Casgliadau Arlein

Oral history recording with Lynda Lesser. Part 3 of 4 (AV 11422, AV 11423, AV 11424, AV 11425). Recorded as part of the Italian Memories in Wales project (2008-10), delivered by ACLI-ENAIP and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Summary covering AV 11422, AV 11423, AV 11424 and AV 11425: Lynda, the eldest of six children, came from a typical Welsh mining village. Her father's parents were Welsh speakers and her mother's parents were Italian immigrants. From the age of five, Lynda lived almost next door to her maternal grandparents. Lynda used to spend much of her time in her grandmother’s company, who became like a second mother to her and much of what she is, she feels, she owes it to her. She would often tell her grandchildren stories, all with a moral content. Her grandmother was a strong moral and physical presence, very caring and embracing. You had to be good; well behaved, cleaned, well dressed, good morality, treating people and authority with respect, don't just look at the surface of things, and look beyond.

From both sets of grandparents, Lynda was exposed respectively to Italian and Welsh culture and languages all the time. But she felt much closer to her maternal grandparents, particularly her grandmother, which exposed her to the Italian culture, food and lifestyles. During the war her grandfather was interned in a concentration camp in Australia, and her grandmother had very hard time giving hospitality to many relatives, who came from London down to rural Wales and did not contribute much to the running of the household. Lynda talked passionately about her grandmother and her difficult life. Her grandmother was the 4th child of a fatherless household (her father had gone looking for work in London). Lynda’s great-grandmother was the only woman in the village who could read and write and she thought her children to read and write as well. This is why, Lynda explains, when her grandmother came to Britain and there were many Italian emigrants who could not write to or read letters from their dear ones, she would help them. As a child, her grandmother had looked at her only brother, who was 14 years her senior, as a father figure. But he also immigrated to Philadelphia, in the USA, where he died of a heart attack at the age of 35. Lynda commented that her grandmother never really recovered from it. Her grandmother's sister also went to America and then she left her little village - Casanova - just 2 miles away from Bardi, to come to Wales at the age of 27. They never saw each other again.

When her grandfather came back from the internment in Australia they open a fish and chip shop in the heart of the village, called ‘Cordani’ and all the family of children and grandchildren helped it. Lynda remembers well the Savi, the Minoli and the Dannanegra, the other Italian families of the area, who owned shop and whom they used to meet regularly. She particularly remembers the games of cards played by the men who came to the house at the end of their working day. The place, she argues, was full of people talking, plying and smoking. She loved it! As a child, together with her brothers, Lynda helped her grandparents in the 'assembly-line' work that was ravioli making, coming close to Christmas time.

Lynda lives comfortably with her dual Welsh Italian identities; they are, she argues, 'fifty-fifty'. She feels the importance of keep our individual identities. In her family, her young siblings are Welsh speakers, when they were growing up they didn't go to church, but they went to Welsh Chapels, so they were surrounded by the Welsh language and Welsh customs. But the strong physical and emotional presence of her maternal grandparents (most particularly the grandmother Pierina) meant that that feeling of being an Italian family has been very much there for all of them. Today this is manifested in a variety of ways. As a family they buy Italian cars, they display the Italian and Welsh flags, side by side during the international rugby matches. She admits that at times she feels rather ambivalent, but because the Italian rugby team is always the underdog it is ok to shout Forza Italia! and to want them to win. Lynda and her brothers and sisters are very proud and really value to have both Welsh and Italian blood. She considers herself very lucky to have such rich cultural heritage, both on the Welsh side with the music, the poetry, the language and on the Italian side with completely different culture and language, both very rich.

The connection with Italy has now gone full circle since her daughter has recently married an Italian man from Milan, who has lived in London for the last 10 years. She has now a little granddaughter, Raffaella, who will certainly be bilingual.