Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Sunday, June 19, 2005
Father's Day: My Dad and the Mob
From the mountains outside Rome to an apartment complex north of Houston, Michael A. Zezima, Sr. has seen enough and lived enough for several lives. The problem is, he rarely, if ever, tells anyone about it.
This is a man who performed his undercover duties so well that a mobster once asked him to be godfather to his child, a man who rode shotgun on 747s and was prepared to take a bullet for Ronald Reagan (major disagreement there). A man who witnessed the Nazis occupying his town, saw battle in Korea, had his sunglasses smashed by Hubert Humphrey…a man who stepped on John Gotti’s expensive shoes. He’s turned down million dollar bribes and stared down the barrel of a gun that miraculously jammed. My Dad has dealt with rogue CIA agents, was cross-examined by F. Lee Bailey, bonded with Golda Meir, hunted for the Son of Sam, and saw Geraldine Ferraro in nothing but her nightgown.
We were poolside at The Woodlands, Texas where my parents have retired. I was reading one of my Dad’s wiseguy books, “Gangbusters: The Destruction of America’s Last Great Mafia Dynasty” by Ernest Volkman, when I decided to share with him the author’s theory on the origin of the term “mafia.” Here’s sort of how it went: Volkman believes that the roots go back as far as the eleventh century, when the Saracens ruled Sicily. He cites the term “mafiusu,” a word that translates roughly as “beautiful” or “excellent,” and explains it relates to the word “mafia"-which meant “place of refuge” and was similar to an Arabic expression. When the Normans eventually conquered Sicily, Volkman explains, small landholders waged guerrilla warfare from caves (the aforementioned places of refuge) and came to be known as “mafioso.” This brought a smile to my Dad’s face.
“Well, that’s one theory,” he said, before revealing a far more dramatic source.
It seems that after the French conquest of Sicily (I think it was during the Napoleonic wars) the locals were not treated well. The occupiers, while carrying out the task of exporting Sicilian livestock back to France, abused the Sicilian populace, driving them to covert action. Organizing behind the slogan of “morte ai Francesi Italia anela” ("death to the French, Italy cries"), farmers began to kill French soldiers and stuff them into the barrels that were designated for the purloined livestock. When those barrels reached France and the contents discovered, it had the same effect of waking to find a horse’s head in your bed. The abuse of the Sicilians came to an abrupt halt.
Now, if you go back and check out the first letter of each of the words in that Sicilian slogan, they spell out “mafia.” I have no idea if it’s true, but I definitely like my Dad’s theory better.
Copyright © 2005-2007 Mickey Z.
