The MAFIA: A Truly Dead Rebel Society
In my sick little world of often trivial pet peeves, one of the things that really gets underneath my skin is the usage of the term “mafia” when describing crime families, whether it be Italian or otherwise. The term “mafia” is not some Italian word that translates to “bunch of guidos with guns”, and nor can it be used in concert with any other ethnicities. When people refer to, say… the “Columbian Mafia”, they are referring to something that never did exist, cannot exist, and never could exist. The reason for this is that “mafia” isn’t even a real word; it is an acronym. What mafia actually stands for is "Morte Alla Francia Italia Anelia!", which when translated from Italian to English means, “Death to the French is Italy’s cry”.
It all started in the twelfth century; France invaded Italy with a heavy concentration on Sicily and became an oppressive force. Some groups of Sicilians had enough of said oppression and decided to take matters into their own hands and rebel. Considering that each Sicilian village was relatively small, and most people were related to each other in some way or another, each village would pick a male figurehead to speak for their group, or family if you will. These figureheads, or capodecinas, would go around the village recruiting male volunteers to head to the hills and join the fight against the French occupation. Before the new recruits left on their trek to higher elevation, however, they would first have to take an oath known as the Omerta, which involved a verbal pledge of their loyalty, symbolically sealed with the blood of their own right hand. Once the pledge was made there was no turning back and there was no getting out. They were in for the rest of their lives; they were the “soldiers of the hills”. As the French would kill anyone that opposed them, these soldiers of the hills at first had to work in complete stealth. Under the cover of night, many would steal weapons, food, and whatever else they could get their hands on, to fight to regain their sovereignty. The villagers themselves would never talk about the coveted secret of who these brave men in the hills were, and many died to protect their secret. Eventually, the French were beaten down and pushed out, and the mafia became a ruling power in Sicily.In the 1920s, Benito Mussolini, a.k.a “Il Duce” (the Leader), did everything he could to remove the mafia and nullify its power from the Sicilian population. Because of this, many Mafia leaders had dispersed and some headed for the United States, hiding among the common immigrants. When Italy was finally freed from the crushing grip of Mussolini’s dictatorship, many of the Americanized Mafia leaders regained their ties with the Sicilian Mafia and the black market between the two countries came into full force. Over time however, the ties died because families in the United States wanted to do their own thing, whether it was legitimate or criminal business. Thus, the death of the short lived life of Italy’s actual mafia in the United States.In reality, the only semblance of a mafia in America today, are the current watered down and corrupted generations of those who once cried and fought for freedom, and now roll in their graves because of the dishonor that has been brought upon them. The Mafia was originally created by the people and for the benefit and protection of the people; directly and indirectly. Now, it is nothing more than a word that rings synonymously in today’s American society with another word; crime. What a fucking shame…
Some of this that I have written has come from research, and some is from knowledge of my own bloodline, which can be, and has been, traced back to Italy as far back as the 1100s. My father, like his father before him, was smart enough to keep himself and his kids far away from the mob lifestyle, as they were quite aware of certain consequences. I know the last names of families that I am related to, and I know of some of the more than questionable things that some have done. These are names that I will never speak of in my lifetime, and these are people that I will never try to contact. They may technically be part of my overall family, but I don’t ever want to be a part of theirs.Do you want to follow up with a comment? Go to the Guest Page or write an article of your own, and send it to:
Follow up article to Grace's "There Is No Such Thing As the Mafia" article on the Italian-American Mob. Read that first.
By
Voodoo
