Columbus Day in America and Corruption in Calabria - 100 years later

I’m not sure why my grandfather from Calabria initially left the region without his wife and son for America over 100 years ago. I know where he came from, Reggio Calabria, there had been a massive earthquake. But where he lived with his wife in Bucita, it was away from the city, the corruption and the terremoto. Maybe he was looking for new opportunities, following in the path of Columbus. Maybe he just wanted to get away from it all. I know the feeling.

100 years later, folks in Calabria are facing continuing corruption and a retreat from the promise of affluence that Italy, north of Rome, has had greater access to. An article in the New York Times reports the latest trials and tribulations from a part of Italy I love and am tied to, and which causes me no little anguish. Friends of mine who live in Calabria face these issues daily. One friend told me,"We have to mark our steps very carefully when we walk out of our home. Calabria is more like Syria than Siena.”

Has Calabria become a third world outhouse for Italian politicians and the luxury class? I know from experience what a hardworking, industrious lot they are. Honest, simple folk, but in no way are they all corrupt.

I will be making several trips to Italy in the next couple of months. One of those trips I will be going back to Calabria to take a look and see what I can see. I hope I don’t find another Santiago Mitlatongo or Kandahar.

written and photographed (with an Olympus Pen-FT) by Alfonso Cevola limited rights reserved On the Wine Trail in Italy

 

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