As a nation state, Italy has emerged only in 1871. Until then the country was politically divided into a large number of independant cities, provinces and islands. The currently available evidences point out to a dominant Etruscan, Greek and Roman cultural influence on today's Italians.
A number of google results indicate that "minga" is Italian slang for a stupid or annoying person. One indicates it is actually from a term for a body part; I am thinking maybe a 7 letter word beginning with a and ending with e perhaps?
My two cents is that he might have been called "minchia mozza" which is a cruel way of calling someone with a minuscule male organ, it literally means: "cut-off penis" 8O
My mom and dad came from two very different classes of Italian society. Dad's mom came from a very aristocrat family and mom's came from farmers and agricultural workers. When my mom's parents came to the US, they left their oldest son Giovanni in the care of my maternal grandmother's parents. I hea...