Italian 240 Midterm – Flashcards
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Risorgimento
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Italian unification during the mid 19th century. Lead to the establishment of the "Italian people."
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Restoration
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1850 Following French revolution and failure of establishing Italian republics, monarchies were restored in Italy Revolution ideas of nationalism stayed with minority belief of possible Italian unification, Carbonari against restoration and persecuted for this belief
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Carbonari
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Revolutions in early 19th century Italy. Bandits who were often on the run. Fought for a constitutional government.
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Cavour
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Count Cavour was a leading figure in the Risorgimento movement. After the success of the Risorgimento he was chosen as the first prime minister of the Kingdom of Italy. He died 3 months into and didn't get to see Rome as a new addition.
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Statuto
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The Constitution written by the Sardinian king for his subjects. Became the basis of the Italian Constitution.
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Savoia
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One of the oldest royal families in the world, the House of Savoy and attained the rank of king in Sicily in 1713. It led the Risorgimento in 1861 and ruled the kingdom of Italy from 1861 and 1946, until Italy became a republic.
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Garibaldi
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Mid 19th century Italian general who fought the bourbons in south america and Italy. Leader of the red shirts who conquered Italy.
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Brigandage
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Southern Italy 1860's. Bandits who fought the Italian government post unification. Were supported by the Southerners as robin hood figures. Important because it showed unification did not have large southern support.
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Notarbartolo Murder
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1893 - Marquis Emanuele Notarbartolo; previous mayor of Palermo; Made himself mafia's enemy by tackling corruption in Sicily's customs service; stabbed 27 times on the train by two men; took nearly 7 years for the case to come to court; The mafia's first 'eminent corpse'; first victim among Sicily's socia elite; split Sicilian society in two and astonished public opinion across Italy by exposing the mafia's relationship with politicians, legal officials, and policel
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Southern Problem/Question
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Southerners were viewed as backwards and unintelligent. This really wasn't the case. Strong citrus economy. Pockets of success and modernization in the south.
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Industrial Triangle
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Milan-Turin-Genoa. Post world 2 industrial growth in these cities lead to the modernization and industrialization of Italy. have to buy Italian economic policy had a national interest in mind Sicilian's saw it as directly bad to them
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Fascism
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Started in 1910's/1920's italy. WW1 veterans and extreme nationalism. Lead to the rise of Mussolini.
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Years of consensus
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The happy years of the fascist government. It would be hard to find someone who did not like mussolini and the Fascist party during this time. Everyone bought into Fascism.
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Lateran Pacts
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Mussolini's signed pacts with the Pope and the Catholic church. Church didn't necessarily like them but received the Vatican.
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Marshall Plan
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Post WW2 American stimulus plan to aid Western Europe. Helped develop infrastructure and modernization in Italy. Hurt Communists running for office.
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Economic Miracle
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Massive economic growth post WW2 till the 1960s. Brought Italy out of poverty and into a modern state.
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il Boom
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A movie discussing the Italian Economic Miracle (above). A poor worker going through the economic boom needs to keep up his high standard of living, and agrees to sell his cornea to a rich family in exchange for money. His wife then leaves him upon hearing this and he ends up running away before eventually coming back, giving up his cornea, and giving the rich family back the money.
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Repubblica italiana
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The Repubblica Italiana was a short-lived republic located in northern Italy. Napolean was the president and the capitol was Milan.
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D.C.
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Christian Democracy. Italian political party founded in mid 20th century. Significant because of it's mafia support
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Cold War
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Fear of communism froze Italian politics Enabled the DC to maintain power as the lesser of two evils compared to PCI Stability of DC allowed mafia influence to take hold and corrupt politics
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neorealism
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Italian film style in the 40's and 50's that focused on the poor and working class. Topics include the difficulties in post WW2. Films are meant to seem real.
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Alberto Lattuada
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Director of the film mafioso in 1962. Director in the neorealism style.
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Commedia all'Italiana
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(1960s) Movie genre that Lattuada uses in "Il Mafioso", meant to make you laugh, but then make you cry. Brings to light Italian social issues in a comedic fashion.
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Salvatore Giuliano
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The biggest bandit who took care of his image. Journalists loved interviewing him because he was fascinating, but also held great relationships with the media. Unsolved death and what he was about to reveal before he died. Very skilled perpetrator of violence and thievery. Second quarter of the 20th century.
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Vespa
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Italian Scooter made in the mid 20th century with spare parts from military equipment
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Fiat 600
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First car for the average Italian family in the mid 20th century. Mobilized Italy.
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Gioia Tauro
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Center for industrial development in Southern Italy the 1970s. Construction of a large steel plant and port facility was meant to bring jobs to Calabria - before then it was an agricultural area.
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Omerta
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Mafia code of silence.
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Cosa Nostra
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American branch of the Mafia. Strong ties to Sicily. Not currently relevant.
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Mafia
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Criminal organizations over the last few hundreds in Sicily and southern Italy. Protection racket.
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Picciotto
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A lower level mafioso, not necessarily a made man. Important because these were the most common form of mafioso.
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Capodecina
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The head of a mafia branch. Families can have multiple capos carrying out tasks. Above the rank of PIcciotto.
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Consigliere
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Advisor to a mafia boss.
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Mandamento
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An area with three distinct mafia cosche. The leader of the mandemento is given the right to be a part of the Commission.
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Cosca
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Mafia organization. Smaller. Geographic region.
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Family
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Refers to a unit of the mafia. The preferred term used in the Cosa Nostra.
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Commission
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"Governing body" of American Mafia (Cosa Nostra) that was meant to mediate the tension between families.
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Cupola
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Sicilian Maffia Commission. Established in the 1960's. Used to govern Sicilian mafia and workout disputes. Idea was brought over from the American Cosa Nostra.
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Capo de Capi
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Mafia boss in the American or Sicilian Mafia that has been used in the 20th century. Capo de cape make up the commission or Cupola. These are the people who negotiate between families / cosche. They set the rules the mafia follows.
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Nick Gentile
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mafia boss who wrote an autobiography, most important source of which Dicky bases his chapter. He was a retired boss, in Italy, when he wrote his book. He is being forgotten because other people think his book is not a reliable source of information. 20th century
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Sfregio
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A scar on the check that signals disowner among the mafia. Signals that the person is involved in mafia activity.
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Pizzu
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IDK
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Pentito/Pentiti
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A mafia rat
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Transversal Vendetta
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Vengeance against pentito can be taken out on his family members, friends, or lovers.
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Lupara
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Sawn-off shotgun. Significant because it makes the powerful weapon easy to conceal and maneuver.
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Lupara Bianca
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A mafia killing in which the body is hidden or never found. Common way for the mafia to kill. "Lupara" refers to the sawn-off shotgun, a common weapon of the mafia.
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Excellent Cadaver
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High profile assassinations carried out by the mafia. Show's their power. Police, judges, politicians.
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"Enterprise" vs. "Power" Syndicate
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Mafia work their way up one of two branches. The power route is more of the illegal activities of the mafia. This is the more 'traditional' mafia. What people think of when they think Mafia. Enterprise was the front the mafia used. Mafioso worked their way in the more "legitimate" operations of the mafia while still using mafia tactics.
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Mafioso Entrepreneur
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A mafioso who uses mafia tactics of force and intimidation to carry out business practices.
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Tommaso Buscata
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First mafia boss to go state's witness. His testimony was key to convicting 100s of mafiosi in the US and Italy. Was very important in explaining the processes of the Mafia and how it operated.
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'Ndrangheta
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Calabrian "mafia" - less dealt with by government, more prevalent in Calabria and less mediated than the mafia is in Sicily. All members were family members, biologically related.
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Cavalleria Rusticana
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a)One of the most successful opera premiere of all time. "Rustic Chivalry." b) Pietro Mascagni's work in 1890: a story of jealousy, Honour, and vengeance set among the peasants of Sicily. c) Its story is the purest, most anodyne form of a myth about Sicily and the mafia, a myth that was something akin to the official ideology of the Sicilian Mafia for nearly a century and a half.
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Latifondo
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Large field - enormous farms that are inland - specialize in the production of wheat. Not heavy investment - expensive maintenance of soil monocrop
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Gabellotti
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Rented land in Sicily from rich land owners. Many were aligned with the Mafia. Lupo considered this hold over from feudalism. The Gabelloti often employed the mafia to protect their lands. Enforced rent.
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Bourbons
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French Monarchy that ruled Southern Italy until they were ousted in the revolution, restored in the restoration, and then ousted again during unification. Somebody else put dates I don't know them.
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Abolition of Feudalism
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1812. The end of feudalism. Land started being sold off to numerous new owners. Gabetta believed this to be key to the mafia being able to grow their protection racket because they could sell their services to multiple land owners and not just be employed by one. They became in charge.
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Conca d'Oro
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The golden bowl. Small farms in Sicily that are plentiful in fruit. A special kind of agriculture made of citrus.
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Giovanni Verga
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19th century Italian writer. Wrote Rustic Chivalry which is a classic opera about Sicily. Also wrote the key which was about corruption and intense poverty. Corruption of the guards and priests. Its story is the purest, most anodyne form of a myth about Sicily and the mafia, a myth that was something akin to the official ideology of the Sicilian Mafia for nearly a century and a half.
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Taviani Brothers
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Italian Filmmakers in the 20th century.
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Kaos
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Film consisting of 4 parts. One was "the other son." The son was the product of rape. The rapists was one of the prisoners released when Garibaldi opened the prisons.
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Luigi Pirandello
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Noble prize winning Italian writer. Early 20th Century. He's from working class sulfur mining town in central Sicily. Unification was not popular where he was from. He wrote about it.
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Sicilianismo
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Sicilian-ness. What made a Sicilian a Sicilian. Masculinity is key. The belief that Sicily should be separate.
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Fasci Siciliani
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Socialists in the late 19th century. Gained support of the poor in Sicily. Lead labor strikes. Government ultimately shut the group down and arrested its members. The mafia aligned with them and clashed with land owners.
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Sangiorgi Report
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IDK
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Ucciardone
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Hardcore resistance of taking Palermo...held out to the last man, part of the myth of Sicilian-ism, don't accept oppression from outside
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Florio Family
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IDK
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Cesare Mori
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Iron Prefect of Sicily during the Fascist regime. Severely cracked on the Maifa in Palermo. The Mafia was unable to grow back to prominence until after the allied victory during WW2.
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War on Mafia
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Mori's movement against Sicilian mafia during Mussolini's reign. Started with the "Siege" of Gangi. Involved maxi trials and high volume of mafia accusations against conceivably anybody.
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Maxi-trial
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During the "war on mafia" spearheaded by Mori, large groups of people would be rounded up and accused of mafia association. Maxi-trials were used to try and sentence these large groups all at once.
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Calogero Vizzini
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Sicilian Mafia boss in the first half of the 20th century. Allegedly helped the allies during WW2. It's logical because the fascists were strongly anti-mafia, but could also be mafia propaganda to make them look better. Eventually became the biggest mafioso in italy, "boss of bosses."
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M.I.S.
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Movement for Independent Sicily. Post WW2. Mafia stopped supporting them once they realized they would lose. Shows how the mafia is most concerned with themselves. Not as idealistic as they would like to lead on.
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Sack of Palermo
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1950's Sicily. Massive spending by the DC that lead to traditional Palermo buildings being replaced with sky scrappers and office buildings. Contracts went out to groups with mafia ties.
