Mutual Soccorso!

$11.00

By Tim Devin with illustrations by Pat Falco
Free the Future Press, Sommerville, MA 2023
Pages: 88
Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.5 in
Cover: Paper
Binding: Saddlestitch
Process: digital
Color: black ink cover and interior
Edition open edition
ISBN: none

Librarian/publisher/historian/digger/researcher Tim Devin is back again with a zine that's really more like a book on a subject you may not have known existed, and now will be incapable of resisting. Tim Devin is always turning up interesting alternative histories in the place where he lives and this new title builds on the thoughtful library he's been creating from his outpost in Sommerville.

From the publisher:

In the early 1900s, there were over 150 Italian mutual aid societies in the Boston area. They provided Italian immigrants with much-needed social and material support, and quickly expanded to become visible forces in the local Italian community--hosting parades and public celebrations, and raising money for causes.

A hundred years later, these Italian mutual aid societies are all but forgotten--and were nothing more than vague family stories for me (my ancestors were members of some of these societies). As mutual aid groups sprouted up again during the pandemic, I remembered these family stories, and started doing some digging.

The zine draws on material from archival records, books, local Italian-language newspapers, and good old-fashioned microfilm. Along the way, we learn how these societies operated, where they came from, where they went--and where they went wrong.

This publication includes illustrations by Pat Falco, a Boston artist who is also descended from members of Boston's Italian mutual aid societies.

Current Stock:

Weight:

0.80 LBS

Width:

9.50 (in)

Height:

6.50 (in)

Depth:

0.50 (in)

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