Mafia, Coppole, and Lupare. (part II) Mafia's war.

Category:
Mafia

Mafia's war.

Now, I remember when all those three words (Mafia, Coppole, and Lupare) were combined together and led an entire city (Palermo) and my personal memories of it, to a long a nightmarish year of violences and deaths.

There are still vivid in my mind, the memories of a six years old boy, of when his loved city plunged into a bloody Mafia's war (The first Mafia War in 1962-63). I well remember that, for an entire year wasn't there a day in which my city woke up at the news that a dead body was found in some city's corner. At that time, it looked like the Mafia was gone totally insane and couldn't be stopped in its trail of blood and violence throughout the city.


The violent deaths were reported by the newspapers, like they were game's scorings, and I remember every afternoon myself with some young friends of mine, when we went together to a newsstand to buy the newspaper and read it, like we were reading a soccer match reporting, "September, 19, Mafia's death tolls has reached today the record of 234 "morti ammazzati" (deads by assassination). All the newspapers' reports of the Mafia assassinations, kept going till the end of that year.


Unfortunately as in any war, even innocent people succumbed to the madness of the Mafia's cycle revenges. I can even recall from my memories, the un-mentioned fears I could read all over the faces of the everyday guy that was thinking could be him, the next one to die mistakenly at the hand of the Mafia's rage.



First Mafia War.

• The first Mafia War took place in the 1962-63. The conflicted erupted over an underweight shipment of heroin. The La Barbera brothers were the protagonists in a bloody conflict between rival clans in Palermo in the early 1960s.

Second Mafia War.

• The Second Mafia War mostly taking place in the early 1980s, which is sometimes referred to as The Great Mafia War or the Mattanza, involved the entire Mafia and radically altered the power balance within the organization.

Of course, there were many other wars of Mafia such these ones, but especially the first Mafia's war, it was one of the two mostly bloody and violent Mafia's wars, in which the city of Palermo had to deal with.

Criminal capital of the world.

It one point, my Palermo was named, "the capital of crime" due to its death-roll, and it was compared to New York City, of when New York itself was named criminal capital of the world, for its crime rates. That record by itself wasn't for sure a boast of confidence and image, for any proud city.

Nowadays, Palermo has ceased to be the city of the hundreds violent deaths per year.

Thank God for that, but...there's still a but. The Mafia hasn't been defeated, despite all the battles already won by the police forces, this monster hasn't yet exhaled its last breath. The Mafia is wounded and now it's hiding from the spotlights, waiting for the right moment to re-emerge again from its dark hideouts.

I don't know, if the Sicilian society is ready to reckon again with the intimidations of a next Mafia's reappearances!!! Only time will tell us, how Sicilians will handle with a new Mafia occurrences.

Meanwhile, I wish that my city will get stronger and better prepared, in the event that this cancer will spread once again inside its social and economic tissues.

*****

I end here with a homage to my loved Sicily, with the hope of a better future without a Mafia, Coppole, or Lupare.

Sicilia Bedda.



My loved Sicily.

A wishful...Red.eVolution

Related links:

Mafia, Coppole, and Lupare. (part I)

Sicily, a land of lost opportunities.

Sicily "mafia land". (part one)

Sicily "mafia land". (part due)

Mafia

Mafia, Coppole, and Lupare. (part I)

Category:
Mafia

What a trio of words! These words sound like they belong to a Mafia's movie title, or a Mafia's book tittle. What these words mean, or meant for the common Sicilian citizens at one time! Mafia not needs for its explanation, already we all know what Mafia means, it means an oriented family crime organization.

What about those other words?

Coppola (a traditional flat cap worn by men in Southern Italy and Sicily) wasn't just a common piece of vestiary for the ordinary Sicilian, but for a "Mafiusu" in particular, it meant something more than a simple hat... It had also, an occult meaning along the ordinary use of it.


The coppola, especially when this piece of vestiary was worn by twisting it to one side of the head, gave to those wearing it a status of respect, power, and belongings to a privileged caste. That twisted hat meant, the Mafiusu' was part of a Mafia clan organization.

When I was very young (before I came to live and work in the States), back on those days I recall how was viewed by the Sicilian those men wearing the twisted hats. Those men were seen with fear, and therefore those so called men of honor got respect from the rest of the Sicilian communities not because of their good deeds, but the intimidation of their "persona".

Indeed those men, were (and are) the scums of the Sicilian societies, and unfortunately stereotypes of the Sicilians been seen as all "mafiusi" together with the saying, " Nenti sacciu, nenti vitti, nenti 'ntisi " (I don't know nothing, I didn't see anything, I didn't hear anything) has since stuck all over them as a blemish, especially if they went for jobs in the North of Italy.

I don't hear, I don't see, I don't talk.

Uomini di panza "Men of honor".

The "Nenti sacciu, nenti vitti, nenti 'ntisi" saying, it's associated with the code of silence (also known as omerta'). The omerta' (a refusal to give evidences and to cooperate with the police about criminal activities) is practiced by the Mafia itself (naturally) and by the common citizens for fears of the Mafia's retaliations. The men that make use of this code of silence are named, "uomini di panza" (men with big stomach). The term "uomini di panza" means that these men have enough stomach to keep Mafia's secrets inside, without revealing them to the police. Be a "uomo di panza" (man with a big stomach) in the same time means: to be an honorable man. I hope, you are now getting how distorted and wicked are the Mafia's rules, for being a (not) honorable man.

Luckily today, in Sicily many things have changed. If you go there for a visit, you wont see anymore those, "coppole" (except in very few small towns, with very few old men), and those men of honor will get less respect from the people, than back the old days of the coppolas.

Finally, the word lupara what it means?


Lupara means: violent death to those who dared to challenge the Mafia laws. The "lupara" was a sawed-off shotgun used particularly for the Mafia's vendettas. The word 'lupara' means literally 'wolf-shot', reflecting its lethal power and its history of use in Mafia killings. Another expression of the lupara is -the lupara bianca (white lupara)- a term which was, and it is still used, after someone has been murdered by the Mafia, and his body can't be found anywhere.

continues...

Next: Mafia, Coppole, and Lupare. (part II) Mafia's war.