L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 2025 www.italoamericano.org L'Italo-Americano 2 M u t u a l A i d S o c i e t i e s played a key r o l e i n t h e s o c i a l a n d economic history of the Unit- ed States. During the great w a v e s o f m i g r a t i o n i n t h e nineteenth and twentieth cen- turies, they served as a social l i f e l i n e , o f t e n t h e o n l y response to the basic needs of s u r v i v a l a n d i n c l u s i o n f o r newcomers struggling to find their footing in a linguistic, social, economic, urban, and cul- tural context very different from the one they had left behind. Once they landed in the New World, only their paesani – fellow townspeople – the family safety net, and the Mutual Aid Societies would "lend a hand." These organizations not only guided people through the challenges of city life, from accompanying those who arrived without a word of English to helping them find a decent home or a dignified job, but also provided financial assistance in cases of illness, acci- dent, or death. Without their intervention, thousands would have faced hunger and destitution after losing their sole source of income if, for example, a father died on a construc- tion site or in a mine, or if someone fell ill and could no longer support the family. Little by little, many of these organizations evolved from being mere guarantors of material or financial assistance into engines of social advancement. Because they were built on reciprocity and solidarity among members, they nurtured a sense of community and belonging, strengthened through social events, festivities, and meetings that reinforced bonds. Not only that: by representing the interests of a defined social group, they also took on an important advoca- cy role, working, for example, to defend workers' rights with the broader aim of improving living conditions in the com- munities where they operated, often in collaboration with labor unions and local reform movements. With the introduction of social insurance in the early Mutual Aid Societies: the major cultural role of Italy's "small embassies" From the Editor decades of the twentieth century and the expansion of pri- vate insurance companies, Mutual Aid Societies gradually lost ground in their original mission. This did not mean their disappearance so much as their transformation. Even today, they remain important tools for safeguarding the cul- ture of the communities they bring together and represent; and they continue to support members through scholar- ships, retirement homes, and social centers, while address- ing contemporary social issues such as racial injustice or barriers to health care. The Order Sons and Daughters of Italy in America, head- quartered in Washington, DC, is certainly the largest orga- nization in the United States for men and women of Italian descent. Founded in 1905 as a Mutual Aid Society for the first Italian immigrants to the United States, it now counts hundreds of thousands of members across all fifty states and is perhaps the one that most fully represents the more than twenty-six million Italian Americans in the country. The same can be said of the Società Garibaldina and of the National Italian American Foundation, which, in addition to promoting the rich regional traditions, contributions, and history of the varied and multifaceted Italian American community, works to strengthen bilateral relations between Italy and the United States. But every Society, even the smallest and least known, matters, along with all the culture it carries: each one embodies a piece of Italian identity in America. A few exam- ples: the Società Operaia di Mutuo Soccorso dei Valorosi Figli del Sangro di Scontrone, founded back in 1893 by emigrants from Abruzzo, is today one of the longest-lived associations; its importance lies not so much in the number of members as in the long story it tells. The same is true of the Società di Mutuo Soccorso San Rocco Montescaglioso, based in New Jersey: it testifies to the cultural heritage of a tiny community from Basilicata that managed to survive within the great American melting pot. Founded in 1913, the Società Americana di Storo – another example of strong ties to a place of origin – brings together former emigrants from a small mountain town in Trentino. Today it main- tains connections between expatriates and their homeland, preserving the memory of emigration also through the so- called Oro di Storo, a distinctive yellow cornmeal used to make the region's traditional mountain polenta. All this is to say that while Mutual Aid Societies provided essential assistance to new arrivals, people who in any case formed marginalized communities, these institutions also had the great merit of becoming, and still being today, gen- uine cultural outposts. In many cases, the continued exis- tence of a Casa Italiana, even where Little Italy has van- ished, proved indispensable to preserving the linguistic, folkloric, culinary, social, and cultural heritage that reached the US with courageous Italian emigrants, and to maintain- ing ongoing, two-way ties with their places of origin. Today's town-twinning programs, student exchanges, and "roots tourism" are contemporary terms for this tenacious bond with the distant motherland, a bond that has been carefully sustained and continually renewed. The credit, it should be clear, does not belong only to the Mutual Aid Societies as institutions, but to their members, to the active participants in these "small Italian embassies" who keep gathering in the name of a shared identity. They "resist" the pressures of assimilation and, fully and proudly, preserve the value of remaining a little bit Italian while living a fully American life. Simone Schiavinato, Editor Simone Schiavinato NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS Member of FUSIE (Federazione Unitaria Stampa Italianaall'Estero), COGITO L'Italo-Americano Please send correspondence to P.O. Box 40156 Pasadena CA 91114 www.italoamericano.org L'Italo-Americano Newspaper (a 501(c)(3) non- profit organization), www.italoamericano.org, is the largest and longest-running Italian news- paper in America, not to mention the cultural and news resource for all things Italian in the US. A bilingual newspaper which represents an historical landmark for the Italian American Communities in the West Coast and throughout the US. L'Italo-Americano benefits from subsidies by the Italian Government, Memberships and Donations intended to support and not interrupt a mission that began in 1908 to preserve and promote the Italian language and culture in the USA Periodicals postage paid at Monrovia, California 91016, and additional mailing offices. PUBLISHER Robert Barbera Grande Ufficiale EDITOR IN CHIEF Simone Schiavinato ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGER Patrick Abbate EDITORIAL COORDINATOR Barbara Minafra COPY EDITOR Francesca Bezzone LOS ANGELES CONTRIBUTOR Silvia Nittoli SAN FRANCISCO CONTRIBUTOR Serena Perfetto SEATTLE CONTRIBUTOR Rita Cipalla CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Mariella Radaelli, Matt Walker, Francesca Bezzone, Luca Ferrari, Stefano Carnevali, Paula Reynolds, Teresa Di Fresco Nicoletta Curradi, Generoso D'Agnese, Jessica S. Levy, Fabrizio Del Bimbo, Maria Gloria, Chuck Pecoraro, Anthony Di Renzo Serena Perfetto, Kenneth Scambray, Chiara D'Alessio, Luca Signorini, Giulia Franceschini © 2025 L'Italo-Americano Membership: One year $59 - Single copy $2.25 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to L'Italo Americano P.O. Box 40156 Pasadena CA 91114

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