The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti is ahistorical novel by the American novelist and screenwriter Howard Fast (1914-2003), in its first edition in 1953 . It tells the story in 18 chapters of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two anarchist Italian emigrants who arrived in the United States in 1908, were wrongly accused of the murder of a cashier and a vigilante and the theft of more than $ 15,000 in a shoe factory from South Braintree ( Massachusetts ) on April 15, 1920.
In 1971 it was adapted to the docudrama format, by the Italian Giuliano Montaldo. The film presents a dramatization of the events surrounding the Sacco and Vanzetti case.
Summary
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- 1 Synopsis
- 1 Argument
- 2 Literary summary
- 2 Characters
- 3 Letter from Nicola Sacco to her children
- 4 Textual words cited by the characters
- 5 Sources
Synopsis
Rigged murder trial in Massachusetts, which lasted from 1920 to 1927. Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two anarchist Italian emigrants who arrived in the United States in 1908, were charged with the murder of a cashier and a vigilante and the theft of more than $ 15,000 at a shoe factory in South Braintree, Massachusetts, on April 15, 1920. The execution of Sacco, a shoemaker by trade, and Vanzetti, a peddler of fish , in 1927 sparked unanimous international rejection.
Argument
Just as the last 18 hours of these two men have elapsed, since they both wake up on August 22 , 1927, until they are executed in the electric chair shortly after midnight.
As the last moments of their lives pass, both show courageous dignity and solid faith in their political ideals, the global campaign for their freedom that has been maintained during the seven years of the process reaches unprecedented magnitudes: in all countries cities took place demonstrations and strikes; In many nations, consultations were carried out at the government level, recommendations for clemency.
But the only human being capable of saving them, the governor of Massachusetts , a potentate full of xenophobic and anti-communist hysteria, remains undaunted in his luxurious Boston mansion . And it is that Sacco and Vanzetti actually died because they were leftist military personnel, as well as immigrants, and the reactionary propaganda needed to associate them with common crimes and dehumanize them. Such is the clear lesson of this painful and uplifting novel.
Literary summary
In 1920, in the United States of America after a bomb attack attributed to the anarchist movement and never claimed by anarchists, the security forces and local authorities investigated immigrants, especially Italians. This process was held in Massachusetts and lasted from 1920 to 1927. Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti , two anarchist Italian emigrants who arrived in the United States in 1908 , who are arrested on charges of murdering the cashier Frederick Parmenter and the vigilante Alessandro Berardelli, in addition to the $ 15,776.51 armed robbery from shoe factorySlater-Morrill Show Company , on Pearl Street .
The execution of Sacco, a shoemaker by trade, and Vanzetti, a peddler of fish, in 1927 , aroused unanimous international rejection. [1] The process not only demonstrates his innocence, but also the willingness of the United States authorities to carry out an act of political retaliation, in the form of a death sentence, that punishes the two Italian anarchists in an exemplary manner. The numerous mobilizations and protests of the local community, not only Italian, but also members of numerous liberation committees were of no use.
It also explains how Vanzetti, trying to collaborate and later avail himself of the clemency of the court, to later repent and the courage of Sacco, who from the first moment did not bow to pressure, refused to make clemency petitions, giving full proof of his innocence . Both Vanzetti collaborating and Sacco in his position, were sentenced to die in the electric chair. This process made it clear that both were murdered only for their anarchist ideology, and a clear example of the instrumentalization of the justice system in defense of the political interests of the conservative majority who understood the sentence as a lesson.
Characters
- Nicola Sacco. Protagonist of the story
- Bartolomeo Vanzetti. Protagonist of the story
- Celestino Madeiro. Twenty-five-year-old thief and murderer, who will serve his death sentence alongside Sacco and Vanzetti.
- Mayor of Charlestown Jail. A reckless man that no one in the upper echelons, his superiors will take him as the representation of the law that was inside the prison, a man with a good heart as far as his work allowed him, a philosopher for others.
- The Duce. Relatively young man, muscular, with cold feelings, lacking in kindness, humanity and little respect for the lower classes.
- Governor Massachusetts. A short man, very rich, cruel. Main culprit in the unjust death of Sacco and Vanzetti.
- Prison doctor. In charge of the care of the inmates.
- Journalist ‘. In charge of interviewing Nicola Sacco’s wife to see what her feelings were the morning of her husband’s execution.
- Rosa Sacco. Nicola Sacco’s wife.
- Professor of Criminal Law. Jewish, brave, determined, with a good heart and with a great sense of justice, in charge of defending the case of Sacco and Vanzetti.
- Rector of the university. Ruthless man, with strong xenophobic instincts and expressions, anti-Semitic , detractor of the cause of Italians.
- Captain of the state police. A loyal military man, tough-minded, who does his duty and doesn’t give explanations.
- Prison electrician. In charge of checking the proper functioning of the electric chair in which the sentence of Sacco and Vanzetti would be carried out.
- Minister of Labor. Personal advisor to the Governor of the state of Massachusetts, cold man, calculating, and anti-communist.
Letter from Nicola Sacco to her children
My dear son and companion:
Since the day I last saw you I have intended to write you this letter, but the length of my hunger strike and the fear of not being able to explain myself satisfactorily made me postpone it all this time.
The other day I ended my hunger strike and as soon as I did, I thought about writing to you, but I discovered that I didn’t have the strength, and that I couldn’t write it all at once. However, I want to do it before they take us to the House of Death, because I am convinced that as soon as the court refuses to grant us a new trial, they will take us there. And between Friday and Monday, if nothing happens, they’ll electrocute us, minutes after midnight. That is why I address you with open arms and a heart as full of love as I have always had.
If I interrupted my hunger strike the other day, it was because there was no more energy left in me. Because I protested with my hunger strike yesterday as I protest today for life and not for death. Now, instead of crying, be strong, so that you can comfort your mother, and when you want to distract your mother from her terrible grief, I will tell you what I used to do for it. He took her for a long walk, to walk through the countryside, to gather wild flowers here and there, to rest under the shade of the trees, between the harmony of the murmuring stream and the serene tranquility of Mother Nature. I’m sure she likes this a lot, and I know that then they will both be happy there.
But always remember, Dante, help the weak who ask for help, help the persecuted and the victims, because they are your best friends; They are the comrades who fight and fall like your father and Bartolo fought, and fell yesterday for the conquest of the joy of freedom for all the poor workers. In this fight of life you will find much love and be more loved.
I have thought a lot about you when I was in the House of Death – the songs, the tender voices of the children who played in the yard, where there was all life and the joy of freedom – just a step away from the wall that encloses the buried agony of three buried souls. It reminded me at every moment of you and your sister Inés, and it made me want to see them continuously. But I am glad that you have not come to the House of Death, so that you have not been able to see the horrible painting of three men lying in agony, waiting to be electrocuted, because I do not know what effect it would have caused to your sensitive little souls. . But on the other hand, if you weren’t so sensitive, It would be useful to you tomorrow when you can use this horrible memory to show the world the shame of this country in this cruel persecution and in this wrongful death. Yes, Dante, they can crucify our bodies, just as they do today, but they cannot destroy our ideas; those will remain for future youth.
Dante, I tell you once again to love and comfort your mother and loved ones in these sad days and I am sure that with your brave heart and your great kindness they will feel less miserable. And don’t forget to love me a little bit either, because I love you. Oh, my son, I think so much about you! With the best fraternal affections for all the loved ones, my affection and my kisses for little Inés and for mother.
The strongest hug.
Your father and partner.
PS: Bartolo sends you many greetings. I hope your mother will help you understand this letter, because I could have written better and in a simpler way if I felt good. But I am very weak.
Nicola Sacco
My dear Inés
I would like you to understand everything that I am going to tell you, and I would like to be able to write in a very simple way because I burn with the desire that you receive all the heartbeats of your father, because I love you very much and you are what that there is more expensive for me on earth.
It’s really hard to make you understand some things at your tender age, but I’m going to try from the bottom of my heart to make you understand how dear you are to your father’s soul. If I don’t succeed, I know that you will keep this letter and read it for years to come and you will see and feel the same heartbeat of love that your father feels when he writes it to you.
It was the greatest treasure and sweetness in my life of struggle to have been able to live with you and with Dante and with your mother in that little villa, and to receive sincere words and tender affections from all of you. Later, in the summer, I will sit with you in the gazebo, in the shade of the big oak, begin to teach you the things of life, and to read and write, to see you run, laugh, cry and sing through those green fields, cutting flowers wild here and there, climbing a tree, running from the clear stream into his mother’s embrace.
I know that you are good and that you love mother, Dante and all the loved ones; and I’m sure you love me a little too, because I love you a lot. You don’t know, Inés, how many times I think of you in the course of a day. You are in my heart, in my eyes, in every corner of my sad cell, in the sky and wherever I look.
In the meantime, give my regards to all friends and comrades, and twice to loved ones. My love and my kisses for your brother and for your mother.
With the most affectionate kiss and the ineffable caress of the one who loves you so much that he thinks of you constantly. With regards from Bartolo to all of you.
Your father
Nicola Sacco
Textual words cited by the characters
Nicola Sacco : «I never knew, never heard or read in History of something as cruel as this court. After six years of persecuting us, they still believe us guilty … “or a frank social accusation enters:” I know that the ruling will be between two classes: the oppressed class and the rich class. We give the people books, literature. You persecute the people, you tyrannize and kill them. We always try to educate the people. You try to put a barrier between us and other nationalities, so that they hate us. That is why I am here on this bench, for having been from the oppressed class. And you are the oppressors.
Before the Christmas holidays, Bartolomeo Vanzetti told the judge: «You waited a month, no, a month and a half, and communicated your decision on Christmas Eve , exactly on Christmas Eve… I believe that you have done that, communicate your decision on Christmas Eve, to poison the hearts of our relatives and other loved ones ». Also in that speech the ending is considered a poem in anthologies of the United States. Also the words of Vanzetti and that Howard Fast reproduces, are a current proclamation: «I have suffered and I suffer because I am a leftist militant, and it is true, I am. Because I’m Italian, and it’s true, I am. I have suffered more for what I believe than for what I am; but I am convinced that I am right, that if you could kill me twice, and I could be reborn two more times, I would go back to living as I have done so far ».
For the Anglo-Saxon rightists and conservatives the death of Sacco and Vanzetti is still a problem. For social activists around the world, they are a sample of the radical obscurantism of the rulers of the United States. The two Italians are a symbol of civil resistance, social struggle and the demand for justice. Like the writer Howard Fast, he is a nuisance to the social group of wealthy exploiters. And therefore his work is little spread. The same in Mexico, and more so now when the right wing, the imitators of the Yankee exploiters, reached high government positions. Although it was also in the recent past. Several editions of his novels, narrations and even reproductions of his journalistic articles from the last decade and the beginning of this 21st century are obtained, where he faces the repressive and warlike policy ofBush and his gang.
