The 1960s and 1970s were times of war, protests, drugs, and Rock & Roll. The Vietnam War is a misunderstood event in U.S. history. Few Americans know what happened there, and many Americans are incognizant of what happened in Vietnam and Cambodia after America pulled out in 1975. The American people and the press forgot the national nightmare called Vietnam, as millions of atrocities were committed in South East Asia.
Marco and his friends saw hell in Vietnam. Some of Marco’s friends died there. Marco came to Brooklyn, in 1958, when he was eleven years old. Marco was in love with America and New York City: the large streets, the large cars, the tall buildings. Since he was six years old, Marco had longed to see the Manhattan skyscrapers that he had seen only in postcards that his grandmother, had sent him in Italy. When he finally came to America, Marco was elated with the adventure that lie ahead. But he was also sad to leave his friends behind in Italy, and he wondered how America would be. Would he make new friends? How would he learn the dreadfully difficult English language?
Marco came to Bushwick, Brooklyn amidst times when street gangs become fashionable in American inner cities. Fueled by movies made in the 1950s, by actors like James Dean and Marlon Brando, about young rebels who had no respect for the law and society.
In 1958, Anglo Saxon American street bullies permeated the streets where Marco lived in Bushwick. They called him and his friends guinea wops and stole their money. The boys were determined to fight back against those that would usurp their dignity. They began exercising with barbells and became muscular, big and strong. Joe, one of Marco’s best friends, became a superhero, at times protecting those who were with him from the assault of a horde of hostile guys, at dances in Brooklyn, Queens, and in Greenwich Village, Manhattan.
In the early 1960s, the Mafia was unknown to the general public. People thought the Mafia had died with the times of Al Capone and Lucky Luciano. But Marco and his friends lived with the Mafia, although they did not know it. One of Marco’s friends had an older brother who was a high-ranking member of the Mafia Brotherhood, having repercussions on their lives.
Marco had a gentle soul that wanted desperately to be in love and find reciprocated love with the girl of his dreams. Marco’s favorite actress was Marilyn Monroe, she evoked feelings of love in him. Marco hungered for love day and night and found sweet love with beautiful, voluptuous and sensual Francesca. But Francesca and Marco could not fulfill their love because Francesca’s brother, Carlo “the Bull” Giordano, was a member of the Brotherhood and wanted to keep his sister as pure as the Virgin Mary. Carlo wanted to marry his sister to the son of a high-ranking member of the Family upper echelons. It would help his career as a rising star in the criminal New York Family of Godfather Nino DelVecchio.
Marco had a strong passion for music and wanted to become the world’s greatest concert pianist. He practiced the piano four hours a day. His favorite composers were Frederic Chopin, Ludwig Van Beethoven, and Franz Liszt. He played their music, read their biographies, and listened to their music. In his music, Marco found solace from his heart wrenching relationship with Francesca that could not be fulfilled and tormented his soul. Marco and Francesca saw each other furtively only once or twice a month, when they cut high school to be together. They spent their day in a movie theatre, kissing and cuddling passionately.
Marco had another passion: bodybuilding. He wanted to win the Mr. America title, and he dreamed of playing on stage Liszt Rhapsody #2, the day he won Mr. America.
In 1966 the boys were drafted into the Army and went to fight in Vietnam. Gino was a helicopter pilot; Joe an infantry platoon leader; Tony was a tunnel rat. Marco had currier and administrative duties in Vietnam, although he came close to dying a few times: in a kidnapping, friendly fire, and base camp under attack by the enemy.
In Vietnam, Marco met Felix Lopez, who was an intellectual. Felix fell in love with Thien Lan, a beautiful, educated Vietnamese girl who taught children in an orphanage. The children were made orphans by the enemy, who raided Vietnamese villages and killed those that they deemed were American sympathizers.
After being discharged from the Army, Felix went back to Vietnam illegally, to marry Thien Lan. They had two children and remained in Vietnam due to Thien Lan’s family. But after America pulled out of Vietnam and the country fell into communist hands, Felix and his family saw hellish horrors and carnage in brutal communist re-education camps, that were worse than the Nazi concentration camps.
Through the 1970s and 1980s, the Mafia transformed itself, and the Godfather position exchanged hands a few times, culminating with a new, flashy Godfather in the 1980s. He removed the secrecy the Mafia had for many years, with his flamboyant lifestyle, always in the news and on TV. Vinny Strotti gained the Godfather throne by killing his boss, Godfather Bruno Lugano.
Eventually, the dapper Don, Vinny Strotti, was betrayed by his under boss Carlo “the Bull” Giordano, who turned State’s evidence to save his neck. Carlo got pinched in a drug distribution network that operated via the guise of pizzerias in what became known, in the 1980s, as the, “Pizza Connection.”
The 1990s gave way to the 2000s. Racial injustice ended symbolically in 2008, with the election of the first black President. Grave issues faced America in the dawn of changing times. It became imperative to solve the challenges that America faced, especially those that dealt with international terrorism and the safety of American cities. The devastation of the World Trade Center on 911 impacted Marco and his friends.
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