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Recordiad sain / Audio recording: Maria Grazia De Rosa
Oral history recording with Maria Grazia De Rosa. Recorded as part of the Italian Memories in Wales project (2008-10), delivered by ACLI-ENAIP and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
00:00:19 Maria Grazia describes the town and the churches, much of it was destroyed during the war and because of the earthquake. People would only meet on the farms when they would help each other with work. They found out by word of mouth that the war had started. Her father went to war on September 29th and they didn’t hear from him for three years. His name was Crescenzo De Rosa, she was only eight when he left. Many people left around the same time, every three months they would call up a different lot. Initially her father wrote letters but when he was taken prisoner of war his letters were stopped. He was taken prisoner in the North of Africa and started communicating by letters again when he came to Wales, she remembers the first letter which informed them that he was okay.
00:09:35 The first camp her father went to was in Anglesey, then he moved to Bala. He remained in Bala a set up home there. Whereas in Africa the prisoners suffered a lot, they were treated well in Wales. After the war he stayed on in a farm and was paid enough to buy food for him and his family. He was in Wales for 12 months after the war before the family came over and would send money to her mother which she saved that money to pay for a ticket and some clothes before they left. 00:12:56 Maria Grazia describes their home in Bala, which was very bare; no carpets, no electricity only a coal fire and candles but conditions were better than their home in Italy with more space and their own land. She recalls that the people in Bala treated them well. As a prisoner her father would occasionally sleep in the camp but mostly on the farm he worked in. In the camp they would sleep around six in a tent and there was some fighting due to political differences. The prisoners amused themselves between friends, by talking, making things from wood.
00:17:50 In the camps there were two political stances; the fascists and non fascist. The fascists didn’t agree with the other prisoners working on farms as they saw it as doing a ‘favour’ for the British so they had to be aware of expressing their views too strongly. Maria Grazia describes Mussolini as very aggressive and powerful. Her mother would work in the fields every day for food for the family but was told by the fascists that they couldn’t work on Saturdays as it should be a day of rest dedicated to fascism.
00:24:14 Just after the war Maria Grazia’s mother had to give up the holding and took on another house whilst working other people’s land or in their homes. Maria Grazia would also work the land, but only receive half a day’s pay. The family had to carry the water for two miles to the house and would wash their clothes in the river. Maria Grazia talks about the food they would eat.
00:33:46 When the time came that they had to move, Maria Grazia remembers not knowing what to expect but was simply exited to be reunited with her father. She vividly remembers his return to the village; she met him at the door and asked if he was her father. He stayed for one month and then returned for the family in 1948 when he had managed to acquire a permit for the family to join him. Maria Grazia’s aunty also moved to Wales and brought news that Antonio Santosuosso, a family friend from their home town, wanted to marry Maria Grazia. After some deliberation and letter writing he moved to Britain and they were married in Bala. They have been married for fifty years.
00:41:22 Maria Grazia describes the journey to Wales, shocking and confusing having never left her own village. She had never seen a doctor but had to have a medical examination. The journey took two and a half to three days, it was the first time she had been on a train and bus. Maria Grazia was surprised by the spacious house they moved to and remembers thinking that the sheep inn was a neighbouring house, yet it was cold and she felt lonely. They coped and stayed for sixty years. Maria Grazia didn’t go to school in Italy or Wales, as she was the oldest she had to go work. She feels at home in Wales where all her family are but still has the feeling that she considered a foreigner, and in Italy as she has been away for so long.
00:49:25 Maria Grazia has returned to Bonito yet doesn’t have many connections there now. In Wrexham, however, there are a lot of Italians. When the community was bigger people would arrange Italian dances but those activities have depleted. Their daughter learnt Italian through Maria Grazia’s mother, which was mostly dialect. Her and her daughter give examples of dialect and sing songs in dialect. She says it is a mystery how she learnt English she learnt from speaking to people, making mistakes and learning from them.