Malocchio Pinocchio
Lauren Marsico
INTRO Being Italian is synonymous with pride, superstitions and Catholic guilt. These are all rightfully the foundation to which the average Italian home functions. When living in an Italian immigrant home, you might witness things that could seem strange in any other setting. Like when a normal person loses something, they look for it. In an Italian home, you pray; not just in general but specifically to St. Anthony. 9 times out of 10 the item shows up and this becomes definitive proof that it was because Saint Anthony himself granted the devout Catholic his grace. Every good Italian has a statue of
Saint Anthony somewhere in their cluttered kitchen. The little statue of a man in green, clutching his loaf of bread while embracing a lily flower is a staple in every proper Italian home. Now let’s say you seem to have a string of bad luck: your car randomly broke down, your heel broke as you were stepping out of your car, or even your boyfriend broke up with you. In reality, these things happen all the time in the real world and any normal person would chalk it up to just an unfortu - nate luck of the draw; not Italians. Quicker than the speed of light an Italian will inform you that someone without a doubt put the malocchio on you. No, that was not a spelling mistake, and malocchio is not Pinocchio’s distant cousin. Malocchio roughly translates to “evil eye.” And what is the cure to this “evil eye syndrome,” you ask? As an outsider, you might recommend taking some type of medication or even speaking to a professional, but that would entail the problem actually being real and not imaginary. Could it be pray - ing? Close, but no. Maybe the person should think of all the people they have wronged and try to fix whatever issues there are. Again, no.
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