For the past 128 years, the Christopher Columbus Italian Society in San Antonio has been known for many things: Homespun spaghetti dinners at its Italian Hall; charitable works; a beautiful, historic downtown church. Sure, there was the Ladies Auxiliary — after all, that spaghetti didn’t make itself — but to truly become a member of the society, you had to have a Y chromosome.

That all changed Sunday when the CCIS inducted almost 30 women members after a revision to its bylaws that was a dozen years in the making, the head of the heretofore fraternal organization said. “It had to be voted on and approved by a two-thirds majority of the membership, and that took some doing,” President Richard Granato said. “Several years back, we missed it by one vote.”