NEW YORK CITY - THE GANGSTER MOB TOUR

Hi my dear friends. Today we are going to know a bit more about gangsters, New York and the Mafia.

Hola mis queridos amigos. Hoy vamos a conocer un poco más sobre gangsters, Nueva York y la Mafia.

Info: Speak Up magazine.

Photos: NuevaYork.es  /  nycgangstermobtour.com  /  nycgangstersandghosts.com  /  freetours.by.foot/  untapped.new.york.

THE GANGSTER MOB TOUR - NEW YORK

If you want to find more about the dark side of New York history, then you should try the "NYC Gangster Mob Tour".  It concentrates on an organization that still fascinates people:  the Mafia.

Italians had been moving to New York since the 1880s, but this story begins during the Prohibition era. 1928 was the start of the Castellammarese War, between rival Sicilian-born gangsters: Giuseppe "Joe" Massaria and Salvatore Maranzano (from Castellammare del Golfo).  The conflict also involved two Jewish gangsters, "Bugsy" Siegel and Meyer Lansky, and another Sicilian, Charlie "Lucky" Luciano.  Massaria and Maranzano were both killed in 1931. At this point Luciano emerged as the most powerful mafioso and decided to divide control of New York among five families.  Unlike most Sicilian mafiosi at that time, he worked with crime families from other Italian regions and with Jewish and Irish gangsters. In this way he effectively created "organized crime".

NOLITA

Much of the violence of the Castellammare War took place around Mulberry Street. Today New Yorkers refer to this area as "Nolita" or "North of Little Italy".  This is now one of Manhattan's most chic neighbourhoods and is full of fashionable shops and bars, but back in the Prohibition era it was home to speakeasies.  It was also the favourite haunt of gangsters. Their memory lives on in the many movies that have been filmed around here, like "The Godfather, Goodfellas, Donnie Brasco and American Gangster.

MEET THE MAFIA

The Mafia may be a sensitive issue for Italian Americans, but in New York City it's also a form of tourism thanks to the NYC Gangster Mob Tours.  Lucky Luciano who was born in Sicily in 1897 and who died in Naples in 1962, features prominently in the tours. 

When the Italians came over New York, some of the immigrants snuck in and they weren't the better people of the Italians that immigrated there. They were known as the Black Hand. They were a group of extortionists that used to extort money from all the Italian storekeepers that were in New York city, with threats of killing them or bombing them if they wouldn't give them what they asked for.

Charlie Luciano was a gentleman who was a big-time mobster and he was also the founder of the Five Families in New York and the creator of what is known as "organized crime". He used to hang out in this neighbourhood, he lived on the Lower East Side, made lots of money during this time of Prohibition and eventually in gambling and other things. On the block of Mulberry Street, was the Gambino crime family territory, and if we walk up the block, you will be able to see what was the Ravenite Club which was the social club run by the Gambino crime family where John Gotti, the head of the family, was caught by the FBI.

ON LOCATION

Italian Americans tend to hate the many fims and TV shows that portray them as mafiosi and, not surprisingly, there are plenty of film locations in the Gangster Mob Tours. Mulberry Street is full of restaurants. These ones were fronts for all the mob families, especially the Colombo and the Genovese families. They would use the restaurants to hold their meetings, either in the back room, the basement or upstairs.  A famous Tour is called Mulberry Street Bar, and it is where the movie "Donnie Brasco" was filmed, the very opening scene at the bar inside and also the TV show from HBO, "Sopranos". Mulberry Street Bar was used as the Averna Social Club in the series.  Further down the block there was a shooting in 1972 of a gentleman named Joe Gallo who was a capo in the Colombo crime family and was accused of killing Joe Colombo the year before.

VOCABULARY

UNLIKE: a diferencia de  /  SPEAKEASY: bar clandestino  /  HAUNT: lugar frecuentado  /  TO SNEAK IN: entrar furtivamente  /  STOREKEEPER: tendero  /  THREAT: amenaza  /  MOBSTER: gangster, mafioso  /  EVENTUALLY: finalmente  /  GAMBLING: juego  /  BLOCK: manzana de calles  /  TO PORTRAY: RETRATAR  /  FRONT: tapadera  /  THE MOB: la Mafia.

THE BAILEYS STORY - THE CREAM OF IRELAND / LA HISTORIA DE BAILEYS - LA CREMA DE IRLANDA.

Hi my dear friends. Today we will know a bit more about a beverage that, for sure, we have tasted, or not but that it is worldwide famous: BAILEYS and that it is "The Cream of Ireland".

Hola mis queridos amigos. Hoy conoceremos un poco más sobre una bebida que seguro hemos probado, o no pero que es mundialmente conocida: el BAILEYS y que es "La Crema de Irlanda".

Photos: www.theorchardcentre.com  /  Info: Speak-up magazine.

Baileys Irish Cream was invented, for the international market, in 1974. There is no Mr or Mrs Bailey: the name was used purely for branding.  Before 1974, attempts to blend and stabilise alcohol and cream had failed. Today, Baileys is the world's top-selling liqueur brand. Every minute, more than  2,300 glasses of Baileys are drunk across 180 countries.

THAT SWEET TASTE

So how is Baileys made? The basic ingredient is cream. The milk is produced on 1400 Irish farms and is transported to a facility in County Cavan where the cream is separated. The cream, alcohol, and whiskey are then homogenized to form an emulsion, to prevent the separation of the whiskey and cream. The 17 per cent alcohol content preserves the cream. The final product is made in Belfast. Today, the brand is the property of the drinks giant Diageo, the owner of Guinness. There are different flavours: coffee, crème caramel, mint chocolate, and hazelnut.

ON THE FARM

Baileys opened one of its dairy farms to the public in 2002: this is the Orchard Centre at Hayden Farm in County Wicklow.  The Hayden Family has been farming for four generations.  The 140 Frisian cows grazing happily outdoors are called "Baileys Ladies". You need to book in advance.  Businesses even send their employees here for some original team-building exercises.

MEET THE LADIES

You could be forgiven for thinking that the delicious drink, Baileys Irish Cream, has been around for a long time. In actual fact and as it has been commented above,  it was invented in 1974. The cows that provide the cream live on 1400 different farms in Ireland. You can, however, visit one farm in County Wicklow, and enjoy the "Baileys Experience". The Orchard Centre at Hayden Farm is home to 140 Frisian cows that are also known as the "Baileys Ladies".  John Hayden explains that when groups come to visit the farm and the focus of their visit is the whole Baileys Experience, as well as meeting the Baileys Ladies themselves, the cows that produce over a million litres from the farm every year, they are also introduced to Baileys: they are shown how Baileys is made, the different ingredients, the different flavours...

The visitors are shown some very really new and exciting ways of drinking Baileys, like the frappé Baileys, which is great for summertime barbecues, and it's a real fun, interactive experience. 

And after having met the Baileys Ladies, and visiting the farm, to see the very natural way the cream is produced and after tasting Baileys, they realize what is the spiritual home of Baileys.

In order to meet the "Baileys Ladies" you must book in advance but as Joe Hayden thinks, it's worth the wait because you can find there some wonderful activity-based and team-building programmes that are focused on the whole Bailey's concept.

The most popular one is the "Build a Baileys Cow" event that lasts about an hour and a half where your group are broken down into teams of maybe 12 or 14 people per team.  They are taken out to the pasture where they can see what is called the "Parade of Champions".  That is where they take the five top cows from their dairy herd and give a commentary on the characteristics that make the perfect Baileys cow: how she looks, how she walks, the beaufitul legs, and other vital statistics that are essential to having the perfect Baileys cow.

The teams are then invited, using a sketchboard, to design their own perfect Baileys cow. They are then provided with about 300 black-and white latex balloons, balloon pumps, tape, art material, cane posts, timber and they have to physically build their own Baileys cow. It's so funny!  When the cow is finished, they must then build a transportation system for the cow, using Guinness barrels and pallets and other materials from around the farm. And finally, they have the "Baileys Grand Prix". This is where they line up all these beautiful ladies on their transport systems and... all the teams have a Grand Prix Race to the milking shed.

VOCABULARY

FOR BRANDING: para la designación de la marca  /  ATTEMPT: intento  /  TO BLEND: mezclar  /  TO FAIL: fracasar  /  TO GRAZE: pastar  /  SHORT GLASS: copita  /  ORCHARD: huerto  /  TO FORGIVE: perdonar  /  TO BREAK DOWN:  dividir  /  PASTURE: prado  /  DAIRY HERD: ganado lechero  /  CANE: caña  /  MILKING SHED: cobertizo donde se ordeñan las vacas. 

MORE INFO

For more information on the drink's history, ingredients, etc  visit: www.baileys.com. If you can get 10 Baileys fans, you can visit The Orchard Centre www.theorchardcentre.ie  at the Hayden FArm in Co. Wicklow, a 90-minute drive south of Dublin.  The nearest train or bus station is Gorey.