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Urbanities : Grecanici Migration to the City of Reggio Calabria, South Italy

2010; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 21; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/02757201003647141

1477-2612

Stavroula Pipyrou,

Italian Fascism and Post-war Society

Abstract This paper discusses degrees of urbanity or urbanities using ethnographic data from research conducted among the Grecanici communities in the city of Reggio Calabria, south Italy. Urbanization in south Italy is usually associated with social and territorial mobility, education and natural disasters. It is further discussed in terms of a rural/urban duality that masks rather than reveals possible diversities concerning the social life in the city and the links between rural and urban which in the urban environment follow different trajectories. Following the premise that the effects of urbanization cannot be homogenously felt by the actors, I follow the Grecanici migration to the city of Reggio Calabria in the decade of the 1950s in order to argue that urbanities are directly informed by factors such as kinship, neighbourhood identification, education and socio‐economic status. Keywords: MigrationUrbanityKinshipNeighbourhood IdentificationSouth Italy Notes [1] This paper needs to be understood in the context of a wider research that I undertook in Reggio Calabria within the Grecanici communities between April 2006 to April 2007 and two successive visits in 2008. [2] The Greek linguistic minority in Italy is comprised of two "Greek Islands", one in Calabria and one in Puglia, and is officially recognized by the Italian law (Law 482/1999). For the Greeks of Puglia, see Gruppo di Lecce (1979 Gruppo di Lecce. 1979. "Il caso Grecìa". In I Dialetti e le Lingue delle Minoranze di Fronte all'Italiano, Edited by: Albano Leoni, F. 343–403. Roma: Bulzoni. [Google Scholar]). [3] In other Italian ethnographic contexts, mentalità is discussed as a local attribute. For example White (1980 White, C. 1980. Patrons and Clients: A Study of Politics in Two Southern Italian, Cambridge: Comuni, Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]) notes that the mentalità—the way people think and behave—accounts for a collective disposition, whether good or bad. Mentalità in White's case is discussed at the communal level and the way people are "doing" politics. [4] Mass media as well as literary representations have contributed to people's accelerated desire to emigrate. See, for example, how America and other foreign lands are communicated to the masses through Perri's, Alvaro's and Levi's novels. These lands are the lands of promise where everything is fabulous and gigantic (Crupi 1979 Crupi, P. 1979. Letteratura ed Emigrazione, Reggio Calabria: Casa delLibro Editrice. [Google Scholar], Diamanti 1980 Diamanti, B. M. 1980. "L'emigrazione Calabrese in Perri". In L'emigrazione Calabrese dall'unità ad oggi, Edited by: Borzomati, P. 267–271. Roma: Centro Studi Emigrazione. [Google Scholar], Pane 1980 Pane, R. U. 1980. "L'esperienza degli emigrati calabresi negli Stati Uniti". In L'emigrazione Calabrese dall'unità ad oggi, Edited by: Borzomati, P. 273–293. Roma: Centro Studi Emigrazione. [Google Scholar]). In the film Nuovomondo (2007 2007. Nuovomondo (Golden Door), Optimum Home Entertainment. directed by E. Crialese [Google Scholar])—English translation 'Golden Door'—which tells the story of rural Sicilian migration to New York at the beginning of the twentieth century, a scene where the imminent migrants imagine the vegetables that grow in America as of gigantic proportions speaks volumes about the inflated image of the foreign lands in the minds of the peasants. [5] Mainly the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno, and the Opera Sila. In the four areas involved in the Opera Sila (the highlands of Sila, the Marchesato of Crotone, low Netto and Sibari and the hills of Sibari and Caulonia), representatives of diverse agrarian areas −75,000 hectares were disappropriated plus an additional 10,000 hectares acquired. From this there were created 19,000 new small properties allocated in their majority to braccianti (Cingari 1982 Cingari, G. 1982. Storia della Callabria dall'unità a oggi, Roma–Bari: Editori Laterza. [Google Scholar]: 344). The rest of the national territory was covered by the Stralcio law. [6] Umberto Zanotti Bianco (1889–1963) is considered one of the most important Meridionalists whose love for Calabria was renowned. Amongst other occupations, he was a senator, president of the National Association for the Interests of Mezzogiorno, as well as director of the journal Archivio storico per la Calabria e la Lucania. [7] Problemi idraulici ed agronomici della Calabria, Roma (1958 1958. "(Relazione della commissione costituita con decreto interministeriale 14 Novembre 1953 per lo studio dei problemi derivanti dal dissesto idro‐geologico dei corsi d'aqua della Calabria)". In Problemi idraulici ed agronomici della Calabria Roma [Google Scholar]: 64) (Relazione della commissione costituita con decreto interministeriale 14 Novembre 1953 per lo studio dei problemi derivanti dal dissesto idro‐geologico dei corsi d'aqua della Calabria). [8] Arlacchi (1980 Arlacchi, P. 1980. "Perché si emigrava dalla società contadina e non dal latifondo". In L'emigrazione Calabrese dall'unità ad oggi, Edited by: Borzomati, P. 157–169. Roma: Centro Studi Emigrazione. [Google Scholar]: 56) argues that the migrant needs a minimum amount of money in order to migrate and a network of people to contribute help in every case. Minicuci (1994 Minicuci, M. 1994. Qui e Altrove: famiglie di Calabria e di Argentina, Milano: Franco Angeli. [Google Scholar]: 57) partially agrees with Arlacchi's stance but she argues that the case does not follow the linearity (poverty equals inability/reluctance to migrate) that Arlacchi proposes. She maintains that Zaccanopolesi claim for themselves the miseria, yet this is not in absolute terms. Zaccanopolesi, even the poorest, prior to their departure for Buenos Aires were accustomed to practices of lending money with interest. The ticket for their travel was usually paid by the relatives who have "invited" them. [9] The term "paddhecho" derives from the Grecanico paddikàri (youth of pride, dash, full of life). In the course of time, the term has come to denote the uncouth, the vulgar and the stupid (Martino 1979 Martino, P. 1979. "L'isola grecanica dell'Aspromonte. Aspetti sociolinguistici". In I Dialetti e le Lingue delle Minoranze di Fronte all'Italiano, Edited by: Albano Leoni, F. 305–341. Roma: Bulzoni. [Google Scholar]: 323–324, Petropoulou 1997 Petropoulou, Ch. 1997. Mnimi, Syggeneia, Tautotita s'ena Ellinofono xorio tis Kalavrias (Galliciano), (Memory, Kinship, Identity in a Greek Speaking Calabrian Village [Galliciano]), Faculty of History and Archaeology, Department of Modern and Contemporary History, Folklore and Social Anthropology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Dissertation Thesis [Google Scholar]: 234). [10] Grecanici practices of endogamy favour first‐cousin—cross and parallel—unions as the safest ideological and economic solution. Briggs (1978 Briggs, J. W. 1978. An Italian Passage: Immigrants to Three American Cities, 1890–1930, London: Yale University Press. [Google Scholar]) notes that emigrants form Reggio Calabria to America (early twentieth century) tend to marry a person of their own origin. [11] This is a successful way of getting in touch with women who live at a distance and may not see them on a regular basis. These dense household‐based networks effectively connect households throughout the city (see also Uhl 1991 Uhl, S. 1991. "Forbidden friends: cultural veils of female friendship in Andalusia". American Ethnologist, 18(1): 90–105. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). [12] The attempt to create a sense of continuity between past and present conditions of residence has also been documented by Goddard. When the women—former residents of the bassi—moved with their families to the new suburbs of Naples, they aspired to recreate the conditions of the bassi for the creation of new social networks (Goddard 1996 Goddard, V. 1996. Gender, Family and Work in Naples, Oxford: Berg. [Google Scholar]: 75). In this case, networking is directly linked with creating spatio‐social relations. [13] Hirschon in her study in Kokkinia—an urban quarter in Piraeus—also accounts for the prevalence of specific regional characteristics in the construction of collective stereotypes (Hirschon 1998 Hirschon, R. 1998. Heirs of the Greek Catastrophe: The Social Life of Asia Minor Refugees in Piraeus, Oxford: Berghahn Books. [Google Scholar]: 68). [14] The case of Palio is a striking example of the issue of social organization and neighbourhood identification (Dundes & Falassi 1975 Dundes, A. and Falassi, A. 1975. La Terra in Piazza: An Interpretation of the Palio of Siena, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. [Google Scholar]).