Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

One of the goals of this blog is to tell the history of Italy of the past 162 years, the way it really happened. And more. Becasue many of the problems the country still has today can be traced back to the way the nation was patched together. We believe that Italy needs a process of truth and reconciliation. The first step is to recuperate the historical memory often forgotten or hidden. Staring the truth into the eye can have a catartic effect.

The words in the title are from the preamble to the United States Declaration of Independence. Benjamin Franklin wanted them in the declaration because inspired by his Neapolitan friend Gaetano Filangieri. See The Kingdom of Two Sicilies and the USA. This is an example of a letter sent by Gaetano Filangieri to Benjamin Franklin kept in the USA national archive: To Benjamin Franklin from Gaetano Filangieri, 24 August 1782.

Dear reader, we have a story to tell. and what a story!! The truth has been hidden in plain sight due to the negligence and selfishness of some to the detriment of the citizens of Italy. We believe that by telling this truth, the entire nation of Italy will benefit and its citizens will be better served by a country the way had to be but it never was, that is a country that treats all its citizens equally. especially the ones living in the South.

This site’s goal is to encourage a better understanding of Southern Italy, or Mezzogiorno as we like to say. This is not only for those Italian Americans that can trace their roots to this area but for anyone else interested in the rich and millennial culture of this ancient land once called Magna Graecia (Greater Greece).  A couple of centuries ago, the peninsula now known as Italy, comprised several independent states. It is important to understand how the Southern Kingdom of Two Sicilies was annexed by the northern Kingdom of Sardinia (Piedmont) and the subsequent nefarious effects that reverberate still today. The Kingdom of Two Sicilies, with all its problems, similar to the ones of much bigger nations, was on the way to becoming a modern industrialized state. But this was cut short by its annexation to the northern Kingdom of Sardinia. In modern terms, we could say that Italy was one of the first examples of nation-building and we know now how these kinds of things end up. 

Many in Italy are in denial or ignore the tragic events that took place a couple of centuries ago when the northern army of a foreign state, the Kingdom of Sardinia (aka Savoy or Piedmont), invaded the independent state of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies under the guise of unifying the nation and bringing progress (today will say under the guise of “exporting democracy”). Obviously, the annexation could not have happened without the interested support of France and England the two main military and economic European powers controlling the Mediterranean sea and its commercial routes to their colonies. We are trying to make you aware of all this because it is good for Italy as a nation.

You may ask why we need to look into events that happened 162 years ago or more. Not too long ago, actually. Because these events are as relevant today as they were when they happened. Paradoxically, we can say this is an old history of stringent actuality.

The effects of these events still reverberate today and show in the deep economic gap between North and South and the condition of a colony in which the South is confined.

Recovery of the Historical Memory

The Recovery of Historical Memory is in the interest not only of the South but of Italy as a whole. In this context, we can understand the roots of the problems that afflict Italy as a nation and not just the South. Because those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Only this can lead to a national reconciliation that requires abandoning the “historical amnesia” by many and calling things by their own names: racism, apartheid, and organized theft against the South.

Reaching back to the real history of Italy as a national entity is not a sterile exercise the following are some of the reasons:

• Learn the truth about how Italy was created and the endemic problems that afflicted the nation since its inception.
• Understand the tears and blood it cost to the people living in the South, at the hands of an invasion army descended from the northern state of Piedmont.
• Understand how the stage was set for a bloody civil war that lasted about 10 years (1860-1870), for mass emigration by the millions from the South, many directed to the USA, for policies and behaviors based on racism, and for the apartheid that in different forms still exist today.
• The truth will set people free. Only then a process of reconciliation between the North and the South can take place.

You cannot invent a future if you are not aware of your past.

Truth and reconciliation are the way. But reconciliation can only happen if all the honest Italians are willing to embrace their actual history without embellishments and take responsibility in the name of a truly unified nation.

See Truth and Reconciliation (South Africa). See also the related Facebook group Our Italian Roots, inspired by various grass-roots movements born in Southern Italy and the renewed interest in the real history of the nation. 

In conclusion, it seems surprising (not to say anything else) that in the face of so many testimonies, which we will show some, the official Italian history doesn’t talk about what really happened. History must tell the truth, not mystify it or silence it. In the events of all states, there are facts, of which their citizens should only be ashamed, and foreign historians describe the events of their states without refraining so must the Italians. It is up to contemporary people to deal with these uncomfortable truths and learn how to live with them.