Articles by: Cristogianni Borsella

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    An Italian-American Antidote to Fascism on Both Sides of the Atlantic


    Thought the bond linking followers of Mussolini in both Italy and the U.S. was broken? This Italian-American is here to say: Think Again!



    Two years ago, I authored a book entitled, Fascist Italy: A Concise Historical Narrative. It was published by Branden Books in May 2007. My publisher, Mr. Adolfo Caso, lived in Naples under Mussolini's totalitarian regime as a child. His memories of Fascist tyranny are still quite vivid, as he relates his family's suffering and the sacrifices imposed on them by the State in the Introduction of my book. These early childhood memories helped shape Adolfo's future political ideals and his love for the United States--a country, a republican democracy, to which he later immigrated.



    While I was still conducting my research, prior to publication, I found numerous references to Fascist Youth organizations in both Italy and the United States, linking the broader worldwide "Movement." I naturally became interested in knowing whether any of these groups (mainly from the 20s and 30s) still exist or perhaps operate under different names. To my astonishment, I found out that at least one does.



    Although there are a number of competing fascist or "neo-fascist" groups operating in Italy today (as there are in Spain, Portugal and other countries throughout the Mediterranean and Europe), one group which has a following firmly planted on both sides of the Atlantic is: Movimento Fascismo e Liberta (the Fascism and Liberty Movement) or MFL. The group's American counterpart is aptly named the "American Friends of Movimento Fascismo e Liberta."



    As I extracted more information on the MFL off the internet, both in Italian and English, I saw just how committed this group is to restoring what it calls "true Mussolinian Fascism." This means: the specific ideological principles of Benito Mussolini himself, which, they maintain, have no link whatsoever to the "racist" extreme-right groups who cherish and adore Adolf Hitler. Instead of basing their platform on the "volkish," racist beliefs of the Nazis, Fascist groups like the MFL are faithful to the "statist" political vision of Mussolini, to which one can adhere (allegedly) no matter what their racial, ethnic, sexual or religious background might be. Their only prerequisite is that their fellow Fascist recognizes the State as supreme. I soon became curious to see if this was actually true, and so as I read more I convinced myself to take the next step: infiltration.



    Around the time my manuscript was ready to be sent off to Adolfo, I emailed the MFL explaining, as an Italian-American, how much I sympathized with their cause. I was then promptly directed to email the MFL's American chapter, whereupon I would be given further information. In no time at all (probably because they are so desperate for new, young members) I was sent an information packet of the American Friends of the MFL, a registration card, a certificate and all. It was as if I had been a thirty-year card carrying Fascist all along!



    What I found out in this "American" group's information packet truly sickened me. First, they pledged allegiance to a "Comrade Carlo Gariglio," who was apparently their international leader. In their Bulletin the words were written, "Viva Gariglio! Viva MFL!" As for the political ideas presented in the information packet, the group indeed professes to adhere to Mussolini's core tenets, such as: "The enemy of Fascismo is your enemy"; "Discipline is the sunshine of armies"; and of course the famous, "Mussolini is always right."



    The group's mission was stated thus: "...to render material, spiritual and fraternal support to Italian Fascism, and to spread the ideals of MFL in the United States of America."



    But what most disturbed me, perhaps selfishly, was that many members of the group were apparently Italian-Americans. Now, of course every ethnic group has its extremists, and this particular sub-group of Italian-Americans was very small. Okay. BUT, just how much is too small? Isn't even a handful of these un-democratic societal pests too much? (After all, it only took a handful of right-wing Neoconservatives to hijack and derail our republic eight long years ago.)



    As I grew frustrated reading the Fascist literature, I was reminded of the great Italian-American labor leaders and politicians of the past--hardworking immigrants and their offspring who frequently clashed in the streets with the fascisti, risking all and sustaining great injuries; those who came from one of the earth's most abused ethnic and class backgrounds; those who were deeply entrenched in their own immigrant community, but also in the communities of other oppressed Americans; those who had experienced tyranny up close and personal, and who understood that an affront to one group's rights was an unacceptable affront to all. These are the Italian-American leaders of the past, whose names I will always revere: Arturo Giovannitti, Joe Ettor, Vito Marcantonio, Carlo Tresca, Salvatore Ninfo, Fiorello LaGuardia, and all the unsung heroes who have long since died in obscure and impoverished surroundings.



    So I am left to ask: Where is the call, on the part of the Italian-American community, to resurrect the legacies of those leaders and their missions? Instead, we have high-priced spaghetti dinners honoring Justices Scalia and Alito (two of the most right-wing members of the Court). We shower countless public accolades on a former New York mayor who, abandoning his own working-class roots, went after hot-dog men and taxi drivers like some kind of rabid animal. We have prominent immigrant bashers like former Representative Tom Tancredo and Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio making all the headlines these days. And then there are those thousands of other clueless, misguided paesani marching every Columbus Day in disgraceful processions dishonoring our nation's Indigenous peoples--paesani who would be better served marching under the banner of "Italian Pride," and who will hopefully come to learn that their Southern Italian ancestors also suffered, alongside Indigenous peoples, under the oppressive rule of the Spanish Crown.



    I am left to ask: Which path will Italian-American youth follow in the years ahead--the nation's narrowing, yet politically radicalized, extreme-right, or will they take a more progressive path? Either way, one thing is certain: the American Friends of Movimento Fascismo e Liberta is no path at all.

     

    (This article was publishes on Broowaha.com as "    Fascism Alive And Well On Both Sides Of The Atlantic." Reprinted with permission of the author.)


     
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    Cristo X - The Politics of Uncovering Our DNA


    A little over a month ago, I sent away for two "Genographic Project" kits from National Geographic. One would test my paternal Y-DNA all the way back to "Adam" (via my father, his father, his father's father, etc.), and one testing my maternal mitochondrial DNA (tracing my mother's-mother's-mother's line, etc., etc.) all the way back to the person whom geneticists  refer to as "mitochondrial Eve," or Homo sapiens' earliest known female ancestor (living somewhere between 150,000 and 170,000 years ago).



    The overall purpose of these tests is to determine which of the unique, alphabetized haplogroups appear in our genetic makeup. Quite simply: Who were our earliest ancestors; where did they originate; where did they end up; what kinds of activities did they specialize in (e.g. hunting, farming, fishing); who are we? Such testing can uncover a great deal about us. And so, the Genographic Project is rapidly expanding our knowledge of humanity's deepest, most ancient roots.



    When I received my kits, I was instructed to swab the inside of each cheek thoroughly for about thirty seconds (per cheek). Each kit provided two cotton swabs and two vials; when finished, I placed the swabs inside the vials and mailed the test kit back anonymously (as instructed). I repeated this procedure for the second kit. As I write this, I am still awaiting my paternal Y-DNA results. However, my maternal results just came in as of last night.



    Before I continue, I should say that my ancestry on both sides is deeply, profoundly Southern Italian, Mediterranean. My father's people come from the mountain country of the Campobasso region, and my mother's family are from Napoli and Bari--two ancient metropolises heavily influenced by everyone from Greeks and Romans to Arabs, Jews and Albanians. Prior to receiving my maternal DNA information, I expected my haplogroup to be prevalent in many other peoples from the Mediterranean region, including Turks, Greeks, North Africans, Lebanese, etc. Well, I was right. However, there was also something of an unexpected twist. Let me explain.


    First of all, my results confirmed that I belong to Haplogroup X. This group, after participating in the second great migration out of Africa (45,000 to 50,000 years ago), split off from Haplogroup N to form two sub-groups: X1 and X2. They formed approximately 30,000 years ago in the Middle East. Group X1 is found primarily in North and East Africa, yet X2 was much more prolific--this group experienced a tremendous population surge, either around or soon after the last glacial maximum occurring about 21,000 years ago. Group X2 can therefore be found with considerable frequency among peoples of the Near East, Caucasus, Mediterranean Europe, and...among North American Indian peoples! Haplogroup X is virtually non-existent in Northern Europeans and, so far as geneticists can presently discern, is entirely absent in East Asian populations.



    Interestingly, white Europeans and American Indians share an equal, if minute, amount of X in their respective populations. Ninety percent of whites are included in one of 6 haplogroups derived from Haplogroup R, but only 2 percent are in Group-X. Likewise, 95 percent of American Indians derive from 6 haplogroups of East Asian origin, but only 3 percent derive from X.



    The map tracing the route of my Group-X ancestors, which National Geographic provided me with online, showed a steady line from East Africa, up through the Middle East, across Central Asia and Siberia, and down into the Americas. The map is the first bit of information I saw after reading that I was part of "Haplogroup X," and needless to say, it really caught my attention. None of my ancestors even appeared to have so much as glanced at Europe, according to the map (though of course they did, yet via the Mediterranean).

       Upon reading further, I became aware of the great genetic paradox that scholars are confronted with when studying my maternal haplogroup. And that is: Group X is completely missing from East Asian populations, and is not found with any degree of frequency among Siberian peoples. X does in fact occur in some south Siberian groups, however scientists believe this is the result of much more recent genetic mixing occurring many thousands of years after the first X-carriers migrated across the "Beringia" land bridge. This means that there is a tremendous gap in the genographic record, mystifying scholars as to how exactly these essentially Mediterranean/Near Eastern carriers of X came to be some of the first people to cross into the Western Hemisphere, roughly 15,000 years ago. To be specific about it: Just how did these early migrants fail to leave their genetic mark on East Asia, and especially on Siberia (long considered the "home" of most American Indian peoples), before entering North America?



    This has led some scholars to propose an early trans-Atlantic route to North America, occurring tens of thousands of years before Columbus. It is called the "Solutrean Hypothesis," and postulates that the prehistoric, X-bearing Solutrean culture of Spain and south-western France journeyed by boat around the edges of an arctic ice shelf that had connected large areas of the British Isles to Greenland, and finally to the eastern coast of North America. They are said to have accomplished this incredibly ambitious task some 20,000 years ago.



    While this hypothesis might sound a tad bit too ambitious for prehistoric humans, we should remember that such a migration, starting in the western Mediterranean, would have been far less of a journey than the traditionally accepted route across the Siberian steppes and across the Bering Strait. Also favoring a Solutrean explanation is the striking similarity between Solutrean arrowheads and those of the prehistoric Clovis culture, found traditionally throughout North America. Some scholars have even referenced archaeological sites in the states of Virginia, Pennsylvania and Florida, which seem to display a transitional style of stone tools, thus linking the Solutrean and Clovis cultures together. The hypothesis sounds good, but personally I'm not sure.



    What I am sure about is that the Solutrean Hypothesis is also a very politically charged theory, as some Native American groups have hinted: it would weaken their protected status if it is discovered that "Europeans" were living in the Western Hemisphere thousands of years earlier than expected. Conversely, a number of European-descended people have been all too eager to point to early connections between the continents for their own political gain. (Some of us archaeology geeks will recall the intense political debate surrounding "Kennewick Man": the Patrick Stewart-looking clay bust of a man, forensically reassembled from the 9,000 year old skull of an American Indian.) And so, the rabble-rousing media have projected the debate in very black and white (or, in this case, "red" and "white") terms--that is to say, racial terminology easy for the average, simple American to grasp.



    However, it dawned on me: This is not really a "white thing" at all. If we are talking about Anglo-Saxons or Germans or Russians or Frenchmen or even Spaniards, Group-X is barely visible among these populations (from what I am given to understand). Rather, if X was a noticeable contributor to early human expansion in the Western Hemisphere, this would link some American Indian peoples genetically to a number of modern Middle Easterners, North Africans, Caucasians (meaning: Armenians, Georgians, Azeris, etc.), and Mediterraneans. Broadly speaking, anthropologically speaking: Mediterraneans.


    Among the Ojibwa Indians of the Great Lakes region, Haplogroup X appears in a full 25 percent of the population. This corresponds to the high percentage found in the Druze population of the Middle East (located in Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan), where no less than 26 percent are included in X. This fact has led many to refer figuratively to the Druze as the "founders" of Group-X. The following American Indian groups have also displayed high percentages: Sioux - 15 percent; Nuu-Chah-Nulth - over 10 percent; and the Navajo - 7 percent. (These groups all possess X2--the same sub-group as most Mediterraneans and Middle Easterners.)



    To conclude, I encourage those reading this article to take the genetic test provided by National Geographic for themselves. It's fun, it's easy, it's anonymous, your results don't take long at all, and it's a personally enriching experience which demonstrates just how connected we all are as humans.



    The deconstruction of previous, popularly held racial beliefs will continue to be an ongoing process in the 21st century--where people, regardless of their particular physical features will find they often have more in common genetically with those who look very different from themselves. Hopefully, this will enable the breakdown of still extant racial barriers existing not only socially or politically, but also in the deepest corners of our minds, where many of us fear to go. I, for one, am happy to have contributed my "two cents" to the Genographic Project.

      

    National geographics - The Genographic Project




    Cristogianni Borsella lives in the Bronx and is a new contributor to i-Italy.

    This article first appeared in broowaha as "    Cristo X - What Uncovering My Maternal DNA Tells Me."