Guappo is a word in Neapolitan dialect, meaning thug, bully, braggart, camorrista. It is often used to indicate a member of the Camorra

Camorra

The Camorra is a Mafia-type criminal organization, or secret society, originating in the region of Campania and its capital Naples in Italy. It is one of the oldest and largest criminal organizations in Italy, dating to the 18th century.-Background:...

, a Mafia

Mafia

The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...

-type organisation in the region of Campania

Campania

Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...

 and its capital Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

 in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

.

Etymology

The word derives from the Spanish guapo, meaning bold, elegant, an ostentatious person, and which eventually derives from the Latin vappa, meaning flat wine or scoundrel. The noun guapparía, which is sometimes also used to indicate the Camorra, means arrogance, domineering, braggart. The verb guappia means to behave like a guappo (Camorrista), to be domineering and derives from the Spanish guapear (to feign courage, to flaunt elegance).

The word wop

Wop

Wop is a pejorative racial slur for people from Italy that originated in the United States but is also used in the UK. There is an urban myth that the term "wop" is an acronym for "without papers" as many of the Italian immigrants did not have identification or visas...

, a pejorative American slang

Slang

Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...

 term for an Italian, probably derives from guappo.

The word might be derived from the Garduña

Garduna

The Garduña is said to be a secret criminal society in Spain in the late Middle Ages. It was essentially a prison gang that grew into a more organized entity over time, involved with robbery, kidnapping, arson, and murder-for-hire. Some have claimed to have found documentation listing clients,...

, a fictitious criminal organisation in Spain said to be the precursor of the Camorra. The Garduña was composed of guapos, generally good swordsmen, daring assassins, and committed bandits.

Characteristics

The figure of the guappo is not necessarily synonymous with the Camorrista. It is a historical figure in the Neapolitan

Neapolitan

Neapolitan may refer to:* Neapolitan, of or pertaining to the city of Naples, Italy and sometimes its wider Duchy or Province of Naples** Previously a nationality, during the time of the Kingdom of Naples or the Neapolitan Republics* Neapolitan cuisine...

 area, distinguishable by his smart or overdressed dandy

Dandy

A dandy is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisurely hobbies, pursued with the appearance of nonchalance in a cult of Self...

-like appearance, his unusual pose that serves to draw attention to him, and the particular care he lavishes on his body and face. The guappo could be characterized as "simple" or "posh" according to the clothes he wore: the former preferred extravagant and flashy clothes while the latter loved to dress in clothes from the best tailors in Naples.

Originally, the guappo was rather a violent free spirit; free from the law as well as the "official" Camorra, with his proper code of honour, at once an extortionist, a rectifier of wrong for the local neighbourhood and a benefactor of artists of the café chantant. He was sometimes allied with, and sometimes a rival of the Camorra. Around 1860, a guappo was described as an independent and individualist camorrista.

When the Camorra as an organisation was weak, the guappo flourished. After the first mass trial against the Camorra in 1911-12, and the advent of Fascist rule

Italian Fascism

Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...

 the Camorra as an organisation was nearly destroyed. The local guappo returned and the interwar period (1918–1939) was the heyday of the individualist guappo power. After World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, with the return of the Camorra, the figure of the guappo eventually merged into the organisation. A typical guappo of that era was Pasquale Simonetti, also known as "Pascalone ‘e Nola", who controlled the Naples fruit market. He was married to Pupetta Maresca

Pupetta Maresca

Assunta Maresca better known as known as Pupetta was a former beauty queen who became a well-known figure in the Camorra...

 and famous for publicly slapping American Mafia boss, Lucky Luciano

Lucky Luciano

Charlie "Lucky" Luciano was an Italian mobster born in Sicily. Luciano is considered the father of modern organized crime in the United States for splitting New York City into five different Mafia crime families and the establishment of the first commission...

, at the Agnano

Agnano

Agnano is a volcanic crater in Napoli, Italy, situated northwest of Naples in the Campi Flegrei region. It was popular among both Greeks and Romans, and was famed for its hot springs....

 racetrack.

In art and popular culture

The Guappo is present in Neapolitan drama, music and literature, such as the Neapolitan song "Guapparia" by of the poet Libero Bovio

Libero Bovio

Libero Bovio , was a Neapolitan lyricist and dialect poet.Bovio was one of those responsible for the rejuvenation of Neapolitandialect in plays, poetry and song at the beginning of the twentieth...

, in works of the author Raffaele Viviani

Raffaele Viviani

Raffaele Viviani was an Italian author, playwright, actor and musician. Viviani belongs to the turn-of-the-century school of realism in Italian literature, and his works have to do with seamier elements of the lives of the poor in Naples of that period, things such as petty crime and prostitution...

, and the journalists Ferdinando Russo

Ferdinando Russo

Ferdinando Russo was a prominent Neapolitan journalist primarily remembered as a dialect poet and composer of song lyrics. He was also the author of a small volume, La Camorra, about organized crime in Naples, serialized in five installments in 1897 in il Mattino, still the largest Neapolitan...

 and Matilde Serao

Matilde Serao

frame|Matilde Serao.Matilde Serao was a Greek-born Italian journalist and novelist. She was the founder and editor of Il Mattino, and she also wrote several novels.-Biography:...

. The famous comedian Totò

Totò

Prince Antonio Focas Flavio Angelo Ducas Comneno De Curtis di Bisanzio Gagliardi, best known by his stage name Totò and nicknamed il principe della risata was an Italian comedian, film and theatre actor, writer, singer and songwriter...

 played a guappo in The Gold of Naples

The Gold of Naples

The Gold of Naples is a 1954 Italian comedy film directed by Vittorio De Sica. It was entered into the 1955 Cannes Film Festival.-Plot:The film is a tribute to Naples, where director De Sica spent his first years, this is a collection of 6 Neapolitan episodes: a clown exploited by a hoodlum; an...

  a 1954

1954 in film

The year 1954 in film involved some significant events and memorable ones.-Events:*May 12 - The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx divorces wife Marion Benda...

 Italian

Cinema of Italy

The history of Italian cinema began just a few months after the Lumière brothers had patented their Cinematographe, when Pope Leo XIII was filmed for a few seconds in the act of blessing the camera.-Early years:...

 comedy film

Comedy film

Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 directed by Vittorio De Sica

Vittorio de Sica

Vittorio De Sica was an Italian director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement....

. The Neapolitan composer of operas Domenico Cimarosa

Domenico Cimarosa

Domenico Cimarosa was an Italian opera composer of the Neapolitan school...

 features a Guappo in his 1786 opera Il credulo.