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My Life Under Mussolini

I live in Newbury Park now, but I grew up in Italy under fascist leader Benito Mussolini. The loss of freedom I observed in Italy in the 1930s is happening now in the United States — including here in Ventura County. Yet many people are unaware of how fascism gains control and rules people with an iron fist, taking away their basic freedoms.

I was born and raised on the coast of Sicily, two miles from the ocean. At school every morning, we saluted a flag that bore a picture of Mussolini, “Il Duce” (“the Leader”). At home, I remember police officers coming to our house frequently to search it and even taking my father away for periods of time. Anytime something bad happened in our town, they came and arrested Dad, and we wouldn’t see him for up to six months. They put him in a cell though he had done nothing wrong. In Mussolini’s Italy, you were guilty until proven innocent.

At school every morning, we saluted a flag that bore a picture of Mussolini.

I was targeted as well. The kids and teacher picked on me at school, and I didn’t know why. Then one day, three officers came to our house, took away all of Dad’s guns, and arrested him. I couldn’t hold back my questions any longer.

“Why are we always being treated this way?” I cried out to my mom. “Why do they keep arresting Dad, and why does everyone pick on me at school?”

“When you get older, I’ll tell you why,” she said.

When I got a little older, I asked her again, “Why are we going through all of this? Other people don’t get treated this way.”

She finally answered me, “Your dad doesn’t want to support the Fascists or sign up for duties, so they’re constantly harassing him. They’re trying to take away our farm and home. They took all his hunting guns because he refuses to register with their party.”

My mother had experienced this kind of violent control before — from the mafia in Chicago. She and her first husband had moved to Chicago in 1916 when she was 17 years old; there, they opened a meat market. Everything went well until the mafia stepped in and demanded “protection insurance.” They wanted ten percent of the income. My mother and her husband ignored this threat — and one day found a dead body behind their store. A note informed them, “This is a warning.” So they started paying the ten percent, then stopped — and the electricity was abruptly shut off. So they returned to Sicily.

They found a beautiful house with a 15-acre lemon grove. But they were warned not to buy the property. They bought it anyway. Three months later, my mother’s first husband was killed. This upset my grandfather so much that he went to war with the local mafia and lost two more sons. Eventually, at age 24, my mother married the man who became my father, and I was born in 1935, at the apex of Mussolini’s popularity and power.

It was not easy growing up under Mussolini and during the war. You had to support his leadership or pay a heavy price. One time a murder occurred in our town, and the authorities rounded up my dad and banished him to a small island. He was away for almost three years. Thank God, Grandpa helped out during that time because my mother had six kids to take care of. I was the fifth.

Before the war ended, German troops came to our town and took over the schools and other buildings. They raped girls over 14 years of age, and to protect my two sisters, ages 15 and 17, my dad made arrangements to send them to a place in the mountains to hide for almost a year. The Germans remained in Sicily for six or eight months and were horrible to us. Many times they came over and took our eggs and freshly picked lemons and whatever else they wanted. They paid for nothing.

Dad was drafted into the Italian Army at age 44, but we found out that my oldest half-brother, who lived in New York, had been drafted into the U.S. Army. Mom worried that her husband and son would end up fighting each other, so she opposed my dad’s enlistment — and won. He came home after six months of service.

After the Germans left, the Allies bombed the daylights out of the nearby city of Palermo. My grandfather’s house and farm were destroyed. I believe around 10,000 people died. Sure enough, my half-brother landed in Palermo with the American troops. He was a sergeant in the U.S. Army and was in charge of food, so he brought our family all kinds of stuff — spaghetti, coffee, flour, candy and sugar. Without this, we had hardly any flour to make pasta, no sugar, no coffee and no meat at all. We lived off our land at the farm, grew our own tomatoes and vegetables and had chickens for eggs. In a way, we were fortunate to have the farm — and to have that visit from my brother.

Six months later, the war ended. I was ten years old. Our family owned half a mile of oceanfront property, and everybody wanted a piece of it, so another family fought us for it. When my grandfather suffered an accident and died, his children fought over and divided that property. I came to the U.S. in 1949 at age 14 to look for a better future and a better life.

What troubles me is that the U.S. is becoming more fascistic than ever before. Health authorities, bureaucrats and elected representatives are stripping away our freedoms one by one, just like Mussolini did. His government imposed curfews, took away people’s guns and persecuted those who didn’t support him. He knew who was registered with his political party and made life difficult for those who weren’t.

The U.S. is becoming more fascistic than ever before. Health authorities, bureaucrats and elected representatives are stripping away our freedoms one by one, just like Mussolini did.

That same thing is happening in this country now. The FBI goes into people’s homes and takes away their guns. Some people who were arrested for “trespassing” at the Capitol on January 6 are still in jail, just like my dad, who was taken to jail many times and couldn’t even get an attorney. In this country, federal law enforcement officers can take you away, and you have almost no redress. We are heading for the same kind of terrible, slavish, fearful society Mussolini’s fascism produced.

The people of the U.S. are closing their eyes to this reality. Many don’t want to believe it. Others don’t pay any attention to what’s going on. But if you oppose the powers that be, one day, the FBI may knock on your door and take your guns away. California’s governors and legislature have been trying to do that for years. Someday it might happen — just like it did in Italy.

We must wake up. We are no longer a free nation like we once were. When governments can tell you what kind of car to drive, what appliances to use, who to hire and not hire, what political views to espouse and a thousand other things, we are dangerously close to being a fascist country. Now is the time to defend our freedoms before they are all lost.

3 COMMENTS

  1. My mother and father were roughly the same age as you and survived a very similar environment in neighboring Croatia before coming to the United States.
    Where you differ from them is the construct of where we are today. We are most definitely a free nation and your parallels to the issues we face are orders of magnitude different from what you describe. Does the government REALLY tell you what kind of car to drive? Do you think capitalism won’t sort out the best car solution?

    What are your solutions? What would you change? Does one political party have the right answer over the issues you describe or do they both have their pros and cons? A 3rd political party? Stop super pacs /lobbyists?

    Ironically, your implications are right out of the Fascists playbook. They stir nationalism and deceive the very people they ensnarl into their political machine.

    I look forward to reading your next feature with your thought on how to move forward!

    Nice story…… but your pessimistic whining does nothing for me and the logic is hollow.

  2. Larry….I am 76 yrs. Old & while I am thankful to you for your honest & real article my question is: I want to stop this take over yet what can I do? Our government is so evil in its dealings & I fervently pray & ask the Lord to intervene on our behalf. Yet, what I see & hear from people is their denial that they can beat the government!!! My faith in the Lord is the only hope I have & His promise of freedom.
    God Bless you, Larry.

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