MY REVIEW OF NOT FOR SELF BY JOSEPH CACIBAUDA

Posted on by Ettore Grillo

The novel, Not for Self, is set in the American state of Illinois at the time of the mass emigration from Europe to the United States, at the beginning of the last century.

A few immigrants move from Sicily to Marion, Illinois, to work in the coalmines. The work is hard, dangerous, and harmful to health, but it is better than starving. One of these Sicilian immigrants, Jack Valenti, does not like the job in the coalmine. He opens a bar where he serves soft drinks and alcoholic beverages.

Business is very good for him, but before long, he runs into the law that prohibits the sale of alcohol in the United States of America. He starts bootlegging alcohol, but has not come to terms with the Ku Klux Klan, a secret society that leaves him no way out.

Joseph Cacibauda’s novel is compelling and well written. It is also an insight into the American history of that time.

Ettore Grillo, author of these books:

– November 2: The Day of the Dead in Sicily (English edition)

– A Hidden Sicilian History (English edition)

– The Vibrations of Words (English edition)

– Travels of the Mind (English edition)

– Una Storia Siciliana Nascosta (edizione in lingua italiana)

– Viaggi della Mente (edizione in lingua italiana)

http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregrillo

THE SEVEN GATES TO ENNA (SICILY)

Posted on by Ettore Grillo

There were seven gates to get into the city of Enna. Over time, all but one either collapsed or were demolished for urban planning needs.

The only gate still existing is Janniscuru Gate. It stands on one of the slopes of Enna, a mountain city in the center of Sicily.

Enna did not need fortified walls to protect itself against enemy attacks, for the sheer cliffs that surrounded large part of the city, being natural strongholds, were enough to prevent the enemies from taking it.

What was the function of the seven gates in a city without defensive walls? They were there to check people and goods that entered the city and above all to collect taxes on incoming goods. At the time, the most profitable tax for a city was that called by the Romans portaticum (gate tax), but it also existed in ancient Greece. The tax collectors collected it at the gates of the city.

Near Janniscuru Gate, there is a small cave, where the publicans most likely collected taxes and kept accounts.

Since the world began, taxes have always existed! Unfortunately!

Ettore Grillo, author of these books:

– November 2: The Day of the Dead in Sicily

– A Hidden Sicilian History

– The Vibrations of Words

– Travels of the Mind

http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregrillo

THE SUNDIAL OF THE CHURCH OF ST. JOHN IN ENNA (SICILY)

Posted on by Ettore Grillo

Although some philosophers claim that space and time do not exist, the fact is that since time immemorial man has felt the need to measure time. At first, they divided the month into days, based on the cycles of the moon; then they divided the day into hours and for that purpose, they created a precision instrument called a sundial.

It seems that the first rudimental sundials date back to the Neolithic, but it is certain that the Greek philosophers perfected such a device, to measure the time of the day. In 263 BC, the Romans placed a sundial in the Roman Forum, which had been built in Catania (Sicily).

Until the invention of the clock, people used sundials. Afterwards, they continued to build them just to decorate the facades of churches and palaces.

The sundial of the Church of St. John in Enna dates back to 1742, and it is still working.

Does time always flow at the same speed? It seems not. These days, time runs very fast. People are always busy and complain that they never have time. Was life better then or now?   

Ettore Grillo, author of these books:

– November 2: The Day of the Dead in Sicily

– A Hidden Sicilian History

– The Vibrations of Words

– Travels of the Mind

http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregrillo

THE OLD SICILY

Posted on by Ettore Grillo

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My Christian name is Mario, my family name is Chiaramonte. I am light-skinned, about one meter and seventy centimeters tall. The color of my eyes is between green and light brown. I was born in Enna at a time when the old Sicily was still alive. It was the sunny island where some women knew the secret to rid children of their intestinal worms and of the evil eye, through arcane practices. It was the old Sicily where goats walked in the streets, and the shepherd milked them in front of the houses and sold milk to the housewives. What a fresh product it was! Apartments didn’t exist and people warmed up their houses by using braziers. Fruit and legumes had a natural taste, hens brooded their eggs,  ate wheat, bran and leftovers, and were free of scratching around. It was the old Sicily where fields were plowed by oxen, the wheat was reaped by farmers’ hands, mules and horses trampled the spikes in the threshing floor, the wind separated the chaff from the grains of wheat, the television had not been invented yet, and people gathered in the houses to chat about this and that. It was the old Sicily where people breathed unpolluted air, the water of the sea, lakes, and rivers was clean, and the words like plastic, pollution, climate changes, global warming, and hole in the ozone didn’t exist in dictionaries.

This is an excerpt from November 2: The Day of the Dead in Sicily

Ettore Grillo author of these books:

– November 2 The Day of the Dead in Sicily
– A Hidden Sicilian History
– The Vibrations of Words
-Travels of the Mind
http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregrillo

AN ANCIENT FUNERAL CEREMONY IN SICILY

Posted on by Ettore Grillo

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The coffin was carried by my grandfather’s friends on their shoulders to the Church of San Cataldo nearby, and after Mass it was set on a hearse dragged by two black horses.
There were thousands of people at the funeral, and all of them followed the hearse to the cemetery. At that time there were not many cars in the streets, so whenever there was a funeral the streets were closed to traffic. Sometimes the municipal band played a funeral march for very rich or special people.

After the funeral we had a tasty dinner. For eight days we were served breakfast, lunch, and dinner by our close friends. All the families gathered around the table. In Enna, you could not make the time of mourning at your will. It had to last eight days. During this time, besides being served delicious food by our relatives and close friends, we received visits from our neighbors and acquaintances. The food we received was more delicious than anything I had ever eaten before—so much so that a doubt arose in my mind: “Is this a time for mourning or a party?”
After eating, we returned to the double bedroom to show our grief as the visitors came in little by little. I sat close to my mother and observed the scene. The visitors entered the room and gave condolences to the family members, starting with my grandmother, and then they sat on the chairs scattered across the room and remained silent or talked with some of the family members.
Every family member was dressed in black. As soon as a new visitor came in, my mother and Aunt Carolina put a sad expression on their faces. Then they started chatting with the newcomers. While they chatted their faces were quite relaxed, but whenever a new visitor came in, they stopped chatting right away and reassumed a sorrowful look. In fact, it was mandatory to show a contrite face; otherwise folks might think that they didn’t mourn the loss of their father.
Since then I understood the difference between “to be” and “to look like.” The change in my relatives’ faces in showing grief meant that appearances had great importance in people’s eyes.
The custom of judging by appearances was widespread in Enna. Even today we tend to judge by appearances and fail to see what is really hidden inside every human being.

This is an excerpt from A Hidden Sicilian History by Ettore Grillo
Ettore Grillo, author of these books:
– A Hidden Sicilian History
– The Vibrations of Words
-Travels of the Mind
http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregrillo

ENNA (SICILY) SEVENTY YEARS AGO

Posted on by Ettore Grillo

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When the Second World War was over, most women in Enna didn’t work outside the home. They were housewives, dependent on their fathers, and once they got married they were submissive to their husbands. You often saw many ladies dressed in black in the streets, the symbol of sorrow. The close relatives of those who died wore black to show their grief. Every time a person died, the walls on the streets were covered with death notices as if the whole town was mourning.
The duration of mourning varied according to the kind of relationship with the dead person, but usually were observed the following criteria: if the dead person was an uncle, a cousin, or someone not a close relative, the woman dressed in black for three months. If a child had been lost, the woman dressed in black for five years. If a sibling passed away, his or her sister dressed in black for three years. If the dead person was the husband, the widow dressed in black the rest of her life. I never saw my grandmother dressed in anything but black. She lost two children and her husband.
As for men, the duration of mourning was shorter than that of women. They usually didn’t dress in black suits for a long time, but confined themselves to wearing a black tie, an armband, a narrow band around their jacket collar, or sometimes they wore a black button on it.
In the afternoons, after having done their chores, the housewives used to sit on their chairs by the window and watch the people walking in the streets. At that time, Via Sant’Agata was unpaved, and in the early morning you could see the goats going along the street and the shepherd then selling their milk to the housewives. It was a very fresh product. The goats were white, long-haired, and quite tall with upright and coiled horns. Nowadays, there are people in the cities who have never even seen a goat!

This is an excerpt from A Hidden Sicilian History by Ettore Grillo
Ettore Grillo, author of these books:
– A Hidden Sicilian History
– The Vibrations of Words
-Travels of the Mind
http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregrillo

A TASTE OF SICILIAN HISTORY

Posted on by Ettore Grillo

FOT

Enna is a small town, but over the years it has fostered the hopes of great spirits and people that have devoted their lives to missions in faraway lands, like Blessed Girolamo De Angelis (1567-1623), a Jesuit friar who left his hometown to follow his spiritual path. At the beginning of the seventeenth century he went to Japan to spread the Gospel, but fell into fierce persecution against Christians and had his life ended by being burnt at the stake. Enna is the birthplace of good writers like Nino Savarese and Napoleone Colajanni—the latter was also an honest politician and sociologist—and musicians like Francesco Paolo Neglia. The spiritual path followed by the main character of this story is worthy of note, though minor in scale.
Not many towns in the world can boast so peculiar a lifestyle. It is possible that if I hadn’t published A Hidden Sicilian History some of Enna’s oral traditions would have been lost forever.
The events happen because they had to happen, not by accident. There is an invisible thread on Earth that links all people who have the same spiritual feelings, regardless of their race or skin color. They belong to the same spiritual race. The real races are not physical but spiritual, and you can feel it clearly whenever you have the chance to come across someone with similar feelings and nature. Through that scroll, the author wanted to create an invisible chain of spiritual beings, which he intended to become broader and broader.
Here is the translation . . .

This is an excerpt from A Hidden Sicilian History by Ettore Grillo
Ettore Grillo, author of these books:
– A Hidden Sicilian History
– The Vibrations of Words
-Travels of the Mind
http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregrillo

LIFE IN THE SULFUR MINES IN SICILY

Posted on by Ettore Grillo

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After an hour of riding, I saw a long line of men, young men, boys, and ragged children walking slowly on the road with their lanterns in their hands. They looked as if they were souls that were heading for the Valley of Jehoshaphat near Jerusalem on the day of the Last Judgement….

…We kept walking around the area until we finally arrived at an entrance that had been dug into the ground. The upper part of the tunnel and the walls were propped up by wooden piles and beams, and a narrow staircase led underground.

We went downstairs for about a hundred meters. Then the stairs became steeper and slippery. Little by little, as we went down it got hotter. We kept going until we arrived at a wide area from where many tunnels branched off. They were propped up precariously.
Along the stairs and the galleries I saw an uninterrupted line of children who were carrying that nauseating acetylene lamp in one hand and a heavy weight on their shoulder. The ore was stuffed into canvas bags or baskets. The children wore small bags stuffed with rags on their shoulders and heads to soften the harshness of the ore. Stooping under the weight and with labored breathing, they went upstairs slowly, giving out a painful moan with every step. I had the impression of seeing human-shaped moles which didn’t like to come out in the daylight.
“What is the average age of those children?” I asked.
“Their age ranges from seven to eighteen years. They cannot grow well because the air here is too rarefied and humid. Moreover, they carry weights that are too much for their young age. They cannot stop on the stairs to take a rest or the entire long train of carriers would stop. Their bodies are misshapen and they will never grow taller.”
We kept going down, and finally arrived at the end of one of the galleries. The air there was hot and unbearable. I saw that a few men were completely naked because of the stifling heat. With picks in their hands, they dug out the ore. Near them, a few children filled baskets and canvas bags with the ore, while other little laborers helped other children put the loads on their shoulders.

This is an excerpt from A Hidden Sicilian History by Ettore Grillo
Ettore Grillo author of these books:
– A Hidden Sicilian History
– The Vibrations of Words
-Travels of the Mind
http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregrillo

HISTORY OF SICILY: THE AUTO-DA-FE’

Posted on by Ettore Grillo

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I had the impression of having stumbled across a rare precious report about an auto-da-fé, which were held in great numbers throughout Sicily at the time of the Spanish  Inquisition.
According to some historians, 114 autos-da-fé were celebrated throughout Sicily from 1501 to 1748. The word auto-da-fé comes from the Portuguese auto da fé, meaning an act of faith.
An auto-da-fé consisted of a public ceremony where a sentence of the Spanish Inquisition was carried out. Before the enforcement of the judgment, the condemned person was made to file between two lines of people, their hair was shaved, and then they were dressed with a donkey cap and a sack on which were painted the grounds of the judgment. If it was painted with a full Saint Andrew’s cross, it meant that the condemned person had repented in time to avert the execution; a half cross showed that he had been just fined, while the flames meant that he had been sentenced to death at the stake.
A solemn Mass attended by city authorities and a large gathering of the townspeople was celebrated where the auto-da-fé took place. People came together in great numbers as if there was a festival, and many street vendors flocked from the nearby towns and villages to sell cakes, carobs, licorice, and similar things.

This is an excerpt from A Hidden Sicilian History by Ettore Grillo
Ettore Grillo author of these books:
– A Hidden Sicilian History
– The Vibrations of Words
-Travels of the Mind
http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregrillo

AN ANCIENT SICILIAN TRADITION

Posted on by Ettore Grillo

20190702_191153It is said that Demeter’s home was in Enna, a city in the center of Sicily. During paganism, the belief that the goddess of agriculture lived in Enna was so deep-rooted and widespread that even the Roman Senate sent a delegation to Enna to appease Demeter when a great famine occurred in the empire. Then, as by magic, the earth started to bear fruit again.

After Catholicism took over from paganism, the citizens of Enna didn’t give up their old procession in honor of Demeter. They just replaced the statue of Our Lady for that of the pagan goddess, Demeter.
Every year, on July 2, the litter with the wooden statue of Our Lady covered with golden votive offerings is carried on the shoulders of barefooted brethren through the streets of Enna, as it happened with Demeter during paganism.
The religious feeling doesn’t change. Demeter is still present through Our Lady. Tradition will go on. People will keep worshiping divinity beyond time.
Ettore Grillo, author of these books:
– A Hidden Sicilian History
– The Vibrations of Words
– Travels of the Mind
http://www.amazon.com/author/ettoregrillo