Book Review
Romolo Menighetti e Franco Nicastro, History of Autonomous Sicily (1947-2001) New York/Ottawa: Legas 2001,
330 pages $18.00.
Book Review by Antonio Pagano
Arba Sicula and Legas, thanks to a close collaboration through the years through Gaetano Cipolla who heads both organizations, have been responsible for making available to American readers a number of books important to the understanding of the history of the island. The first book of the series entitled Sicilian Studies was Giuseppe Quatriglio’s A Thousand Years in Sicily: from the Arabs to the Bourbons, which has been a great success, with four Italian, two English editions and one in Japanese; Henry Barbera’s Medieval Sicily, also in its second edition, Connie Decaro’s Sicily the Trampled Paradise, Justin Vitiello’s Labyrinths and Volcanoes, Ben Morreale’s Sicily the Hallowed Land, as well as Calogero Messina’s Sicilians Wanted the Inquisition, which was not part of the series, because it used a different approach to history (A dialogue among three different fictional characters). Being familiar with all these volumes, it seems that Legas and Arba Sicula have covered practically all of Sicilian history. Naturally a few lacunae remain: while the ancient history of Sicily was treated by Connie DeCaro’s book, much still remains to be done in this area. And another area that has not been treated at all is the modern period, even though Justin Vitiello and Ben Morreale touch upon current events in their books. No historical account exists in English of the period that goes from the end of World War II to the present. I am not talking about Arba Sicula and Legas only. I am referring to the fact that no one has addressed the present-day Sicilian realities in a publication addressed to American or English-speaking people.
This large lacuna is about to be filled by the Arba Sicula-Legas partnership in the next couple of months, through the publication of History of Autonomous Sicily by Romolo Menighetti and Franco Nicastro. The book, which was published in 1999 in Italian with the title of Storia della Sicilia autonoma, covered the period from 1947 to 1996 and focused primarily on the political, economic and social events that followed the granting of the special Autonomous Statute to Sicily in 1946. As you know, Sicily is one of five of the twenty regions of Italy that has been granted a special Statute that gives it virtual autonomy in practically all areas of government, except naturally such areas as defense, foreign affairs and others that are the responsibility of the Italian state in Rome. To quell the movement for Sicilian independence from Italy, and in recognition of the different culture and traditions of Sicily, the Italian State granted wide powers to the Region through the special Statute, which was signed in 1947, even before the new republican Constitution of Italy in 1948. Thus Sicily was given its own legislative body known as the Sicilian Regional Assembly, which performs its duties and responsibilities as a decentralized local government. The Executive branch of Regional government consists of the President of the Region who has the primary responsibility of running the government. He does so with the help of a Cabinet, called a Council, which oversees the various departments of the government. Of the five semi-autonomous Regions, Sicily has the widest powers. In fact, Umberto Bossi, the leader of the Lombard League, who has been advocating a form of Federalism, would like the same kind of autonomy that Sicily enjoys for his own region Lombardy. In this issue of Arba Sicula, we are publishing the Sicilian Statute in its entirety in English and in a Sicilian translation. (Needless to say, Arba Sicula is making a statement by translating it into Sicilian. It is saying that the Statute should have been written in Sicilian to begin with).
The book by Menighetti and Nicastro is a scholarly reconstruction of the political battles that have been fought in the Sicilian political scene from 1947 to the present. In fact, while the Italian edition ended its narrative with the year 1996, the English edition has been brought up to date to the elections of 2001, which saw a triumph of the center- right parties headed by Berlusconi, currently Italian Minister. The authors analyze in depth not only the Sicilian political scene, but also the National Italian political setup and how the two have interacted through the years. Indeed, they show how Sicily was the proving ground for a number of political solutions –for example, the center-left coalition– that were to guide Italian politics for many years.
This book is the most comprehensive overview of the Sicilian political, economic and social scene, written from an independent and objective point of view. It is a most courageous and even outspoken book that calls “a spade a spade,” without mincing words and soft-pedaling criticism. The authors are not sparing in their criticism of Sicilian politicians who did not do enough to safeguard the statute, who have stood by while the central powers in Rome intruded upon local prerogatives, who often behaved for the betterment of their own political and even financial positions instead of placing the needs of the collectivity first, and who were not equal to the opportunity given to them to bring Sicily out of its millenary backwardness. Inept politicians are not the only ones to bear the brunt of criticism: the actions of the Sicilian entrepreneurs who lacked the culture of risk-taking, the large landowners who resisted land reform, the hierarchy of the Sicilian Church (in the person of Cardinal Ruffini) that failed to combat the Mafia presence, and even the Sicilian society which preferred to complain about things without taking the initiative to improve its own conditions. The authors found that the Autonomy Statute which held out such high promises for bringing Sicily into the 20th century has been watered down through the interference of the State bureaucracy and the central powers in Rome to the extent that Sicilians themselves are disillusioned by it and see no need for it. Sicilians, faced with the many failures of their own politicians to address some of their most pressing needs, have come to regard the Statute as a hindrance to the improvement of their lot. But, the book is not an account of the failures of the Sicilian politicians to harness the Statute in the most effective way. The authors recognize and give credit to those leaders whose idealism and determination made it possible for the Sicilian people to enjoy a level of prosperity that had been unthinkable barely fifty years ago. Indeed, Sicilian Autonomy, the massive financial help that flowed into Sicily after the war, and the many projects undertaken to reshape Sicily have brought a radical transformation of Sicilian society for the better. Needless to say, much more needs to be done to bring it to t he level of the rest of Italy and Europe.
While a brief review of this kind can only hint at some of the topics covered, we can say that this book has earned a place in the library of those who have an interest in Sicily. If you want to know what modern Sicily is, how it works, how the people live and how they govern themselves you must have this book. For its honesty and frankness, for its courage and impartial thinking, it is a most important contribution to our understanding of our island.
A word or two about the translation. Although professor Gaetano Cipolla is certainly no novice in the art of translation, as the readers of Arba Sicula know, I can say that he has outdone himself in this book. His rendition of a text that is very demanding is equal to the task. Indeed, I may go a bit farther. I think that he, being aware that English-speakers like a more direct approach, replaced the Ciceronian style of writing present in the original with a more accessible easy-flowing prose that removes the complexities of Italian and Sicilian politics.
You may place your order now and the book will be mailed as soon as it becomes available. Expected in late October/November 2001.