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

00:00:01 Angela was born in Bridgend in January 1971. Both her paternal grandparents died when her father was young. Her maternal grandfather died in the battle of Montecassino. Her grandmother grew up in Caserta and lived until she was 87 between Rhode Island and Pennsylvania in America where her other children lived, she then lived with the Morelli family in Bridgend. Her parents were from neighbouring villages Pietramelara and Santa Croce, where their families were farmers. Her grandfather was from a wealthy family of farm owners. Her paternal grandfather married a second time; Angela remembers his wife and their house, which is still in the family. She remembers visiting Santa Croce and enjoying spending time on farmland with animals and picking fruit. She describes the house where they stayed; where there was a small holding where Angela remembers playing. She recalls being shocked by the killing of animals on the farm.

00:05:23 Angela enjoyed holidays in Italy; she felt at home but found language difficult though she spoke both Italian and English to other children there as they had a lot of family around. Angela recalls the animals and produce on the farm which were both new and different for her; the family kept Buffalo. Holidays there would be for a month during which they would spend a lot of time visiting the family. The journey was two days and two nights on the train she remembers things that would help her pass the time as a child and remembers the marble of Roma station.

00:09:36 Her grandmother went back and forth to America and never learnt to speak English as the Italian community there is so big. Angela returns to talk about Italian holidays and notes that religion played a significant role; they would celebrate religious festivals, and visit churches. She recalls the San Rocco effigy; a Roman soldier who became the patron saint of people who suffered from the plague. People were very interested in local music and would sing in Neapolitan dialect.

00:14:05 Angela spoke dialect to the other children as all of her relatives spoke the same dialect. On a student exchange to Bologna she remembers Italians being surprised by the old dialect she used and she found the transition to standard Italian harder than she had imagined. Angela notes the aspects which stuck in her mind the most about Italy, and which were the most different to Wales; the heat, thunderstorms the threat of earthquakes and insects. She has fond and vivid memories of life on the farm in particular, having grown up in Bridgend the lifestyle was very different. She has lasting memories of a few ‘characters’ that they would always see on their return to the town.

00:19:37 Her grandmother was a strong character and Angela has memories of her living with them in Wales. She remarks that her grandmother may have been different in Wales than in Italy as she was reasonably isolated in Wales as she didn’t speak the language. Despite that she managed to enjoy wrestling on the television and communicate with Angela’s friends in Italian even though they couldn’t understand her. There was Italian influence in their house through food, music etc. She finds it difficult to remark on whether there were ‘differences’ in her upbringing as the Italian influence was normal for her. However her parents were very keen on integrating into the Welsh community from the start.

00:22:30 Her mother was Giovanna Di Fusco, born in Santa Croce, and father Carmine Morelli was born in Pietramelara. Her father came to Wales to work in mines, her mother came over to work in an Italian run cafe in Cardiff at 21, speaking no English. They knew each other from their hometowns but moved independently and hadn’t considered the thought of marriage in Wales. Times were hard in Italy when they left which is why her mother’s family mostly emigrated to various different countries. Initially, Angela’s father was in Llanharan and her mother in Cardiff.

00:27:15 When she was growing up, formal social occasions with the Italian community would be rare; people were more likely to come over for coffee. Angela’s mother cooked for the priests, though she believes that her father was an Atheist. Her and her sister went to a Catholic Convent School which was very strict. She describes her mother as gentle and tolerant, and would consider herself European; she was very modern in that sense and also kept up to date with music. She has a lot of respect for her mother and notes the determination she must have had to emigrate on her own. She and her sister were brought up with books and lots of nationalities around as her mother would mix with everyone. She knows some families who kept themselves more within the Italian community.

Angela’s father had his own Ice Cream van after working in the mines; he would let people off payment and give broken cornets to those who couldn’t afford anything. As a result everyone knew him and he was very popular.

00:35:40 During his work in the mine, Angela’s father worked as a blaster, there were many other Italians working in the mines at the time. Her father retained his accent though her mother had a very Italian/Welsh accent. Angela went to visit relatives in America four years ago; the community there is completely different- vast and not well integrated, which was strange to them. With regards to cultural identity, Angela went through a phase of being unsure, though she never experienced many problems growing up with Italian roots. Now that her parents and other Italian family in Wales, have died she feels less connected to the Italian identity but tries to keep the culture alive though cooking among other things. She compares the culture and way of life of Britain and Italy; noting that neither herself, nor her parents hadn’t considered moving to Italy.