Maria Oliverio, known as Ciccilla: a spinner, wife of Pietro Monaco, the best-known brigand woman of the South.
Maria Oliverio was born on 30 August 1841 in Casole Bruzio, today Casali del Manco, in the province of Cosenza. A spinner by trade, she married Pietro Monaco at seventeen. When he became an outlaw she spent some months in prison.
Back home, her life broke apart in a family tragedy involving her sister Teresa. Maria fled into the forests of the Sila, joined her husband and, after his death, took over the leadership of the band.
Captured many months later, she was tried on dozens of charges and sentenced to death; King Victor Emmanuel II commuted the sentence to life imprisonment. Where she served it is not known for certain. In the video the song is performed live at Tarantarsia in 2015, with KiDiDa.
In the book you will find
- the lyrics of this song in dialect, with an Italian translation
- photographs of the places and the people
- Salvatore Mazzei's own account and the Calabria of those years
Salvatore Mazzei is not a historian: he gathers stories and tells them in music. These lines are a starting point for anyone who wants to look up the sources and form their own view.