Portrait of a Family: Angelo, Maria, and Domenic Dotto

Written by Jingyi Long

The following is a portrait of the Dotto family in Canada constructed through Domenic Dotto’s memories of his childhood growing up in Guelph’s Ward and his parents’ immigration to Canada. This project includes a video of a semi-structured interview featuring Domenic Dotto, a summary of the interview, and documents that follow the immigration story of the Dotto family.

Introduction

Generational divides run deep, even more so when parents have immigrated to new countries, leaving their children to navigate the line between cultures. Canadian immigration stories are important as they embody Canada’s values of multiculturalism within each memory and anecdote shared.

Domenic Dotto was born on November 7, 1957 in Guelph, Ontario to Angelo and Maria Dotto. His parents immigrated to Guelph in January of 1957, with nothing but a suitcase full of clothes and $14 between them. The objective of this interview project was to share Domenic Dotto’s story as a second-generation immigrant and the story of his parents, Angelo and Maria Dotto, before and after their journey from Treviso, Italy to Guelph, Ontario.

Interview

On November 8, 2022, Domenic Dotto was interviewed alongside his lifelong friend Maria Prigione, who shared anecdotes about their experience growing up as second-generation immigrants in Guelph’s Ward. The interview took place in Domenic’s home in Guelph, Ontario where he shared personal records and photos that document his family’s immigration story to Canada.

Angelo Dotto was born June 9, 1922 in Castelfranco Veneto, a town in the province of Treviso. At the age of 18, he joined the war effort but soon became a POW for the duration of the war. After the end of the war, he traveled to Canada in 1953 at his brother’s insistence of the bountiful jobs in Canada. In 1956, he returned to Italy where he met Maria Menegazzo and the two married two months later in January of 1957. In the same month, the new couple embarked on the trip to Canada, which is where Domenic’s story begins. After settling down in Guelph’s Ward with the help of the Italian community, many of whom they knew from Treviso, the Dottos welcomed Domenic into their family on November 7, 1957. As a child surrounded by a virbtant Italian community, Domenic grew to have a strong connection to his Italian roots but also faced challenges fitting in with the “Canadian” Canadian kids.

Angelo never talked about his experiences during the war with Domenic, but the war was a defining part of Domenic’s background. Documents from Domenic’s personal collection show that Angelo was awarded two War Merit Crosses as testament to his service to Italy.

Summary of Interview

Gallery

Bibliography

All photographs and documents included have been approved for sharing from the private collection of Domenic Dotto. 

Long, Jingyi. “An Interview with Domenic Dotto and his lifelong friend Maria Prigione.” YouTube, 2 December 2022. https://youtu.be/3KYm4TreZtU; access at Italian Communities in Canada: Heritage, Cultural, and Ethnographic Studies as of December 2022.

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Long, Jingyi. “Portrait of a Family: Angelo, Maria, and Domenic Dotto.” In Italian Communities in Canada: Heritage, Cultural and Ethnographic Studies, suprv. Teresa Russo. University of Guelph, 17 October 2022, Guelph (https://www.italianheritage.ca/2022/12/02/portrait-of-a-family-angelo-maria-and-domenic-dotto/). Italian-Canadian Narratives Showcase (ICNS), Sandra Parmegiani, Kyra Bates, and Gurpreet Kaur.