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Oral history recording with Marisa Cavarra. Her husband Paolo was also interviewed, see AV 11376 -113678) 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 3 (AV 11373 - 11375)

00:00:25 Marisa states her date of birth; she was born in 1937 in Borgosesia, North Italy. She talks about her maternal grandparents who she stayed with, whilst her mother went out to work. She recalls what they looked liked but cannot remember where they worked. Her mother’s family were a very large family, she recalls, who often gathered together. She didn’t know her paternal grandfather, but visited her paternal grandmother during the holidays who she remembers very fondly. Her paternal relatives were poor, her grandmother worked in rice paddies to provide food for her family, but she fondly remembers staying with them. Her uncle was a Tailor; she talks about her cousin on that side. He grew up to be a professor at Novara University.

00:06:26 Marisa talks about her childhood. She grew up during the war and remembers going without food, being held up by the Gestapo. She was sent to Novara to live with her grandmother, for safety, where her and her brother grew up. Her father was a Moulder and her mother worked all her life in various jobs. During the war her mother worked as a cook; she cooked for German soldiers against her will. They didn’t go without food as her mother would bring food home. She recalls a story about seeing German soldiers throwing handguns into the river to catch fish; they offer her and her brothers one. They returned home with the fish to their grandmother who threw it in the bin once she realised they had been given it by German soldiers.

00:09:31 She recalls that she had a good childhood, only short of food during the war. She recalls how her father would steal corn on the cob from their own land- as three quarters of the food had to be given to the German Soldiers. She talks about her farm and the village where she went to college.

00:10:53 They came over to Wales with her father. He had worked as a charge hand for a foundry, where he worked from 7 years old. He saw posters for workers in Great Britain and was sent to Cardiff with other Italians in 1947, the family followed in May 1949. She recalls the day they left- as the Torino team was killed in a plane crash. She recalls the longer journey in detail and about the differences and language problems.

00:14:42 She talks about meeting her husband and going with him to Sicily. She describes his family fondly, and seeing the sea and the beach for the first time.

00:17:32 Interviewer asks about childhood and childhood games. She talks about knitting as a fond hobby; as they were poor she would make something, take it apart and reuse the wool. Marisa talks about social activities between families; meeting to eat, sing, or roast chestnuts together. She then talks about religious activities and recalls learning the catechism with nuns, Vespers, having to go to church wearing her best clothes. She talks in detail about Carnevale festivities.