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Oral history recording with Nicesio Fantini.Recorded as part the Italian Memories in Wales project (2008-10), delivered by ACLI-ENAIP and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Part 4 of 7 (AV 11403 - 11409).

FantiniNicesio-au-04 0:39 At that time the villagers were always under the control of others. He remembers the tanks in the village shelling the belltower. There was a retarded boy in the village who kept saying, “They are stealing the bells, they are stealing the bells” but nobody believed him. Then when the tower was hit the boy was killed by a falling bell. 4:31 Nicesio remembers the fine boots the Germans were wearing, and that he would have liked to keep them as a souvenir. 5.44 He remembers he had to be very careful of what he said, because the Germans were always present. 13.37 He remembers when an executive from the Welsh mine came to his village to recruit personnel. There were 11 men from Torreano and they all had to have medical checks, first in Milan and then another one in Calais before entering England. The mines paid their fares. When he arrived in London he was a bit disappointed that Victoria station was so dark. 20.31 He received a residence permit. At that time aliens had to inform the police when they went on holiday. They started work straight away, after a day’s introduction. There were language difficulties. In 1952 he went to Italy for Christmas. One of the directors of the mine told Nicesio that he liked the Italians because they worked hard, and asked Nicesio to recruit more Italian workers. He recruited about 60 people from the nearby villages, and also from other Italian regions. 28.56 There was competitiveness between the Welsh and Italian miners. Food was rationed, they had only two meals per day and they did not have much food to eat. When they went into the shops they had to use sign language as they did not speak English. The layout of the houses was also confusing - one evening a friend went into the wrong house. 32.24 A friend went to buy meat but did not know how to ask for it. Nicesio suggested he should ask the butcher for moo-oo for beef and bah-bah for lamb. Of course the language barrier created many problems, as many people used bad language underground. This caused many problems above ground. He also remembers also the kindness of his employers, and the understanding of the landladies when the men used the bad language they had learned in the mine.

FantiniNicesio-au-04 00.13 Nicesio has always been an active union member and remembers that he worked very hard to get the same rights for the Italians workers as the Welsh had. They would start work as assistant miners, and then become miners. Some of the Italians changed their nationality in order to have the same rights and to work on the same terms as the rest.

5.07 He has always fought for the rights of the Italian workers, and to ease tensions between them and the Welsh miners. He also fought against the closure of the mine in 1975. 20.40 Nicesio is very proud of what he has done for his fellow Italians when in need, and feels he can hold his head high.