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Oral history recording in English with Antonio Marchesi. 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 1 of 6 (AV 11426-11431)

00:00:01 Antonio Marchesi was born in 1923 in a small town called Padria in the Sassari province. His grandparents died before he was born, together with his father. His mother remarried and Antonio found a father figure in his stepfather who he called papa. Until 1933 his family managed to create a small business from shops and land, but that year his stepfather decided to immigrate to Australia to seek his fortune. The whole family was to follow him but due to the rules of the fascist regime they weren’t able to leave the country. As a result they didn’t hear from him throughout the war period, during which Antonio fought in Russia. Due to the death of his mother he decided to abandon his military career. He returned and met the woman who was to become his wife.

00:05:18 When the interviewer asks Antonio to talk about memories of his hometown, he can’t give much information as he lived there for only three months before the family moved to Sassari. He returned to Padria as an adult, with his brother, and seeing his birthplace for the first time brought really touched him. The only memories he has of his natural father, he gained through his brothers and sisters; he doesn’t even have a photograph of him. He has very fond and happy memories of his stepfather however, who brought him up as his own son.

00:10:15 He remembers his mother vividly, describing her as a woman of steel. He recalls that she would ride a horse with a gun like a man. Used to hard work, she wasn’t scared of anything and in their most difficult times, when their stepfather was in Australia, she managed to take all responsibility and make many sacrifices for the good of the children. He still remembers the last time his mother slapped him; at twenty years of age. At the age of eighteen he went to military college. His mother worked in a dairy shop, grocery store and in a restaurant, all owned by the family. But once she was on her own she had to make the decision to sell all but the dairy shop which she then made into a grocery store. All of his brothers, including the ones from his other’s second marriage contributed to the wellbeing of the Marchesi family, particularly working hard during the war years.

00:16:20 His memories of wartime are very painful; rationing meant they would throw nothing away, not even potato peelings. When he is asked to expand on the work in the countryside, he explains that the land was owned by his mother’s family and when she married his father they tried to rear special breeds of animals. From a story told by his mother, Antonio learnt that his father died from being bored by a bull that he had bought in Genoa and was transporting back to their home. His mother then met baba Andrea, Antonio’s stepfather, he was her childhood sweetheart but left to buy a gold mine in Australia and became bankrupt. At the end of the war the children managed to get in contact with their stepfather again, who was in New Zealand ready for the family to move over. Unfortunately, on hearing the good news, his mother became ill and died. As a result only his stepsister Teresa and his brother Egido decided to join their father in 1950.

00:22:13 Talking about the fascist regime he recalls that he was a Balilla, Avanguardista and finally a Premilitare- all different stages the youth had to go through to became a fascist. Furthermore, he doesn’t completely condemn Mussolini who, in his opinion, did a lot of good for the people of Italy; he helped the farmers, provided education and created employment.