Italian roots and an American footprint… the hidden story of the spread of the mafia around the world | policy

An American historian believes that the United States of America played a pivotal role in shaping the concept of the “mafia” itself and turning it into a global phenomenon that went beyond the borders of Italy and America, although at the same time it contributed to combating organized crime and prosecuting the mafia during the twentieth century.

In an article in Foreign Policy newspaper entitled “How America Created the Mafia,” Ryan Gingeras, professor of national security at the US Naval Postgraduate School, explains that the image of the mafia circulating globally today is not the product of the Italian experience on the island of Sicily alone, but rather is largely the product of the American political, cultural and media experience.

The author begins his analysis by pointing out the enormous impact that the “Godfather” film series, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, had in shaping popular awareness about organized crime. Although Coppola emphasized that his films were not historical documents about mafia leaders, but rather “a story about the nature of power and capitalism in the United States,” they contributed to establishing a specific image of the mafia that became a global reference.

From Sicily to America

Gingeras dates back to the late nineteenth century, when the American press began talking about the “Mafia” as a secret organization that originated on the Italian island of Sicily.

In 1891, the city of New Orleans witnessed the first major scandal linked to the mafia, after an angry crowd killed 11 Italian immigrants who were accused of involvement in the assassination of the local police chief.

The writer says that this incident fueled fears that European immigrants were bringing with them cultures of crime and political conspiracies, but these fears did not turn into evidence at the time of the existence of a vast criminal network.

However, things changed radically with the period of alcohol prohibition in the 1920s, when the huge demand for alcoholic beverages led to the emergence of extensive smuggling networks that linked American markets to external sources of supply.

At that stage, names such as Al Capone, “Lucky” Luciano, and other gang leaders emerged who established more stable and cohesive organizations, sometimes inspired by the traditions of the Sicilian mafia, but within a different American environment.

The writer believes that the American Mafia not only controlled local activities such as gambling and extortion, but also built vast international networks, as American gangsters invested in Havana’s Cuban casinos and established partnerships with drug traffickers in Mexico and Europe.

Washington and the war on crime

But the irony, according to the author, is that the United States contributed at the same time to building the global system to combat organized crime.

As American influence expanded after World War II, Washington began to pressure foreign governments to adopt similar policies to combat drugs and transnational crime.

The United States established specialized agencies to prosecute the drug trade, and later pushed for international legislation targeting money laundering and organized crime.

Gingeras believes that these efforts reached their peak in 2000 when 120 countries signed the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime in the Italian town of Corleone, the birthplace of the famous fictional character in the movie “The Godfather.”

Creating the global image of the mafia

The author emphasizes that American influence was not limited to security policies, but rather extended to shaping the language and culture associated with organized crime.

In the 1950s and 1960s, US Congressional investigations and the testimony of famous mafia boss Joe Valachi helped popularize concepts such as “Cosa Nostra” and explain the organizational structure of American mafia families.

These novels became the basis for the book “The Valachi Papers,” from which writer Mario Puzo inspired his famous novel “The Godfather,” before Coppola turned it into one of the most famous films in the history of cinema.

Since then, terms such as “The Godfather,” “Mafia,” and “Cosa Nostra” have spread throughout the world, to the point that criminal groups in France, Mexico, Turkey, Russia, and Japan have begun to adopt these names or borrow their cultural symbols.

Gingeras concludes that America did not create the Mafia in its direct historical sense, but it contributed more than any other country to transforming it into a global model for organized crime, whether through immigration, the economy, and crime, or through media, cinema, and international policies, so that the “Mafia” as the world knows it today became a phenomenon that carries an American imprint as much as it carries Italian roots.