Josè Pepe Mujica

In May 2025, José Alberto Mujica Cordano, known publicly as Pepe Mujica, died in Montevideo at the age of 89,

after  serving as President of Uruguay from March 1, 2010, to March 1, 2015. He was a remarkable Uruguayan politician and guerrilla fighter in the Tupamaros during the dictatorship. Before becoming president, he was elected deputy, senator, and, between 2005 and 2008, minister of livestock, agriculture, and fishing in his country. He was the leader of the Popular Participation Movement, the majority grouping of the Broad Front, until his resignation on May 24, 2009. Married in 2005, after a long relationship, to senator and longtime MPP leader Lucía Topolansky, Mujica was known for his lifestyle of voluntary simplicity. He received a substantial monthly salary from the Uruguayan government for his work of leading the country, but he donated approximately 90% of it to non-governmental organizations and people in need. His car was a 1987 Volkswagen Beetle, donated to him by some friends, which he always refused to sell, despite the generous offers he received. He lived on a small farm in Rincón del Cerro, on the outskirts of Montevideo. Even during his term, he had renounced living in the presidential palace. Referring to the small portion of his salary he kept for himself, which also earned him the nickname "the poorest president in the world," Mujica stated in an interview with the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, that this amount of money was sufficient for him, given that many of his compatriots had to live on less. On October 20, 2020, he formally resigned from the Senate and he made his retirement to private life official. Regarding his attachment to politics, despite the 14 years of harsh imprisonment he endured during the dictatorship, he liked to say: "The reward for politics is the people love. Those who love money should not be in politics." During his tenure as president of Uruguay, he earned worldwide respect for his charisma and his humble and dignified lifestyle, a uniquely personal way of denouncing consumerism. He consistently pushed for human rights policies, making Uruguay the most liberal country in Latin America.

Like all those of Hispanic language and tradition, his surname included his mother's name, Cordano, an unmistakable detail that harks back to his family origins in the Fontanabuona Valley, in the Tigullio hinterland in Genoa province. Yes, on his mother's side, José Pepe was a Ligurian from Tigullio area; his mother, Lucia Cordano, came from a little village called Favale di Malvaro. José Pepe had always shown attachment and pride in his Ligurian origins, so much so that in 2015, at the end of his term as president, he quietly came to visit the places of his roots. A local newspaper of the time reported that the incognito visit of former president José Alberto Mujica was an emotional event for all the citizens of Favale di Malvaro.  . . The mayor had been instructed not to accept any out-of-town journalists, so the citizens who approached him were able to benefit without confusion from José Pepe Mujica's humanity, his deep eyes, and his words that knew how to go straight to the heart. . . .

The following is an excerpt from his speech at the extraordinary City Council meeting, the most crowded and moving, in the presence of the citizens and the mayor. In this speech, José Pepe Mujica remembered the Ligurian emigrants . . . :

“. . . people who were dying from the journey and from disease. One day they spread a sheet on the ground and celebrated Mass, praying for their survival. From that moment on, the deaths decreased, so they built a beautiful church on that site, having the bell brought right from your area (meaning the village of Uscio, popular for church bells production since the past).  . . . Then they built a night school, paid for by them, and the children went barefoot, holding their shoes under their arms so as not to ruin them, then they wiped their feet, put on their shoes and entered the classroom.”

I am moved by the thought of the enormous sacrifice of these people who founded a colony, had children, and left us a culture. The wisdom they sowed throughout America cannot be contained in a monument. So I thank you for what you represent and for the debt we owe to these people who founded my country . These people are a source we must turn to to regain our strength of spirit."

Two Uraguaian journalists wrote Mujica’s biography , the book is titled:

Una oveja negra al poder (A Black Sheep in the Power),

A "black sheep" is a metaphor for an individual who is an outcast, non-conformist, or the odd one out within a family, group, or community. Often, this person is viewed negatively for behaving differently, violating traditions, or failing to meet expectations. However, it can also represent individuality, courage, and breaking free from unhealthy, restrictive cycles.

Exactly as Mujica considered himself.

Some example of his statements during interviews:

-          Mujica argued that everyone's life should be guided by the principle of sobriety:

"...A very different concept from austerity, a term you've prostituted in Europe, cutting everything and leaving people without work. I consume what I need, but I don't accept waste. Because when I buy something, I don't buy it with money, but with the time of my life that was used to earn it. And life's time is a commodity that we must be stingy with. We must save it for the things we enjoy and that motivate us. I call this time for ourselves freedom. And if you want to be free, you must be moderate in your consumption. The alternative is to enslave yourself to work to allow yourself conspicuous consumption, which, however, takes away your time to live... Waste is , instead , functional to capitalist accumulation which implies that you continually buy perhaps going into debt until you die.”

-          Recognizing the indispensability of the market, but criticizing it in order to improve it, Mujica did not deny the positive function of capitalism, which

"I know well  serves to produce wealth, therefore taxes, good for services that even the poor benefit from." It is, however, wrong to promise happiness for the future by sacrificing the present generation: we need to move with a gradualist vision that has eudaemonia (happiness as the ultimate goal assigned to men and their actions) as its real immediate objective, rather than an improbable hedonism" (any aesthetic attitude or life system motivated by the pursuit of pleasure).

-          Interviewed in November 2016 by journalist Omero Ciai, José Mujica expressed his thoughts on some issues that are troubling contemporary society.

“Wealth complicates life: we live in a world where it's believed that those who succeed must possess a lot of money, have privileges, a big house, butlers, lots of servants, and extra-luxury vacations. I think this winning model is just an idiotic way to complicate one's life. I think those who spend their lives accumulating wealth are as sick as drug addicts; they should be treated." "Don't waste your life on consumerism; find the time to live to be happy."

"My idea of ​​happiness is above all anti-consumerist. They wanted to convince us that things don't last and push us to change everything as soon as possible. It seems we were born only to consume, and if we can no longer do so, we suffer poverty. But in life, what's more important is the time we can dedicate to what we like, to our loved ones, and to our freedom. Not the time in which we are forced to earn more and more to consume more and more. I'm not making any defense of poverty, but only of sobriety."

-          On the phenomenon of globalization, Mujica argued that

"No, it's not possible to eliminate it. It would be like being against men growing beards. But what we've known so far is only the globalization of markets. Which results in the concentration of ever-increasing wealth in very few hands. And this is very dangerous. It generates a crisis of representation in our democracies because it increases the number of excluded people. If we lived wisely, the seven billion people in the world could have everything they need. The problem is that we continue to think as individuals, or at most as states, and not as a human species."

Consistent with other political observers, Mujica said he was

"...very worried about a possible victory for Donald Trump because the weight of the United States in the world is such that the disasters wrought by an American president could affect us all. But I also think that the president in the United States, fortunately or unfortunately, ultimately has fairly limited powers."

José Mujica was an atheist.

Favale di Malvaro is also the native village of Amadeo Pietro "A.P." Giannini (1870–1949), the founder of Bank of America. His parents emigrated to California in the second half of the 19^th century from this village.

Amadeo Pietro "A.P." Giannini was an American banker who founded the Bank of Italy in San Francisco in 1904, which later became Bank of America. Aiming to serve "the little fellow"—immigrants and working-class people refused by other banks—he revolutionized banking with branch locations, and financing for major projects like the Golden Gate Bridge and early Hollywood films.

Another popular charachther in USA and world wide, whose ancestors emigrated from Favale di Malvaro is Brian Boitano, the famous  former figure ice skater who was Olympic and  world champion in his sport in the 80s.

Anna Minghetti - Mycornerofliguria.com - avemme@gmail.com