(Behold my first blog post, a blurry photo of a poster.) After doing some research about the impact of cosa nostra — the Sicilian mafia — on Sicilian life in the 20th and 21st centuries, I was struck and moved by how immediately these traumas became apparent. On the drive to the city or Palermo from the airport, for example, you can’t miss the large memorial to Giovanni Falcone, an anti-mafia judge whose car was blown up by the mafia while he made that same drive in 1992. This is a Falcone quote I loved from a photography exhibit featuring the mafia-related work of Letizia Battaglia, a Sicilian artist known to take photos of mafia crime scenes. A rough translation: “To this city I’d like to say: while men pass through, ideas stay, their moral tensions stay. They’ll continue to walk on the legs of other men. Each man has to continue to do his part, small or large, to help create in this Palermo more humane living conditions.” -AG