N
o geographical map distinguishes Montefalcione as being different from any number of isolated mountain villages in southern Italy. It has ancient customs and its own saints and feast days, like other villages.
Yet Montefalcione in Campania is the setting for a unique meditation on family and the Italian Diaspora, reconstructing three generations of village life through myth, superstition, and the anecdotal history of the author’s own family. Suite 306 The Colourworks 2a Abbot Street London, E8 3DP, U K Tel: 0845 3301 844 Email: headoffice@headpress.com Web: www.orldeadpress.com
The drama unfolds amidst a landscape of peasant riots, vicious landlords, religious festival, feuds, the collapse of the Fascist party, and the tarantella — a world lost to the changing face of the twenty-first century.
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Mezzogiorno Life. Death. Southern Italy. by David Kerekes
“What about this new era?”
MEZZOGIORNO Life. Death. Southern Italy. by David Kerekes THE PEOPLE of the south are removed from the people of the north. It’s the truth. Southern Italy is depicted in the history books as a monstrously cruel and amoral land overrun with brigands and devils. This is only partly true. The territories of the south begin with Naples and stretch beneath the blistering midday sun down to the strait of Messina, including the islands of Sicily and Sardinia, becoming collectively the Mezzogiorno, that rotten country. Its geography is harsher than that of the north; its economy poorer; its culture occult and mysterious.
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MEZZOGIORNO LIFE. DEATH. SOUTHERN ITALY. by DAVID KEREKES
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For Gino & David
Chapters 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.
List of characters When entering the village of Montefalcione Italy Iantosca 1955 The tradition of the chicken Bread & labour A slight earthquake Brigandage The evil eye Duce, fascisti! A dozen ricottas Sanduccio’s gate Jus sanguinis Contraband A fight at the wedding The drowning of Martignetti’s wife & daughter Montevergine The election day quarrel Natalina falls ill Zi Minuccio, the agent for the village Festa A toast to Saravatico Diaspora Bibliography & Sources Acknowledgements About the author Title information
vii 1 9 13 19 27 31 39 53 65 73 77 83 89 95 99 105 121 127 133 145 153 167 173 175 176
MEZZOGIORNO
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Life. Death. Southern Italy.
List of characters Alessandro Iantosca … a k a Rosso, a respected man of the village Alessandro Ziliani … famous tenor Angelina Sordillo … wife of the despised amministratore Antonio Sordillo Annemarie Martignetti … little girl who throws herself in a well Marquis Berlingieri … a powerful landowner in Melissa, Calabria Antonio Cerza … schoolteacher Antonio Iantosca … a k a Toto, son of Natale & Carmine Iantosca Antonio Sanduccio … landowner; owns a gate Antonio Sordillo … despised amministratore to the landlord Ape Piaggio … fruitseller from Atripalda Assunta Iantosca … a k a Assuntina, capoccia of the Iantosca household Benito Forcellati … a policeman Benito Mussolini … a k a Il Duce, fascist leader Caetano Iantosca … brother of Sabino Iantosca; dies in Boston Camillo … drives the statue of Sant’Antonio around the village Caramino … a tomboy nun Carmela Giro … ice-cream maker; embroiderer Carmine Iantosca … a k a Nero, daring farmer; husband of Natale Cataldi … diminuitive aide to mayor Luigi Tignanelli Colonel Milon … soldier who keeps a bandit’s head in a jar Concertina Polcaro … wife of Felice Polcaro; suffers a swollen thyroid but a good singer
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MEZZOGIORNO Concertinella … tavern owner Concertoni … the good landlady of the village Don Nicola Pacchesecche … a puppet Don Uberto … the padre Elena Iantosca … daughter of Natale & Carmine Iantosca Enrico Corradini … outspoken critic of liberal Italy Enrico De Nicola … the first president of the new Italian republic Felice Polcaro … field guard; halfwit Franco Baracca … paesano; a man named after a shed Gaetano Iantosca … musician; storyteller General Pinelli … a fierce & famous soldier Giovanni Iantosca … a shameless drunk Giuseppe Ciampa … the uncle of the tobacconist Giuseppe Garibaldi … great hero of Italian unification Giuseppe Iantosca [1] … a k a Carparo; frightens the children Giuseppe Iantosca [2] … son of Natale & Carmine Iantosca Giuseppina Iantosca … mother of Natale Iantosca; small woman Italo Scorolli … landlord; owns property on which Iantosca live Leonardo Quadrini … maestro Luigi Tignanelli … the new mayor Luigi … an elderly statue bearer from the district of Castelrotto Margherita … an epileptic girl Maria Almerino … elderly lady who wears sackcloth Maria Iantosca … a k a Rosinella, youngest child of Natale & Carmine Iantosca Maria Martignetti … troubled mother who drowns in a well Carmine Martignetti … a k a Zicca, moderately wealthy man with a well Marzio … blind accordionist; father of Margherita, epileptic girl Mercogliano … owner of a tobacco farm in Benevento Michele Strada … the neighbour’s son; peers up Assunta’s dress
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List of characters Natale Iantosca … a k a Natalina, wife of Carmine Iantosca Pasquale Iantosca … eldest son of Natale & Carmine Iantosca Pasquale Martignetti … neighbour’s boy, raised as an Iantosca Pasqualina Cavallini … childless sister of Natale Iantosca; destroyer of snakes Pellegrino … a man who jumps from a train to save his son Petrillo … blacksmith Pulcinella … a puppet Quirino Iantosca … a dead boy; bedrock of everybody’s memory Rocco … escort for the diaspora Sabino Iantosca … poet; fascisti Sant’Antonio de Podova … patron saint of Montefalcione Santa Lucia … another saint Saravatico … aged father of Alessandro Iantosca Signorina … mean-spirited sister of the landlord, Italo Scorolli Sìnneco … a member of the comune of Montefalcione Strada … a neighbour Tolla Cetrulo … a puppet Tommaso … the shoemaker Tony Ciampa … shopkeeper Totonno Cavallini … husband of Pasqualina; vindictive brotherin-law of Carmine Iantosca Turoleisi … caretaker at the cemetery Ugo … uncle of Pasquale Martignetti Vincent Petruzziello … bandit leader Vicenza Minella … the mayor’s grandmother Vita … the carpenter Zeza … a puppet Zi Minuccio … agent for the village and A mago from Montemiletto; a sorcerer; a demon; the Devil
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Europe ends at Naples and ends badly. Calabria, Sicily and all the rest belong to Africa. CreuzĂŠ de Lesser, 1806
Life. Death. Southern Italy.
ONE
When entering the village of Montefalcione
ACROSS THE MOUNTAIN on a road distressed by another earthquake roll the wheels of a circus train. It twists and turns and comes to a halt outside the village of Montefalcione at mid afternoon, by a lemon tree where in fact a man dips his hat in the shade. It is a day not unusual in August in 1950, except for the circus. The man beneath the lemon tree wakes from his yellow nap, unfolds his head from his shoulder, and lazily swats a mosquito at his neck fatly bouncing on blood infused with pomodoro sauce. He gets to his feet to arrange his sandals and compose himself. “A circus, eh? ” he says, followed by a good cough. The man is headed for Manocalzati. He is old and weary and doesn’t much look as if he will make it beyond the end of the road 1
MEZZOGIORNO what with his coughing and spitting. But looks can be deceiving and, besides, if he tells us Manocalzati he means somewhere else. He pulls a jacket over his heavy shirt to protect him from the sun; his hat on his head, his chin on his chest, while around his neck a chain supports a stopped clock given to him by his late father. It is the weekend of the big festa in Montefalcione, the festa for Sant’Antonio and Santa Lucia, which is the most important celebration on the calendar for this tiny village. Everyone is headed here, for the procession, the celebrations, and the circus, except for the old boy who has seen enough feste and is not interested in another one. He adjusts his balls instead. His old man balls, like his old man eyes, have seen better days. A persistent dog lollops by on the tail of a wind that knocks the lemons from the tree, its curiosity piqued by the sights, sounds and smells of the circus. The old man has cancer, his reactionary guts resembling a lemon with nails in it. This is the reason he travels to Manocalzati, a neighbouring village where he has deduced he must die. First, he visits for a moment the old part of his mind, the reptilian part that contains the early days of his mother and father, and the lame mule he cherished more than his wife. That was back in the days of the old festa. Old Italy died with his father, he determines, and he stretches out his arms to establish time with no less accuracy than the dead
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Life. Death. Southern Italy. clock about his neck. The presence of the neck serves the clock, he tells the circus. The language is Neapolitan, much like Italian but gnarled and with fewer accents, generally dismissed as a language of the gutter. The old man shares a cigarette with the circus before it continues toward the village, the colourful wagons drawn slowly by horses and within them animals making a noise. He continues then in the opposite direction, on foot to Manocalzati, alone except for the hungry dog lifting its eyes to wait. “Viva l’Italia! ” he bellows at the nervous animal and spits. THE SIGHT of a circus in these mountains is a curious sight indeed. A melanoma under the sun. Metaplasia of the charivari. The circus travels from Naples through the south of Italy once a year, bringing exotic entertainment to the isolated communities concealed behind invisible borders. Half the people of Montefalcione are present when the circus pitches its tent in the space between the town hall and the new cemetery. A march of elegant horses through the piazza culminates at a red wagon for a bawdy and morbidly humorous puppet show in which the principal characters, Pulcinella and his wife Zeza, bicker for forty-five minutes before the circus starts. The quarrelsome couple delight the crowd, who hoot with 3
MEZZOGIORNO laughter at the violence and barbed exchanges, especially when directed at the landlord, who doesn’t get his rent. The couple have a daughter, Tolla Cetrulo, whose name infers a phallus. She hides her suitor Don Nicola Pacchesecche under the bed. Pulcinella goes berserk at the shame his daughter brings upon the house and proceeds to beat Don Nicola fearsomely with a stick. “Now he’s cleared off, the rotten student! ” wheezes Pulcinella, having frightened the young pup away. He turns to admonish his daughter. “It would be better for you not to have been born! ” he tells her. “Because if I catch you again, I’ll give you such a thrashing you’ll be living in the cemetery within three months! ” He points a wooden finger at the cemetery down the road. “You’ve put up a show, so now you brag! ” interjects Zeza, Pulcinella’s wife. “Shove off, Zeza,” Pulcinella says. “Or I might do you a mischief.” “What would you do? ” she snaps back. “To hell with you! I hope you come to a sticky end.” Pulcinella agonises over why they must always fight in the middle of the street, while Tolla, the daughter, runs about the tiny stage delighting the audience. “If you take it into your head to keep me from getting married,” the girl warns her father, “I’ll show you a thing or two.” 4
Life. Death. Southern Italy. “What would you do, chubby face? ” demands Pulcinella, finding himself caught between wife and daughter. “You’d better forget that young ruffian.” Don Nicola suddenly returns. “Villain! Rascal! ” he shouts, waving a gun in the face of the old man. “I’ll show you what Don Nicola is made of. I’ll put an end to your capers. When I’ve finished with you you’ll be sausage meat! ” Pulcinella crumbles to the floor, pleading for his life. It’s a humiliating exhibition. The young pup continues to rage. “Curse you, you son of a whore! ” he barks. “You have dealt me so many blows with your confounded stick I am black and blue all over.” Tolla jumps in. She doesn’t want the day to end with unpleasantness. “If you really love me, don’t kill father! ” she begs. “Sweetheart, my honey darling, forgo your revenge! ” Don Nicola withdraws his vow but continues to prod the simpering fool with his gun. “I want to marry your daughter,” he says. “What do you think about that? Aren’t you glad? Can’t you talk, old man? Can’t you hear? ” “Yes, my son. I’m blind and dumb with pleasure.” Pulcinella snorts, his lips a parchment grin. “I won’t speak again for a hundred years. I shall stay at home ecstatic with delight! ” The two men shake hands and everybody’s happy. “My dear husband! ” coos Tolla. 5
MEZZOGIORNO “My darling wife! ” chimes Don Nicola, winking his good eye at the audience. There is a Neapolitan saying: O padrone diventa parzonale, e o parzonale diventa padrone. The owner becomes the farmer and the farmer becomes the owner. Somebody like Don Nicola will always want to reverse the roles. A lack of healthy competition sits the arrogant pup in good stead. Many of the young men of the village have gone away to the cities and to other countries to find work, in order that they may return one day and not have to doff their hat for the landlord, kiss his hand or engage in the traditional symbols of servility. This leaves the womenfolk all alone and the playing field relatively empty. Everyone in the audience applauds Don Nicola Pacchesecche, but it understands he is not a man to trust with the corn piled high on the threshing floor. “I’m not moving if I don’t give you a kiss,” he starts to sing. “Tonight I’ll show you an earthquake. I don’t give a hoot for your love, and I’m not looking for your love.” The evening is illuminated by light bulbs strung across the piazza for the occasion of the festa. They elicit a cheer from the crowd when they come on. Suddenly the doors of the chiesa madre are thrown open and Zeza exits with her daughter in a terrible state, having just suffered a fit of the broken heart. Pulcinella is enraged, running up and down Montefalcione snapping his black teeth and cursing like a dog. However, he must 6
Life. Death. Southern Italy. not concern himself too deeply with the fleeting Don Nicola; Don Nicola has already departed this story. So too the circus for the most part, but not the doubt and insecurity, the backbiting paesano and solicitous relatives that shimmer across inhospitable lands such as this one. The day unfolds to the coarse rasp of the changing seasons. There is no echo of childhood here, no retirement plan for the old. Life is an endurance, no more or less. But if existence is simply the measure of life, what purpose in life does it serve a daring farmer to run barefoot through the snow for a lark? —a woman to throw a curse upon a neighbour? —the dead to call back from the grave? What is folklore and superstition if life is nothing beyond the crops of the field? This is a question for the padre, of course; the padre who will preach to the women about damnation but enthuse to the men about Naples and dirty Neapolitan gramophone records, as we shall witness. ARRIVING in the village of Montefalcione for the festa, the traveller may observe Quirino, a boy of indeterminable age, place his ear to a wall when the music starts to play. The music is the tarantella, a whirling dervish whose origins lie with tradition and the taranta spider that is known to bite peasants in the field and then sing as they writhe on the ground in search of reality in the dust. Head bumper. Mouth eater. Chin 7
MEZZOGIORNO chopper, the boy sings to himself. Eye peeper. Knee knapy. Shin sharpy. The music of the wall is a good sound. Let us begin.
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This is a sample from a Headpress book Copyright Š Headpress 2012
To buy the book copy or for media related to this title, please visit www.worldheadpress.com