Seeking Sicily: A Cultural Journey Through Myth and Reality in the Heart of the Mediterranean
John Keahey
Language: English
Pages: 336
ISBN: 0312597053
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
"Keahey's exploration of this misunderstood island offers a much-needed look at a much-maligned land."―Paul Paolicelli, author of Under the Southern Sun
Sicily is the Mediterranean's largest and most mysterious island. Its people, for three thousand years under the thumb of one invader after another, hold tightly onto a culture so unique that they remain emotionally and culturally distinct, viewing themselves first as Sicilians, not Italians. Many of these islanders, carrying considerable DNA from Arab and Muslim ancestors who ruled for 250 years and integrated vast numbers of settlers from the continent just ninety miles to the south, say proudly that Sicily is located north of Africa, not south of Italy.
Seeking Sicily explores what lies behind the soul of the island's inhabitants. It touches on history, archaeology, food, the Mafia, and politics and looks to nineteenth- and twentieth-century Sicilian authors to plumb the islanders' so-called Sicilitudine. This "culture apart" is best exemplified by the writings of one of Sicily's greatest writers, Leonardo Sciascia. Seeking Sicily also looks to contemporary Sicilians who have never shaken off the influences of their forbearers, who believed in the ancient gods and goddesses.
Author John Keahey is not content to let images from the island's overly touristed villages carry the story. Starting in Palermo, he journeyed to such places as Arab-founded Scopello on the west coast, the Greek ruins of Selinunte on the southwest, and Sciascia's ancestral village of Racalmuto in the south, where he experienced unique, local festivals. He spent Easter Week in Enna at the island's center, witnessing surreal processions that date back to Spanish rule. And he learned about Sicilian cuisine in Spanish Baroque Noto and Greek Siracusa in the southeast, and met elderly, retired fishermen in the tiny east-coast fishing village of Aci Trezza, home of the mythical Cyclops and immortalized by Luchino Visconti's mid-1940s film masterpiece, La terra trema. He walked near the summit of Etna, Europe's largest and most active volcano, studied the mountain's role in creating this island, and looked out over the expanse of the Ionian Sea, marveling at the three millennia of myths and history that forged Sicily into what it is today.
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Appearances over the twenty-four-hour period of festivities, there weren’t even any visitors from surrounding towns; they likely had their own festivals to attend. Also, I was curious about why Racalmuto’s festivities are kicked off with what appears to be a unique element: It begins the night before, on March 18, with a huge falò, or bonfire. Traditionally, friends familiar with the event said, the fire consumed old furniture discarded by villagers. But a few villagers I asked about its.
Egg-white concoctions. He adds, proudly, that he does not use anything “industrial” in the making of his pastries, pointing out that Noto is known for its artisan pastry tradition. He is not about to break with that tradition. * * * When Muslim rulers displaced the Greek Byzantines in the late ninth century, they reversed the Roman and Byzantine practice of amassing large swaths of land by breaking up the latifundia, or expansive estates. Smaller parcels were handed out to the Muslim.
1950s counterparts. We can’t escape it; it is a grinding reality, and it’s one of the images that most visitors carry home, along with memories of the art, the food, the passion, and the soul exhibited by Italians, Sicilians, and Calabrese. I, for one, occasionally dart into the calming, cooling climes of a nearby church to get respite from the clamor. * * * Palermo is a rough-appearing place. That doesn’t mean one should feel unsafe here; I never did. It’s more of a visual thing. Palermo’s.
Giuliano reportedly had written a letter to President Harry S. Truman asking that the United States annex Sicily much as it had done with Puerto Rico. I don’t know if Truman responded. The reality of what happened here may be deeply embedded in the failed separatist movement that was so strong immediately following the war. Giuliano, at war’s end, was made a colonel in the separatist militia. What likely happened was that when he was no longer needed—the separatist movement essentially died when.
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