Ausonia Club Oral History Project oral histories

The Ausonia Club--one of the oldest women's clubs in Northampton, Massachusetts--was founded in 1921 by Anacleta Vezzetti, a member of the Smith College department of Italian. The purpose of the club was to bring together Italian-American immigrant women, many of whom were mill workers, in order to keep alive the traditions, language, and culture of their native land; and to help the members meet the challenges of living in this country. Over the years the Ausonia Club--whose name is taken from the poetic designation for the prehistoric nucleus of the Italian people--met once a month in the homes of its members to read, study, and help others by making contributions to the city's charities and to victims of disasters in Italy and elsewhere. With the passing of time, the Ausonia membership expanded to include non-Italian women with an interest in the political and cultural affairs of Italy. In 1951, Vezzetti passed the torch of the club's leadership to Helene Cantarella, who remained its "scribe" until 1993. In 1959 the group established the Ausonia Club Prize for the best essay on a subject related to Italian culture written by a student at St. Michael's High School. After St. Michael's closed, the prize was awarded to a student at Northampton High School. The Club also established the Anacleta C. Vezzetti Prize Fund at Smith College in 1976. The prize is awarded the senior who writes the best paper in Italian on any aspect of Italian civilization.

The Ausonia Club Oral History Project was inaugurated by Lella Gandini in 1984, and carried out with the help of Gisele L'Italien for the next four years. The two women conducted two or more interviews with six of the remaining Ausonia Club members, Silvia Viola Aprile (1905- ), Tranquilla Anna De Bastiani (1904- ), Lucrezia Bellantuono Duseau, (1917- ), Ida Lossani Rescia (1889-1987), Vittoria Giacomina Savino (1898-1987), and Mariannina Grimaldi Venturo (1906- ). Ida Rescia's son, Richard, and Lucrezia Bellantuono Duseau's brother, Vito Bell, were also interviewed. The aim of the project was to preserve the experience of a group of small-town Italian-American women, since most work of this sort has been focused upon immigrants to large urban areas. Lella Gandini, herself Italian-born and raised, brought to the project extensive knowledge of Italian dialects, and experience studying Italian-American women and conducting oral history interviews. Gisele L'Italien, who holds a B.A. in sociology from Smith College, conducted interviews in the course of her studies and is also fluent in Italian.