Calabria with Love

By Gianni Callari

In 1927, in a town deep within the Calabrian mountains, an oppressed and isolated family lives under the tyranny of a violent baron who wants to subdue and recruit the brothers Pietro and Ferruccio by any means possible. When the brothers reject his offer, the enraged baron exacts his revenge on the family in a brutal attackon their children. He attempts to kill Ferruccios toddler son, Nicola, and forcefully adopts Pietros now-orphaned four-year-old niece, Carmen. As astute as he is dangerous, Pietronow calling himself Zioneinsinuates himself into the barons inner circle, waiting for the perfect moment to exact his own revenge.

Years pass, and the world is at war. Ferruccio returns from the horrors of the Russian Front with a frostbitten foot, only to find there are battles to be won at home as well. Nicola, now a man, is engaged to Carmen, who carries his child. But the baron forbids his adopted daughter to marry. Under threat of death, Nicola flees to Miami. There he seeks protection and help from a local boss. Back in Italy, Carmen gives birth to their child before joining Nicola in Florida, in the hopes of starting a new life in the New World. Together they open an Italian restaurant and try to find happiness so far from home.

They will never forget the Great Sila, the viddanedda, the beech forest, the fountains, and the procession of Santa Caterina. They will always remember their lost Calabria with love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jun 13, 2012
• ISBN: 9781475928617

Gianni Callari

Gianni Callari Writer, Screenplayer Visual Artist, Painter www.giannicallari.jimdo.com Massimiliano Callari Photographer, President of DIAphRAMMA Cultural Association www.diaphrammaphotography.org

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Copyright © 2012 Giovanni (Gianni) Callari and Raffaele Zuccarelli

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Certain characters in this work are historical figures, and certain events portrayed did take place. However, this is a work of fiction. All of the other characters, names, and events as well as all places, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. If there are only a few historical figures or actual events in the novel, the disclaimer could name them.

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The 6 internal photos are designed and made by the photographer Max Callari, which has allowed the authors to publish.

The photo of the cover is by unknown author and the landscape without people is of public domain.

ISBN: 978-1-4759-2859-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-2860-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-2861-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012910259

To …

Her name begins with A and ends with a.

Only she knows.

Contents

Introduction

  I

  II

III

IV

  V

VI

VII

VIII

IX

  X

XI

XII

XIII

XIV

XV

XVI

XVII

XVIII

XIX

XX

XXI

XXII

XXIII

XXIV

XXV

XXVI

Conclusion

Images

Biography of Author Images

Biography of Authors

Endnotes

Introduction

Throughout my life I have had the chance to meet many people of Calabrian origin, from an elementary school teacher, to the colleagues of my father’s ministry, to the co-workers in public office, to doctors, lawyers, merchants, businessmen, artisans and acquaintances.

I have never been more amazed than when a friend introduced me to Ralph, another Calabrian.

The strange thing was that the friend who introduced us was Piedmontese. I found the true story Ralph told to be interesting, and I thought of writing a novel inspired by those facts, a historical novel spanning the mid-1920s to the end of the 1940s.

It would be a story easily adapted to cinematographic production insofar as content, characters, and the space-time setting.

In writing a novel set in the Calabrian tradition, I found it important to continue my interest in researching and understanding of this culture and its history, and to always be mindful of the precious reminder of Dante’s Ulysses to follow virtue and knowledge.

Ever since school, I have been interested in the study of ancient Greece: the philosophy, the tragedies that deal with all human feelings, Homer, the storyteller ante litteram, and the culture exported to the Greek colonies of Sicily and Magna Graecia, which over the centuries have developed into the great civilizations of southern Italy.

Calabria With Love

This is the saga of a fictional family from Calabria, so the truths are interwoven with fictions.

The theme of the story is arrogance, oppression of others, and tyranny. Harsh conditions trigger reactions and chain reactions, feuds, and human tragedies.

Such shameful events can occur anywhere and anytime when there is a greedy and arrogant man, who for the lust of power tramples on the principles of freedoms of others.

We are in the third millennium, but the world’s civilizations have not yet progressed in teaching respect for others in a precise concept of freedom.

Freedom is not without boundaries but ends where other people’s freedoms begin.

  I

Over the centuries, mankind has suffered virulent and deadly epidemics, endemic and pernicious diseases, and faced environmental catastrophes and cataclysms, and scourges caused by natural events. And when these problems were lacking, man has filled the void with his own wickedness and destructiveness, committing crimes, massacres, holocausts, persecutions, deportations, and other ignoble events throughout the course of history.

World history, with the opportunity for reflection and repentance, has told mankind of these atrocities committed by man against his fellow man, involving the entire community.

Heinous characters throughout the ages have afflicted entire populations.

Then there are occurrences of personal violence for motives of envy, jealousy, arrogance, threatening individuals and impacting his everyday life, the tranquility of his family, his customs, and his serenity at work. The tyrant, the bully, takes aim at this person, sometimes someone in his own family, and becomes the persecutor and the torturer, imposing harassment and vexation. These events, those that involve man as an individual, are not recorded in world history books which report the actions of nations; rather they are told through stories, novellas and romantic novels.

These despicable acts can happen anywhere, in any given place, and are dependent on particular economic conditions, specific social situations, and historical moments, those combinations of elements that set the stage for these things to happen.

The strength of a despot is not absolute but is related to the momentary weakness of the opponent and of the social context.

It is hard to react because the lack of economic means impedes our fighting or escaping, and because of indifference and fear, no one intervenes to defend us or bring valuable aid.

This family saga tells of the struggle against the abuses of an arrogant baron, but the message must extend to all arrogance, bullying and violence, and to the sacred struggle against those bullies who exploit their social position, abuse power, offend women, blackmail others, and benefit from other people’s difficult situations.

When a tyrant’s arrogance and violence takes away others’ freedom and conditions their lives to exasperation, causes anger, hatred and the strong craving for human revenge.

Revenge is mine, thunders God in the book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament, but it is also written that if a man hates his neighbor, assaults him, and beats him, the elders will deliver him into the hands of the avenger to be put to death.

Revenge is not on the list of the capital sins. It may be the eighth sin, or it may be the daughter of wrath.

Man, as a human being, cannot bear this overwhelming weight forever.

  II

The Great Sila, Calabria.

Here is an uncontaminated territory where extensive flat land dips into valleys and plains with radiant forest vegetation.

Beech, oak, chestnut and pine trees provide a particular wood used by the ancient Romans to build the shells of ships.

The area, seen from above, looks like a huge crater formed by volcanic mountains, the highest peaks arranged along the circumference, one next to the other.

The climate of the plateau is characterized by extensive and thick snowfall in the winter season and clear skies in the summertime. This steep and rugged terrain is crossed by cold, clear streams, their courses interrupted by steep waterfalls, which over time have been carved by erosion into deep caves used for hideaway and refuges by the bandits who for years have infested the territory with their feared gangs.

This is the natural habitat of wild boars and ravenous wolves, an area over-flown by the adorno, the rapacious hawk who is always on the hunt for his prey.

Artificial lakes occupy a large portion of the territory, a land of contrasts, with features of alpine scenery, yet a hot southern land lying stretched between two seas.

The prominent and hilly land is rich with olive groves, citrus orchards, and vineyards.

Breaking the magical silence of the pastures is the bleating of flocks of sheep, the bellowing of cows, and the stamping and neighing of horses.

In ancient times the territory was colonized by the Greeks then later inhabited by the people of Bruzio, then conquered by the Romans and dominated by the Byzantines, who were succeeded by the Arabs, the Normans, the Angevins, the Aragonese, the Spanish and Bourbons, and finally by the Italian Kingdom.

1927

This region, as with all of Southern Italy, rages with disease, poverty, ignorance, heavy economic hardship, and episodes of rampage as well as true acts of banditry such as robbery and extortion, a plague that the South inherited from the previous century, not yet healed. The brigands have often disguised their crimes by participating in patriotic uprisings, encouraging political movements, fomenting riots, and riding social unrest against rulers to such an extent that they are considered heroes by unwary townspeople. Some brigands have even become a symbol against social injustice; their lives have become legends told in folk songs, when in fact they were only outlaws who committed theft and murder.

The particular layout of