A day in the life of a mafa boss’ daughter

Veronica Corielli

On the 16th of January 2023, Messina Denaro – widely regarded as the boss of all bosses within the Italian Mafa – was arrested. This prompted worldwide media interest, with articles from overseas newspapers detailing Messina Denaro’s lifestyle and crimes. This was not my father. The title is clickbait, but it does provide an example of how easy it is for the romanticisation of the Mafa (like the daily routine of a Mafa frst daughter) to be eye-catching and interesting. More appealing, perhaps, than articles describing the terrible reality of organised crime. This phenomenon is incredibly widespread, and incredibly dangerous.

Mafa bosses – especially Italian and often Russian – with sleek black hair and deep, entrancing, dark eyes are romanticised on virtually any media platform. In 2020 the movie “365 days”, in which the main love interest is brooding Mafa boss Massimo, made headlines. Admittedly, not because its plot dealt with organised crime but because of its sex scenes. However, the fact that crime can so easily be romanticised as a “dangerous, dark and mysterious” trope is scary to say the least. The hashtag “Mafa boss” on Wattpad, a website that allows users to post their own stories/fanfcs, has more than 1.2k adherents. Some of the most common hashtags associated with this are “Mafa princess”, “bad boy” and “guns”. When searching “Mafa” on Google, the frst suggestions are Mafa game, Mafa movie, and Mafa boss. It has even been discovered that Messina Denaro himself had The Godfather posters in his apartment. Messina Denaro romanticised his own criminal involvement. Clearly, this is a widespread phenomenon. However, why is it so dangerous?

According to James Finckenauher, professor at Rutgers University and author of Mafa and organised crime: a beginner’s guide, the phenomenon began in the 20s in the US due to Prohibition. Small criminal groups controlled underground alcohol sales and became wide-scale international organisations.

In his book La increíble hazaña de ser mexicano, author Heriberto Yépez wrote that the key to the making of a criminal was an authoritarian environment, repression and constant criticism from a young age. Lack of areas to excel in due to this upbringing encourage one to seek respect and excellence in criminal activity. For the US working class the mafosi became a sort of role model for success in an environment that otherwise repressed them. Books like Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, frst published in 1969, fed this fascination until the glamorous image of the Mafa became embedded in pop culture. But in reality, mafosi proft from human traffcking, murder, extortion, fraud, and other terrible crimes. Glamorisation creates numbness to the harsh reality of these crimes.

Read the full article at cherwell.org