The Godmother by Barbie Latza Nadeau

Author:Barbie Latza Nadeau [Nadeau, Barbie Latza]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2022-09-06T00:00:00+00:00

6

Toxic Parents

Police refused to let her attend her murdered toddler’s funeral, out of fear it could spark a gangland war if she showed up.

Pupetta’s surviving children never had a dependable father figure. But Pupetta’s relationship with her own father was formative. He was caught up in the trade of contraband cigarettes, and Pupetta remembered hiding his stolen goods in her dollhouse. He was not a top-tier crime boss, but he was well respected among the ranks of the Camorra. “I loved Papa dearly,” she said. “He was such a role model to us all. He taught us so much about what is important and how to read people.”

In Italy, the father-daughter relationship is a special one, with many fathers treating their daughters like princesses and fiercely protecting them from what they consider to be unqualified suitors. Like so many other facets of organized crime, the familial structures that exist in the larger Italian society provide the context for mafia families, too. It is no secret that Italian society also tends to embrace the mother-son relationship, with an abundance of thirty-year-old “mammoni” who don’t leave Mamma’s home until they can move straight into their wife’s, so they’ll never have to actually cook for themselves or do their own laundry. This holds especially true in mafia families.

Roberto, Pupetta’s son with Umberto, is a case in point. He had odd jobs, mostly thanks to family friends, and even owned a car dealership in Rome. But he had trouble keeping steady work, undoubtedly because of his family baggage. When Mom has been convicted for murder no less than twice and Dad’s a pentito, it is hard to get anyone to give you the keys to anything.

Pupetta’s only daughter, Antonella, was more of a confidante to her mother, at times living in her house and taking her to doctor’s appointments or bringing in groceries, and certainly protecting her in her old age, though it is hard to say exactly from what. Antonella wanted to monetize her mother’s notoriety. She would sell her mother’s interviews and tried desperately to stop her mother from talking to anyone unless there was a transaction of some sort.

Loyalty among daughters in mafia groups is often as unbreakable as it is easily manipulated. Jole Figliomeni, the daughter of the powerful Figliomeni crime family, with its tentacles extending from Calabria to Canada, is one of the best examples of how far a daughter will go to please her father.

Jole is a strong blond force to be reckoned with. Her social-media profile—when it was still available—was a bulletin board of glamour shots and selfies, often showing her on the arm of men in dark sunglasses or sitting on very nice cars. She has an international sense of style, mostly garnered from visiting family in the northern suburbs of Toronto, where she told me she spent at least some of her high school years, though finding a record of attendance at her supposed alma mater has proven impossible. She is multilingual, speaking English, French,

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