¶ … Mafia and Their Relation to the Italian Identity
The primary popular culture expression of the Italian-American identity is The Mafia whose fame is much to the dismay of many Italian-Americans. The Mafia is the basic popular culture expression of the Italian-American identity largely because of the influence of Francis Ford Coppola's hit film, "The Godfather" that won an Oscar award in 1972 ("The Mafia in Popular Culture," n.d.). This popular expression of the Italian-American identity is also attributable to the reinvention of the gangster movie genre by Coppola's hit film in 1972. The popularity of the Mafia as an expression of the Italian-American identity has been fueled by the group's extortion, establishment as a deeply rooted criminal organization, and political corruption and murder. The Mafia is essentially characterized by popular American derivations and strong relations to the Italian identity.
Historical Context of the Mafia
Sicily is a region in Italy that has historically been renowned for holding a distinct position from the rest of the country. Some of the major ways through which this region has differentiated itself from the rest of Italy include immediate physical evidence of being an island as well as numerous social and cultural differences. Moreover, Sicily has its own government, dialect, and mentality that contributed to the emergence of the Mafia. In essence, the emergence and growth of the Mafia is attributed to the fact that Sicily has usually been a place to be increasingly...
Italian-Americans -- 1930s The American experience for Italian immigrants (with particular emphasis on the 1930s) is the salient topic for this paper. The materials presented from scholarly sources in this paper show the positive and negative impacts experienced by Italian-American immigrants; those sources will also be critiqued and analyzed in the context of the experiences, including impacts such as discrimination that Italian-Americans went through during the 1930s. Italians Arrive in the United
Org Crime Organized crime underwrites the bulk of political, social, and economic history in America. What has often been mentioned in passing as legitimate business activities can and often should be reframed as organized crime, such as the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the colonial mercantilism that it supported (Woodiwiss, 2003). When organized crime is taken out of its Hollywood context, which portrays organized crime as an immigrant problem, some patterns emerge
The 1990s also saw innovative interpretation of law enforcement's role in the perpetuation of organized crime. One of the most notable examples is L.A. Confidential (1997), in which corruption has reached so deep into the Los Angeles police department that two seemingly unrelated criminal investigations both lead to the police chief. The genre also proved its adaptability and continued appeal with Heat (1995) and Carlito's Way (1993); both films starred
Murder Inc. by Graham K. Bell Book Summary Starting from the 1920s, the American crime landscape underwent a complete transformation under an all-star gang of thugs, garrotters, and snipers. Ethnic and religious diversity was evident in its members. A majority of them hailed from New York City itself, chosen from its toughest neighborhoods, including Ocean Hill, Brownsville, and Flushing. The exorbitant amount of crime they perpetrated led the media to name them
Thus, many shipments go to another destination before the United States or Europe in order to throw law enforcement off of the trail. For cocaine coming out of Colombia, West Africa and Venezuela, home to rogue states and dictatorships, have become popular transit hubs. The increased transportation of goods accompanying globalization has increased opportunities for maritime piracy. Organized crime is exploiting the increasingly dense international flow of commercial vessels. Maritime
Both films irritated their relevant critical establishments, and in this way, De Palma's remade was truest to its source. Scarface 1983 savagery and energy united with its political portrait of the illicit drug trade form a memorable and powerful evocation of 1980s narco-corruption (Prince 231). One of the most striking disparities amid the 1932 Scarface and 1983 Scarface is between Tony Camonte, who makes a fortune through selling bear, but
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