The sea: stories of the water and the mafia

Abstract

The article emphasizes the importance of water in the history of the mafia as vital source for the peasant economy, as well as in the historical fight between the weak peoples’ rights and the mafia’s power. The reason for poverty and a reason to hope. And the water as an ocean, the infinite space crossed by masses of emigrants, escaping from large landed estates and mountain misery. Crossed as well by men of archaic clans coming from little towns to conquer far continents: from Sicily to United States, from Calabria to Australia or Canada. With effects for some democracies in the world. But water just as the sea too: the sea stolen from the citizen’s natural rights by entrepreneurs close to the clans. Not in Sicily, but in Rome, capital of Italy.