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Recordiad sain / Audio recording: Dora Marubbi
Oral history recording with Dora Marubbi. Recorded as part of the Italian Memories in Wales project (2008-10), delivered by ACLI-ENAIP and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
00:00:06 Dora continues the story about her husband’s family’s fish and chip cart. Before the war they would travel to North West Wales with the cart making fresh chips. She explains how one day on the way into Betys-y-Coed the cart tipped over and potatoes tipped all over the hill- they now call it potatoes hill. The family was known all over North Wales. They had a caravan site and a cafe in Porthmadog in Blackrock Sands before the war. They returned after the war, everything was destroyed and they couldn’t get the lease back. There were a few more Italians in the area at the time; the Berni family who were in the car industry, Sidoli family who made ice cream, and a family with a cafe in Mold. Her husband’s family opened two fish and chip shops and a cafe in Aber Street, York Street and Bank Street. The Bank street cafe is the only remaining cafe. When Dora came over she lived upstairs in the cafe in Bank Street which was very popular with the Welsh people.
00:05:30 Dora talks about her first impressions of Wrexham and the journey over, the worst thing on arrival being the weather. She also talks about differences in the food. The interviewer changes subject to her hometown in Italy and asks about religion. Molfetta was a fishing port and boats were built in the area. She describes the boats going out to fish at night and getting fresh fish in the morning at the market or straight from the fishermen early in the morning. Everyone was Roman Catholic and Dora describes the Easter procession in detail which lasted two days. On the last day they have a procession at midnight accompanied by ‘beautiful solemn music’. They also celebrate ‘Our Lady of Martyrs’. There is a big procession and the statue is carried on fishing boats from a church on the other side of the harbour. Squares are filled with stalls, bands and fireworks. She talks about the community in Molfetta, many immigrants go back to celebrate the festival. Many people immigrated to America before the war and she describes the Italian community in New York where her aunt used to live.
00:16:29 Fishing was the main industry in her hometown, there weren’t many industries apart from the cake shop owned by her mother’s family, and the tile industry. There was a strong class distinction in the town; her family were well off but she talks about a poor family who lived in the basement of their apartment block. That was the reason that many moved away. The community was close but more in a family sense she feels; families were very close, more so than in the UK, she talks about this. She talks about family values and explains the dowry tradition. She describes how property was saved from when children were young to be given to them when they married, in particular for daughters.
00:23:10 Dora talks about leisure time in her hometown. In the summer people go to the beach, there are different clubs in the town where people play cards, drink coffee and eat ice cream and cakes. A lot of entertaining is carried out at home with the family, where dances were held. She describes the card games Canasta and Buracco, which they would pay with friends when they went to the club every night. At Christmas and New Year gatherings are held with choirs and music.
00:25:20 Dora remembers her first communion in a small chapel at seven years of age. After that they would visit all their relatives’ houses and receive presents such as a rosary or books. Her mother didn’t work but did house work with the help of a maid. She spent a lot of time cooking in the house which Dora describes in detail, eating different things in different seasons, fresh fish every day, and her speciality focaccia, pizza and cakes. She talks about games they would play when they were younger- marbles (with dried apricot stones) and hopscotch.
00:34:34 During the war Dora remembers the sirens in the evenings when they had to go to the basement, though most of the bombing was carried out on Bari. German soldiers came to the town, but soon after English soldiers came over from Africa (including her husband). They took over most of the schools, so they had to move their schools to flats; her husband was in sergeant mess in a nursery school. People were pleased to see English soldiers, children would make fuss of them. She talks about her husband visiting her house and the gossip they would cause; Dora got married in the cathedral in her hometown.
00:38:48 Dora’s husband was in Africa- Tripoli or Tunisia as a mechanic, then moved to Sicily and South of Italy, Taranto, Bari and Molfetta. She describes the bombing in Molfetta in detail; around September 1942 when she was around 14, it flattened an apartment block. She describes going to the basement when the alarms sounded as very frightening. Dora also remembers schooling during the fascist regime. They would have sports days held in honour of ‘Il Duce’ where they would wear la piccola italiana uniform. She talks about laws not being able to say anything against Mussolini, after the war she recalls strange atmosphere; life felt more free but unstable and at that point she left Italy for Wales.