I was inspired to write my blog text by the first of the\nthree, \u201cAdelina\u201d, written by Neapolitan-born Eduardo de Filippo (1900\u20131984).\nThe story is set in the populated central quarters of Naples in the 1950s where\nAdelina Sbaratti, a poor married woman, portrayed by Sophia Loren, is\nstruggling to sustain her unemployed husband and child by illegally selling\nsmuggled foreign cigarettes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For me, \u201cAdelina\u201d provides us with a textbook example of how\na morsel of legal literacy, defined here simply as legal knowledge and\nknow-how,[1]<\/a> spread\norally to a large number of common Neapolitan workers. This group portrayed as\npicking up a useful piece of legal knowledge includes hundreds of men, women\nand children living in the Forcella in the historical centre of Naples and barely\nexisting above subsistence level. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The episode starts by a lorry driving to the flat of Adelina Sbaratti and her husband Carmine, played by Marcello Mastroianni, in order to confiscate Adelina\u2019s immobile property. She had failed to pay her fine of 28,000 lire <\/em>for smuggling tobacco, and the sum has nearly doubled because of accrued expenses and interest. A crowd of curious neighbours has gathered to see Carmine waiting for the enforcement official and his assistants and letting them into the couple\u2019s apartment that has been stripped of all the furniture they earlier possessed. The official leaves empty-handed announcing that the matter is now out of his hands and instead belongs to the court. The lorry having turned the corner, the neighbours immediately start bringing back the hidden furniture from all directions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Carmine and the neighbours rejoice priding themselves for\nhaving tricked the official, but the passing advocate Domenico Verace mocks\nthem for being such ignorant analphabets and not realizing that they have\njumped from the frying pan into the fire. Pressed to explain himself, Verace\nobserves that the authorities will have the last laugh, as the carabinieri<\/em> will arrive to arrest them\nfor their crime and take them to gaol for breaking section 384 of the penal\ncode. Alarmed, Carmine and his friends ask the advocate to elucidate the\nsection to them, as they are ignorant of the law. As the flat and the immobiles\nare in Adelina\u2019s name, she will be going to prison for fraudulently avoiding\ndistraint, the advocate explains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Carmine and his friends persist in following Verace to\nhis home, while Adelina is being sent for \u2013 she is selling foreign cigarettes\non the street together with many other women. The advocate expounds to Carmine\nand his friends, who have had invaded his home, that nothing can be done at\nthis point. Adelina arrives and loudly exclaims that she is the sole\nbreadwinner of the family as her husband has been unemployed since his\ndischarge from military service. She needs to sell cigarettes outdoors all day\nlong come rain or shine in order to provide for him and their child. Now some\nswine would arrest her. Advocate Verace\u2019s face lights up when he sees Adelina\u2019s\nbig belly \u2013 she is obviously in an advanced stage of pregnancy: \u201cBut wait! She\ncannot be arrested.\u201d Carmine, surprised, queries: \u201cHow come, advocate?\u201d \u201cNot\nwith that belly!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The fact that Adelina cannot be arrested \u201cwith the belly\u201d\nstarts travelling from mouth to mouth in the Forcella district. From women to\nwoman, from the beer vendor on the street to his customers and from neighbour\nto neighbour this news spreads like wildfire. Soon even the urchins march in\nincreasing numbers on the streets chanting \u201cwith the belly, cha-cha-cha\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Thus, the film described how the knowledge that pregnant\nwomen will evade a prison sentence during pregnancy by pleading their belly became\nrapidly known among those dozens or even hundreds of Neapolitans of all ages who\nheard it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Legal literacy could and can be acquired in many different\nways, and one such means – as the film demonstrates \u2013 is consulting an expert.\nAs Carmine and the people did not know the law, their seemingly cunning\nstrategy of hiding the confiscated property backfired completely without their\neven realizing it. It required a lawyer to point out this. The same advocate\nalso suggested the legal means of temporarily avoiding prison, i.e. pleading\npregnancy. Several persons then learned this expert advice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the film, having left advocate Verace\u2019s home, Adelina\nexplains at dinner with their friends what she learned from the advocate.\nAccording to Italian law, pregnant women have immunity from arrest during their\npregnancy until six months after delivery because they nurse their babies. The\ncouple plan successfully to have another child on the way before the end of the\nlegal six-month respite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When policemen arrive to arrest Adelina, she hands them a\ndoctor\u2019s certificate of her pregnancy. Later, when the officials raid the\nstreet and all the other tobacco vendors scatter in panic, Adelina puts calmly\naway her contraband and demonstratively shows the uniformed men a certificate\nand the baby and starts nursing it. The soldiers drive away in their jeep.\nConsequently, Adelina and Carmine use this defence successfully several times,\nand whenever the carabinieri <\/em>come to\narrest her, she produces again a certificate of pregnancy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Through Adelina, the whole community of the Forcella came to acquire certain legal literacy. Namely, another means of acquiring some legal literacy was learning about the contents of the law by word of mouth. People talked about their legal problems and lawsuits with their family members and friends and discussed various means of handling them. What the law said in the case, what legal stratagems to use, whether to hire a lawyer and if so, whom, were debated by ordinary people. Peer learning was a way of acquiring some legal skills and knowledge as has also been discussed in previous texts in this blog. (Mia Korpiola: Entisajan k\u00e4r\u00e4j\u00e4tunnelmia moraliteettien ja kielikiistojen maustamana \u2013 Eino Nyyss\u00f6l\u00e4n Laamanni Str\u00f6mberg ja h\u00e4nen apulaisensa (1924)<\/a> and K\u00e4r\u00e4j\u00e4t ja niiden oikeudelliset toimijat Eino Nyyss\u00f6l\u00e4n romaanissa Laamanni Str\u00f6mberg ja h\u00e4nen apulaisensa (1924)<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although the illiterate kids chanting \u201cwith the belly, cha-cha-cha\u201d hardly learned all the intricacies of Italian criminal law enforcement through such oral communications, they did acquire a modicum of legal literacy through exposure to other people\u2019s legal experiences and litigation. Thus, \u201cAdelina\u201d visualizes neatly some mechanisms of learning about the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the reader may want to know what becomes of Adelina,\ni.e. Sophia Loren, in the film and the uses she makes of her newly acquired\nknowledge of the criminal law. SPOILER ALERT: Adelina and Carmine use the legal\ndefence successfully for several years. By that time, the couple has seven\nchildren, and Carmine starts cracking under the strain. The doctor diagnoses\nexhaustion and undernourishment. Dealing with Carmine\u2019s impotence, Adelina\nconsiders being impregnated by another man but prefers going to gaol with her two\nyoungest children. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The inhabitants of the Forcella start to collect money to shorten Adelina\u2019s gaol spell, and Carmine again receives advice from the advocate Verace that the going rate is 5000 lire<\/em> per day. The whole sum, corresponding to 64 days in gaol is collected, and Verace has put together a petition to the President of the Republic for mercy. Verace gives an interview to the press in an attempt to shorten the pardoning procedure by influencing public opinion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Adelina receives her pardon. Journalists, Carmine and her\nfive children meet her at the gaol door when Verace accompanies her and her two\nchildren from prison. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The episode ends with the people of the Forcella\nrejoicing on the streets and welcoming Adelina, and finally, with the family leisurely\nenjoying each other\u2019s company during her first morning of liberty. Advocate\nVerace will help her again should she again have trouble with the law. The End.
Courtesy of Harvard Art Museums\/Fogg Museum, Transfer from the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Social Museum Collection. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Courtesy of Harvard Art Museums\/Fogg Museum, Transfer from the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Social Museum Collection. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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