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Oral history recording with Francesco Laforges. 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 4 (AV 11418-11421)

00:00:24 Francesco was born in Bari in 1932. His paternal grandfather was Giuseppe Laforges, his surname has French roots. His grandfather was born in 1899, in Bitritto near Bari; he describes the area. The industry of Bitritto was agriculture, his maternal grandfather rented land which he passed on to Francesco’s father, and it has now been passed on to his brother and sister. He explains that if you had a piece of land you could survive. Francesco went to school until he was eleven then worked on the farm; his father was illiterate though made sure his children had an education.

00:09:39 In Bitritto they speak a dialect, of which he gives an example. People in the village all had nicknames; the Laforges family nickname was Ciacciola. His mother’s name was Sibbiona and Francesco used her name. Francesco describes his paternal grandfather. His parents were Pasquale and Maddalena. His father worked on the fields, not on a farm but on land around the town. There was no industry and all work was done by hand. There were two landowners in his village who employed regular workers. Every field had high stone walls and most had grapevines. The community would be working two or three at a time on small holdings and every now and then the landowners would hire a lot of people for two weeks at a time if they were lucky. In winter they worked from sunrise till sunset whereas in summer they would work seven or eight hours. They had to walk miles to the field, with a box of bread; they would arrive around seven and leave around twelve when it was too hot to work. Some would go back at around four in the afternoon. Children would be hired to weed between beans and chick peas for money. During the war the government would take a lot of their food. He explains that flour was available to make gnocchi and bread.

00:25:15 Francesco was one of seven children. His mother looked after the house- preparing meals with old fashioned fireplace. He would travel far to fetch water and sticks for the fire. Francesco would spend time in the ACLI club. They ate a lot of beans and chick peas, chicory, cabbage, cauliflower. Everything was scarce- he describes it as healthy. They wouldn’t eat meat apart from at Easter or for festivals. The only meat they would eat would be rabbits.