blogpost 1 : Life of being a Mafia sibling

When I hear the word: mafia, I start to remember the greatest mob gangsters of the past, like Al Capone, John Gotti, Sammy Gravano, Vincent Gigante and a whole lot more. These are mobsters known to be the most feared people in the mafia industry. Although there are a lot of obvious meanings to what a mafia can be, why do these people come into mind? They are atrocious and tremendous mobsters who have dreadfully mind-blowing operations that a normal person can't take. Some mobsters chose to be in the mafia because of their financial status. You can't judge the book by its cover. Although, how does their business affect their family lifestyle? Is what they portray in the mobster movies true? 

  I found the article entitled "My father, New York's most feared mafia boss" story of Rita Gigante, article written by Jane Mulkerrins in the website "www.telegraph.co.uk". I was very interested in this topic because I had the opportunity to find out more of what the mafia business is about. It interested me to find out what is it like to be a sibling of a mafia boss. 

According to the article, Rita is the daughter of the mafia boss. She has seen many different things in her early life and is still remembered until this present time. However, Jane Mulkerrins points out that the life of being a sibling of a mafia boss in the 1970's, had come to reflect what a mafia sibling in today's society. 

It is stated that Rita at age five has seen her father beat up a guy with his hands and feet. Rita was just a little kid that time, she was still on the verge of childhood. She was very confused of seeing what her father did not understand it, but she was traumatized and shocked. Although after seeing those things, her father was able to make Rita feel that she is still in normal family. The business matters of her father was kept in secret, so it won't affect her childhood. 

The article stated that Rita finally knew that her father was in the mafia business when she was 16 years old. Her father's business was still segregated from her seeing it. “I didn’t even know how to begin to deal with the fact that he was a murderer, and all the horrifying, illegal things that he was involved with to gain money and the power,” she says. “It took me an awfully long time to really work all that out.”  Years and years of having her father's identity, it manifested real physical and psychological symptoms like: crippling stomach conditions, anxiety, panic attacks, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

It is mentioned how Rita's father came from the bottom unto the top. Both of her parents came from poor Italian-immigrant families. They we're very conscious and careful with money. According to Rita, her upbringing was comfortable, Rita was far from being the Mob princess of legend, club-hopping across the city, dripping in diamonds and wrapped in furs. There were no large cars, exotic holidays or other gaudy symbols of wealth. 

It is amazing how she was able to live and got separated from the mob life, she is now a spiritual healer after her father's death in the year 2007. “It was a huge adjustment, but it was a shift that my mother needed, the whole family needed, because they didn’t know how to say no to him, they didn’t know how to be their own person,” she says. 

Rita Gigante at age 46.

We obviously know what mafia mobsters do in particular. In today's society, there are a lot of games that portray the story and what mobsters really do. But in this particular blog, we heard about what it's like to be a daughter or a son of a mafia boss. But there is one more article that says the same. This article I found was entitled "Sammy 'The Bull' Gravano: my dad, the mafia underboss" story of Karen Gravano, article written by John Grace in the website theguardian.com.

 In this authentic article, Karen knew everything her father does. Including her father putting a gun into his pants. It is really hard for people to understand what it's really like to have a father who was a mafia and had illegal and organized crime. However, her father's image of being a mafia underboss affected her regularly. She even got on television for it, the reality show called "Mob Wives". the reality TV show Mob Wives says more about the current status of the mafia in New York as it does about the public's enthusiasm for scripted reality shows. 

In the article, Karen tells that she saw her father putting a gun to his belt, and even the safe of her father which has 2 million dollars inside. When her father got jailed, she struggled and tried to do the things her father had done. She was lurching from one bad relationship to another, dealing drugs and winding up on probation after a police operation that also saw her father, brother and husband jailed. She tried to apply a negative perspective in order to get what she thought she wanted. 

Karen Gravano at age 40, present time. 

All through out this stories we learn to avoid on growing and learning what are the things that are morally right to the eyes of the people. Is knowing your father as a mafia mobster and having your family name in jeopardy an easy thing to handle? Its easy to judge people with their outside appearance, but knowing them is the hardest part. You get to know the idea of extreme and mind-blowing adventure on what is it like to be a daughter or a son of a mafia mobster, or a  mafia boss. All I can think of now is, how do mafia mobsters think?