at a very young age, he was one of the campaigners for the involvement of the Gibraltarian civilian population (and especially its working class) in governing the colony.
In 1919, he was one of the members of a so-called "deputation of working men" who went to London to meet the Secretary of State for the Colonies and ask for the creation of a representative body that could succeed the Sanitary Commission, an unelected body whose members, usually belonging to the upper class, were nominated by the Governor.
[2] By the start of World War II,[1] Risso was a foreman mechanic and a City Council employee.
[1] In 1947, he was appointed president of the Gibraltar Confederation of Labour,[2] a trade union created to represent the AACR's rank and file working class supporters.
[1] Risso was continuously reelected member of the Gibraltar Legislative Council during the 1950s and early 1960s, as candidate of the AACR.