LI'L PETE'S KIDDY KORNER - AN INTERVIEW WITH AN ITALIAN IN BENSONHURST

I went to Bensonhurst to talk to Eye-talians about the Mafia. I was worried I was going to get whacked if I accidently asked the wrong wise guy about this Brooklyn neighborhood's famous brand of organized-crime. I got off at the 20th Avenue stop on the N-line. Here, according to an MTA employee stationed behind bulletproof glass, is Bensonhurst-proper. Bensonhurst is so far away from North Brooklyn it took me three tries to not only snag this exclusive interview with a real "American-Italian" but to even find the dang place.

I encountered Giovanna Valerio in a Laundromat. Normally when you edit interviews it's nice to clear up any verbalized pauses or redundancies, but Giovanna was so sweet and "American-Italian" listening to her speak was like listening to Lorraine Bracco en concerto with Ray Liotta sing about warring battalions of thick-crusted pizza slices. Gelato. Accordingly, I've done my best to relay her speech as accurately as possible.

Li'l Pete: How long have you been here? 30 years you said?

Giovanna: I have lived here since '76. I was born in Italy. I was five years old. Palermo, Sicily.

You moved here with your parents when you were a girl.
We were two girls two sisters who came here with our parents. We lived 10 years in Manhattan on Third Street. When the rent moved up my father decided to move us to Brooklyn. That was in '68.

Bensonhurst was a really Italian neighborhood back then, right?
Yeah it was a very Italian neighborhood and New York too. Brooklyn had a lot of Italians. But it all has changed. There used to be Jewish people here in this neighborhood, too.

Did the Jewish people come after the Italian people?
Chinese Italian people moved from my block and some Jewish people started moving in. But no too many Chinese people.

Well, I see a lot of Chinese restaurants. It looks like it's becoming a Chinese neighborhood around here.
Yeah, Chinese people are the greatest. I like them yeah.

You said the kids in the schools are in gangs.
Yeah, they come out and they start throwing things in here. Then the cops come and they watch out where they are.

Do you think these kids are going to get picked up by the mafia?
I don't know about the mafia. Sometimes when I to pick up my granddaughter, they have them tied up like this [makes wrists-handcuffed-behind-back motion]. The kids must be doing something bad.

What's it like living in an Italian neighborhood? Does the mafia still live here?
They said used to when they lived in Brooklyn, you know, with the Gambinos and everything. Then John Gotti.

He used to have an apartment in Bensonhurst.
Yeah, he used to have an apartment but I don't like to know about these things.

Why's that?
They killed people and everything you know it's depressing.

It is depressing. When you were a girl did you worry about the mafia growing up?
No, no. We grew up very casual, very care-free. There was no worry at all.

Well right, OK. The mafia probably had no problem with you because you're Italian, right? Who would you call in the event of an emergency: the police or the mafia?
The Police.

You'd call the police?
The mafia was undercover, really. They didn't bother anybody.

Well, if you didn't pay up they might bother somebody.
Yeah, but you felt safe. We lived in a building about four stories high and there were about 28 families. We always left our doors open. It was very safe in New York. No killing no nothing. Nobody was robbing nobody.

When did people start killing each other in New York?
In 1956 we came to America and it was very safe.

Times Square wasn't very safe in the '50s.
No? Well, in Times Square people come from a lot of sections. But Avenue A, Mulberry Street, Canal Street: they were good. You've heard about those areas, right?

No.
You haven't heard of those areas. It was Little Italy.

But now the Italians all live in New Jersey.
New Jersey and Staten Island are popular.

Have you thought about moving to New Jersey?
Yeah I would but my husband doesn't want to move. He likes Brooklyn but it's more nice over there. It's quiet and it's better for the children.

Is the neighborhood changing?
Yeah, it's changing, yeah, yeah. A lot of Jewish people are moving here. There's not too many Italian people. They bought a house on our block, but they don't bother us, they don't bother us.

Do you wish more Italian people would come back?
No, not really, no. I don't like Italian people that much.

Why not?
So many are just sticking their noses into your business. And it's better to have a mixture on your block than everybody of your own kind. I think it's better.

On YouTube there's this Italian-Bensonhurst photoslide, and this one woman, she said she's 25 and Italian, was leaving all these comments saying that people in the neighborhood who aren't Italian don't have any class, that they don't have manners. She said they don't appreciate family the way Italians do, and that Bensonhurst should only be occupied by Italians. Is that a viewpoint you encounter?
Italians don't care about their neighbors what do you mean?

Ah, this Italian woman was saying--
What no manners, no class? That's not true. Every nationality, everybody is good…. [But]I don't think Italians are so great. [Laughs.] Everybody's good in their own way. A mixture, right? I like Jewish people, I like Italian people. My son goes out with this Chinese girl for six years. I love them all, you know what I mean? They're wonderful. Their women don't bother you. I don't have nothing against them you just need to talk to people. You have a fantastic time with the Black people too. The Italians the Italians they overdo it. It's like they made it a goal that everybody else is just a piece of cardboard. I don't like that.

What about when Italy won the Copa Mundial?
Oh, let them lose the Cup let's forget about the World Cup. They have no class the Italian people because they think they're like so much better than everybody else. We're all equal in this world.

What do you think of crazy Italian pride?
They want to stand out, mostly, they want to stand out you know? You see the Italians they're all dressed up they're at the cafes why don't they go do something more important than standing around the cafes? You noticed that? I don't like that.

I've read that some American-Italians say the Russians are lazy and Polish people, too. "Polacks" they call them.
The Italians are lazy too though. They smoke the cigarette, they're all dressed up and everything.

Are they on welfare?
I don't know they're always in and out of work.

Maybe those are the mafia people.
[Laughs.]

You think they're Mafiosi?
I go to Italy and I see these people at the cafes and here on 18th Avenue. They go to cafes and they drink play cards and stand outside.

I wouldn't talk back to those guys. I bet they're in cahoots!
Yewh.

Are you more of an American-Italian or an Italian-American.
American-Italian. My mother and father were born in Italy too. When we lived in Brooklyn the Chinese people had the house and they sold it and my brother bought the house.

Do you hear Italian around here anymore?
Yeah yeah. My kids speak Italian to their father and to me too. We try to keep up the language. [To a passerby] I'm getting interview over here [laughs]! Oh it's so good the Italian language. I taught my daughter when she was small Italian--you know it's good to learn two languages--and when she got older she met her husband and he's Italian and they speak Italian. I mean I'm not saying you have to marry Italian to get married she could choose. It came in handy the language you know?

What does the word guido mean? That's Italian.
I don't know.

You've never heard that word before? It's a derogatory term for American-Italians who are way [I make the "Eye-talian" gesture with my open palms] guido. It means "trashy Italian", basically. You've never encountered that?
No. In Italian the word "guido" means you guide me, you're a guide. I don't know this word the way you said.

OK. So are Italians white or black?
White? Mostly white.

So you're saying they're a little bit black, too?
Yeah. Because there's the southern part of Italy the other part, you know?

Is there anything else you want to add about being an American-Italian in Bensonhurst?
Oh no. I never had no problems. Nobody ever tried to rob me or hit me or nothing you know what I mean I feel safe. Nothing ever happened to me.

You never heard of somebody getting "whacked" by the mafia?
[Laughs.] If they're going to whack me somebody's going to get whacked? No.

OK. How about a car bomb? Have you ever seen that?
A car explosion oh yeah? Naw no. Have you?

No.

LI'L PETE