Casgliadau Arlein
Amgueddfa Cymru
Chwilio Uwch
Recordiad sain / Audio recording: Maria Williamson
Oral history recording with Maria Williamson. Recorded as part of the Italian Memories in Wales project (2008-10), delivered by ACLI-ENAIP and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
00.00 Maria’s maiden name was Immacolata Mammone, her married name is Immacolata Maria Williamson; she calls herself Maria. She was born in Piminoro in the Aspromonte Mountains on 30th November 1940. Her grandparents always worked in that village on the land. Her father is the eldest of four and died at forty two. The family had a small holding with chickens, a pig, cows, rabbits and pigeons. They would also grow corn and potatoes. Her maternal grandparents lived to an old age and both worked on the land with their families. The community in those days worked the land together, Maria explains, as it was a necessity. Work was different, she explains, as everything was done by hand or by animals.
04.30 Maria’s paternal grandparents were Mammone, Vincenzo De Fu Giovanni, and Maiola, Vincenza. Her maternal grandparents were De Masi, Bruno and Clementina. They had always lived in the village. She remembers her great grandmother; the mother of her grandfather on her father’s side. She had a round face, slim and small, always with a smile on her face. The family were all in the same street. They didn’t have toilets and they would cook on the fire. Her mother would boil the water on the fire for a bath and they would all use the same water.
09.28 Maria’s mother would always be out working so her sister kept the house- particularly when her father was in the army. They went to the Gebbia, in local dialect, a place where they would congregate to do washing for the day. When they washed the sheets they would go to the river and put the washing out on big stones for them to dry. Maria remembers ‘life was hard but it was nice’. She describes the olive harvest; they would pick olives all day long, leaving very early in the morning and returning late at night, at times when the moon was bright they would work into the night. They then took the olives to be crushed into olive oil in Opedo the nearby town. They grew corn on the cob, runner beans, and potatoes. They would rear pigs and kill one a year; using everything they could for food.
14.20 Maria remembers certain characters from the village. She describes the day when they kill the pig; they have a barbeque and music outside the village on the land. They don’t waste anything- making sausages, salami and black pudding with the blood of the pig. Maria gives examples of the songs they would sing in dialect. Maria describes the village and the celebrations for Christmas and New Years Eve. The village was small and to buy certain things they would have to walk to Opedo, a nearby town, for market day on Tuesday. She recalls going early in the morning; the market shuts at two due to the heat. The farmers from outside bring their produce to sell; cheese or salami. In their village they would make pecorino cheese and ricotta from sheep’s milk. They might buy clothes from the market, although most were made by a seamstress in their village.
23.00 Maria’s grandparents owned a mill where people would bring their corn. They would take flour, beans or potatoes in payment. She goes on to talk about the community atmosphere in the village; people would help one another if they were ill. She remembers that if someone died the priest would be told, and would ring a bell and put the name of the person outside. The family were so heartbroken that they wouldn’t cook so people from other families would bring them food for days. When people were married the meal was made at home. The family would take old people meals from the wedding. They would throw sugared almonds at the couple and hand out glasses of homemade liqueur.
28.00 Maria’s sister was given her mother’s house when she was married as her dowry. At the wedding, they would have huge pots that sat on a round stand made of steel on the fire. For leisure, the men would play cards, women stayed at home. She remembers her upbringing as very free. She talks about school and their church which was a very important part of life. At eleven they would have to further their schooling in Opedo, then at fifteen if they wanted to carry on with education they would have to go further afield at college. People generally stopped at fifteen as they couldn’t afford more schooling.
36.33 Maria describes the church and the priest in detail. There is an annual festival called the Pastorella, where food is collected and shared between the old people in the village. The Pastorella would be brought out of the glass cage above the altar to the square. On Sunday they have a service and fireworks in the evening. Pastorella would be carried all around the village and people would put gifts on her; money, cheese, one year a sheep was donated. All the gifts are then given to the church and a goat would be killed for the occasion.
41.25 As children, they would look forward to the festival- having new clothes and eating elaborate food. She describes how the typical cakes were made. On the Sunday evening, the land workers (contadini) and farm workers (masai) who would look after animals, would bid to see who would carry the Madonna. Maria didn’t find the religion strict as it was part of her everyday life. She talks of her school again. They would sometimes sing the National Anthem and prayed in the morning and in the evening. During the war the men left the village, and the women that were left counted on one another.
51.25 Maria didn’t meet her father until she was five or six; he left for war before Maria was born and left her mother with four children. Her mother was Caterina and her father was Vincenzo. Her father was called up to war and then taken prisoner in South Africa. They were brought up to Scotland and then to Newtown in Wales. Maria remembers the day that he came home; people shouted from one street to the next that he had returned. Maria wouldn’t go near her father as she didn’t know him. She recalls that he had his uniform on and a heavy coat and was handsome.
55.51 In Newtown, Maria’s father was sent out to work on farms. In the camp they had to apply by the rules- they had food and cigarettes but there was a curfew and they weren’t allowed to go out of the camp very often. The vicar would give them a service and communion on a Sunday. Her father didn’t talk a lot about his experience but said that they were treated well by the English. Each day they went out to work in various farms and were taken back to the camp at night. The Italians were good at making their own entertainment; singing and playing cards. The language and the ways were different, but her father had to adjust and was in the area for six years.