Community Corner
Author Event: Farms, Factories and Families: Italian American Women of Connecticut by Anthony Riccio
Farms, Factories and Families: Italian American Women of Connecticut by Anthony Riccio documents the rich history of Italian
American working women in Connecticut, including the crucial role they
played in union organizing. Mr. Riccio will speak about his book at the Hagaman Memorial Library, 227 Main Street in East Haven on Saturday, May 3 at 2:00 p.m. Copies of Farms, Factories and Families will be available for sale and signing following the author presentation. This event is free and open to everyone. Registration is required. Please register by visiting the Library, call us at 203.468.3890 or email Cynthia at cgwiazda@hagamanlibrary.org.
Often treated as background figures throughout
their history, Italian women of the lower and working classes have
always struggled and toiled alongside men, and this did not change
following emigration to America. Through numerous oral history
narratives, Farms, Factories, and Families documents the rich
history of Italian American working women in Connecticut. As farming
women, they could keep up with any man. As entrepreneurs, they started
successful businesses. They joined men on production lines in
Connecticut’s factories and sweatshops, and through the strength of the
neighborhood networks they created, they played a crucial role in
union organizing. Empowered as foreladies, union officials, and shop
stewards, they saved money for future generations of Italian American
women to attend college and achieve dreams they themselves could never
realize.
The book opens with the voices of elderly Italian American women,
who reconstruct daily life in Italy’s southern regions at the turn of
the twentieth century. Raised to be caretakers and nurturers of
families, these women lived by the culturally claustrophobic dictates
of a patriarchal society that offered them few choices. The
storytellers of Farms, Factories, and Families reveal the
trajectories of immigrant women who arrived in Connecticut with more
than dowries in their steam trunks: the ability to face adversity with
quiet inner strength, the stamina to work tirelessly from dawn to dusk,
the skill to manage the family economy, and adherence to moral
principles rooted in the southern Italian code of behavior. Second- and
third-generation Italian American women who attended college and
achieved professional careers on the wings of their Italian-born
mothers and grandmothers have not forgotten their legacy, and though
Italian American immigrant women lived by a script they did not write, Farms, Factories, and Families gives them the opportunity to tell their own stories, in their own words.
“Anthony Riccio’s collection of women’s oral histories is an
extremely valuable addition to the growing literature regarding Italian
American women’s lives. The detail in which these women speak about
their work lives as charcoal burners, clay kneaders, cheese makers,
union organizers—one had her ribs broken—adds a much needed dimension
to an understanding of Italian American women. This volume is filled
with thoughtful reflections ranging from Mussolini to issues of social
justice. Riccio has unleashed from these women dramatic and sometimes
harrowing stories never before heard, or perhaps even imagined.” —
Carol Bonomo Albright, Executive Editor of Italian Americana and coeditor of American Woman, Italian Style: Italian-Americana’s Best Writings on Women.
“What comes more naturally to the elderly but to reminisce? Riccio
helps us eavesdrop on the first-person oral narratives of some of our
earliest immigrants. We are grateful to him.” — Luisa Del Giudice,
editor of Oral History, Oral Culture, and Italian Americans.
“I have long awaited a book like this: a history of Italian
American women, in which they themselves are the narrators of their own
lives. We hear from women without formal education; women who were
workers, migrants, and mothers; women whose stories were often not
valued enough to enter into the historical record, much less the
archives. This beautifully conceived history is both a testament and a
tribute to all working-class and im/migrant families and communities.” —
Jennifer Guglielmo, author of Living the Revolution: Italian Women’s Resistance and Radicalism in New York City, 1880–1945.
Anthony V. Riccio is Stacks Manager at the Sterling Memorial Library at Yale University. He is the author of The Italian American Experience in New Haven: Images and Oral Histories and Boston’s North End: Images and Recollections of an Italian-American Neighborhood, and the coauthor, with Silvio Suppa, of Cooking with Chef Silvio: Stories and Authentic Recipes from Campania, also published by SUNY Press.
Additional parking for library events is available in the East Haven Town Hall parking lot across the street from the library or in the Old Stone Church lot adjacent to the library.
American working women in Connecticut, including the crucial role they
played in union organizing. Mr. Riccio will speak about his book at the Hagaman Memorial Library, 227 Main Street in East Haven on Saturday, May 3 at 2:00 p.m. Copies of Farms, Factories and Families will be available for sale and signing following the author presentation. This event is free and open to everyone. Registration is required. Please register by visiting the Library, call us at 203.468.3890 or email Cynthia at cgwiazda@hagamanlibrary.org.
Often treated as background figures throughout
their history, Italian women of the lower and working classes have
always struggled and toiled alongside men, and this did not change
following emigration to America. Through numerous oral history
narratives, Farms, Factories, and Families documents the rich
history of Italian American working women in Connecticut. As farming
women, they could keep up with any man. As entrepreneurs, they started
successful businesses. They joined men on production lines in
Connecticut’s factories and sweatshops, and through the strength of the
neighborhood networks they created, they played a crucial role in
union organizing. Empowered as foreladies, union officials, and shop
stewards, they saved money for future generations of Italian American
women to attend college and achieve dreams they themselves could never
realize.
The book opens with the voices of elderly Italian American women,
who reconstruct daily life in Italy’s southern regions at the turn of
the twentieth century. Raised to be caretakers and nurturers of
families, these women lived by the culturally claustrophobic dictates
of a patriarchal society that offered them few choices. The
storytellers of Farms, Factories, and Families reveal the
trajectories of immigrant women who arrived in Connecticut with more
than dowries in their steam trunks: the ability to face adversity with
quiet inner strength, the stamina to work tirelessly from dawn to dusk,
the skill to manage the family economy, and adherence to moral
principles rooted in the southern Italian code of behavior. Second- and
third-generation Italian American women who attended college and
achieved professional careers on the wings of their Italian-born
mothers and grandmothers have not forgotten their legacy, and though
Italian American immigrant women lived by a script they did not write, Farms, Factories, and Families gives them the opportunity to tell their own stories, in their own words.
“Anthony Riccio’s collection of women’s oral histories is an
extremely valuable addition to the growing literature regarding Italian
American women’s lives. The detail in which these women speak about
their work lives as charcoal burners, clay kneaders, cheese makers,
union organizers—one had her ribs broken—adds a much needed dimension
to an understanding of Italian American women. This volume is filled
with thoughtful reflections ranging from Mussolini to issues of social
justice. Riccio has unleashed from these women dramatic and sometimes
harrowing stories never before heard, or perhaps even imagined.” —
Carol Bonomo Albright, Executive Editor of Italian Americana and coeditor of American Woman, Italian Style: Italian-Americana’s Best Writings on Women.
“What comes more naturally to the elderly but to reminisce? Riccio
helps us eavesdrop on the first-person oral narratives of some of our
earliest immigrants. We are grateful to him.” — Luisa Del Giudice,
editor of Oral History, Oral Culture, and Italian Americans.
“I have long awaited a book like this: a history of Italian
American women, in which they themselves are the narrators of their own
lives. We hear from women without formal education; women who were
workers, migrants, and mothers; women whose stories were often not
valued enough to enter into the historical record, much less the
archives. This beautifully conceived history is both a testament and a
tribute to all working-class and im/migrant families and communities.” —
Jennifer Guglielmo, author of Living the Revolution: Italian Women’s Resistance and Radicalism in New York City, 1880–1945.
Anthony V. Riccio is Stacks Manager at the Sterling Memorial Library at Yale University. He is the author of The Italian American Experience in New Haven: Images and Oral Histories and Boston’s North End: Images and Recollections of an Italian-American Neighborhood, and the coauthor, with Silvio Suppa, of Cooking with Chef Silvio: Stories and Authentic Recipes from Campania, also published by SUNY Press.
Additional parking for library events is available in the East Haven Town Hall parking lot across the street from the library or in the Old Stone Church lot adjacent to the library.
We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here
