South of Rome–West of Ellis Island
The Italian Election: American Voters and “The Southern Question”
(April 24, 2008)
Letizia Bataglia
"Southern Question" Sicilian Scene (my title)
Comments posted by i-Italy bloggers Stanton Burnett and Marina Melchionda regarding the recent Italian elections place the outcome of that election solidly in the 150 year tradition conceptualize and characterized as “The Southern Question?”
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Print thisIn 1860 Garibaldi’s army “liberated” the people of southern Italy. However, the people did not feel liberated. They revolted against what they perceived to be a conquering northern Italian regime. A vicious civil war ensued between the southern “Brigandage” and a northern Piedmont Army that razed whole southern towns such as Pontelandolfo for supporting the “Brigandage”.
As the war dragged on for years, bleeding the northern military and treasury, northerners became preoccupied with the south; giving rise in the 1870’s to a journalistic and literary tradition know as “The Southern Question”. Specifically, the question: ‘what could be done to incorporate the people of the south into a harmonious nation state –Italy’? By the 1880’s the federal government had de facto (if not de jure) decided upon a radical solution to the problem – export it.
Back in 1863 Nino Bixio, while working for a parliamentary commission inquiring into the problem of the Brigandage, wrote “… [southern Italy] is a country that should be depopulated and its inhabitants sent to Africa…” That same year the parliament passed the “Pica Law which grafted transportation onto the system of punishment”; i.e. southerners were transported away from their homes for supporting the revolution (see: “Darkest Italy” by John Dickie). Ideas of depopulation became a reality with the mass emigration of millions of southern Italians between circa 1880 and 1920.
However, the Southern Question persisted as evidence by Gramsci’s renowned article by that name in 1926. While the Fascists were not sympathetic to his communist analysis, they fully recognized the need to deal with the question. Traveling in Sicily in 1936, Jerre Mangione (“Mount Allegro”), albeit in anti-Fascist mocking tones, reports seeing Fascist public works projects and attempts to increase the efficiency of the train system, which was necessary for an efficient economy.
On June 2nd 1946Italy celebrated the birth of the Republic. The Fascist and the House of Savoy monarchy (that the Brigandage fought) were gone; but, not the Southern Question. In 1962, Luigi Barsini devoted a chapter in his book “The Italians”, to “the ancient and puzzling Problem del Mezzogiorno” (i.e. the Southern Question.)
In 1983 Nelson Moe (an American student in Perugia) on a train trip, indicated to a lady that he was going to Naples. Her reply: “Didn’t I know that this was a filthy, dangerous city, full of hucksters and thieves? Didn’t I know that the south was like Africa?” Her vehemence so stunned him and stimulated his interest that he eventually researched and wrote “The View from Vesuvius: Italian Culture and the Southern Question.” In 1998 interest in the question had not waned: CUNY anthropologist Jane Schneider published a multidiscipline anthology of essays “Italy’s ‘Southern Question.” In 2002 the scholarly interests continued with the publication of an extraordinary source document study; “Darkest Italy: The Nation and the Stereotypes of the Mezzogiorno, 1860-1900” by John Dickie.
Finally, this month two i-Italy bloggers placed the recent Italian election solidly in the Southern Question tradition:
“That the South is a serious drag on Italian economic performance in the context of the new Europe is no new revelation. Stefano Vaccara and I, in a study published in 1999 by Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, found that not only was the North-South gap dramatic, but that the trends were in the wrong direction, a situation that was largely masked in Brussels where most economic and social statistics are national statistics.” (Stanton H. Burnett April 11, 2008 “Understanding Italian Politics”)
“Most of the votes [Berlusconi] has gained come from the South of Italy, where unemployment and economic discomfort afflict a larger portion of the population…“the “Southern question” is still a big issue here in Italy. In effect I could easily affirm that it is gaining much more political relevance nowadays with unemployment growing in the South as many companies are closing…the Southern question is gaining renovated relevancy, so much that both Berlusconi and Veltroni have made of it one of the most important issues, if the not THE most important, of their electoral campaign…Berlusconi is seen as the answer to all southern problems. He promised to solve the garbage crisis in Naples, to put – once again – the Southern question at the top of his political agenda” (Marina Melchionda April 15, 2008 “Opinions on Italian Elections” –comment section)
In conclusion, no matter how proficient Americans of Italian descent become in Italian language conjugations and declensions, or how many trips they take to ancient and Renaissance Italian tourist sites, they will not know their heritage or be able to vote meaningfully in Italian elections unless and until they know and understand “The Southern Question.”
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just a little comment
First of all, it has been a real satisfaction for me to see that I really got you interested on the issue. In my opinion, it is of great importance that foreign people get to know how things are really going on in Italy. The new government will sensibly shape Southern Italy's future. No wonder the Ministry of Interiors and the Ministry of Institutional Reforms have been assigned to the Lega Party, which has obtained also the vice-presidency. Both Ministries are of strategic importance for those politicians willing to achieve the dramatic goal to enrich and empower Northern Italy, leaving the South behind (said in prose). What I really liked of your post is the reconstruction you made of the Italian reunification. I liked the fact that you used quotation marks when you described Garibaldi’s “liberation” of Southern Italy. Actually everything the kingdom of Sardinia did for Southern Italy in 1861 was extending their laws, their Parliament and the power of the King to the rest of the “boot”. As far as I know, that’s all. No economic or social improvement… those few ameliorations generally derived from the trickledown of the wealth of the North. So, no wonder they considered Garibaldi a colonizer. And it doesn’t surprise me that people in the South voted for monarchy in 1946. From the reunification to the instauration of the republic they felt they were subjected to impositions by people they looked at as foreigners. The North wanted the reunification because the kingdom needed to become stronger to be able to deal with the European powers “on a par”. Now, it wants to get read of it because it can challenge the goal of an internationally competitive economic performance. You see? 150 years ago the South didn’t want the North. Now it’s the exact opposite. Doesn’t it seem that Italians dislike each other? Somebody here in Italy says that Italians feel “Italians” only when it comes to soccer and they have to play against another nation’s team. At that real and only moment they lift up the national flag or maybe they hang it on their house’s balcony so that everybody can see that those walls host people who feel proud to be “Italian”. When the tournament ends, the flags go back in the garage. This is something that leaves me astonished, especially when I think that my grandparents there in the US have their “stars and stripes” on their front door 365 days a year! And not only them… Italians, instead –as I think I already told you – show their patriotism only abroad. Sad. Really sad.
Marina Melchionda
dice Red Pepper...
The British leftist online magazine Red Pepper has much interesting commentary on the elections.
http://www.redpepper.org.uk/article1225.html
Some say the fact that the opposition has been whittled down to Veltroni's Democrats is a good thing. But as the article at Red Pepper notes, the Democrats are a copy, or "brutta copia" of "New" Labour and its centrism.
Yes, but what is it that
Yes, but what is it that Italian Americans are supposed to learn from the "southern question" and how should that knowledge affect the votes of those IAs who also hold Italian citizenship? That those who are happy that the "psiconano" will return to power should realize that Berlusconi can't and won't deliver on his promises to the south, just as during his two previous stints as premier? That his dependence upon the virulently racist and anti-Mezzogiorno Lega Nord just might affect how the "centrodestra" addresses the problems of the south? That the return of Berlusconi and his corrupt and reactionary allies will mean the "lotta contro la mafia" will be stalled and, more likely,halted?
“I calls ‘em as I sees ‘em”
My fundamental epistemological/ontological assumption about the nature of social phenomena is that any manifestation at any point in time is the product of historic antecedents. Accordingly, rational decision making entails knowledge of those antecedents. I was stuck by Stanton Burnett’s and Marina Melchionda’s (whom I take to be highly informed observers of Italy) comments placing the current election and more generally the social conditions of Italy, as I said, “solidly in the 150 year Southern Question tradition”. /// I won’t presume to say “what an Italian American (or anyone else for that matter) is supposed to learn” or how they should vote. The social/historical lesson I draw is that the issues facing Italy generally and the South particularly will not be resolved by this or that particular politician or election. The problems associated with the Southern Question will persist no matter who wins the election! Its 150 year history demonstrates that unequivocally - Monarchs, Fascist, Communist, Christian Democrats; the list goes on and on. Similarly, your point about the mafia and why I choose the Bataglia picture to complement my piece. The mafia has been around for at least as long as the Southern Question. Berlusconi is irrelevant. Both will be here after he passes from this life. //// I think an analogy in the US is that no matter who wins the next election, the Iraq/Afghanistan war will continue. The historic/social antecedents that brought us that war are not going to be overridden by an election. The character of the war may change (e.g. more or less bombing) but the objectives will not change; similarly, trade policies that have virtually destroyed American heavy industry. //// In short, an historian cannot advise how to vote. S/he can only posit the probabilities that your vote will achieve its objective. The probability that the Iraq war will end or American trade policies will change is low. The probability that the Southern Question issues will be resolved is very much lower. What are the implications of that? I don't know! The model of an excellent historian to me is the proverbial umpire who said: “I calls ‘em as I sees ‘em”. //// Thank for your comment. Like Socrates, I believe that knowledge can only be attained through dialogue. Tom Verso