Greek elements), the Grecanici were encouraged by the associations to embrace their roots and origins. They further aimed to initiate substantial links with the Greek-speaking populations of Puglia and to evoke an emotive response from the Greek public regarding the minority status of their “brothers” in South Italy.
During the same decade, further associations were formed in Greece with the aim to “help” the “Calabrian Greeks” who are constantly threatened morally and financially. These associations put forward irredentist propositions based on diasporic arguments, promoting Greece as the motherland and conceptually expanding the borders of the nation. As a result the Grecanici were, and still are, portrayed in Greece as Greeks of the diaspora, brothers, and “of the same blood,” but scarcely as an autochthonous Italian population.
During the 1980s, the second period of dealing with Grecanici minority politics, there was a combined effort from the public institutions in Reggio Calabria and the Grecanico associations to develop the area for tourism. Apart from the language, culture as well as music, food, and dance were advertised as exclusively distinctive and unique Grecanico products, resulting in numerous annual tourist visits to the area. Despite the general euphoria of these events, provoked by alcohol-induced high spirits and the tarantella (traditional dance) performed by exceptional local music groups, I was frequently asked by Greek nationals “why do these people not speak Greek?”8
Defining area Grecanica in purely linguistic terms is not a straightforward matter because Grecanico is spoken only in a handful of villages. Viviana Sacco (2007:70) notes that the present delineation is based on language, history, and culture, thus there are comuni Ellenofoni (with the presence of the Grecofoni) and comuni Ellenofili (friendly to Hellenic culture). In such categorizations terms such as Ellenofoni (Hellenophone), Ellenofili (Friendly to Hellenes), and Grecofoni (Grecophone) confuse matters farther and reveal deep-rooted political and sociological discrepancies. Applied liberally and interchangeably such criteria do not adequately justify the inclusion in the area Grecanica of comuni (municipalities) such as Bagaladi or Brancaleone (non-Greek-speaking in the modern era) and the exclusion of comuni such as Cardedo (Greek-speaking until the beginning of the twentieth century) (70). How far back in history do policy makers need to dig to determine inclusion in the area Grecanica? As many anthropologists have pointed out, notions such as culture, language and history are only partial sources people draw on in their quest for representation (Herzfeld 1985, 1987; Jenkins 1997; Brown 2003; Ballinger 2003; Hirsch and Stewart 2005). Provisional identities as they are, history, culture, and language can be manipulated to serve contextual political and economic purposes. At present, the confines of the area Grecanica provoke a conflict between the interested comuni, materialized on many levels and appropriated according to diverse political views. As many Grecanico associations protest, the desire exhibited by residents of nearby areas to be included in the area Grecanica is mainly dictated by the benefits of financial subsidies (from Italy and the EU) and has little relevance to the Grecanico language.
A Few Words About Reggio Calabria
Research on which this monograph is based was primarily conducted in the city of Reggio Calabria on the toe of Italy, in neighborhoods inhabited by Grecanici after their migration to the city at the end of the 1950s. The city of the agrumi (citrus fruits) and gelsomino (jasmine), Reggio Calabria is the largest urban settlement in the region of Calabria, situated between the Ionian and Tyrrhenian seas. Calabria9 is the most southern region of mainland Italy between Basilicata and the island of Sicily. Mainly mountainous,10 Calabria is divided into five provinces, Catanzaro, Cosenza, Crotone, Reggio Calabria, and Vibo Valentia, all maintaining a certain degree of administrative autonomy.
The province of Reggio Calabria is divided into 99 comuni. The comune of Reggio Calabria covers an area of 236 square kilometers, split into 15 quartieri (neighborhoods). Of a population of approximately 184,500, over 42 percent are employed in wholesale, 11.5 percent in manufacturing, and 10 percent in the construction industry, while only 4.5 percent are involved in agriculture.11 The city itself is an architectural melting pot of the old and the new, a blend of different styles, epochs, and attitudes, with architectural reminders of destitution and despair. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Reggio Calabria was a border town under the Spanish viceroy’s direct administrative control and was repeatedly destroyed by Turkish and Saracen pirates. From the seventeenth century until 1860 it was part of the Kingdom of Naples under the Bourbon dynasty. In places, Reggio Calabria is reminiscent of the medieval city that once was, circled by 17 towers. In 1783 large parts of the urban area were totally destroyed by an earthquake, only to be rebuilt by the Bourbon army under the instructions of the engineer Giovan Battista Mori.
Reggio Calabria was unified with Italy on the arrival of Giuseppe Garibaldi on the 21 August 1860. On 28 December 1908, the city was again devastated by an enormous earthquake that left almost 15,000 people dead (Dickie et al. 2007). Aid arrived immediately from many sources and the city started being rebuilt (Pipyrou 2016). Complexes of baracche (temporary hutments) were constructed in order to accommodate the homeless, with most of the new settlements being named after the benefactors (Villaggio Svizzero, Villini Svezzesi e Novegesi, Baracche Nazionali, Inglesi, Barracchamenti Militari of the Ferovieri, Americani). The baracche, visual reminders of the aid received, were situated on the northern periphery of the city, crowded between the Santa Lucia, Caserta, and Annunziata relief drains and the gardens of the quartiere Santa Caterina.
Citizens of Reggio Calabria, Reggini, exhibit pride in living in the city of Fata Morgana,12 a mythological mirage formed by the reflection of the Sicilian city of Messina on the water of the Messina Strait. Situated on the southwestern coast of the Calabrian region, right opposite the Sicilian port of Messina and facing the snow-capped peak of Mount Etna, Reggio Calabria is blessed with one of the most beautiful coastal promenades in Italy,13 Via Marina (also known as Via Lungomare), which has inspired much poetic and philosophical prose. It is here that monuments and archaeological sites from the classical periods—the Greek Walls and the Roman Baths—are located. On warm and fragrant summer nights Reggini stroll along Via Marina exchanging views on politics, philosophy, culture, and love.
One of the most important locations in Reggio Calabria is Corso Garibaldi with the homonymous Piazza Garibaldi. Together with Via Marina, Corso Garibaldi is the city’s heart, the historical center and the main place for philosophizing, socializing, shopping and flirting. In the area of Callopinace, in the Piazza Duomo situated on Corso Garibaldi, stands the neoclassic cathedral of Reggio Calabria, dedicated to Maria Santissima della Consolazione who, together with San Giorgio, is the beloved patron of Reggio Calabria. The former is celebrated on the second Saturday of September when the devoted Reggini form a glorious procession from the Santuario di Santa Maria della Consolazione, in Eremos, to the cathedral of Duomo. San Giorgio is celebrated on 23 April. In the Piazza Duomo during the patronal celebrations the Reggini honor their patrons by dancing the tarantella amid the sound of the Organeto and the Tamborello.
Grecanici started migrating to Reggio Calabria from their rural villages of origin in Aspromonte at the end of the 1950s to join the small number of relatives that relocated before World War II. Nowadays, the biggest concentration of Grecanici are found in the quartieri of San Giorgio extra14 and Sbarre, while a considerable number also inhabit the quartieri of Ravagnese and Gebbione. They live in kinship clusters where three generations of family occupy the same palazzo (a multilevel building). On their arrival to Reggio Calabria, the Grecanici were met with hostility and contempt because they were perceived as the embodiment of two “negative” traits. First, they were alloglots and as such faced the hostility of non-Grecanico-speaking populations. Second, they were peasant Southerners, thus already “second class citizens” (Pipyrou 2014c). Grecanici thus experienced the stigma of inferiority (Petropoulou 1994:191–92, 1995:4), often called paddhechi,15 parpatuli,16 and tamarriGO17 (all derogatory of peasantry) by the local Reggini. On their part,
