La Cosa Nostra

             Perhaps one of the most poignant moments in American cinema is the closing scene in the
             film "The Godfather" when Don Vito Corleone's son Michael takes over his father's position...
             and one of the most unforgettable moments, a severed horses's head lies bloody in a man's bed. It
             is this tradition and brutality that characterizes the Mafia, a secret Sicilian society that lives and
             functions just as much today on American soil as it did and does still in Italy.
             To understand this organized crime, one must begin to understand how it came to be
             organized in the first place. During the medieval times in Sicily, Arabs invaded the land and native
             Sicilians fled and took refuge in the hills. Some of these refugees formed a secret society that gave
             protection to the people in exchange for money. This group took their name, "Mafia" based on
             the Arabic word for refuge. In America today, one can hear it also be called "La Cosa Nostra", or
             "This Thing of Ours." In the 1700s,Wealthy people would receive a card with a black hand drawn
             on and if they did not pay the money, they could expect murder, theft, and violence.
             During the time Mussolini was ruling Italy, this secret society was under heavy persecution
             and many fled to the United States. "Don (term for the boss or head of a Mafia family) Vito
             Cascio Ferro fled to the United States in 1901 to escape arrest. He is known as the Father of
             American Mafia." (La Cosa Nostra) Many Italian immigrants came to the United States through
             Ellis Island in New York, which is today the most important center of organized Mafia crime in the
             United States. The new American Mafia came to power during the Prohibition by organizing the
             sale of outlawed alcohol, but after Prohibition was revoked, the Mafia needed a new "racket."
             During the war, the Mafia got government issued ration sta...

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La Cosa Nostra. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 07:34, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/49798.html