Sophia Loren – a Living Symbol of Art

Sophia Loren in Athens

By Niccolò Graffio

The late philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand defined art as “…a selective recreation of reality according to an artist’s metaphysical value-judgments.” Since early modern humans first appeared in Europe approx. 40,000 years ago, mankind has “selectively recreated reality” in numerous ways for many different purposes.

Many early civilizations, like Ancient Egypt and Minoan Crete, produced artworks (now mostly in museums) which continue to amaze people to this day. Each culture developed their own style of art.

It was the Greeks of the Hellenic Age, however, who were the first to venerate the human body and to develop the skills necessary to correctly recreate the human form down to minute detail. The Greeks, like the Romans after them, were especially fond of venerating the female human form. Perhaps no artwork better exemplified this than the famous statue “Aphrodite of Cnidus” by Praxiteles. After the fall of Rome, this veneration would not be seen again in Western art until the Age of the Renaissance.

The beginning of the 20th century saw the birth of film as both an art form and an industry, and with it the rise in popularity of what has been termed the “sex symbol.” The century saw a plethora of men and women labeled sex symbols, but only a few, such as Lillian Russell, Rita Hayworth & Marilyn Monroe, who could truly be considered icons. This article is a labor of love to one who is not only counted among the “greats,” but who rose above them to become a true symbol of feminine beauty – Sophia Loren.

Sophia showing her Southern Pride

Sofia Villani Scicolone was born in Rome, Italy on September 20, 1934. Her parents, both Campanians, never married, and her father left the family shortly after her birth (nice guy), forcing her mother to take Sofia and her sister Maria to Puzzuoli, a town outside Naples to live with Sofia’s grandmother. At the outbreak of WW2, the family moved to Naples.

Growing up in the slums of Naples, Sofia (by her own admission) was a tall, skinny tomboy who liked playing sports in the streets with neighborhood children, who nicknamed her “Stechetto” (lit: “Stick”). The coming of puberty saw her begin to blossom into young womanhood, however, and at the age of 14 she entered a beauty contest, making it to the finals.

At the age of 15 she entered another beauty contest where she met her future husband Carlo Ponti (who was one of the judges and 24 years her senior). Her first movie role was as an extra in the movie Quo Vadis which launched her career as an actress. It was around this time she changed her name to Sophia Loren. She married Ponti at the age of 21 and they had two sons: Carlo Jr. & Edoardo.

Sophia Loren with Sicilian marionette

Her fame as an actress took off beginning in the late 1950s with roles in such films as Desire Under the Elms, Houseboat and Vittorio De Sica’s Two Women (arguably her greatest performance). She won her only Academy Award for this last performance. Her career as an actress reached its height in the film The Decline of the Roman Empire.

In addition to acting, she recorded over 24 songs during her career, including a gold album. By the 1960s she was an internationally celebrated beauty on par with the legendary Marilyn Monroe. She was actively courted by actors Cary Grant and Peter Sellers, both of whom expressed a desire to marry her. Though she rebuffed their proposals, she remained close friends with them for the remainder of their lives.

Later in her life she successfully lent her name to lines of products such as perfume, eyewear and jewelry. She even wrote her own cookbooks. Known for her sharp wit as well as her beauty, she once famously said of herself:

“Everything you see I owe to spaghetti.”

In 1991 the Academy for Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented her its Honorary Award for her contributions to world cinema and proclaimed her “one of the world cinema’s treasures.” In 1995 she was presented with the Golden Globe Cecil B. De Mille Award. In 1999 in a nationwide poll conducted by UK beauty company Beautiko of thousands of Brits between the ages of 20 to 40, she was voted the “most beautiful woman in the world.” Her photo was then sealed in the Millennium Vault, Europe’s largest time capsule, to be opened in the year 3000.

In perhaps one of the greatest (and fitting when you think about it) of ironic twists, a woman who clearly shows her Southern Italian origin on her face (and wears it with pride) is universally considered the living symbol (and greatest beauty) of a country that has done little for her people since the infamous Risorgimento. I need say no more.

Also see:

http://www.amazon.com/Bellissima-Feminine-Beauty-Idea-Italy/dp/0300123876

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/505796.stm

http://www.celebritybazar.com/sophia_loren/

Famous quotes about Sophia Loren: 

“I never saw so much woman come at me in my entire life!” – actor William Holden (reminiscing about his first encounter with La Loren).

“She is so sensual that most men must have a mad desire to tear off her clothes. However, they do not even dare to take her hand because she looks so distinguished, natural and discreet.” – actor Cary Grant.

New York City's Feast of San Gennaro Pictorial

Viva San Gennaro!

New York City's "Little Italy" appeared to stretch all the way to the Empire State Building today as throngs of revelers turned out to celebrate the Saint's feast day.

Southern Italian cuisine and culture still dominates this once thriving Neapolitan stronghold.

In addition to the usual Southern fare, Sicilian torrone is always a crowed favorite.

Another look at the Saint as the procession winds its way through the narrow streets of "Little Italy."

(Photos by New York Scugnizzo)

Ettore Majorana

Ettore Majorana

By Niccolò Graffio

Nowadays when students in high school learn about the basics of the science of Physics, the name of Albert Einstein invariably crops up. This is in large part due to his work in relativity theory, for which he justly won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921. If any of these students wish to dig further, they might come across the names of other "giants" such as Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Enrico Fermi, etc.

One name, however, which has been largely forgotten (outside of Physics circles, anyway) is that of Ettore Majorana. Majorana was born in Catania, Sicily on August 5, 1906. Originally an engineering student, he switched his major at university to Physics at the urging of Nobel Laureate, Emilio Segré, who recognized in him the seed of genius.

At an early age Majorana became a part of the "Via Panisperna boys," the team of gifted, young scientists assembled under physicist Enrico Fermi who took their name from the street they worked on in Rome, Italy. Two of these scientists (Oscar D'Agostino & Ettore Majorana) were from Southern Italy/Sicily (D'Agostino was born in Avellino, Campania). Among the discoveries made by this group were the existence of slow neutrons (which later made it possible to construct nuclear reactors), a further understanding of the structure of the atomic nucleus and the forces acting on it, and beta decay. Thus, it could be argued cogently the Atomic Age had its beginnings, not in America (as is taught here), but in Italy.

In his lifetime, Majorana had the privilege of working with not one, but three Nobel Laureates in Physics (the above mentioned Bohr, Heisenberg & Fermi). He became close, personal friends with Heisenberg and Fermi. An interesting anecdote relayed by physicists Emilio Segré and Giancarlo Wick has it that Majorana correctly predicted the existence of the subatomic particle known as the neutron several years before its discovery by James Chadwick, but he refused to write down his hypothesis, even though Fermi himself urged Majorana to do so.

After 1933, Majorana's health began to decline, due to gastritis. He disappeared under mysterious circumstances in March of 1938 while on a ship from Palermo to Naples. His body was never found and the two most likely scenarios are either suicide or murder.

"There are many categories of scientists, people of second and third rank, who do their best, but do not go very far. There are also people of first class, who make great discoveries, which are of capital importance for the development of science. But then there are the geniuses, like Galilei and Newton. Well, Ettore was one of these. Majorana had greater gifts that anyone else in the world; unfortunately he lacked one quality which other men generally have: plain common sense." - Enrico Fermi (as reported by Giuseppe Cocconi)

Sources:

http://www.ccsem.infn.it/em/EM_genius_and_mystery.pdf

http://www.ejtp.com/articles/ejtpv3i10p1.pdf

The Reconquest of Otranto

The remains of the Martyrs in the Cattedrale di Santa Maria Annunciata

As Americans prepare to reaffirm their vow to "Never forget" the heinous attacks of September 11, 2001, we recall the horrifying assault on our ancestral homeland and it's valiant reconquest.

On September 10, 1481 a Neapolitan army under Duke Alfonso of Calabria with his Hungarian allies recovered the city of Otranto from the Ottoman Turks. A year earlier the city had fallen to the invaders in a bloodbath of wanton cruelty in their overambitious attempt to reduce the Italian peninsula into a Muslim Caliphate. The rampaging Turks sacked the city and pillaged the surrounding region. None escaped their wrath: Priests were murdered, nuns were raped, elderly were slain, and the women and children were sold into slavery. The surviving men were offered a chance to convert to Islam, but to a man the eight captives refused. They were butchered en masse.

If not for the timely demise of the Turkish Sultan Mehemt the Conqueror in 1481, and the subsequent withdrawal of the Ottoman commander Pasha Ahmet with the bulk of his forces into Albania, the Italian peninsular could have suffered the same cruel fate as the Balkans.

The remaining Ottoman garrison of about 2,000 soldiers were to hold Otranto until Pasha Ahmet returned with reinforcements. However, Duke Alfonso at the head of the Holy League retook Otranto by force, slaughtering the invaders and destroying their beachhead in the Kingdom of Naples. Fittingly, Pasha Ahmet was recalled to Istanbul (Constantinople) and executed by the new Sultan.

Today we remember Duke Alfonso and the brave men who saved Southern Italy from the yoke of Ottoman oppression. To be sure, Southern Italy continued to fall prey to rapacious Muslim corsairs over the centuries, suffering unknown losses, but the threat of a full blown invasion by the Turks was no longer a possibility.

Ponderable Quote: The Final Proclamation of SG King Francesco II of the Two Sicilies to His Neapolitan Subjects

Servant of God King Francesco II
of the Two Sicilies (1836-1894)

On September 5, 1860, King Francesco II of the Two Sicilies left Naples for Gaeta as the invading forces of Garibaldi approached the capital. Before leaving, the King issued a final proclamation to his Neapolitan subjects:

"People of Naples:Of all of the duties demanded of a monarch, those performed in times of adversity are the most difficult and solemn, and I intend to carry them out in a manner and spirit befitting a descendant of so long a line of kings .... Regretfully, I must now leave Naples. An unjust war, one which was not wanted by the people, has overrun my kingdom, despite the fact that I was at peace with all of the European powers .... My paramount concern now is to protect this illustrious city, ... to protect its people from ruin and war, to safeguard its inhabitants and their possessions, the holy temples, the monuments, the public buildings, the art galleries, and everything else that constitutes the patrimony of its civilization and greatness, which, belonging to future generations, must not be sacrificed to transitory passions of the moment .... 

"War is approaching the walls of the city; and it is with ineffable sadness that I leave .... I commend the devotion of the ministry ... and I call upon the honor and civic sense of the mayor of Naples and the commander of the police to spare our beloved city the horrors of internal disturbances .... 

"As a descendant of a dynasty that has ruled over this kingdom for 126 years, after having saved it from the prolonged miseries of the viceregal government, my affections remain here. I am a Neapolitan; and cannot bid farewell to my beloved people, my compatriots, without bitter grief. 

"Whatever my destiny may be, I will always cherish for them a lasting and affectionate memory. I recommend to them peace and concord and observance of their duties as citizens. Let not an immoderate attachment for my crown become a source of turbulence. If the course of the present war should lead me back among you, or if on some future day it may please God to restore me to the throne of my ancestors, rendered more splendid by the free institutions with which I have endowed it, what I most fervently pray for is to find my people united, strong, and happy."

* Reprinted from Modern Naples: A documentary history, 1799-1999 by John Santore, Italica Press, 2001, pp. 174-175

A Look at Our Nemesis: Past and Present

HM Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies

By Lucian

I was not very familiar with the Bourbons until I began studying history on my own, one of the many things that highlighted how incomplete a standard education can be these days. When historical figures are demonized so strongly it would make sense that accurate and verifiable information about them would be readily available. In reality those who are portrayed as historical avatars of evil are difficult to research objectively, important facts surrounding them are either hard to find or are obscured by the often contradictory propaganda against them. The most obvious explanation for this is that history is written, or re-written, by the winners, and if there are gaps where logically there should not be, it is because someone doesn’t wish us to see what is there.

In 1848 the House of Bourbon decisively put down a revolution in Naples. Many Bourbon holdings had fallen to the revolutionaries and it was a surprise to the supporters of the “Revolution” that the King of Naples had turned defeat into victory there. What surprised me is the attention the event provoked from the two men that are widely considered the fathers of modern communism, Marx and Engles. Although the Bourbon’s are still popular in Southern Italy, I cannot claim to be a fan of absolute monarchy. However, I’m much less fond of Marxism and its consequences. The fact that Engles felt so strongly about the Bourbons makes them worth a second look; that he took the time to openly publish anti-Bourbon propaganda in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung (No. 1, June 1, 1848) makes it even more important to review both the Bourbons and the forces arrayed against them. With his critique, Engels forces us to question the nature of the revolution in Naples, and its possible connection to the supporters of the Risorgimento. The following are excerpts from Engles essay:

"The House of Bourbon has not yet reached the end of its glorious career. True, its white flag has recently been rather besmirched and its withering lilies are drooping sadly enough. Charles Louis of Bourbon bartered away one dukedom [Lucca] and to abandon a second one [Parma] ignominiously; Ferdinand of Bourbon lost Sicily and in Naples was forced to grant a Constitution to the revolution. Louis Philippe, although only a crypto-Bourbon, nevertheless went the way of all French-Bourbon flesh across the Channel to England. But the Neapolitan Bourbon has avenged the honour of his family brilliantly."

[...]

"The House of Bourbon, however, may for the time being breathe a sigh of relief. Nowhere has the reaction which set in again after February 24 [overthrow of Louis Philippe] achieved such a decisive victory as at Naples and this in spite of the fact that the first of this year’s revolutions began precisely in Naples and Sicily. The revolutionary tidal wave, however, which has inundated Old Europe, cannot be checked by absolutist conspiracies and coups d'état. By his counter-revolution of May 15, Ferdinand of Bourbon has laid the cornerstone of the Italian republic. Already Calabria is in flames, in Palermo a Provisional Government has been formed and the Abruzzi will also erupt. The inhabitants of all the exploited provinces will move upon Naples and, united with the people of that city, will take revenge on the royal traitor and his brutal mercenaries. And when Ferdinand falls he will at least have had the satisfaction of having lived and died a true Bourbon."

The recent revolution in France was still clearly in the minds of Nobles across Europe; it was referred to as “The Terror.” Is it any wonder that the Bourbons reacted strongly against any similar attempt in their own kingdom? It never ceases to amaze me when Marxists become upset with enemies that do not lie down and allow themselves to be butchered by them. This combination of brutality and naiveté is typical of movements led by dishonest men and soldiered by the least educated and simplest folk they could recruit.

Marx and Engles helped provoke revolutions throughout Europe. Engles was a wealthy German, and Marx was a phony that always lived among the Bourgeois. Even in his exile (to England ironically), he sometimes lived on handouts from Engles instead of getting his hands dirty with real proletarian work. Neither one of them led the revolutionaries directly, nor did they have much in common with the poor people that they convinced to bleed and die for their cause. Those people were only a means to an end.

The “Revolution” never benefits the workers. It was designed to shift power from the old Noble families to their rivals who sprung from the merchant class, people like Marx and Engles themselves. The Marxists got around the “divine-right” of kings by eliminating religion, and reduced the competition by eliminating the remaining middle class. In the end they reduce the workers to serfdom again by abolishing private property. Today they encourage class warfare to achieve the same goal, whether the current ruling class is oppressive or not is not the point, the Marxists certainly will be. The Marxists, like the Moslems, have been targeting Europe for a long time, and “softer” versions of their ideology, such as liberal egalitarianism, eventually deliver the same results. The enemies of European tradition and ethnic identity may have changed names, but not their character.

Marxism can be said to be the child of the Jacobins who instigated the “Terror” in France and many revolutions abroad. While Marx and Engles eventually became critical of the Jacobins, their differences with them involve political structure in the post-revolution, they had no problem with their methods; the torture, rape, and mass butchering of their victims was an accepted part of their glorious “Revolution.” The suppression of regional differences and persecution of ethnic groups were a hallmark of true Jacobinism in France, just as it was in the Soviet Union. Interestingly enough, the Piedmontese conquest of the South was similar in terms of ethnic leveling. Consider the famous words of Massimo D’Azeglio: “We have made Italy, now we have to make Italians.” 

Giuseppe Garibaldi – False Idol

Garibaldi and his  redshirts had support from “revolutionaries” such as the Carbonari and other troublemakers in the South, who in turn were supported by Marxists. If indeed the Risorgimento was even partially supported by Marxists, the censoring of the atrocities against Southern Italy makes more sense. (Similar Marxist atrocities have been downplayed in Poland, Spain, Ukraine, Germany and a dozen other European countries, including Russia itself.) If Garibaldi’s invasion suited their purposes, the Marxists would certainly do their best to censor or attempt to justify any atrocities that were committed.

As for the Bourbons, their history is both positive and negative; but they are part of the history of the Mezzogiorno and sometimes you have to accept the bad with the good. Under the rule of the Bourbons most of the traditions and culture of Southern Italy were left intact. There are many Southern Italians who view the Bourbons favorably, and they have many good things to say about them, so regardless of any negatives that may come with them the Bourbons have a solid place in Southern Italian history and culture.

Inevitably there will be some who disagree with this assessment, and they certainly have the right to, but there is a more practical viewpoint to consider. The Bourbons are no longer in power, nor do their descendents have any realistic influence in modern politics. Conversely, there are other clear and immediate threats to all European ethnicities existing today. Marxists are anti-religion and anti-tradition. They will flood Europe with as many immigrants as possible to swell the ranks of the communist party and intimidate the native European populations. They will replace our culture and traditions with their hollow and self-serving ideology. Islam seeks to do something similar, but instead of eliminating religion and tradition they seek to replace it with their own, making loyalty to Islam take precedence over patria and ethnicity. They too will flood Europe with their own supporters from Africa and the Middle East to dominate us. They openly state this during their demonstrations and riots.

The Bourbons may be a point of difference between Identitarians in different parts of Europe, but this difference should be academic when we are facing Marxism and Islam, which are a current threat to our traditions, religions and whatever hope of ethnic autonomy we retain. Let us deal with the greatest threats first, after that the rest will seem easy.

The Feast of Santa Rosalia (18th Avenue Feast)

Santa Rosalia, ora pro nobis

Every year in Bensonhurst the locals celebrate the Feast of Santa Rosalia. Although she is the patron saint of Palermo during “The Feast” the entire Sicilian and Southern Italian community venerate her. This year the festival spans from August 27th through September 6th.

So far (as of this writing) I attended the celebration twice this year. The first night I went it rained, so there was obviously a poor turnout. The weather was better the following day so I used it as an excuse to get another vesteda sandwich and some zeppole. Sadly, the feast is not as popular as years gone by. The event has lost a lot of its character and in my opinion there are many reasons why.

18th Avenue in the rain

The most obvious explanation for the feast’s decline is that the neighborhood is a pale shadow of what it once was. No longer a staunch working class Southern Italian enclave (that once vied with Manhattan for the right to call itself New York City’s “Little Italy”) it is now home to more recent immigrants primarily from Asia and the former Soviet Union.

Secondly, in its quest to be more inclusive the vibrant cultural event has become just another vacuous street bazaar with the same generic vendors found at any flea market or street fair. Where once thousands of revelers gathered to celebrate their faith and culture there are now dispassionate individuals simply looking for something to distract them from the daily monotony. This is further evidence that multiculturalism is not culture but is in fact anti-cultural.

Vestiges of our community in Bensonhurst: The Sciacca Social Club

If not for the traditional cuisine, which now competes with other ethnic fare, there would be absolutely nothing remotely cultural about the festival. Folk dance, music, literature, and art are non-existent. And except for the effigy of the patroness, so the pious could donate money to the organizers, there is nothing at all spiritual either.

The Societá Figli di Ragusa

Maybe it’s just me but when I attend a Sicilian or Southern Italian affair I don’t want to listen to hip-hop or eat other cuisines. I’m there to partake in an authentic folk experience. We remaining “holdouts” must take pride in our own heritage and culture or we will disappear forever.

~ Giovanni di Napoli

Knight Without Fear and Without Reproach*: Giuseppe Petrosino - a True “Supercop”

Lt. Joe Petrosino, NYCPD, Badge #285

By Niccolò Graffio 

“When the will defies fear, when duty throws the gauntlet down to fate, when honor scorns to compromise with death – this is heroism.” R.G. Ingersoll: Speech in New York, May 29, 1882

Growing up, like many American-born boys, I was enamored with tales of superheroes, men with “powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men” who used their powers in the fight against evil. The names of these fictitious heroes no doubt would ring a bell with many who are reading this article: Superman, Spiderman, Thor and Daredevil, to name just a few. To a young boy like me it was exhilarating to read of the exploits of these people in comic books, even if in the back of my mind I knew they didn’t really exist (except in the world of imagination). Of all of them, my favorite was always Batman.

Why Batman, you say? Simple: unlike the others, Batman wasn’t blessed with extraordinary powers no real human could possess. True, he was highly intelligent, very athletic and a capable fighter, but nothing about Batman (except perhaps, some of the technology he utilized) was out of the realm of the possible. In short, Batman was a “normal human.” I guess then you could say he was my favorite because I could most identify with him.

As I grew older (and more cynical) I put away “childish things” like comic books because like most adults, I saw things “through a glass darkly” and realized the world was nothing like that in comic books. Superman and Spiderman didn’t exist. There was also certainly no one like Batman, a normal human who, equipped with nothing but guts, sheer force of will and available technology, could wage a reign of terror against the forces of evil.

Needless to say, it was refreshing for this young boy at heart to learn he was wrong.

Giuseppe “Joe” Petrosino was born in the town of Padula in the region of Campania, in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies on August 30, 1860. At an early age he came down with smallpox (which killed his mother). He would carry the scars of that disease for the rest of his life. Shortly afterwards, his father sent him over to America to live with his grandfather and a cousin in New York City. 

Tragically, a street car accident took the life of his grandfather. Joe and his cousin wound up in surrogate court, where they faced the dismal prospect of being remanded to an orphanage. Instead, and incredibly, the judge took the two boys into his own home, providing for them until relatives in Italy could be contacted and sent over.

This provided opportunities for young Joe that otherwise might not have been available for him, given the fact he was a recent immigrant. Taking advantage of the situation, he studied hard and eventually joined the New York City Police Department on Oct. 19, 1883.

A common stereotype of Petrosino perpetuated to this day is of him being short and fat. While it is true later photos show him on the portly side, earlier ones show a thickset man with very wide shoulders, large chest and bull-like neck. He looked like someone with whom you didn’t want to tussle. What he lacked in height he more than made up for in tenacity and brute strength, something that served him well in his early days as a beat cop. New York City in the 1880s was a far more brutal place than it is today, as crime statistics from that time will attest. The police, in turn, often had to resort to more brutal methods to enforce the law and maintain order.

Joe Petrosino thus proved more than capable of handling the rigors of patrolling the streets of New York City on foot. One incident that highlighted this was the case of a Mr. Washington, who was set upon by three large muggers. Trying desperately to fight them off, Washington was quickly joined by Officer Petrosino. Between the two of them they pummeled the three thugs into the dust, and Petrosino subsequently arrested them. In the beginning Joe was constantly being tested by neighborhood toughs. In time, however, they backed off as they soon learned he was no pushover.

Petrosino eventually attracted the attention of then-Police Commissioner Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt, who promoted Joe to Detective Sergeant assigned to Homicide (1895), according to some making him the first Italian-American ever to hold that position. The “Bull Moose” also saw in Joe a kindred soul, and the two quickly struck up a friendship that would last a lifetime.

Roosevelt’s promotion of Petrosino proved to be a wise one, as Joe, in addition to being a competent street-brawler, possessed a keen, intuitive mind as well. It is documented that during his tenure in Homicide, he racked up more arrests and convictions than any other detective in the Bureau. Documentary evidence shows most of these cases were solved using long hours of painstaking research, making him a true-life “Lt. Columbo.”

According to Petrosino himself, his favorite case concerned an Italian immigrant named Angelo Carboni, who was sentenced to die in the electric chair for murder. Joe was convinced of the man’s innocence, and took it upon himself to save him. Over a period of four weeks (and traveling through two countries), he used disguises, informants & police savvy to eventually capture the real murderer and free Carboni, who was literally just days away from being executed!

In December, 1908 Joe was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant and put in charge of the Italian Squad, an elite group of Italian-American detectives whose job was to investigate and crush organized crime in New York’s Italian-American communities. At this time a particular problem was the existence of a criminal activity labeled “The Black Hand” (Sicilian: “A Manu Neura”) which had been brought over by gangsters from Italy. Black Handers would extort monies from victims by letter threatening assault, kidnapping, arson or murder if their demands were not met. Preying almost exclusively on their fellow immigrants (who they knew were less likely to cooperate with police), by some accounts as many as 90% of Italian-Americans were victimized by these traitorous scum, including famous Neapolitan tenor Enrico Caruso!

Petrosino made it his life’s work to shut down the operations of these gangsters.  Armed with arrest warrants and with the help of his fellow members of the Italian Squad, Petrosino arrested hundreds of gangsters, often during actual meetings of the gangs! Published accounts state overall crime in Italian-American communities fell 50% thanks to Joe and the Italian Squad.

Numerous anecdotes exist attesting to the incredible bravery and tenacity of this man. My favorite concerns his run-in with Ignazio Saietta (i.e. “Lupo the Wolf”), a vicious gangster (and prolific murderer) who vowed to “take care” of Petrosino. Learning of the threat, Joe confronted him in a store in Little Italy, Manhattan. During a heated exchange, Saietta apparently called Joe a “son of a bitch” (an insult taken quite literally back then). Enraged at the insult to his late mother, Petrosino lunged at Saietta, chasing him outside the store and beating him black and blue. He finished Saietta off by dropping him, head first, into an ash can. Turning to the small crowd which had gathered in wonder at the scene, Joe pointed to Saietta and yelled “Is this the coward you are all so afraid of? How tough does he look now?” before stomping off.

Another concerns a young Italian girl who was kidnapped and held for ransom by the Black Hand. She was kept in a room and every night a woman would come in to feed and wash her. One night, while lying in bed, the skylight opened up and a rope came down. A man started climbing down the rope. The girl cringed in terror. The man placed his finger over his lips, motioning for her not to scream. Upon reaching the floor he showed her his badge, identified himself as Petrosino, assured her she’d be alright and then instructed her to hide under the bed. He then waited in the darkness until her captors appeared and promptly arrested them.

Petrosino’s fame exploded! Among his many accomplishments:

• He helped set up America’s first organized crime task force (the aforementioned “Italian Squad”)

• He set up America’s first Bomb Squad, learning how to trace bomb-making components

• He helped pioneer witness protection and intelligence-gathering programs

• He stressed the need for infiltrating criminal organizations for purposes of gathering intelligence against them

Every superhero has his nemesis, and Lt. Petrosino would be no different. Just as Batman has his Joker, Joe would have his Vito Cascio Ferro. Ferro was a prominent Mafia thug, born and raised in Sicily, who immigrated to the United States. Uneducated but by most accounts very intelligent, he had a hand in reorganizing the Mafia in the U.S. before running afoul of Petrosino, who chased him to New Orleans before Ferro fled back to his native Sicily. Before he left, Ferro vowed to one day kill Petrosino “with his own hands.”

In 1909, Joe came up with an ambitious plan to cripple the Mafia in the United States. Secretly traveling to Sicily, he would gather the names and photos of every Mafioso known to Italian police. By comparing them to files in the U.S., American authorities could then arrest and expel any gangsters living here as “undesirable aliens.”

The Fates, however, had decided to confer upon Lt. Giuseppe “Joe” Petrosino that greatest of honors a warrior of law and good can receive…the crown of martyrdom! Shortly before he was to depart for Palermo, Sicily, New York City’s corrupt and incompetent police commissioner Thomas Bingham leaked word of the mission to a local newspaper. In spite of this, Joe decided to go anyway, naively believing the Sicilian Mafia (like their American counterpart) would not kill a policeman.

While in Palermo he was contacted by an unknown party asking to meet him in the Piazza Marina, ostensibly to give him information concerning the Mafia. It turned out to be a trap, however. He was gunned down in cold blood. Though he was never tried for the crime, both Italian and American law enforcement officials believe Vito Cascio Ferro was the “trigger man.”

Back in the United States, Lt. Petrosino would be given a hero’s funeral (attended by over 250,000 people). Vito Cascio Ferro would earn “street cred” for the murder, and would subsequently go on to rule over the Mafia (and the island of Sicily). He would not be lucky enough to rest on his laurels, however. Within a few years the political situation in Italy would change drastically. By 1922 Benito Mussolini and the Fascist Party would be in control of the country. Within four years “Il Duce” would establish dictatorial control. One of his first orders of business was to rid Sicily of the Mafia…and Vito Cascio Ferro. This was accomplished by one of Mussolini’s underlings, Cesare Mori: “the Iron Prefect of Sicily.” Stripped of his power and spirited off to an island prison, Ferro would die a gruesome death in 1943 (and people say there’s no such thing as karma!).

Back in the United States, law enforcement officials would be left to wonder how different American history would have been had this real-life Batman been successful in his mission to Palermo.

*- Said of the Chevalier Pierre du Terrail Bayard (1476-1524)

Further reading: “Joe Petrosino” by Arrigo Petacco (MacMillian Publishing, 1974)

Ponderable Quotes from Julius Evola's "The Path of Cinnabar"

The first keyword, I argued, was to be counter-revolution. Leaving aside the broader horizons mentioned in Revolt Against the Modern World, in Men Among the Ruins I described the preliminary, practical duty of those men who remained standing (among the ruins, as it were) in terms of an integral and uncompromising rejection of all the ideologies borne of the French Revolution. The liberal revolution, after all represented the starting point of the latest phase in the crises of Europe: having engendered the democratic revolution, it had paved the way for socialism and Communism. No compromise, in this respect, was to be made. In the face of the increasing insolence and arrogance of the forces of subversion, I invoked the intellectual and physical courage of labelling oneself a 'reactionary': a charge which all the petty politicians of Italy feared – including those belonging to so-called Right wing parties. 

Naturally, the reaction I invoked had nothing to do with the kind of reaction which serves as a handy pretext for our enemies: for it had nothing to do with the interests of an economic class and with the capitalist Right. The reaction I had in mind was rather that of a political and aristocratic Right, which would regard any form of power derived from the mere possession of wealth as an act of usurpation and subversion. Counter-revolution I defined not on the basis of material interests but of ideals. With the rejection of progressive social myths, I argued, fundamental ideals would emerge which possessed an immutable normative value for all social and political organisations of a superior kind. In a similar way, I suggested, Vico had spoken of 'the natural laws of an eternal republic which takes on various forms at different times and in different places'. — Julius Evola, The Path of Cinnabar, Integral Tradition Publishing, 2009, p. 188-189, Chapter XIII, In Search of Men Among the Ruins

 * * *

A further distinguishing trait of the true state, I argued, is its organic unity. For the true state exists as an organic whole comprised of distinct elements, and embracing partial unities, each possesses a hierarchically ordered life of its own. At the basis of the true state, therefore, lie the values of quality, of just inequality and of personality: the fundamental principle of such a state being the Classical principle of suum cuique ('to each his own and to each his own rights' in accordance with natural dignity). Hence the sharp contrast between the organic state and the totalitarian: for the latter necessarily expresses a leveling, despotic and mechanistic kind of unity. The totalitarian state derives from the individualistic corrosion of the organic state: for once individualism has freed each person from what links him to higher powers, once 'freedom and equality' have destroyed all hierarchies, and a shapeless multitude has emerged amid a chaotic array of separate interests and forces – each aiming to gain ascendancy by all possible means; in such a context, the violence of 'totalitarianism' acts as desperate means to impose some sort of external order by establishing a system which, nevertheless, stands as the materialist counterfeit of organic unity. I here recorded how the very process, which only recently unfolded on a vast scale, had already been recorded by Tacitus in exact terms: 'To overturn the state (i.e., the genuine, organic traditional state), they talk of freedom; once freedom will have been attained, this, too, they will attack.' Likewise, Plato had observed that: 'Tyranny is borne and takes hold from no other political system but democracy, which is to say that from extreme freedom, the most unmitigated and harsh slavery arises.' I shall add one final quotation, taken from Vico: 'Men first desire freedom of the body, then freedom of character – which is to say freedom of conscience (the "immortal principles") – and wish to be equal to others; then they wish to dominate their equals; and finally, to trample on their superiors'. — Julius Evola, The Path of Cinnabar, Integral Tradition Publishing, 2009, p. 190-191, Chapter XIII, In Search of Men Among the Ruins

* Giambattista Vico (1668-1774) is a Neapolitan philosopher who is best known for his book, The New Science, in which he outlined a cyclical theory of civilisations as progressing through three ages: the divine, the heroic, and the human age, which closely resembles traditional doctrines of history.

Pontelandolfo Commemoration Marred

Pontelandolfo rally, August 14, 2009 (Photo courtesy of Agostino Abbaticchio)

On August 14 a small group of Due Siciliani patriots made their way to Pontelandolfo to pay their respects to the victims of the 1861 massacre. The pilgrimage to the small town in Benevento has become an annual event to help recount the Piedmontese atrocity in Pontelandolfo (and neighboring Casalduni), where 336 townspeople–men, women and children–were raped and slaughtered by the Italian military.

Assembling in the piazzetta the participants, about 40 in all, peacefully made their way to the Chiesa del S.S. Salvatore to commemorate the fallen. However, at the church entrance they were met by the Mayor of Pontelandolfo, Dr. Cosimo Testa, who ignobly informed the attendees that they were in violation of incitement of civil disobedience because of their Bourbon flags. The patriots protested but most of them were barred entry into the church and forbidden to attend the "official" observance with their seditious flags. To add further insult, the Carabinieri harassed the participants by collecting personal information from them as if they were common criminals.

It seems more than a little strange that in a country where mobs of Communists and Moslems can rally (or riot) with impunity that such a small and peaceful gathering would evoke the response it did. (Also, at a time when church attendance is at an all-time low one would imagine they would be happy to have people filling the pews and praying to the memory of the victims.)

In defiance the gatherers sang the Hymn of the Two Sicilies on the church stairs and proudly flew their flags while chanting, "Long live the King" before leaving. They returned to the piazzetta to hold a commemoration of their own, leaving the mayor to perform his ceremony with virtually no one in attendance. The mayor and his color guard further marred this solemn occasion by bearing the Italian tricolor, for in whose name the victims at Pontelandolfo and Casalduni were slaughtered.

The Pontelandolfo – Casalduni Massacre

General Enrico Cialdini: 

The Butcher of Gaeta

By Giovanni di Napoli

On August 14, 1861 the towns of Pontelandolfo and Casalduni were sacked and torched by the Piedmontese military during the so-called "war against brigandage" in Southern Italy. On the orders of General Enrico Cialdini (*) the towns were reduced to rubble and townspeople indiscriminately slaughtered in retaliation for the death of 41 soldiers at the hands of partisan loyalists.

Accounts of the Piedmontese reprisal describe the shooting of unarmed men and bayoneting of groveling women. The survivors were left homeless and without means of survival. Dispatched by Cialdini, Colonel Gaetano Negri telegraphed his superior to report on the carnage: 

"At dawn yesterday justice was done to Pontelandolfo and Casalduni. They are still burning." 

Sadly, Pontelandolfo and Casalduni were not the exception. In the first 14 months after the conquest of Southern Italy the towns of Guaricia, Campochiaro, Viesti, San Marco in Lamis, Rignano, Venosa, Basile, Auletta, Eboli, Montifalcone, Montiverde, Vico, Controne, and Spinello all suffered a similar fate. Arbitrary arrests and summary executions were common. By 1864 over 100,000 troops, nearly half the Italian army, were deployed in the South to try and keep order.

Despite attempts to prove otherwise (so they could politically justify Piedmontese atrocities) the insurrection was not the work of common criminals and brigands, but was in fact a popular revolt by former Bourbon soldiers, loyalists and desperate peasants against the Northern invaders. These resistance fighters were protecting their homes and families. As many as 80,000 Southerners were imprisoned for political reasons. It was only after the floodgates of immigration opened in the decades after "unification" and large parts of the South were depopulated that the violence began to wane. Unfortunately, due to unreliable figures, the exact number of Southerners killed during the "war against brigandage" will never be known.

(* It should be noted that General Enrico Cialdini was the commander in charge at the Siege of Gaeta who refused a cease-fire, as was the custom, during negotiations for surrender. His actions led to the unnecessary deaths of over fifty defenders when a powder magazine exploded just prior to Gaeta's capitulation. He was made Duke of Gaeta as reward for his bloody assault on the Southern Italian fortress.)