I would like to observe other users' opinions on this topic which I believe should be a subject discussed. The original Mafia was created over 300 years ago in Sicily, it was meant for protecting the Italian/Sicilian people from the invaders trying to take over Sicily. Back then they followed the rules and Omertà and had honor. When Cosa Nostra expanded to America it still followed the original rules, but once World War II ended both the Sicilian and Italian-American Mafias started to get greedy which led to a very deep decline. Since then more members of the Mafia started disobeying the rules and became rats and started betraying each other. Very few Mafia families today still have that same honor that was created over 300 years ago. So I would like to ask everyone what your opinions are, rather you like the old Mafia from 300 years ago or the new and current Mafia today. I am all for the original Cosa Nostra from over 300 years ago, the current one is not as good.

It goes way back to what is called The Night of the Sicilian Vespers. It actually took place in Sicily sometime around the 13th century. It was a rebellion / uprise against the French troops allowed to occupy Siciliy by a King that had taken over control of Sicily, supposedly with the backing of the Pope.


The locals were forced to pay heavy taxes to the King. At the time Palermo was being inhabited by French troops. Legend has it that the French inahbitants, with the backing of the King, made it a tradition to force newly married Sicilian brides to spend the night with them BEFORE being with their new husbands on their wedding night. The French inahbitants of Sicily, backed by the King, were abusing the Sicilian people in many different ways, especially the woman. On one particular night while the sicilian people were attending an evening prayer service of vespers, a group of French officials came by to join in and began to drink. They then began to fondle the breasts of the women and with that the sicilian men decided to finally defend the honor of their woman. A revolt started throughout Palermo, and the sicilian men killed the French inahbitants. Hence the term : Night of The Sicilian Vespers."


There is an Urban Legend in Sicily that on that evening a Sicilian woman went into one of the churches in Palermo and found her daughter being raped by a French soldier. Legend has it that she then ran out into the streets yelling "Ma fia Ma fia" which translates into "My daughter! My daughter! Some believe that this is where the word "Mafia" might have originated from.

There are lots of legends about the Mafia in Sicily being chivalric, like Italian Robin Hoods. But I doubt it. Mafiosi, then and now, are parasites on society, like other organized criminals. In Sicily, the main job of the local Mafia boss, or gabboletto, was to protect wealthy estate owners and their land and water rights against ordinary people who made claims on them. The landowners wanted cheap labor and the gabboletti kept the contadini in line. In America, the Mafia's primary victims were fellow Italians--just as Jewish, Irish and Chinese gangsters preyed on their own kind.

In earlier times in America, omerta was generally honored because ordinary soldiers had no other ways to make livings, and so they knew if they kept quiet, they'd stay employed when they got out of jail. Also, a lot of the crimes they were involved in, like prostitution, gambling and liquor, were considered "victimless." Even drugs weren't a big deal as long as the victims were people society didn't care about. But in the Sixties, when drugs were widely abused and the victims were nice, white children of politicians, judges and law enforcement, big sentences were handed down. Later RICO piled double-digit sentences for even "conspiring" to be part of organized crime. And the Witness Protection Program gave rats a way out. So much for omerta...

I've heard about that story before Don Cardi. And Turnbull I think you have your facts wrong, back then the Mafia protected the non-wealthy Italian people, like you said they were basically Italian Robin Hoods. But as for the Mafia protecting wealthy land owners, I believe that's false. From what I've researched and from what I've heard from my elder family members (yes I am a descendant of a few Mafia families), the Mafia protected the non-wealthy Italian people.

IMB, I'm afraid that you have your facts and your time frames mixed up. Turnbull is absolutely right in that the Mafia protected the wealthy land owners and the pezzanovantes of the country.

The legend that I posted about, The Night of the Italian Vespars, was supposed to have taken place way back in the 13th century, and it very well may have happened. If it did, I'm sure that the original intent was to protect the people from being raped and abused by those in a position of power.

But Turnbull is dead on correct when he says that those in power manipulated the local Mafioso and used them to protect the wealthy land owners and the pezzanovante in high places. The local Mafioso eventually went from protecting the poor working people to taking advantage of those same poor working people.

Here is part of a presentation by Prof. Lorenzo Picchi of the University of Florence (Italy), a recognized authority on the Mafia:



Agrarian mafia
It was in the Sicilian interior that the mafia was exploiting peasants the most

The Latifondo System
(Described on pag. 156 of the book Cosa Nostra by John Dickie)
A gabelloto leases on a short term contract (usually one year) a property called latifondo from a
noble (this money is called gabella).
Then he shares the land and sub rents each plot of land to the peasants, to be paid through
agricultural products either through the system of the Metateria or the Terraggio.
Metateria - It was a form of Mezzadria that in Sicily did not mean ½ as in the rest of Italy but ¼,
the deal was not made directly with the landowner like in Tuscany in the other region of the North
of Italy but with the middle man, who was a brutal Mafioso; the peasants were not living in the
podere (farm) like in Tuscany and in the rest of Italy but in villages around
Terratico or Terraggio
A quota was fixed TO BE PAID TO THE GABELLOTO, established at the beginning of the year.
Peasants had to loan seeds, loans, wheat from the gabelloto; at the end of the year, being the
contract oral, the gabelloto was of course claiming for a bigger part of what he had anticipated
Donativi: quotas paid to the campieri and sovrastanti by the peasants
10
The agrarian mafia:
- Landowners
- Gabelloti: joining the mafia enabled a gabelloto to do his job better
- Campieri: protecting the field from bandits
- Sovrastanti: supervising the reaping
- Fontanieri: providing watering to the fields
The parasitic revenue of the gabelloto derived from:
What he was obtaining by the peasants
-
gabella (rent)
Peasants had always debts with the gabelloti and had just enough to survive
If they rebelled the pattern was:
- Friendly advice
- Threat
- Lupara
So they had three alternatives of life:
1) Be exploited by the mafia and reduced to slavery
2) Migrate
3) (Try to) Join the mafia and become a campiere

You can download all of Prof. Picchi's slides here:

http://www.historyofthemafia.net/dispense%20mafia.pdf

Great stuff Turnbull. Thanks for sharing!

My family goes back hundreds and maybe even a thousand years ago, my family would've known this stuff because back in Sicily my family worked as peasants on land which included a castle. The research you two are providing could very well be false since there are no facts that we know for sure are true, but I'm going by what my family says, since my family even has written down facts proving my statement.

Using your own words, how do we know that what your family wrote down is true?

If my father wrote down that his grandfather was the Easter Bunny, would that "prove" it?

There's also a good chance that if the family from a hundred years ago (or more) were peasants, they wouldn't have known how to write and read.

Hah, good point! LOL

To be honest I agree with the OP to some extent in that the mob hs changed a lot of the years. When it first came to America there were some semblances of the honored society that it claimed itself to be. If you were loyal and followed the rules, you were taken care of. Hundreds of young men joined cosa nostra because of the prospect that you could make money and have an entire of family of guys to help you if you ever needed it. In the older days the mob still lived by those rules and some of them were actually OK people and had some, dare I say it, honor.

Nowadays, we're looking at a completely differenty animal. None of that exists in the mafia anymore. That's my opinion

I'm just waiting for TB to make me look stupid on this one. LOL

Let me understand this. On one hand you say that there are no facts that we know for sure that are true.

I don't disagree.

But then you go on to say, in the same paragraph, that YOUR family has written down FACTS that PROVE.....

You can't have it both ways my friend.

If your family goes back over a thousand years in Sicily, then they probably aren't even Italian.

Don Cardi, I'm saying that there aren't any facts from researchers that prove it but there are facts from my family that prove it. And I'm very offended that you insulted my family by saying they're not Italian, every single person in my family is Italian including me, and I guarantee most people on this forum aren't even Italian, so you have no right to say that. SC, we may never know the true story of Cosa Nostra because we weren't around to see it when it first started, but I'm going to believe my family and not researchers because my ancestors were around when it happened, the researchers weren't, and my ancestors passed on what they have experienced and witnessed in their lifetime to the descendants and each generation of my family. Pizzaboy, the Easter Bunny isn't real, so let's be mature here.

If you took the time to read Don Cardi's post, you'd see that he only meant that a thousand years ago Sicily was hardly unified. As a matter of fact, it was under the control of the Normans during the middle ages. Sicily wasn't considered part of the Kingdom of Italy until 1860, so if your ancestors were living there a thousand years ago, they were probably of Arabian descent. But that's not to insult you, that's the case with ALL southern Italians. I'm Calabrese, as is Don Cardi, so we take great pride in our heritage. And you're mistaken, there are plenty of Italians on this forum.

Going by your theory, we can't trust any of the history books on any subject at all, because we "weren't there."

And consider this: You're brand new to this board, and you come out guns blazing about how your family is the Mafia, etc. How are we supposed to take that? You sound like a kid in the 5th grade bragging about his daddy's Mafia connections. Most of us here are serious students of both organized crime and world history in general, so if you're looking for a board where the members are impressed by these thugs, you're in the wrong place. I grew up in an Italian section of New York City when the Mob was at it's peak, as did Don Cardi, SC and Turnbull, to name a few other members. We know what these guys are like from both firsthand experience AND through thorough research. We're not impressed by them.

Welcome to the boards, but try to keep in mind that you are brand new here.

I know that my family has been around for hundreds of years, I'm not too sure about a thousand but I know my family goes back very far. Yeah I am brand new to this board but I've been observing this board for a long time before I even registered. Anyways I am too a student studying the Mafia, and yes I am Italian and yes there are Mafia ties in my family, but I am not here to bragg, I am here to share my opinions, views, and facts about the Mafia. By the way, I'm Neapolitan, Sicilian, and Calabrese.

Exactly pizzaboy. That's the difference between someone who actually knows something about the real history of Sicily and someone who just pops off at the mouth on here shooting from the hip.

There never was any intent on my part to throw an insult out. I was just going by history and what my sicilian ancestors that grew up in sicily passed on to my parents, their parents, their parents before them, etc.

What's the old saying pizzaboy? Those who walk around dropping names claiming that they know this one, that their uncle is that one or that their family are connected with this one should watch out for the guy who never utters a threat or drops a name.

IMB, you started this thread by stating:
"I would like to observe other users' opinions on this topic which I believe should be a subject discussed."

People here treated you generously by responding, as you requested, with their opinions and citing solid academic research. Now you say that you don't care what we or the researchers said, you're going with what your family wrote down and told you.

So, why did you ask for our opinions in the first place?

I asked for your opinions on which version of the Mafia was better. I didn't ask for your opinions on which you think is true.

You know something? You may believe that you are a wiseguy. But as far as I am concerned you're nothing more than a wiseass.



Now go home and get your shine box.

I think you've been watching Goodfellas a little too much, and as far as I'm concerned, I'm probably the most Mafia-educated person on here, I may be new to the forum but growing up having a full-blooded Italian family and learning more and more things about Cosa Nostra each and every day of my life would make me know a lot more about it than you.

That Don Cardi is a funny fellow. He makes me laugh. It's the way he tells a story.

Anyway, IMB, it'd be a good idea to check the attitude at the door before coming in here to post. You'll find you'll get more responses and good discussions without talking down to other members.

hahahahahaha

Actually I'm not getting an attitude, the others are.

I am terribly sorry, but I would have to say the most Mafia-educated person here is Turnbull, no disrespect, I may be completely mistaken, but I have never witnessed your knowledge. Why don't you add your insight to a few of the other threads in this section, and let this whole thing pass?



Benvenuti a schede

Yep, your smaht, you can do things. Not dumb like everybody says, but smaht, and you deserve respect!


ITALIAN_MAFIA_BOSS

It makes me laugh how you have nothing better to do with your life other than to do stupid and immature things like that. What a very sad person you are.

Guys, take it to the sandbox.

Can I take him fishing instead?

Only if you say a Hail Mary.