Eyewitness to History

[Occhidiangela]

Sovereign principalities were forced, coerced, or persuaded to become part of a greater whole, so a hundres or a thousand years of a cultural identity, of a local sort, took some effort to replace: a job for industrial age methods, though it is interesting to see how the paint peels back to show another picture, like on some Rembrandts.

As for Italy, an example well chosen. The Basque region, now in two other nations, is another. What am I, says a Basque? A Spaniard? "Guns or knives, sirrah, how dare you say that to me!"

The election in 1997-1998, wherein Bossi ran on a Padonia (Pannonia?) platform that suggested partitioning Italy somewhere just south of Rome: he got about 15% of the vote, and of course the artisans in downtown Naples made great little caricatures of the man for sale: they went like hot cakes ! Mine broke in transit back to The States. :( I heard Milanese, and a fellow from Bologna who I worked with, refer to Naples (??) jokingly (??) as "Northern Africa."

Italy, the geographical region, and Germany, roughly the geographical region that it is today, which is sans quite a bit of old Prussia, were places where someone was able to, via political will, homogenize partially by touching common cultural roots to create a national identity of whatever acceptability. It came down from above, and did not grow from below, which is significant when we look at what is being attempted in Iraq.

For some reason reminds me of two old jokes:

Tex: Where you from, podner.
Ace: Virginia
Tex: What part of Texas is that?

1980s' era, possibly earlier, Yugoslavia joke:

What is the total Yugoslav population? One, and his name is Tito. Every one else there is Serb, Croat, Slovene . . .