Legends of Little Canada: Aunt Rose, Harvey’s Bookland, and My Captain Jack

On the cusp of becoming a teenager, Charlie Gargiulo lived through the planned destruction of the Little Canada neighborhood of Lowell, Mass., in the 1960s. This is his story. He went on to become a legendary community organizer who led efforts to ensure people would have decent housing and a fair chance to earn a living and make a happy life for themselves.

--Charlie Gargiulo

Charlie Gargiulo’s writing has appeared in The New Lowell Offering, Spare Change, Merrimack Valley Magazine, The Lowell Review, Atlantic Currents: Connecting Cork and Lowell, and Résonance journal at the University of Maine, Orono.

He grew up in Dracut and Lowell, Mass., served in the military, and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.

He founded the Coalition for a Better Acre, a nationally recognized community development group. The International Institute in Lowell honored him as one of the 100 most important leaders in Lowell who have worked on behalf of immigrants.

He lives outside of Boston.