What It Means To Be A Sicilian?

What It Means To Be A Sicilian?

You really cannot tell what a sicilian is because when you think that you have already found the key to understanding Sicilian something else pops up and the whole thing falls apart so if you do this in Sicily you you your life is in Jey we’re going to talk about Sicilian

Humor traka why is it a symbol of Sicily and is Sicily really an autonomous region plus the art of communicating with the eyes and the hands in Sicily you know what I’m talking about all that and much more with Professor amerus Gano Chipola he’s always such a wealth of information so

Enjoy Professor Gano chipa so great to have you back on we had so many people tell us they wanted you back after the last video so it is truly an honor to have you again we had a great conversation on a a plethora of topics

And we will do the same again well I’m glad to be back I am also glad that so many people are interested in hearing about CC I want to talk to you about something that is based very basic Sicily and that is the traca because many years ago when I

Interviewed you you gave me a version of the origins of the tacd that I still to this day use not only in our videos but also on tours and I know you know everyone has a version of their story the kakia and for those of you who don’t

Know that’s the three-legged uh lady with the Medusa in the in the middle and you know one Legend says that it is for the three ports of Sicily the three angles because of the way the island um is shaped but you told me a fascinating story about when the Greeks came and

When they no longer considered themselves Greek but consider considered themselves Sicilian they did what when the Spartans came to Sicily uh they had a shield which had basically an image of a leg an L the letter L which stands for Lon which is another word for Spartan and

Lon looked like a a a leg standing like this sideways and when they actually became Sicilian and when they became Sicilian when they thought they they were no longer Greeks in the sense they had allegiance to the Home Country and they were now they wanted to show allegiance to Sicily they

Added two more legs uh to the shield that uh it it looked like a three three legs three running legs uh which can be seen differently by different people so most people say that it’s actually the Three Capes that end at the end of each

Uh corner of the island Capo Lio in the west Capo pasero uh in the South and and the other near missina other people actually think uh that it is a symbol of time or of the of the god Bal for example the running of time the

Whole idea of time but it’s it’s one of the most ancient symbols of Sicily I think it’s very notable to think that the Greeks came and they thought sis was beautiful of course they ran out of space some say they ran out of space in uh Greece and that’s why they came you

Know they came to the island of the sunia which is Greek island of and they fell in love so much with Sicily that not only not only they build more temples than more you know they’re more Greek WS than na but they so fell in love with Sicily that they actually

Became a different people they wanted to distinguish themselves that is so telling about the Greeks and Sicily well yes this is the Greeks uh came uh not as conquerors as most of the other people who have come to Sicily they came to colonize they came because they needed more space uh they needed

More Independence they needed to create a new life for themselves and they had heard about the beauty of Sicily uh from all the sailors who had C circumnavigated the island uh and Sicily at that time was basically a different land from what it is today it was full

Of uh vegetation it was uh fertile full of trees uh and one thing that you will never probably never understand is that Sicily had navigable Rivers if you go there now you will find maybe maybe the Cato has a lot of water those ancient times because there was a a rich

Vegetation uh which was later cut down by the Romans to to make room for their plantations uh which destroyed basically the climate um and the water ran out H but the whole idea that the Sicily had navigable Rivers is in itself uh a notable thing uh so you can imagine that

For the Greeks who whose land is kind of barren in the sense that it you know it’s not exactly as luscious as Sicily uh so for them it was like a Promised Land the the promised land which they came to to colonize and to remain so

That basically at a certain point at a certain point of their stay in Sicily they became Sicilian they called each other celot celotti and celotti is uh a different uh it it denotes the place of of where you where you live actually the the ending of uh the

Ending simply says that you belong to that place so Greeks became celot I can tell you one quote going back all the way down to the fourth Century before Christ by hermocrates hermocrates was a leader of sakuza and sakuza was having some different difficulties with Athens there

Was a war going on and there was a congress uh held by hermocrates at which point he said there’s one thing that you have to remember because he was trying to to get all the Sicilians to be on the same side to unite against the foreign enemy The

Invader and so he said to them to all the other Greeks they were originally Greeks he said we are neither Dorian neither or ionians we are Sicilians fourth Century before Creek fourth Century before Christ fourth Century before Christ that that was the birth of the nation of Sicily fourth in the fourth Century

Before Christ the Greeks arrived at 7:34 before Christ to jardini Nexus but I think it’s important for people to know also that there were the indigenous people there were the SE the seel and the lians who came about 900 before not indigenous in that sense because they came from Turkey different places modern

Day yeah from Modern Day turkey and they ped over there last time we spoke about the unification and what effect that had the unification of Italy and what effect that had on Sicily I want to talk to you about post World War II and Sicily Sicily and Sardinia being promas

Autonomy after Italy voted for Republic of course it was a monarchy after World War II the people had a choice to vote for a republic or to vote for a monarchy and they voted uh to form a republic that’s why Italy right now is a republic

And in that there was a decision to make Sicily autonomous what do you think that was a good idea and are we truly autonomous how do you see the subject well uh of course of course CC was given uh the was Sicily was the first region

Of Italy to to have what we call a special statute uh of independ of semi-autonomy uh and it was given primarily because CC uh had uh intentions or had tried basic basally uh before the war and and even during the war tried to actually separate from

S from Italy uh and become you would never believe it but they wanted to become the F 50th state of the United States they wanted to become American but of course that would not uh fly very well uh didn’t fly very well for the Russians for example who immediately

Sent their foreign foreign minister to complain uh because giving Sicily to America would be that America would be in charge of the Mediterranean it would be like the major power there so in order to assuage in order to in somehow uh take off the pressure uh of the from

The Italian government because CC wanted to secede and become independent uh there was a whole uh movement for Sicilian independ Independence Sicilians have had this kind of belief that they are a a people apart from from the rest of Italy they have had a history of

Their own they have a 3,000 year history they have been a kingdom which ruled basically that part of the Mediterranean under Roger II for example under Roger second in the 12th century Sicily controlled most of the Mediterranean on for example Genoa and Venice were pushed up north and everything that was

South of Sicily belonged in a way to Sicily because if if for example a ship from Turkey wanted to cross the what we call the canal the cilia the Sicilian Canal which is the space the Mediterranean between Sicily and Africa they had to pay duty to Roger II and

Roger II became very wealthy uh from that in in fact one of the one of the books that I I was reading the other day it said basically that Roger II made so much income from that more than the Normans made from the whole island of of England so they they controlled the

Mediterranean Sea from south of the Mediterranean Sea the genoves and the peans control let’s say the terranean sea Venice was stuck basically in the Adriatic Sea and couldn’t go anywhere but Sicily control all of the southern part of South of the Mediterranean all the way down to

Coru uh the island of kfu in Greece and northern part of the Mediterranean lands belonged to Sicily uh Malta was was um uh so they always felt this this autonomous feeling from other parts of Italy let’s say Naples North Naples North from labors North because at one

Point s Sicily became also part of the the kingdom of the two c but but that was part that that was happened in 1816 when the when the king of Naples and the king of Sicily became one person in one form basically the kingdom of the two

Sicilies with the capital in in in Naples and they would send you know a vice Roy to Sicily to govern Sicily which like because they always like to have their own King and that that takes me all the all the way back to the history of Sicily because at one point two sicilies

Existed after after the uh Vespers revolution in 1282 when the French were chased out of Sicily all of them were chased out of Sicily and they went to Naples and and the two kingdoms were actually split uh one was the kingdom of Sicily with capital in Naples you believe it or not

In Naples and the other one is the kingdom of trinacria because they couldn’t have two Sicily done at one so the kingdom of Sicily uh was called Kingdom of trinacria to differentiated from the kingdom of n of the northern part of of the mainland in from Calabria

All the way up to to to Naples so they had the two kingdoms and then eventually they became the kingdom of the two sicilies with capital still in Naples and that’s when basically galdi in 1860 came and they conquered Sicily first and then they conquered the second part and we became all

Italians and so today we’re supposed to be an autonomous Island yes and I can tell you that during covid I saw great struggles and um we’ll we’ll call them budding heads between the national government and the president of um Sicily the Prime Minister back then was JPI and it was

Nello muami at one point even nello muami sent a letter there was some disagreement about the color of the zone or so forth and he sent the public letter to uh the Prime Minister saying I want to remind you that we are an autonomous Island and that we can make

This decision on our own and of course the national government had nothing to do with it but it was the first time that I actually heard an official pulled that card well uh they should have pulled it more often uh they should put more more often because Sicily you may know that Sicily

Was was has or has had the oldest parliament in Europe the oldest parliament in Europe if you go to the parliament room in palmo at the Royal Palace you will see two dates one is 11:31 right on top of the president’s chair of the parliament you see Norman Castle uh one says

1131 which identifies the first time that the Sicilian Parliament met and the next one is 1947 or 46 is 46 46 is when Sicily was given the statute the semi-autonomous statute that is the first of the five because C Italy has five different statues of special statutes of autonomy

But sic was the first as I explained before because they were afraid uh they were afraid that Sicily may want to be an American state so they they try to pacify them uh by giving them this kind of thing and it Italy pays Sicily uh money uh on that account to

Make up for what they have taken out of Sicily what what they took out of Sicily when you mean sort of like reparations reparation op ation yes uh they are paying every year they’re paying something but in in it Essence to answer your question cicilian has a a

Semi-autonomous statute but it is really not uh how would I say not exercised as well as they should uh everything that happens in sic somehow has to be approved uh by Roman by the Roman uh Parliament so it is a mist of opportunities but it paysage to the idea that Sicilians wanted to

Be independent wanted to make a a try to to become an independent nation because Sicily is a very rich country very rich it’s very fertile sometimes trees lemons have if you let lemons uh without touching them they produce fruit four times a year uh and then sometimes the oranges the

Same thing but sometimes the parliament in Rome makes agreements that do not necessarily favor the Sicilian economy let’s talk about that let’s talk about that let’s talk about that and the fact that there aren’t enough workers to first of all they’re not get it’s not worth a lot of their uh whatever pay

That they’re getting and a lot of the lemons as you know are left on the trees the trees a crime it’s it’s a crime because they uh Sicily buys oranges from Israel uh Sicily in the marketplace they they buy oranges from Spain when we have uh thousands of ectors Acres uh at

At with with Groves orange groves and Sicily has special kind of of oranges that nobody else can grow it’s CIS has what we call the uh the red red red Toco the tacco the blood oranges yes the orange the red oranges which are unique in every every country in the world has

Tried to duplicate uh those they implant they kind of planted those trees elsewhere but nothing ever happens exactly as they do in Sicily there’s been Studies have been made uh University of katania for example made a a a study of what actually uh is contained inside the red oranges and by

The the different mixtures of climate uh temperature humidity Sun uh that is that very special grow is unique in Sicily and is not duplicated cannot be duplicated anywhere else even though they have tried to actually make uh or red oranges blood oranges elsewhere but they don’t taste the same and they don’t

Have the same quality and so what do you think is going on there but because it’s not just the oranges not just the lemons it’s a whole system of the economy that is not favored that is not encouraged we can go back to actually uh to when Sicily

Became part of Italy because at that point I think I may have said this last time I talked to you and basically I make uh the book The by Jano makes very pointed uh remarks about how Sicilian economy was actually destroyed by becoming uh Italian all the industries were destroyed all the

Investments were uh stopped uh all theolen because for some reason the the new government the the new government of of the kingdom of the new monarchy uh made the decision that somehow if they favored the industries in the north they would be closer to the northern Europe and then they could export them

Better but at at the same time they made a conscious uh attempt conscious policy decision which favored the North and this destroyed basically the economy of the South reducing it to only a country that needs all of these things from elsewhere if you’re enjoying this type of content consider subscribing to our

Channel believe it or not it really does help or even becoming a Community member for $1.99 a month less than a cup of coffee at least in the United States you help this channel just hit the join button down below it’ll take you to how you can help us

Gra I want to ask you how the Sicilian language has changed now before I let you answer that I also want to bring into this discussion the whole idea that there are dialects of sic and when I say dialect Sicilian is not a dialect but in Kat they speak a different Sicilian that

They do in Palo I can’t understand what they say in Palma or other parts and also bring to discussion the fact that there were places like Tiana de Alan that the people from um Alban who came here in the there in the 1500s and spoke Albanian and so you go up there

It’s so interesting you have the Albanian the Italian and the Sicilian all in all of the sign so language the the the variety of languages I mean when I think about it also going back to when the Arabs were in Sicily and they spoke Arabic the languages that were spoken in

That small land throughout the Millennia it’s fascinating mind-blowing to think about it when I started thinking about writing a grammar of Sicilian a textbook to learn Sicilian some of my colleagues uh would ask me which Sicilian are you going to teach which Sicilian are you going to teach and I was always taken

Back because I didn’t I didn’t think that Sicilian uh was more than one language basically uh we Sicilian has been codified as having hundreds of different uh variations of it you go from one town to the next uh you will find different words and and uh you’re taken back but

That’s part of the wealth of of the language itself and I wrote the first book and then I I try to explain to them that Sicilian basically is one language which has different uh versions of it differents of it but it is basically basically the same language everywhere in fact the only difference

Between the various languages that are spoken you say in in in the southern part of of Sicily or in the western part of Sicily and Kat mesina ragua agento all all the differences are only in the spoken language the actual written language that poets use is the

Same everywhere now I wrote the first book which has done very well but I wrote the second book and the second book is called learn Sicilian 2 and because it is a very special book that is unique because except except if you are a linguist uh and you belong to the theolog

Andis which I do uh it’s done the differences are known only to the Specialists my book actually gives the uh parameters of the differences between the various the main the main uh languages that are spoken in Sicily uh M ragano there’s 10 of them 10 major de

And I gave the rules for understanding not not to learn because you really don’t want to learn say ragusano or or you don’t want to learn palano only you want to learn Sicilian so but you need to try to understand so basically I gave the rules for each of the 10 variants

Within the Sicilian language there for I give you some examples the word Morty death all right death the word Mor Sicilian word is Morty with an r m o r TI if you go to Kat that word will be pronounced miti two T’s the RT become

Two T’s if you go to palmo that word Mor becomes you hear the difference uh if you go uh p word for door p in Kat they will say p in say yeah if you go the word if you say the word for key in Sicily in most places

The word will be say kavi kavi kav if you happen to go to ruza or in the Moda area in Noto in RZA Noto commo they will not say kavi they would say Chavi that’s quite a difference it’s yes quite a difference the word for Bella

Right Bella is bed bed has the kinal sound of of uh that is unique to Sicilian some part of the of the Mediterranean but if you say fam Fam Family fam in most places in Sicily they will say fam where the G is double G followed by h a fam double g h

A famia but in other places near agent for example they will not say fam they would say like Italian you understand many years ago I remember a sitting and and we have this book in our house that you wrote It’s called what it means to be a sicilian and I remember reading it

Professor chiping going oh that’s why Alfred’s like that oh that’s why he said that book and so I want to ask you in the few minutes to describe what it means to be a sicilian now I just want to make sure that people know that you were born in

Sicily and came to the United States at a young age um so you grew up in the United States but from your standpoint what does it mean to be a San you really cannot tell what a sicilian is because when you think that you have already found the key to understanding Sicilian

Something else pops up and the whole thing falls apart so Sicilians are very complex complex individuals uh I can tell you what I what the little book uh says it’s only 32 Pages it’s really uh very Compact and it tells the characteristics uh of Sicilian people uh their love for

The family the love for their for the mother the mother is usually considered like the center of of the universe for Sicilians uh their love of work suspicious suspicious of authorities yes one when you just said before about the fact that now you UND after reading

The book I I I’ve received a number of of people’s letters uh saying something like that in fact one one person who became a member of albas and received what makes a sicilian finally wrote to me at the end of after reading it he said ah now she’s she was American she

Was an American person who had married a sicilian and she said ah now I understand my husband uh so so it must have touched some some uh some key points that everybody would associate with cilian in the in the little book I actually start with uh

Start one of one of the points of Departures for the little book is a is a a quote from uh cisero who said that Sicilians are very intelligent people who have a a very acute sense of uh of humor uh and they are somewhat suspicious so I address the three points

Uh first the intelligence of of Sicilians people thing there is no joke there are no jokes about Sicilian intelligence everybody knows that Sicilians are sharp uh they are up up on everything so Sicilian intelligence and Sicilians have a way of actually uh talking without using

Words uh by by eyes I Remember by eyes and by the eyes tell the secrets of of Sicilian my father I recall my father for example whenever he at the dinner table he wanted something from the table instead of asking instead of asking for the water or the wine he would just look

At he would just look it would be a twitch without a word being spoken my mother knew exactly what he wanted so they I think I heard a familiar H story from Alfred’s parent Alfred and his parents that he noticed that happened at the he just had a look he just had a

Look and she knew see and then of course you have the hands you know you have all that in in one of the books I actually have a whole whole chapter on Sicilians speaking with their hands and speaking uh in code basically they speak in code that Sicilians understand without saying

A word so sometimes what Sicilians say what Sicilians do not say is more important than what they actually say but they but what they say with their eyes or their expression uh is more important so I expand uh on the sense of humor for example uh I wrote an article once uh

Asking the question do Sicilians have a sense of humor and the answer is uh yes they do have a sense of humor but in America most people think that Sicilians are Dow face always with their mouth hanging down there if you watch the the movies of The Godfather for example the only

Time uh the protagonists the marando and alpacino uh alpachino smile they never smile they they have no the only time that there was a laughter uh from The Godfather was when he tried to I don’t know if you remember that scene when he was in his garden and he

Put fake orange teeth to scare his Grand child do you recall that scene yeah and he did that he laughed and that was the only time he left and he dropped dead right there that’s right that’s right so humor is not the same it’s a special type of humor a special type of

Humor it is it is uh a pelian kind of humor that re goes back in turns on itself turns on itself I can tell you the story of of one one scene that I was actually I got this this little anecdote from an article that appeared in National

Geographic about someone who had gone to Sicily and was describing was describing Bas the the traffic jams that are are normal in pal and there were the traffic jam there were caused not moving anywhere and people were there and there was a woman next to a guy in a car

Driven by a guy who kept honking her horn honking horn finally the man in the next car said but why are you honking we’re not going anywhere the woman turns around and and mouths the words sylling the words by saying Amia I like the mus oh yeah you like the music I’m going

To break your husband’s horns he says now what does that mean I’m going to break your husband’s horns if you do this in Sicily you you your life is in Jeopardy anyway I’m going to break your husband’s horns that means you are an adultery you have cheated on your husband and he

Has horn on his head and I’m going to break them for him what does she reply oh if you do that I can always put some new horns on him fabulous fabulous story if you Analyze That what does it mean it means that Sicilian she is accepting the accusation that she is an

Adulteress but to have the last word she says that she’s going to be an adulterous again to provide her husband with new horns so it s inward it it turns itself so it’s human I understand a special twist Professor Chipola always a wealth of information a pleasure to talk to and

Uh we hope to have you on again very soon uh well uh I’m almost here you know I don’t I’ve retired I’m very busy with uh publishing different books so uh I recommend if those of you who who would like to uh some of the stuff that I’ve

Been saying uh you can actually do buy yourself a book buy this book which I I am um I just it’s out of print it was out of print I had to reprint and it’s called siliana it only cost $18 but it has all the information that I that I’m

Only giving you I’m giving you a little bit of information all right Professor Chipola thank you so much you’re quite welcome and uh let’s keep Sicilian alive he amen I I appreciate all the work that you and Alfred have been doing in Sicily um thank you I appreciate that

Thank you okay ciao see you soon chiao ciao I’ll leave you a link to some of the prior interviews we’ve had with Professor Chipola somewhere over here or down in the description of this video and thank you for Professor Chipola for his service to the Sicilian Community all over the world really

And what else oh if you notice I’ve been reporting from here in a different background I’m home visiting my mom in Boston and I’ll be back in cilia next week so reporting from there and back with alfredo AR for watching ciao

Professor Gaetano Cipolla discusses the origins of the Trinacria, Sicilian humor, whether Sicily really is an autonomous region, and the Sicilian language. *For more Sicilian experiences join our channel group here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLayiKb4dO0XPvfd0NEX80Q/join
We discuss the rich history of Sicily and the impacts on language and its people. We talk about the economy of Sicily and why many sectors are struggling. Sicilians are intelligent and have a great sense of humor. Plus the art of talking with your eyes and hands.
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