Sicilians 2026: the strength and pride of our roots

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From the cold pier of Ellis Island to the elegant offices of Manhattan; from suburban kitchens to the most exclusive addresses in London; from underpaid jobs to multinational corporations; from cardboard suitcases to executive trolleys.

Up and down across five continents, asserting a possible Sicilian style—an explosive mix of adaptability, competence, creativity and deeply rooted values, often deployed to overcome stubborn prejudices.

The world has changed. Emigration from the Island has changed. Migration itself has changed.

The “ferrabotto”—the ferryboat that carried generations of Sicilians across the Atlantic as they fled hardship—resembles today’s overcrowded vessels crossing the Sicily Channel not in structure, but in symbolism: that of poverty and necessity.

Today, people leave because they are deep-sea fish, not limpets clinging to the rocks. Or because they seek a broader horizon, a way to add depth and dimension to their professional lives.

Of course, some still leave out of disappointment—tired, disillusioned, hurt by a land that is a generous mother yet can also be harsh, indifferent, even cruel. But those who leave remain Sicilian within. No one truly cuts their roots.

And so, somewhere on the other side of the world, there is another Sicily. A Sicily to be proud of—one that tells stories of success, resilience, redemption and commitment. Faces and lives we have gathered in our traditional year-end supplement, enclosed with tomorrow’s edition of the newspaper.

A special issue that does not look at the calendar being taken down from a wall or desk, but instead offers a perspective: a guiding thread, a fil rouge, a master key to unlock the bolts of provincialism and the padlocks of clichés.

Sicily, of course, is not the key to everything—as Goethe once wrote, perhaps condemning us to sterile self-exaltation and empty reivindication. But just as certainly, it cannot be treated as a disposable island.

Its sons and daughters know how to present themselves to the world without embarrassment or deference—if anything, with the regret of not having been given the opportunity to fully express their value closer to home.

The supplement hitting newsstands and going online tomorrow is not a sticker album of achievements. It is a declaration of who we are—and who we can be: talent that is relevant anywhere.

Some leave. Some return. Some stay.

All of them are—we are—Sicilians.

Proudly, with a capital S.