Veneta Society, Torrington, Connecticut. July, 1990.

One of the most common images of Italian neighborhoods is the "social club", or the "social and athletic club." Most urban sociologists of my generation were introduced to a rather deracinated version of them by William Foote Whyte in the classic Street Corner Society (1943). The more sinister version of the club is promoted by writers in popular Mafia movies and books such as Mario Puzo’s Godfather series, which is quite accomplished in spatial semiotic imagery. The most "accurate" vision of this local social phenomenon is an unremarkable storefront of a regionally or town-based immigrant organization which provides a place for mature males to drink, play cards, and share conversation. I have chosen to display this particular photograph taken in Torrington, Connecticut because it re-presents the seldom noted Northern Italian origin of a minority of Italian Americans, and because it is not stereotypically located in a densely populated urban Little Italy. Perhaps as an indication of successful Americanization, instead of the proverbial bocce court, I found a horse shoe pitch in the backyard of the building.

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