Gavino Ledda

Gavino Ledda is an author and a scholar of the Italian language and of Sardinian. He is best known for his autobiographical work Padre padrone .

Ledda was born in Siligo, in the Province of Sassari, Sardinia, into a poor family of shepherds. Gavinos father made him leave school at the age of six, when he was only in the first year of his primary school education. Bursting into the classroom in the middle of a lesson, Leddas father justified his position by saying that he needed the boys help for his agricultural work, as Gavino was his eldest son. In scenes that feature in Padre padrone, he went on to say that school was a luxury that poor shepherds could not afford, and demanded that his son be handed over to him. Although primary education had been compulsory in Italy since the Casati Act of 1859, Leddas father accused the authorities of wanting to make school compulsory while, according to him la povert, quella obbligatoria .

Source: Wikipedia