Sicilian Lives

by DOLCI, DANILO

• ISBN13: 9780394749389
• ISBN10: 0394749383
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1981-12-12
• Publisher: Pantheon
• More Book Details
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Summary

When Danilo Docli, peace worker, organizer, educator, first arrived in 1952 in Trappeto, a village of peasants and fishermen in western Sicily, there were no streets, just mud and dust, not a single drugstore, not even a sewer. (In fact, the local dialect didn’t even have a word for sewer.) Like other Sicilians, the villagers, seen by many Italians as “bandits,” “dirt-eaters,” and “savages,” had, in effect, been mute for centuries.

Dolci’s years of work broke this silence. The result is Sicilian Lives, a book which reveals the intimate experiences and perceptions of a wide range of Sicilians, rural and urban, through voices that are sometimes frightening, but always fascinating and unexpected.

Danilo Dolci has collected a rich panorama of voices—the eloquent testimony of Sicilians who, at last, are speaking out to penetrate the most profound dilemmas of an impoverished land. 


With a foreword by John Berger

Author Biography

DANILO DOLCI (1924–1997) was an Italian author, educator, political activist, and poet. Dolci rallied the Sicilian people to fight for change by teaching, campaigning for public works, and organizing sit-ins, fasts, and ''strikes-in-reverse.'' He was one of the only figures to shed light on the Sicilian mafia’s abuse after World War II and was known as the Studs Terkel of Sicily. Dolci was the author of several works, including Sicilian Lives, a collection of locals’ stories told in their own voices.

Table of Contents

Foreword, by John Berger • vii
Prologue • xv
 
THE INDIGENOUS CULTURE • 1
1. Rosario • 3
2. Leonardo • 13
3. Bastiano • 16
4. Santo • 25
 
THE PARASITE CULTURES • 33
5. The Honorable Calò • 35
6. Sonia Alliata of the House of Salaparuta • 38
7. Peppe Volpe, Knight of the Orders of . . . • 42
8. Salvatore Vilardo • 55
9. A Parish Priest • 61
10. The Cardinal • 63
11. Don Genco • 67
 
VICIOUS CIRCLES • 69
12. Rosaria • 71
13. The Healer • 84
14. Ignazio • 89
15. A Street Cleaner • 94
16. Uncle Andrea • 99
17. A Lawyer • 103
18. The Warden of the Uccardone • 106
 
HOME-GROWN PLAGUES • 111
19. E.A. • 113
20. Ciolino • 118
21. Gaspare • 129
22. Potato • 135
23. Vincenzo • 140
24. Grandma Nedda • 150
25. XX • 155
 
WASTE • 175
26. XY •  177
27. A Friend of Placido’s • 189
28. Salvatore • 203
29. Antonio • 205
30. Uncle Felice • 213
 
ENDURANCE • 219
31. An Industrialist • 221
32. Crocifissa • 224
33. Santuzza • 229
34. Sariddu • 231
 
RESISTANCE • 237
35. A Friend of Miraglia’s • 239
36. Gaetano • 250
37. Angela • 259
38. Gino Orlando • 264
39. The Children • 289
 
Epilogue • 291
Translator’s Note • 301