I asked my music mentor one day, what he believed united us as Italians.
I was curious about his answer. I had my own ideas, ideas I still have a tough time putting in writing. Italy is an extremely young nation. We became a nation only in 1861–without Rome as capital. Rome was annexed in 1870–becoming, for the most part, the land we see as Italy today. The widespread use of Italian as a language is even more recent: the 1950s, thanks to the TV. Until then, Italian was spoken only in intellectual circles and elites. As I’m from a lineage of farmers, my parents were the first generation to learn Italian and leave the farm, too. They too, went hand in hand. Their parents sent them to school so they could leave the farm. While school was mandatory by then, it was still in great part a choice, as many farm families would still not send their children without repercussions.
In absence of a common language, it’s hard to speak of one, Italian culture. Places are marked by their local languages–called dialects now, but were once the language of smaller nations that made up Italy. Even today, lexicon among dialects vary even across towns barely 3 miles apart yet we can understand each other, mostly, within each 50-mile radius. Because language is such an important part of culture, and our dialects are still very alive today. My sociological stance (and not mine alone) is that talking about Italian culture as one–is extremely difficult, and problematic. Some sociologists say we never truly have had a national identity because the early birth of Socialist Party in 1892 and the Cold-War politics of the 50s truncated crucial moments in its development: we went from belonging to villages and neighborhoods, to political parties, never really identifying with our nation.
So I was curious what my mentor would say. He has traveled across the country more than most people I know and his passion for reading, folk music, and all music makes him a connoisseur more than most. “I hate to say it,” he answered, “What unites us boils down to our culture of food and wine.” I may have added soccer to the shortlist, but overall, I agree with him.
If it’s tough to speak of a national culture, it’s only slightly easier to speak of Southern Italian culture. A big factor can be added to the list: oppression. All of Italy had been invaded repeatedly over the centuries, Vandals, Visigotes, French, Spanish, you name it. What really splits Southern Italy from the North is that, when Italy became a nation in 1861, for the North it felt like freedom as the Northern State of Piemonte expanded its supposedly progressive monarchy to the rest of the newly formed country. For the South, it felt like yet another occupation . Many in the South, still feel occupied today: politicians are the new occupiers. While there are politicians born and raised in the South of course, for most of us–except the selected few who get their favors granted–they don’t really belong to “us,” nor represent us. Many of us have the perception that once they join politics, they join a national game born and intended to keep us struggling.
So, Southern Italy has a vast, vast tradition of protest songs.
Here’s one on the French Occupation of 1799: Canto dei Sanfedisti–the video has English lyrics, too.
Here’s one from the guerrilla protests to Italy becoming a nation in 1861 (which Southern Italy saw as an occupation) Lyrics and some history.
And another from that same timeframe: Vulesse addiventare with English lyrics here.
Enjoy!