Casgliadau Arlein
Amgueddfa Cymru
Chwilio Uwch
Recordiad sain / Audio recording: Luigi ("Gino") Vasami
Oral history recording with Luigi ("Gino") Vasami. Recorded as part of the Italian Memories in Wales project (2008-10), delivered by ACLI-ENAIP and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
00.22 Gino was born in Ciro Superiore on 12th April 1947. His father came to Wales as a prisoner of war and worked on farms during that time, and for a year after the war, until he returned to Italy. After three months in Italy he realised that work wasn’t available, so he sent for a permit for him and his family to return to Wales. The first time Gino returned to Italy he remembers his grandmother carrying fruit on her head at 84 years; he and his sister couldn’t keep up with her. It showed him how hard they worked. Siblings would help each other and exchange goods; his mother had fourteen siblings, eight of which survived. His father had eight siblings. Agriculture is not so strong an industry now; land work is mostly carried out either by immigrants or older people.
05.37 His grandmother was Maria Faccia Vasami, his grandfather was Luigi Vasami. In their area people went by nicknames; he mentions his nickname Collarini, meaning people that didn’t work a lot. His grandfather never liked to work and his grandmother apparently did everything for him, which is where the name comes from. However, they would walk 6 or 7 miles a day to work the land, his father would sometimes walk 14 miles a day to get to the flat land; starting at two finishing at eight, sometimes sleeping where they worked. He describes the work they did which was all manual.
11.06 The family were given the land by the government. Men and women worked on the land; his mother went to work for days with his father- Gino would be looked after by his aunts- they would then exchange children when his aunt went to work. Because the community was so close they didn’t suffer very much he explains; however, his parents moved to find a better future for him and his sisters. Gino only lived in Italy for four years; his sister was nine when they moved. The move was hard for his mother as she didn’t speak English, the children would cry when they came home from school. However he retains that the Welsh people were supportive.
15.05 Gino’s father was captured in Tobruk in South Africa and taken to Liverpool. There were three thousand prisoners split into groups of thirty or forty and he was sent to Henllan camp in South West Wales. He was there for about a year until the war was nearing an end when they sent prisoners to work on farms. They sent them out in the morning to pick potatoes, make hay. He loved working on the land and saw a future for himself here; furthermore, the people loved him and supported him. Gino maintains that the family wouldn’t have survived without the support of the Welsh people. His father worked long hours on the farm and was promised a job should he want to return.
18.40 Gino talks about his own journey over to Wales; they arrived by the train at Newcastle Emlyn, the farmer was waiting for them in a Land Rover to carry their suitcases. He had prepared a council house for them with beds and furniture. His father was treated equally by the farmer- he lived with them in their house instead on being out up in a small room/shed as many prisoners of war were. Ultimately the farmer gave him a small holding and animals to keep there- mostly communicating by sign language as their English still wasn’t very good.
22.50 Gino describes how his father found farm work; it was offered to prisoners in the camp, his father would do anything for a free, outdoor life, so he accepted. He recalls a story that one day they were collecting potatoes in Pembrokeshire, one man wasn’t picking them but covering them up as an act of rebellion against the British, it caused a fight and the landowner ended up in hospital. The Italian was punished with ten days of bread and water. His father talked about people in the camp with him and their different political views. For Easter and Christmas after the war, as he was one of the older men and was married with a family, he would invite the young Italians over for food and singing. Gino misses that upbringing as the community has dispersed.
28.30 Gino talks about how Italian culture was brought into the house through food. His father never talked about how they would entertain themselves in the camp, he only told them that he had his best time during the war as a prisoner. They had everything- they made their own food, pasta. After being on the front line seeing horrific sights he was glad to be taken prisoner. The camp is only four or five miles from where they live now and there is a beautiful Italian chapel built by the prisoners out of scrap objects. His father only spoke Italian when he came over. He learnt English by asking workers on the farm, or friends. Once he wanted to go to the pictures- they were working in the pig shed but couldn’t explain so he put his coat on the wall and made shadows on it with his hands. Both Gino and his sister had problems with the language, as did Gino’s wife when she moved over.
41.29 Gino has visited the church in the prisoner of war camp a few times and describes it as very moving. The man who was responsible for creating most of the church would collect leaves, tins, tobacco, cardboard, teabags and paper. He created an altar and painted frescos on the walls out of handmade paints. Gino believes that the church gave the prisoners hope; many of them had families in Italy and would pray for a safe return. He was told that many prisoners couldn’t write, so Gino’s godfather had to write letters for his father home to Italy. His father was very affected throughout his life by his experiences during the war and wouldn’t talk about them to his children; yet recalled be treated well in the camp in Wales; only regretting that he was away from his family for so long.