Est. Whitestone, New York · Over 100 Years of Service
Born from the bonds of a shared village, sustained by a century of faith, fellowship, and the unbreakable memory of Sacco, Campania — the place we all come from.
From a small circle of immigrants who found each other on the streets of Queens to one of the most enduring Italian-American heritage organizations in New York City — this is the story of the Associazione Sacchesi D'America.
When the first men and women from Sacco, Campania arrived in New York in the early decades of the twentieth century, they came with very little — a surname, a dialect, and the memory of a mountain village six hundred meters above the sea. What they found in the streets of Queens was something familiar: each other.
The great southern Italian immigration wave of 1880–1924 brought millions of people from the Mezzogiorno to America, most of them poor peasants from small villages who knew no English and had no safety net beyond their neighbors and family. In city after city, immigrants from the same village formed Società di Mutuo Soccorso — mutual aid societies — to care for one another when illness struck, when a breadwinner was lost, when a family needed to bury its dead.
The Sacchesi did the same. The original organization was called the Società di Mutuo Soccorso Gioventu di Sacco — the Society of Mutual Aid of the Youth of Sacco. It was a lifeline, not a social club. The young men and women who founded it understood that survival in the new country required the same thing that survival in the old one had: people who had your back.
As the Sacchesi community in Queens grew and stabilized, they did what the most enduring immigrant organizations do — they bought property. The building at 12-24 149th Street in Whitestone was built in 1915, and it became the physical heart of the association's life in America: a place where the language of Sacco could be spoken, where the food of Sacco could be shared, where the saints of Sacco could be honored.
Owning a building changed the nature of the organization. It was no longer just a mutual aid network — it was a permanent institution. The next generation, and the one after, would have a place to belong. The address on 149th Street became, in time, as much a piece of the Sacchesi story as the village on the hillside six thousand miles away.
Through the middle decades of the twentieth century — through the Depression, through the Second World War, through the postwar boom that brought Italian-Americans into the broader fabric of American life — the Association endured. Its members raised families in Whitestone and the surrounding neighborhoods of northeastern Queens. Their children grew up American, but they grew up Sacchese too.
The organization evolved from its mutual aid origins into something richer and harder to define — a keeper of memory. The August feast in honor of the Madonna degli Angeli, commemorating the miracle that saved the village on August 2, 1656, was celebrated year after year in New York, keeping the founding story alive across generations and an ocean. The feast became the heartbeat of the community: the moment each year when Sacchesi from across the region came together to remember who they were and where they came from.
The association also maintained its two historic sections — a men's section and a women's section — as well as its membership in the Federazione Campania USA, the federation of Campanian-American organizations that connects dozens of village associations across the eastern seaboard.
In 2005, the Associazione Sacchesi D'America received federal recognition as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, formalized under the category of Historical Societies and Cultural Heritage. The transition reflected a broader evolution — from an immigrant survival society into a heritage organization dedicated to preserving and celebrating the history, culture, and memory of Sacco and its American descendants.
The building on 149th Street — now legally owned by the Associazione Sacchesi D'America Inc. — remained the anchor. The feast continued. The connection to the village, and to the story of the miracle of August 2, 1656, remained the center of everything.
On August 2, 2023 — the feast day of the Madonna degli Angeli, the 367th anniversary of the miracle that saved the village — the City of New York honored the Associazione with one of its rarest civic gestures. Queens Councilwoman Vickie Paladino sponsored the official co-naming of 149th Street at 12th Road in Whitestone as "Associazione Sacchesi D'America Way."
The ceremony brought together elected officials, community board members, and the membership of the Association on the very street where their grandparents had built their American lives. It was recognition not just of an organization, but of a century of presence, contribution, and community — and of the village that made them all who they are.
"The association has been a prominent organization within our community for over 100 years and it's important that we recognize the roots of our neighborhoods and the people who made us what we are."
— Councilwoman Vickie Paladino, Queens City Council
The Associazione Sacchesi D'America is led entirely by volunteers — descendants of Sacco who give their time, their energy, and their care to keeping this community alive.
As President of the Associazione, Mario Saggese leads an organization that has served the Sacchese community of New York for over a century — stewarding its traditions, its property, its feast, and its mission of preserving the heritage of Sacco for generations to come.
Oversees the financial stewardship of the Association, ensuring its resources serve the membership and its mission of cultural preservation.
Supports the executive leadership of the Association in its programs, events, and ongoing service to the Sacchese community of New York.
Manages the day-to-day financial operations and record-keeping of the Associazione, maintaining the integrity and transparency that have defined the organization for over a century.
All officers of the Associazione Sacchesi D'America serve without compensation. Their leadership is a gift to the community — an act of devotion to the memory of Sacco and to the families whose stories this organization exists to preserve.
Membership in the Associazione Sacchesi D'America is open to all descendants of families from Sacco, Campania, and to all who share our commitment to preserving the history and culture of this extraordinary village. If your grandparents or great-grandparents came from Sacco, this is your community too.