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Oral history recording with Mario Subacchi. Recorded as part of the Italian Memories in Wales project (2008-10), delivered by ACLI-ENAIP and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Summary part 1 00.20 Mario was born on 16th May 1923 in Bardi. He lost his parents Carlo Subacchi Teresa Priza [ph] at seven years old. His family had an Ironmonger business in Bardi; they sold stoves, steel pipes, lead, ploughs. He and his brothers were put in a private school, after nine years he left and returned to Bardi. He recalls how his tutor took him back to see his old house for the first time. He was employed in land surveying for the government for a while, yet after 12 months war broke out and work was stopped. He then joined the army and was captured in Tunisia in 1943. He went in a prisoner of war camp until the end of 1944 and then joined the British pioneer corp. In 1947 he discharged himself and went back to Italy.

04.01 Mario describes Bardi, from where many Italians emigrated to Wales. The main industry then was agriculture, but it was very difficult to survive on that after the war. Now, however, Bardi is very different; Italians that moved away have returned and built huge houses there with the money earned abroad. He left Bardi at the age of seven and most of his life was spent in Cremona at school. He remembers his parents and still has a big family photo in his workshop, however his memories of live in Bardi are, he says, ‘like smoke’. Mario’s paternal grandfather travelled to Bardi from Genoa, and was a Stagecoach driver. On his mother’s side, her father managed land for a landowner. He goes on to explain the Mezzadria sharecropping system in Italy. He was privileged to have a foreman job and so didn’t have to emigrate. He then opened a pub in Bardi La Bardigiana when he retired, which is still there.

Summary part 2 00.20 Mario’s parents left money when they died and the government used it for educational purposes. Mario still knows people in Bardi; mostly just by name apart from some of his family who he calls them ‘Christmas card relations’. He has a strong desire to go to Italy but always looks forward to returning to Wales. He likens this desire to a bottle of wine that his daughter’s father in law gave him fifty years ago; he never wants to open it but wants to keep it for sentimental value (even though now he knows it will have gone bad). He has been back to Italy to visit and has also taken his children which they enjoyed. When Mario arrived in Wales his younger brother was already here; he remarked that everyone had long faces, his brother replied that it was because of the lack of sun. When he arrived at the station in 1949 he found people reserved. It was a Sunday, which in Italy is a feast day, whereas in Italy everybody wore black, he thought they looked like penguins.

10.30 When he left Bardi for the first time at 7 years old, Mario and his brothers were split up according to their age and sent to boarding schools. At the age of 12 they were split into different classes and Mario, good with his hands, went into woodcarving. He left in 1939, worked for a year and then joined the army when war broke out. He was taken prisoner in Tunisia and an officer arrived at the camp and told them that Italy had changed sides and asked if they wanted to join them. Mario raised his hand as he wanted to get out of the camp; luckily the war ended in his favour. In 1949 he came to Wales to work on a farm. He married and went into his wife’s family’s Fish and Chip business and has now been retired for twenty years. They have five children who all have successful jobs.

17.06 Mario has five brothers. His brother Italo was about to be ordained as a Parish priest, however during the war there were SAS raids around Bardi. The priests would look out for the SAS and ring a warning bell for the people of the village, however, the SAS found out and shot him. The other brothers were partisans in the surrounding area but couldn’t do anything to help. His other brother was a school teacher in French, German and English. The youngest brother had his education was interrupted by the war and he emigrated to Wales before Mario. Mario talks of how each brother went into their chosen profession in the collegio they went to. The school was very disciplined but good, though he recalls that he was a trouble maker and fondly remembers times when he would run away. He talks in detail about the discipline in the school and the games they would play as children.

34.45 All schools in Italy were Roman Catholic, he explains. He goes on to talk about school and the importance of religion within their education. He goes on to talk about the war; many atrocities were committed in Italy and in Bardi. He describes Cremona in detail which is known for its craftsmen and instrument makers. His school prepared children for professional life, teaching; woodcarving and shoemaking. They were taught that if they learnt a craft they would never be in need of bread and butter. He took it up again when he retired and explains how he finds inspiration and how he carries out the work. He would love to teach the craft to younger generations.

Summary part 3 00.20 In 1941 Mario went to war in North Africa until May 1943. He then went into a prisoner of war camp until 1944. He joined the British Pioneer Corp until 1947. He describes the training and activities they carried out. Mario volunteered to go to war as there was no work, yet he still asks himself why Italy went to war. He describes Mussolini as clever but too ambitious. Mario describes being captured during the war. He was caught at Enfi de Ville village, about 20km from Tunisia, where their troop was surrounded by the Eighth Army, the Americans and the sea. They were interrogated before they went into the camp; what their job was and why they joined up. He put it down to necessity and sense of adventure. Mario describes how eight men would sleep in the tent on sand which they divided into beds with a tin plate and shared a duvet to sleep on. He doesn’t complain about the food as in the Italian army it was scarce as well. He was in the Italian first army on the border of Sudan; from there they walked to Tobruck for 8km. They moved during the night but during the day they had to keep still because of their shadow, and so got very little sleep. He recalls waking up at three or four in the morning, to feel the dew on their lips due to lack of water.

12.09 Mario thinks the Italian government did the best they could with supplies. He remembers Mussolini visiting the troops. He asked if anyone had any complaints. When someone complained about lack of food, Mussolini lined up the Generals down to the soldiers and told them to pass a handful of sand down the line; at the end of the line nothing was left. In the Italian army supplies weren’t plentiful, but were told to make a sacrifice for their country. Two of his brothers were partisans; they would interfere with the railway lines and burn bridges to stop German and Fascist troops. After the war, Mario went back to Bardi and describes the situation as chaotic and dangerous due to the political situation. He had a small gun in his pocket most of the time as self-defence, and says that people were living on their wits. He wrote to an aunt in Wales who found him work as a farmer, and he worked in the fish and chip shop in the evening, playing football for Aberystwyth on Saturdays. After five years of farming, he married and joined his wife’s family’s business in Fish and Chip Shop. Mario recalls that they were so busy that they would ‘close the door and they would come in through the window’. He explains the history of the cafe and fish and chip industry in Italy.

22.12 Mario feels Italian at home, but no particular nationality outside. He speaks a little Welsh exchanges polite conversation with people in Aberystwyth in Welsh and Italian. He still feels his Italian nationality strongly however, yet says of his life and experiences; ‘I’ll do it again.’