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10/03/2018 08:30 AMTheresa Carrano Argento comes from a family of seven with ties to Amalfi, Italy and a long history in New Haven, particularly in the Wooster Square community. It’s a heritage that has helped to guide her life.
At 95, Theresa has four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren by way of her two daughters, Francis and Nettie. Her family is scattered throughout the area, working in professions from business to teaching and the arts.
“There’s nobody here,” Theresa says. “They’re all out of town and I’m happy when they come to visit.”
A lot has changed since Theresa was growing up around Wooster Square in New Haven, but she and her family has always made an effort to connect with their community through their shared past. Theresa has also worked to revive the annual Columbus Day celebrations that once took place in Wooster Square. Now, the event encompasses communities in towns from West Haven to Branford, and includes events that will take place starting Thursday, Oct. 4 in New Haven.
Theresa grew up in New Haven around Chapel Street and Wooster Square during a time when the Italian population was thriving. Her father opened a well-known shop in the district.
“He was the first market on Chapel Street, but it was not a grocery store,” she says.
The market sold “special foods,” fruit imported from California—pears, oranges, and cherries, all individually wrapped in color-coded paper. But when the stock market crashed in 1929, her father lost everything.
“I remember as a child, young, even in New Haven, business people killed themselves,” she says. “My father never said anything to my mother. He tried to keep the business going.”
When foreclosure was threatened, Theresa’s father took up work elsewhere, leaving her mother, who was born in Italy and hardly spoke English at the time, to run the family business and the children to find work at local shops.
The community around Wooster Square was changed drastically by the “Model City” plan of Mayor Richard Lee in the 1950s. Like many New Haven residents, Theresa and her family were told to move out to make way for the mayor’s urban renewal project.
“I came home from the office—I was in charge of the community development grants, I worked for the city—I came home and my mother was in tears,” Theresa says. “We were looking for homes, we really were. We couldn’t find anything.
“It’s terrible when people tell you, ‘You’ve got to get out,’” Theresa says.
“A lot of people moved out to Hamden, North Haven, East Haven, but a lot of them stayed,” she says. “I teased [East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo], ‘You could have your own Italian festival here.’”
Theresa has worked with St. Michael Church on Wooster Square to preserve it and the events surrounding it.
“My whole life is centered around my church,” she says. “St. Michael’s is the oldest Italian church in Connecticut and we’re keeping it going.” Her commitment to preserving the church started at a young age. On a return trip to Amalfi, Theresa’s mother saw the devastation brought to her home city by the Second World War. She was affected especially by the destruction of the cathedral there. Soon, Theresa’s mother took up the cause of sending money to aid in the rebuilding effort.
“My mother raised a lot of money, a lot, a lot of money for the cathedral,” Theresa says.
Like her mother, Theresa has been involved with raising money for her home church.
Theresa is proud of the fact that St. Michael has been able to continue on its own, without merging with other parishes. To keep the church going, Theresa undertook several fundraisers for the church, even serving as it’s bookkeeper for a time.
She founded the Southern Italy Religious Societies to include religious societies made up of both men and women.
“We still have one fundraiser a year that we donate to the church,” Theresa says. “Everybody has been so wonderful keeping the heritage going.” This year’s celebration, starting on Saturday, Oct. 6, will be a smaller affair featuring a walking tour of Wooster square, entertainment, and, of course, “Italian goodies,” from 11 a.m. to noon. There will also be a screening of a new documentary by Steve Hamm, The Village: Life in New Haven’s Little Italy, an oral history of that community, on Thursday, Oct. 4 from 6 to 8 p.m. at St. Michael’s Church, 29 Wooster Place, with a second showing on Sunday, Oct. 7 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Conte School, 511 Chapel Street, New Haven. For more information, visit www.historicwoostersquare.org.
“There’s so much heritage. You stop and think how this all started and then you try to put the pieces together.”
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