How do you define being 1/2 Italian for induction?

According to the mob's rules for membership, you must be at least half Italian (on your father's side). However, they really seem to stretch the definition of being half Italian. To most people being half Italian means one of your parents was born in Italy, but this does not seem to be the case. Look at this example:

Example 1) My father was born in the United States. My grandfather was born in the United States. My great-grandfather was also born in the United States. My great-great-grandfather was born in Italy. (this is just a hypothetical example, but according to the rules a man with this lineage could be made)

To most people the above example does not make you truly Italian or even half Italian. But according to the rules, a guy with lineage as in example 1 could be made, correct? (Take Junior Gotti - he was "more" Italian than the guy in example 1 but neither of his parents was born in Italy)

Ive seen you post this before and ive never meet anyone who thinks that. What generation you are really has nothing to do with what percent italian you are. Take me for example, im irish on my mothers side, but on my fathers side both of my grandparents are from sicily, that makes me half italian. My father being born in the US has nothing to do with it.

Anyway the rule about qualifying for membership if your half italian was back in the 90s, supposedly they changed it back to that you have to be 100% italian "so they can trace all your roots back to the old country" haha.

It makes me wonder if Henry Hill would have been made later on (if he didn't get caught dealing and of course turn government witness) considering he was half sicilian. He hasn't got an Italian surname but hey look at Andrew Campos.

I had a friend who said he was half Irish, half English and half Jamaican.

Yeah, really. You're just not going to get many first and second generation Italian Americans anymore. The changes in the immigration laws guarantee that.

And Delly's right. It's all moot anyway. They went back to the 100& rule some time ago, and it looks like it will stay that way. For the time being, anyway.

Or being able speak Italian

Thanks Dellacroce - you cleared that up for me. I didn't really understand the definition of Italian on your father's side...anyways I got it now. Thanks!

Here's another question. Hopefully you won't think this is stupid. Let's say all four of my grandparents are from India. All four of them moved to Italy and each had a child (Mario and Gina). Mario and Gina then married and emigrated to the United States. Mario and Gina are my parents. Can I be made?

An Addition To What's Above: When Mario and Gino were born in Italy they automatically became Italian citizens. Therefore, by definition, they are Italian.

For the record, our father only having to be Italian appears to have been the case in New York from the mid-1980's through the 1990's. Apparently, in the early 2000's, the rule was changed back to having to be full Italian. That's officially speaking. Of course, before, during, and after there were guys who still got made despite not being 100%.

It seems like once you lower the rule for induction from 100% Italian to 50% Italian, it would be really hard to go back. Some guys are always going to want to make their sons and make other guys that are great earners that aren't really 100%.

By Italian they mean ethnic Italians. We're not dealing with the immigration service here

"I had a friend who said he was half Irish, half English and half Jamaican."

Funny

I am only half Italian on my mothers side. I guess that save me from a life of crime.

Lol bro these guys are largely illiterate racists who can barely speak a lick of Italian themselves. They're European backwash.

You got an Italian last name, you look somewhat Mediterranean, you came up in Bay Ridge/Melrose Park/Collinwood/(insert Italian American enclave here), you're in. That's how the shit works.

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That's funny Huron. But, seems accurate at the same time.

That won't save you son, you must save yourself!

The whole idea that you have to be "fully Italian"/"100% Italian", or have an Italian last name or have an Italian heritage on your father's side in order to be made or join is a myth that people who know nothing love to spread around. The myth of this is perpetuated by myths, and movies and TV shows about the mob that are not based on reality at all.

When mafia members from Sicily, Calabria, and other parts of Italy first immigrated here to the states over a century ago yes you did have to be completely Italian. But it was not that difficult to tell who was Italian and who was not, and there were very few if any first generation Italian-Americans then since they were very young or just being born.

However the whole "you must be completely 100% Italian" in order to join the mob or be made has not applied for over a century, and the idea it does is a myth perpetuated by the media and people who are in the mob who believe the BS history they hear that's not accurate. Even in NYC with the five families you do not have to be completely Italian to join, and it has been this way since the 60s. They never have actually "changed it back". People who claim that they have or that you must be 100% Italian to join believe misinformation and myths about the mob that are not true that get spread around. The stuff the rats and fed reports claim is not necessarily true either.

If they restricted membership to people who were only completely Italian that is Italian on both their father and mother's sides going back to their great-grandparents, or even further back nobody in the United States would be able to join, and not everyone in Italy now would be able to join either.

You do have to have an Italian heritage but it can be on either your mother or father's side. Yes someone who is 1/4th or 1/8th Italian, or even 1/2 Italian can join as long as they are completely Caucasian, and look Italian.

Yes some people do try to get their son, grandson, or great-grandson to join. It's like this in Italy too. They do this despite how their sons or other male relatives are not completely Italian and if the son or other male relative wants to join they easily can despite being 1/2, 1/4, or 1/8 Italian. But if the son is biracial or mixed race such as being Italian, and Asian, Italian and Hispanic, or Italian and Black they do not do this as there's no point and their relative will not be accepted into the business no matter how much they earn or who they are related to.

They would never let someone who is fully, half, or part Asian/Indian, or black, and part Caucasian Italian join or be made. Like that actor Giancarlo Esposito on breaking bad who played the Chilean drug dealer he's Italian and black; but looks black or mixed race. There are also a lot of illegal immigrants from various African countries in Italy now, and some become citizens and marry Italian people and they are not allowed in. The same goes for children or grandchildren of people from various Asian and even European countries who emigrate to Italy, marry an Italian woman or man and do not have a heritage that is actually Italian.

Well said HuronSocial. You do not even have to have an Italian last name. But yeah you do have to have an Italian heritage somehow from either your mother or dad, grandmother/grandfather, or great-grandmother/great-grandfather.