Tufo to Toronto: Adolfo Mastantuono’s Immigration Journey

Written by Augustus Stratford

Introduction

The purpose of my assignment was to learn more about my girlfriend’s family history and to share her grandfather’s story with anyone who wants to hear it. To do this, on October 9, 2024 I interviewed her grandfather, Adolfo Mastantuono, via MS Teams with the help of her father, Mark Mastantuono, who conducted the interview on my behalf and translated Adolfo’s story into English. I also collected several photographs from Mark of their family through the years. I will compile both the interview and the photographs into this archive which can be accessed by their family and many others who are interested in the stories of Italian immigrants in Canada.

Interview

Summary of Interview

1. What age group/generation are you in?	Silent Generation
2. What first brought you to Canada?	He came because there’re wasn’t a lot of work in Italy.  He came over with his older brother.  His younger brother was already in Canada having arrived in 1957 and gotten married.  Adolfo and his brother arrived in 1964.  When they arrived in Halifax, they took a train to Montreal and stayed there for about a month.  The workers had been on strike when they arrived, so Adolfo eventually went to Toronto as one of his wife’s cousins was there and told him he could get him work.  His older brother stayed in Montreal with their younger brother.
3. What part of Italy did you come from?	Tufo di Minturno, Province of Latina
4. What was the journey to Canada like?	They took a boat from Naples to Halifax.  It was fine.  A lot of people were seasick from the journey.
5. What do you remember of your first impression of Canada?	He was only in Halifax for a few hours, but he didn’t think there was a lot there.  On the way to Montreal though, he thought it was weird how it was ‘all forest’ compared to all the little towns in Italy.  It was different, but it was fine.
6. Did you encounter any obstacles/barriers as a new immigrant to Canada?	The language barrier was the hardest thing for him.  In both Montreal and Ontario, they wanted him to speak either French or English.  He spoke Italian with some German as he worked in Germany for a few years previously. In Ontario, it was a bit easier because he stuck with his wife’s cousin who spoke English.  He was always worried he was going to misunderstand his bosses or do something wrong because he didn’t understand the language.  The jobs were dangerous, and people were getting hurt and dying because they didn’t know what they were doing.Adolfo hadn’t really wanted to come to Canada, and would have preferred to stay in Italy, but there were no jobs.  Overtime he got used to it, but always would have preferred to stay in Italy.  What made it a bit easier was that there were a lot of people in the Toronto area from their hometown.
7. Did you bring any items of importance with you when you came to Canada?	No, Adolfo came with nothing.  His wife, however, brought everything later.  He came in September of 1964, she came in December.  She brought her sewing machine, plates, clothes, and everything else of importance.  She was a seamstress, and she had brought her sewing machine, thinking that’s how she would make her living.  She ended up working in the factory making shoes, so she was still using a sewing machine just not her personal one.  Although, she did still make clothes in her free time.
8. Did you exchange letters with relatives in Italy?	Yes, but most of the communication was concerning their voyage to Canada, and how soon they would arrive.
9. Where is home for you now and why?	In Italy he didn’t really have a home, because he just lived with his parents.  In the beginning, Canada didn’t feel like his home, but overtime it became his home.  Even though he would have liked to stay in Italy, overtime as his children got older and began teaching him the language Canada became his home.
10. Looking back on this experience, is there anything you would have done differently?	Despite his desire to stay in Italy, he likely would have ended up in Canada regardless.  But if he could have, Adolfo would have come later.  He would have liked if his sons who were born in Italy could have stayed and went to school to learn the language.  His children were so young when they came here, that they didn’t have a great grasp of the language and culture.  They spoke Italian in their family, but they never learned it properly because in Canada, they were sent to school and learned English, growing up “more Canadian” than Italian.  He would have liked for them to experience the Italian culture more.
11. Is there anything further you would like to add to this story?	Adolfo reiterated that it helped that there were a lot of Italians from their area when they came here.  So, there was a sense of community in the beginning which made it bearable despite many immigrants not liking being in Canada.  They didn’t understand the language and culture and just wanted to return home.He also mentioned how when his younger brother encouraged him to come over, there was a conservative government, and they were not big on immigration.  For 5 years his brother tried to get him over.  But once the liberals took power, he was in Canada within two months.  Under the conservative government, there weren’t a lot of programs to help with immigration, and immigrants were constantly worried about getting deported.  The liberal government made it easier for them to come to Canada and find jobs.

Analysis

Adolfo’s story of coming to Canada had many similarities to readings and stories we discussed in class.  He came to Canada in search of work which is consistent with Robert Harney’s work on the Italian Immigrant experience in which he explained how “all Italian immigration has been a flow of talent to opportunity” (5).  Adolfo could not find work in Italy, so he searched for it in other places, first Germany, and eventually Canada where he would raise his family and eventually make his home.  Adolfo also mentioned the dangerous work environments he was exposed to in Canada, which confirms the discussions we have had in class, notably the article by Marino Toppan.  Toppan was the forerunner for Italian worker’s rights in Canada after working in similar work environments that Adolfo did.  The commission for safe work environments began in 1961, three years prior to Adolfo’s arrival in Canada, and Adolfo’s story make it clear that change did not happen overnight.  One of the reasons the work environment was so dangerous for Adolfo that he mentioned was the language barrier, which was the same for many other immigrants.  And language has always been a big part of the immigrant story, and Adolfo’s experience with language is reflective of many discussions we’ve had in class.  Adolfo lamented that he wished his children had spent more time in Italy before coming to Canada because they never properly learned to speak Italian.  Their exposure to the Italian language and the culture was limited to their experiences in the house because once they went outside, they spoke only English and were exposed to Canadian culture.   Their exposure in the house was important, but Adolfo wished they had had more.  One part of Adolfo’s story that stood out to me was the different views of immigrations under conservative and liberal governments.  This was a topic discussed during our class time, but it was interesting to hear how his firsthand story of long he had to wait to come to the country under the conservative government and the fear of deportation many immigrants felt under their leadership, contrasted by how quickly the liberal government welcomed him into the country and their efforts to ease the immigration experience.  Overall, Adolfo’s story was accurate to the immigration experience we discussed in class.

Reflection

As the scheduled date for my interview with Adolfo and Mark approached, I felt uneasy, like an imposter.  Who was I to conduct this interview?  What gave me the right to call myself an interviewer?  What qualifications did I have?  In truth, I didn’t have any qualifications to conduct the interview beyond my desire to learn more.  But is that not all you need?

Coming into this project, I think I had a warped idea of interviews, the power balance, the role of the interviewer versus interviewee.  I thought that the interviewer was supposed to know more than I felt I did, that they held the power.  But I realized that I was wrong.  The interviewer is not in charge of the interview, they are just an active observer.  They ask the questions and keep the conversation on track, but it is the interviewee who holds all the power.  It is their knowledge and experiences that give the interviewee the power in the interview.  They are the knowledge holders; they are the expert witnesses.  Realizing this, I became more comfortable in my role.  There was a language barrier between Adolfo and myself, so I gave Mark the questions ahead of time as I knew that Mark would have a better understanding of the flow of the conversation and be able to maintain that flow better than myself.  I was simply a facilitator, there to observe and learn.

This experience was quite eye-opening for me.  I met Adolfo through my girlfriend, Meg, at one of her family reunions.  We were discussing the interview after the fact, and she remarked that she was jealous I knew more about her nonno than she did, and that resonated with me.  I am young, and so I do not have a lot of stories of wisdom to share.  But I can reach out to those who do have stories and wisdom and provide a way for them to share them with people who want to hear them.  I can help create those connections while I wait for a time that I have something of my own to share.

Gallery

Bibliography

Harney, Robert F. The Italian Immigrant Experience. Thunder Bay, ON: Canadian Italian Historical Association, 1988.

Stratford, Augustus. “Tufo to Toronto: Adolfo Mastantuono’s Immigration Journey.” 9 October, 2024. (sites.uoguelph.ca/italianheritage/2024/11/04/tufo-to-toronto-adolfo-mastantuonos-immigration-journey/).

Toppan, Marino. The Voice of Labour: A Life in Toronto’s Construction Agency. The Frank Iacobucci Centre for Italian Canadian Studies. 2019.

How to Cite this Page

Stratford, Augustus. “Tufo to Toronto: Adolfo Mastantuono’s Immigration Journey.” Italian Communities in Canada: Heritage, Cultural and Ethnographic Studies, suprv. Teresa Russo. University of Guelph, 8 November, 2024, Guelph (sites.uoguelph.ca/italianheritage/2024/11/04/tufo-to-toronto-adolfo-mastantuonos-immigration-journey/). Italian-Canadian Narratives Showcase (ICNS).