“Some see in the myth a positive visibility in the dissemination of acts of overcoming that would end stigmas. But for others, it has another side: the individualization of the social, necessary for the functioning and reproduction of the capitalist system.”
By Denise Cogo and Rodrigo Borges Delfim (Lationamerica21)
HAVANA TIMES – In June 2022, the collapse of a building in the town of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, in the province of Barcelona, resulted in one death, seven injuries, and two others buried. Two young immigrants of Moroccan origin, who lived in an adjacent building, helped rescue the two buried individuals. Spanish media began referring to one of the immigrants, Abdeslam Amamir, as the immigrant hero.
In May 2018, Malian immigrant Mamadou Gassam, 22 years old, climbed a building in Paris to save a child hanging from the fourth floor. The spontaneous act of the “Spider-Man,” as he came to be called by the media, mobilized the French public opinion. After the episode, Mamadou, an undocumented immigrant, received French nationality in September 2018 from President Emmanuel Macron, along with a job in the French Fire Department.
On November 23, 2023, Brazilian Caio Benício, 43 years old, a former bar owner in Niterói working as a delivery driver in Dublin (Ireland), used his own helmet against a man committing a knife attack at a school in the Irish capital, saving a five-year-old child and a teacher. The tragedy left five wounded, including three children. The episode prompted an online fundraising initiative by the Irish, gathering the equivalent of 2 million reais to give to the Brazilian immigrant. Caio Benício was also received by the Irish Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar, and honored with a medal for his act of bravery. In an interview with the media, Caio
