Casgliadau Arlein
Amgueddfa Cymru
Chwilio Uwch
Recordiad sain / Audio recording: Maria Grazia De Rosa
Oral history recording with Maria Grazia De Rosa. Recorded as part of the Italian Memories in Wales project (2008-10), delivered by ACLI-ENAIP and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
00:00:23 Maria Grazia was born in Bonito, Avellino in July 1931. During the war her mother was left on her own with the children and worked hard to bring them up. Maria Grazia only knew her maternal grandmother and her paternal grandfather. Her grandmother was called Lorenza Di Vito and her family had always lived in the same area working on the land; she directed the work on the land for the family to carry out, including Maria Grazia. She explains the work looking after the animals and helping in the kitchen. She would carry loads on her head and walk bare foot as a young girl. Food was all home made from the land; occasionally they would eat sausage from the pig that was killed annually but not all the time.
00:07:21 They would kill a pig every January; her grandfather would kill two but her mother could only afford to kill one. Her grandfather would keep one and sell the other to buy clothes for her and her siblings; Maria Grazia only had one dress which she would wash daily to dry for the next day. She describes how the pig was killed and every part of it used for food. The family lived in a simple house and their land was rented from a landowner. There were around five families in the area- all large families who rented land. Her father’s family had always lived in the area as well and her grandfather was Oragio De Rosa.