Stories, Streets, and Saints
Photographs and Oral Histories from Boston's North End
- 272 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Stories, Streets, and Saints
Photographs and Oral Histories from Boston's North End
About this book
A time capsule of a classic Italian American neighborhood, told in the voices of its inhabitants.
Stories, Streets, and Saints documents the history of an important Italian American neighborhood, Boston's North End, from the age of immigration at the turn of the twentieth century to the era of neighborhood upheaval in the "New Boston" of the 1980s. Drawing on years of fieldwork, on-site photography, and scholarly research, Anthony V. Riccio records, translates, and transcribes compelling oral histories of elderly Italian American storytellers who weave social history in their unique village idiom, providing an intimate look at daily life in an Italian American neighborhood. Testimonies of post-Unification southern Italy reconstruct the dire social and economic conditions that caused millions to pursue the promise of America. Rare firsthand stories of the Spanish Flu offer timely narratives in the wake of COVID-19, and eyewitness descriptions reconstruct the horrific Molasses Explosion of 1919. Riccio's own photographs from 1979 to 1983, along with images from old family albums, illustrate these oral histories, creating a lasting record of the experiences of Italian Americans, who, like many other ethnic groups, contributed mightily to the building of America.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- In Memory of My Friend, Anthony Riccio: 1952–2022
- Foreword
- 1 Life in Southern Italy at the Turn of the Century
- 2 Leaving Italy for the Promise of America
- 3 The Journey to Boston
- 4 A New Life in the North End
- 5 Becoming an American Citizen
- 6 The Italian Mother
- 7 The Italian Father
- 8 The Oral Tradition: Family Stories, Dialects, Folktales, and Prayers
- 9 Italy and the North End in World War I
- 10 Garlic Necklaces, Camphor Bags, and Shots of Anisette: The Spanish Flu Pandemic in the North End
- 11 The Molasses Explosion
- 12 Italian American Street Life
- 13 Going to School
- 14 Justice Denied: Sacco and Vanzetti
- 15 The Depression in the North End
- 16 Seamstresses and Factory Workers: Italian American Women at Work
- 17 Making It in the North End: Italian American Men at Work
- 18 Making Wine, Drinking Wine
- 19 Life in the Tenements
- 20 Sicilian Fishermen in the North End
- 21 Miracles, Societies, and Processions
- 22 Christmas in the North End
- 23 Irish and Italians
- 24 Refugees in the North End: West Enders Tell Their Stories
- 25 Local Politics
- 26 Gangsters and Racketeers
- 27 Life in a Cold-Water Flat
- 28 The Changing North End
- 29 The Old Waterfront and the New Boston
- 30 Poor Tenant, Poor Landlord
- 31 Meglio Pane e Cipolla, e Sola
- Epilogue: Anthony’s Gift to Us
- Notes
- Index
- Back Cover