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Recordiad sain / Audio recording: Nicesio Fantini
Oral history recording with Nicesio Fantini. Part 6 of 7 (AV 11403 - AV 11409). Recorded as part of the Italian Memories in Wales project (2008-10), delivered by ACLI-ENAIP and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Part 6 of 7 (AV 11403-11409).
5.30 When Nicesio was a young boy his father trained him to be a barber, and in his spare time in Wales he used to cut the hair of his fellow Italians. Nicesio remembers that he used to send money to his family every week, and he thinks that Italian emigration has contributed to the growth of Italy. The mine paid £2.00 per week for health insurance for Nicesio’s relatives in Italy so that they could have healthcare - in those days there was no free healthcare. That was a really great achievement.
11:09 Nicesio used to go off on his motorbike at week-ends to cut hair in all the hospitals, cafes and restaurants in the area. The nurses and doctors were all happy to have this service.
14:45 au 6 He has always worked very well with all the Italian Consuls who have been in Cardiff.
16:18 Nicesio recalls that it is much easier now for people coming to Wales than when he arrived. The language barrier is not as great, because people can shop in supermarkets - they don’t need to speak to the shopkeeper, as the earlier immigrants did.
20:38 Nicesio says that it would be good if some of his fellow workers had learnt the Italian language. He’s very pleased at the way different people integrate nowadays.
23:49 He remembers the wartime in Italy, when he wore the free uniform of the balilla (the fascist youth organisation).
26:07 He also remembers his teacher and the village doctor, who were fascist sympathisers; at the end of the war the doctor had to flee, abandoning his beautiful villa on the outskirts of the village. He remembers some good things done by the fascist regime – for example, providing a swimming pool and a football pitch in his village. Athletics was very important as well.
29:13 He says how beautiful Torreano, his native village, is, and how even now he can sleep there with the door unlocked.