Introduction

Besides their love for food, their exaggerated movements, their risky way of driving, the Sicilians have some other traits of their own.

Personality

All the hands this fabulous island was in could not throughout centuries but leave their indelible marks in it.
Sticking to traditions like the Palermitans, or tending to follow the changes in the world, like the Catanians, are two counterparts of the same islander. According to the Italians from the peninsula, Sicilians are traditional, distrustful, impassive, god-fearing, self-assured, sociable and thoughtful. have an wicked sense of humour.
It could be said that university cities gather a population leading liberal lives more open to changes than the countryside.

Public arena and behind the curtains

Family and friends are a core part of a good Sicilian life… being faithful to them and respected, no matter what there is behind the curtains, is a core target in life.
Having good dress sense and appearance and sticking to social and religious conventions are vital in a Sicilian life.
A man’s main interest is to show he can be the support of his family, make his family move upwards in the echelons of society, helping them obtain jobs, and any other chances by mea ns of his connections to Mafia in a social machine called social patronage. For an average woman’s life being righteous and respected is vital.

Women’ s expectations

Women are expected to lead lives resistant to changes, and accept being protected and let their lives be guided by her male relatives. This still important way of considering what a woman should be like started to change in the last two decades of the 20th century. Nowadays Sicilian women have more chances to get education even at university level.
Women’s rights have been promoted and defended by Archidonna since the 80s, including women in business and politics. Also, in the last two decades rape became a crime in law terms.
Many books and films depict the condition they have lived in. If you want to have a full insight into what writers and directors show try to get:

Malèna by Giuseppe Tornatore
Divorzio all’’italiana staring Marcello Mastroianni
On Persephone’s Island by Mary Taylor Simeti
Midnight in Sicily by Peter Robb

Religious code

There is in Sicily a strong following of the Roman Catholic Church contrasting with peninsular Italy. A treaty at the end of the 20s last century made Catholicism the official religion of Italy. It was changed when in the 80s the treaty was revoked and religious education became optional. Two sanctuaries on the island are big draws for the Sicilians: Santuario della Madonna at Tyndaris, and the one at Gibilmanna.
In inland villages faith and superstition blend, in contrast to young city dwellers who do not follow their ancestors’ religious codes.
Entering a Sicilian church has its restrictions: bare shoulders are prohibited, as well as mini-skirts and shorts.

Native population drain and immigration

The real rate of unemployment reaches in Sicily 28 %. African, Bangladeshi and Pakistani immigration taking the lowest paid jobs and the need of young people to have the best “entry form” to open the door to a job account for so much emigration yearly (around 10,000 a year). Besides, the emigration in the 19th century and those looking for better prospects in the factories in the north of the country account for only 5 million Sicilian inhabitants.

Cosa Nostra

Maybe originated in mu’afah (from Arabic “place of refuge”), or mahjas (boasting), what is certain is that mafiosi referred to an icon of elegance, pride and independence. In the 1400s when even the nobles had had little chances to make profits, they had to introduce modifications in their estates by pushing rural population into town to improve the effectiveness of crop growth. Nobles left their properties to live in cities and their bailiffs were in charge of rent collection. They had the help of some peasants who hold guns and erased any kind of problem,…called mafiosi.
These mafiosi turned to robbery and authorities did not control them for fear.
In the meanwhile peasants feared yet looked up to them as mafiosi represented their way of fighting the feudal nobility. Therefore, peasants protected and kept silence …the Cosa Nostra.
Only in 1982 Mafia became a legal term.
To say that the Mafia organization is a devotedly religious sounds impossible to believe. Yet it is now known that there are basic rules that a mafiosi has to fulfill to belong to it, such as being respectful of wives, and not wishing the others’, being truthful and keeping hands away from other families’ money.

Post war Mafia

After the Second World War Mafia laid its hands on towns. It immediately took over the building industry. In the 50s there was an agreement between the American and Sicilian Mafia to start launching on the business of drugs.
In the 60s and 70s drug trafficking was so lucrative that many members of the families died while fighting for their area to earn more than others.
In 1982 when General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa was sent by the Italian government to head the anti-Mafia organization he was assassinated. It open new ways to dare face Mafia.
In the super trial of 1986 347 main mafiosi were convicted. In the meanwhile even ordinary people started to reveal the way organization worked.
When Totò Riina, the top mafiosi, was captured in 1993, he was charged with the magistrates Giovanni and Paolo Borsellino’s death.

The daring ones against the Mafia

The first activities against Mafia were carried out in the last decades of the 19th centuries.
Left wing members drifting from the Socialist and Communist parties became main activists in the anti-Mafia organization. In this decades Giuseppe Impastato who had a radio show in which he ridiculed at mafiosi was murdered, even though he was himself son of a mafiosi. Later on came General Carlo Alberto dalla Chiesa’s assassination. Educators, politicians and priests also became crusaders of this movement.
In the 80s Leoluca Orlando, mayor of Palermo, encouraged the arrest of Mafia members and agreements to prevent public contracts from being given to the Mafia families. After his office he continued with an organization against Mafia, “the Network”.
Even ordinary people helped this movement by putting sheets with slogans reading anti mafia phrases, shopkeepers made a league to face extortions. The organization Libera strived and got the Italian government to give it the land expropriated to mafiosi to create legal agricultural entrepreneurs. The Catholic church became involved in the issue and some of its members helped the crusade.
At administration level in Gela there was a dismissal of people related to Mafia. It was considered to be given by the grace of God.

Contemporary Mafia

Beginning with the arrest of Riina in 1993, new convictions have been brought top mafiosi to jail. Members such a s Leoluca Bagarella, Giovanni Brusca, Vito Vitale, Mariano Troia, Salvatore Sciarabba, Bernardo Provenzano and Salvatore lo Piccolo ended up in jail. From this, it is impossible to conclude that Mafia has been finally erased …but important steps to undermine its organization have been made.
There is still some fear of the members who left Sicily in the wars between bands in the 80s returning and making the so much feared threat real.
At present Mafia members even belong to the most respectable echelons of society having positions of power. There has appeared a kind of Mafia which is even more deeply hidden. Even though a Sicilian could get a legal contract, the mafiosi will tell him where and how to operate and push for payment of a pizzo (money in exchange for protection). It has been worked out that the Mafia earns annually about 10 % of national GDP, part of which is amassed thanks to the pizzo. Addiopizzo is a campaign to gather businesses who have agreed not to pay pizzo anymore.
Small but secure steps in the battle against the organization which has lasted centuries in the island have been done. There is much ahead, yet the achievements are valuable.