Andrea Camilleri and the “Italian Unification”
Andrea Camilleri, famous Sicilian writer, and number 1 book seller in Italy, worldwide known specially for novels whose protagonist “Commissario Montalbano” or Inspector Montalbano, translated in 23 languages, and which was produced by RAI (Italian State TV) in a very successful television series.
Camilleri, in an interview with Roberto Cotroneo in 2008, taking its cue from the situation politics of the time, the presumed clash between the newly born Democratic Party led by Veltroni Walter and Silvio Berlusconi and, touching the strings of the “Questione Meridionale” ( issue of the South) and the Unification of Italy. Andrea Camilleri bluntly denounced the fact that the south of Italy is “nothing more than a colony destined to succumb more and more, because it gradually less and may not be helpful to the management policy which is still the same from 1860:
“I think that in 2008 the Italian colonial operation, which began shortly after the unification of Italy against the South, has come to the final point: this colony of South becoming less important (economically and strategically speaking), the more has left to its own destiny. And the “colony of the South” is as if it is not part of Italy anymore, but like something added to Italy. But then, if I go to see who are the “masterminds”of the industries of the north, and media, I notice that they all are southerners. And I feel compelled to ask for a quantification of these southern minds cash promoting the North. I want to put it on a scale. I want to see how many might be the brains of a southern industrial work producing wealth in the North. “
“The explanation goes back to 1860 when a peasant revolution was called “brigandage”. They killed 170,000 of the so called “brigands” that do not exist anywhere in the world. And they were rather rebellious peasants, or former Bourbon soldiers. Everything since then has taken a different turn for us. When they made the unification of Italy in Sicily we had 8000 looms, we produced lots of fabric. Within two years we did not have even a frame. Functioned only those of Biella (Piedmont) . We started importing fabric and still is like that. “
That the newborn Italian state was rotten it had detected two other great Sicilian writers Giovanni Verga and Luigi Pirandello (Nobel Prize for Literature) , who were initially excited for what was going to be a “new golden age for Sicily”, which was promised autonomy, then became critical and reneged in fact the unification of Italy.
by www.Vesuvioonline.it translated by Vanvakys