is an interlocutor for UNESCO's International Year of the Indigenous Languages for Neapolitan.
Raffaele Bracale represented one of the most important cultural figures of the city of Naples, in Italy and abroad. He dedicated his entire life to the preservation, promotion, and protection of the Neapolitan language, especially for the new generations.
He leaves a wealth of studies, research of immense value for the defense of the Neapolitan identity. Recognition and condolences for his high cultural merit came to him from all over the world, from Spain (Real Academia de Cultura Valenciana) to Latin America (Red Internacional de Investigadores de Lenguas, Literatura y Educación), to the academic personalities from the University of Athens and other colleagues and friends of the Neapolitan Academy, including the greater community of Neapolitan origin in the USA.
Dr. Bracale was very loved by Neapolitans despite the frequent ostracism or simple disinterest of both local of national institutions.
Dr. Raffaele Bracale, worked his entire life for the dignity, morality, universal value of the Neapolitan language and aimed for a process of cultural decolonization for the Neapolitan community.
The Accademia Napoletana presented a note to commemorate him to UNESCO and promise to continue the studies of the Maestro.
Raffaele Bracale lives!
~ By Prof. Massimiliano Verde