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Wednesday, November 18, 2015

     









       A little over two weeks ago the IAA had a very interesting and cultural event. We sought out the expertise of one of my professors from Sicily to help us tackle this perception of the Mafia in the United States. As all of you know it is something that is romanticized in the US and all we usually see is guns, blood, and drugs. Not to say these things are not associated with the Mafia however, it is much much more than that. We called upon the help of my Mafia course professor Peppe to sit down and give us the low-down on what the Mafia really is!

      Peppe essentially dove right into the association that the Mafia has with Italian politicians. He gave us a picture of how the Mafia launders the money illegally from the politicians and in return the Mafia gives the politicians votes. How do they do this? They have their ways. They will make sure you vote for a certain party or one of your family members will go missing. This only begins to scrape the surface of the Mafia. This can be described as the Mafia boss' level, or where the Mafia stems down from. From here it delves down into the thugs that we are accustomed to seeing. These are the brainless soldiers of the Mafia bosses that do all of the dirty work: the selling of drugs, the prostitution, and the tax collecting. Most of the time when the law makes a huge bust on the Mafia only the soldiers of the bosses are lost. This is not a problem, they are not the brain of the organization, they are mere pawns in the game.

      Peppe continued to tell us about how politics could exist without the Mafia but how the Mafia could not exist without politics. This would just be another form of gangsterism. The three main Mafia organizations discussed during the meeting were: La Cosa Nostra, L'ndrangheta, and La Camorra. Cosa Nostra is the Mafia that comes from Sicily which directly translates to "our thing". This organized criminal based group was very active in the media during the 70's and 80's but has pulled back some since. L'ndrangheta comes from Calabria, the region next to Sicily at the bottom of the boot. This is the strongest of all the organizations in Italy, making up a solid fraction of Italy's entire GDP. The sheer size and methods that they use are unmatched by other organizations. Finally, the most bloody and romanticized group is the Camorra. La Camorra comes from Naples and has no formal boss. It is simply a bunch of rival gangs fighting each other for profits and drugs. This is the bloodiest of the three and is always in the news.

      It was really cool for him to take the time to show us that what our perception of the Mafia is today, is wrong. He made is abundantly clear that it is more organized crime rather than gangsterism that we see in the movies. It is a very well-structured organization that has its soldiers at the bottom doing the dirty work, the financiers at the economic level, and finally the brains of the organization controlling the political sphere. It was an awesome speech and I think everyone took something away from it!

Thursday, November 5, 2015

My Siclian Emersion: Part 1


      What would you say if I were to tell you that I lived in a region beside an active volcano? How hungry would you get if I were to tell you that everything that I ate abroad was fresh from the garden behind my house? Would you be afraid to adapt to a society where English is nearly non-existent? These are merely three of the hundreds of realizations that I had while studying abroad in Taormina, Sicily.

     My name is John Gage and I am a current International Business student in my senior year at Bryant University. I was lucky enough to find out about the opportunity to go to Sicily through the study abroad department last year. Not only did I study abroad in Italy, I even had an internship that bettered my language skills at the same time. Now there are so many different directions that I could go in to describe my experience in Sicily, but I wanted to instead think back to the questions I had before going there and how they got answered.

    The one thing that was imprinted in my mind from the moment that I learned about study abroad was the fact that I had the opportunity to not only live in Europe, but better my Italian. The question that I'd like to address in this first blog was my question of whether or not I would really improve my language to the point of complete fluency. Now, no one will ever be completely fluent but you understand what I want to say. Sure I wanted to travel, party and have the time of my life, but what I REALLY wanted was immersion. The thought of fitting in to a completely different environment and culture was my first real challenge as an adult. I had been to Italy in the past and conversed with the locals but not at great lengths. From the second that I arrived in Sicily, I knew that I got what I wanted.... and then some!

    To give you an idea of what I was up against, I had just gotten off an international flight and had the task of finding a house that I've never been to. I succeeded in correctly explaining where I needed to go and things seemed to be going smoothly. The family that I stayed with spoke literally no English, when I say no English I mean none. I woke up every morning knowing that English was not an option. Slowly but surely I started to be more social and by week 3 I felt like the king of the world. I had countless interactions with my family and the citizens of the city that I lived in. This was an amazing foundation for my fluency. The real test was yet to come.

    As the weeks passed by, I began my internship. My job was to translate several things from English to Italian or vice versa. As the Festival got closer I did more and more public events. I had to give tours, publicize the event, and give information to tourists. You never really know what someone will want to ask you, this was where I got really, really good. You cannot plan an answer to a question that you do not know, this is not something in a text book. Not only did I learn a lot from this, but I also started to pick up on one of the many dialects, Sicilian. As my knowledge of the language grew, the happier I was with my choice to study in Sicily.

    The icing on the cake came when I had weeks of vacation to travel wherever I wanted. I had the opportunity to essentially backpack up the boot of Italy and test my knowledge. I was exposed to so many dialects and I am proud to say that I held my own in all areas except one... Naples. I could communicate but my understanding was slightly lower here. Aside from that I had no issues. I even had a taxi driver ask me where I came from in Sicily! He had no idea that I was American, and laughed so hard when I explained that I was from the States. He made me speak English to prove it!

    The only real improvements that you can make to your understanding of the language can come from complete immersion and dependence on the language. There is no time to be shy or timid. You have to find a way to communicate and be a functioning member of the community. In the beginning it is a daunting task, but as the weeks go by it gets easier and easier. Now, I dream about returning to Sicily one day soon showing off my language ability. I would have never gotten this unique experience anywhere else. My success and happiness came from the fact that I jumped out of my comfort zone and created an entirely new comfort zone in my own way. It was an incredibly formative experience for me and I strongly recommend it for those serious about their language.

    I hope to continue to write more about my experiences but I would love to know what you guys would like to know about it. I could hit on several different aspects but this was the most important for me. Shoot me an email at jgage1@bryant.edu if you want to see me post something specific! Thanks and Saluti!!!








 

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Italian Film

On Wednesday, October 21, 2015 the Italian American Association, IAA, co-sponsored an event with the Interfaith Center, IFC, as part of IFC’s Global Film Series. A large group was in attendance for Benvenuti al Sud by Luca Miniero which is a remake of the French film Down in the South by Dany Boon.  After the screening, IAA’s e-board along with John Nesbitt,  Director of IFC, and Professor Misuraca, facilitated a panel discussion on the film’s theme: regionalism.

Miniero’s film illustrates the story of Alberto whose job transfers him from a city in Lombardia to a small town in Campania, Italy.  Miniero highlights the assumptions some Italians from different regions make about one another. Having lived in various Italian cities, Miniero has been able to experience firsthand the many misconceptions some Italians have about others who are not from their very own city or town. Miniero shows that different cultural and regional customs do not merit discrimination.

Some stereotypes are that southerners lack a work ethic and that northerners do nothing but work. In Benvenuti al Sud, the director underscores how when you truly get to know someone, stereotypes and misconceptions fade away. The film highlights many regional differences some of which are:  which region is home to Gorgonzola and zabaione, which region(s) take an hour or a four-hour lunch break, which regions use more commonly “Lei” formal or “Voi” in its place. By the end of the film, the main character begins to realize that the stereotypes he previously believed are false. His new Neapolitan friends work just as hard as his colleagues from Milan, and that they truly enjoy life.

Benvenuti al Sud is a representation of Italian cinema in that the plot is told through the family. Alberto’s wife, Silvia, does not move with him to Castellabate because they have a small child, Kiko. The importance of food, as an event and not a chore, is exemplified when Alberto and his new found friends gather around the table for dinner. He becomes a student of their local customs and traditions such as pronunciation of words, hand gestures and cuisine.

Watch Benvenuti al Sud to see how Alberto changes from a closed-minded rigid milanese to a care-free napoletano. You will also see that the American “Hollywood” ending does not find itself in this film!