“We grew up here (Canada), were growin up here. We went to school, tried to go to school. Me I fell through the cracks. But then I, I persevered. I worked, worked construction, I worked many jobs. I learned, I learned about hard work, I learned the meaning of it.“
A story of immagration to Canada. This exhibit will explore one family’s immigration story as told by the eldest sibling.
Table of Contents
Credits
Published by: Domenica Howley
Estratto (Abstract)
Abstract:
This is a story of immigration, the story of Rocco (Joe) Maggio and his family. At age 13 Rocco and his family of seven moved from Melicucca in reggio Calabria to Prescott Ontario. At the time of leaving, my great grandmother, Giovanna, was pregnant and going through a depression after having lost a baby not long before. It was just after world war two and poverty and gangs were on the rise in the south, it was because of this that Giovanna decided they needed to leave. On top of that, much of their extended family had already left for a better life. One uncle moved to Australia another to America and soon they too would find new life in Canada. They first arrived by boat at pier 21 in Halifax where they then made there way across four provinces to Ontario. Brought with them on the journey were only a few personal items and nearly no photographs. Upon arrival the family moved to a farm then later moved to a small war house, the house that three generations would create memories in.
Astratto:
Questa è una storia di immigrazione, la storia di Rocco (Joe) Maggio e della sua famiglia. All’età di 13 anni Rocco e la sua famiglia di sette persone si trasferirono da Melicucca nel reggio Calabria a Prescott, nell’Ontario. Al momento della partenza, la mia bisnonna, Giovanna, era incinta e stava attraversando una depressione dopo aver perso un bambino non molto tempo prima. Era appena dopo la seconda guerra mondiale e la povertà e le bande erano in aumento nel sud, fu per questo che Giovanna decise che avevano bisogno di andarsene. Oltre a ciò, gran parte della loro famiglia allargata era già partita per una vita migliore. Uno zio si trasferì in Australia in un altro in America e presto anche loro avrebbero trovato nuova vita in Canada. Arrivarono per la prima volta in barca al molo 21 di Halifax, dove si diressero in quattro province in Ontario. Portati con loro durante il viaggio c’erano solo alcuni oggetti personali e quasi nessuna fotografia. All’arrivo, la famiglia si trasferì in una fattoria e in seguito si trasferì in una piccola casa di guerra, la casa in cui tre generazioni avrebbero creato ricordi.
Intervista (Interview)
Interview Transcript:
D Qual e stata la ragione perche hai l’immigrazione in Canada dal Italia
R When we came to Canada?
D The reason why
R The reason why? Poverty.. In Italy
D Okay
R There was no work, no way of making a living although… it could have been however, due to the family tree and family events we ahh… we decided to emigrate and so my father emigrated to Canada as a herdsman.
D Ahh
R He looked after cows and milked them, that was the way it was. And when we first came here we were on a farm. We were there for a while. Farmer wasn’t happy with the kids performance, we were five kids, he didn’t like kids. So we had to move. We moved location… and my dad went to work in construction, that was his field anyways. So we went to school.
D Ah, who was your sponsor when you came?
R The ah farmer, Skally, was the sponsor, along with my grandfather, from um Utica, New york, United States. They were the sponsors.
D Okay. Ah, where did you first come?
R Say again honey?
D Where did you first come to… where did, where did you land when you came to Canada?
R We ah came by ship.
D Mhm.
R Went to Nova Scotia, to Halifax and then from there trained to Montreal and we got met in Montreal train station by my grandfather and some of his friends and my aunt Carmella and we drove to Brockville, to Prescott by car the next day.
D Do you know why you moved to Canada instead of moving to ah, the United States where you already had family?
R Immigration ah, abilities. The United States had a closed border at that time. Nobody emigrated to the United states at that time unless you were familiar or had family, which, my mother and the kids could have located to the United States through the fact that her mother and father and sister was already there and then ah, and then she could have applied and made papers for my father to come. But my mother wouldn’t hear of that. She wouldn’t separate, not happening. We’d have to find another way and that’s the reason that we emigrated to Canada.
D Huh. What was life like when you first got here?
R Ahhm, about three feet of snow.
D *Giggling*
R Cold and miserable.
D How old were you?
R How was it for me?
D How old were you?
R How old was I? Thirteen.
D Okay.
R This is ah, March 1952.
D Crazy… umm. Did you leave much family behind in Italy?
R Well we left some ah cousins. Second cousins, third cousins. Not the whole, not the whole family perse because all my fathers’ brothers had all emigrated earlier to Australia.
D Had your mother considered going to Australia at all?
R No. Nope, I was the only one who was going to go there, to emigrate to Australia.
D Oh. What was the reason?
R Well my uncle wanted me there. And um, my father wouldn’t have minded me going but my ah grandfather didn’t like the idea, no uncertain term.
D Ohh… What was growing up in Italy like?
R Ahh it was okay, we were kids. We had ah, we had ah neighbours to play with and we had no money to spend perse. Ahhm… (lag in connection)
D Oh hang on… what, sorry can you repeat whatever you just said?
R Okay, so growing up in Italy, it was okay, it was okay perse. We didn’t have a lot of food to eat, we didn’t have but we made do. We didn’t have everything we wanted but we made do. Shortly after the war ahhm, but my grandfather had a bit of a farm and he had growth so we didn’t go hungry by, by any means.
D Mhm
R We used to… (lag in connection)
D Sorry you said you had plums?
R Yeah (unintelligible)
D Aha.
R And he’d give us animals and an IIU an, an, IOU.
D Umm. Okay ah, is there any other stories or anything like that that you recall from Italy?
R Ahh, lots of stories. But ah, but then I was ya know, thirteen or fourteen years old, young… (Unintelligible)
R Anyway, there was the one story where we would grow wheat and turn it into flour and the police would come and confiscate a certain amount of it. And they would give us, give my grandfather and an IOU.
S Was that scary for you?
R It was scary for me, yeah.
S Did it like, was it for the other kids? Do you recall that being like frightening to you as a child? Were they ever mean? Or were they decent?
R No they weren’t mean, perse. But ah, it was scary all the same. At a young age, somebody would have to say the cops are coming and I would be shaky in my boots, I would run into my mother… for protection or my grandfather, whoever was in there. That was the way it was.
D Do you remember what Italy was like during the war?
R Well the part of Italy that I did see, I remember it, and it was nice, and it’s beautiful to look at. Italy is a beautiful country. And now you can visualize it for what it is, back then it was a little tougher.
D Mhm.
R We didn’t ah, we didn’t have a lot of money to go travelling. So there were little villages and towns nearby that we did get to see. There was nice stuff there, it was nice to see, nice to look at. I remember that part. But ahm, life was hard, life was hard. You had to work, you had to do things to make a living. You did many different things. Ah, my parents wore different hats. My mother did a lot of sewing. My father worked construction, worked as a delivery person, and worked the farm with his father. So it was, it was hard… It was hard, wasn’t an easy life. And there wasn’t much money being made, that’s the way it was. I’m not, I’m not… (unintelligible) anything about it to change it, that was life in, in the fast lane as it was back in the day. I’m sure it’s not the way it is today and I don’t know the Italian laws these days. I know the government is kind of muddled up over there, they changed the government, they changed the act. But ah, that was the way it was.
D Right. Was it better once you moved to Canada?
R Ahh, eventually it did get better. We grew up here, were growin up here. We went to school, tried to go to school. Me I fell through the cracks. But then I, I persevered. I worked, worked construction, I worked many jobs. I learned, I learned about hard work, I learned the meaning of it. I worked on the seaway, pouring concrete, at the locks for two years, worked on the 401 for three and a half.
S Domenica, grandpa was on the construction crew that put the 401 through to Windsor, he was part of that. So there was no 401 out to Windsor until your grandfather was on the, on construction and he was on the crew that worked on the 401 out all the way to Windsor.
D Ohh.
R Yeah, worked on that section. Worked on the Prescott section. So that, was ah, done and we went to (unintelligible) and came home and stayed. And I was home for the winter, not for too long, until January tenth or twelth I got another job. That’s the way it was. When I got the next job I worked in, for a Mr Ragutto doin’ tile work. And then I went to work for Floor and Wall. In the meantime I met your grandmother, was takin her out. I promised her a brick house…
S Oh knock it off.
R We managed to build one. That’s life today… We got a nice home.
S Ohh knock it off!
R Okay, Okayy.
S Che cazzo fai?!
R So, eventually I started my own business after workin’ for Floor and Wall for seven years. And I, I started on my own business, worked outta the backyard garage for three and half, four years. Then there was a piece of property on highway 29. 3039, highway 29, I bought that property, put a building up, somebody wanted to rent it out. (unintelligible)… Supplies rented that building and I built another building for myself, Maggio Flooring. And from then, business flourished, I hired men because prior to that I was workin’ all alone pretty much except for my kid brother Jimmy who worked with me on, on ah Sunday, on weekends and ah Summer, after summer school was over, school was over and summer was on, he worked for the summer.
D That’s good.
R Eventually, I put another addition, and another addition, and another addition… and another addition to which became a store from four thousand square foot to twenty thousand square feet and we occupied the whole thing. And we built on that. Started doin’ jobs across Eastern Ontario, from Bellville to Cornwall, Ottawa, Pembroke, and surrounding area, we worked anywhere we, we could get a job. And we’d estimate the work and send men to do the job and I would go and I would go and work with them, alongside from time to time. But ah, that’s the way it was. And we managed to flourish and have a good company, worked honestly, and we were trustworthy. People would give us keys and they’d go away for the winter and I still have many of those keys in my trust. And people would go away and leave us the keys to do the work during the wintertime while they were away, that’s how much trust we have, which I find very, very rare. Very rare to have that kind of integrity and trust like that, I find that to be next to none… Pretty proud of that.
D You should be… Umm… your siblings stayed in school though right?
R That’s right.
D Ahh, did Uncle Carmen?
R Go to school?
D Yeah.
R Oh yes, he went to school. Along with me and Mimi, Concetta. They were younger, they did better in school than, than Carmen and I did and Gino even. Because they were younger, and they did better. We had a hard time learning English. I took classes, grade, grade nine and ten, and high school, night class just to pronounce the language and be better at pronouncing the language. Pronounce it so that you could understand it better which would help me, y’know.
D Well that’s good.
R Yeah… I think on the whole the whole family did okay. We did well.
D Mhm.
R Um, your uncle Carmen got a job at R.C. Victor he worked there for four years… I wasn’t indoor, an indoor worker, I had to work construction, I wanted work, to be outside. I liked it, I liked that best and I, and I did okay. And I got married, to your, to your grandmother. And along came your mother and your auntie.
D Mhm.
R Which I’m pretty proud of that… Very proud of that. And then you grandchildren came along and I’m pretty proud of that too… That’s life in the fast lane. And now I’m old, grey and sick and senile… I still like to go to work, I enjoy work very much, I’m 80 years old and I still love to go to work. I worked all my life.
D How did you meet Nana?
R I walked into a bookstore, and she was workin’ behind the counter and I asked her out for a coffee. I picked her up that night, a Saturday night, and we went out for a coffee. And after a couple of hours I took her home and asked her for another date and we went out again and again and again and the rest is history.
D How old were you?
R I think I was twenty years old, she was sixteen… I didn’t know that.
D *Giggling*
S Can you imagine that being okay with your mother?
D Noo.
S If Isabella came home with a twenty-year-old? Hah! Think about that.
R Your Nana was mature for her age.
S Yeah, so’s Isabella, you’d still have a freak out if she came home with a twenty-year-old.
R Yes, that’s right.
S *Giggling*
R That is right, however, it is what it is.
D And your family liked her, when you brought her home?
R Yes. Oh yes, my mother… my mother thought I better be, be behaving and treat her right because she’s for me. My mother thought she was gold. Yeah… my father liked her too.
D That’s good.
R My brothers and sisters liked her.
D The pictured that I have, you can tell.
R Oh yeah.
D There’s pictures of Nana with the girls with dolls she had given them for Christmas. And the little Charlie Brown Christmas tree.
R I don’t remember that picture.
D It’s in the box Nana got out for me.
R Okay. What else you need?
D No, I think this is good.
R Okayy. Glad you called. Talk to you later.
D Love you.
R Love you too sweetheart.
Photografie (Photographs)
Documenti (Documents)
Artifatti (Artifacts)
Le Storie (Stories)
The Boar:
One story was told to me by my great aunts. It was a story about one of their aunts and the difficult time her family had trying to gain her entrance into the United States. When she was about three years old, she was outside eating a piece of bread with olive oil on it when a wild boar came and wanted the piece of bread she was holding. She had hidden it behind her back and the boar hit her and dragged her for about a block before letting go. This resulted in her having developmental delays to her brain and as a result would not be permitted entrance into the United States because she was unable to contribute enough to society. Thus, her family was forced to leave her in an asylum in Italy while the rest of them immigrated. She was not permitted entrance into the United States for some years later.
Il cinghiale:
Una storia mi è stata raccontata dalle mie prozie. Era una storia su una delle loro zie e il momento difficile in cui la sua famiglia aveva cercato di ottenere il suo ingresso negli Stati Uniti. Quando aveva circa tre anni, era fuori a mangiare un pezzo di pane con olio d’oliva quando arrivò un cinghiale e voleva il pezzo di pane che lei teneva in mano. Lo aveva nascosto dietro la schiena e il cinghiale la colpì e la trascinò per circa un isolato prima di lasciarla andare. Ciò le ha causato ritardi di sviluppo nel cervello e di conseguenza non gli sarebbe stato permesso di entrare negli Stati Uniti perché non era in grado di fornire un contributo sufficiente alla società. Così, la sua famiglia fu costretta a lasciarla in un manicomio in Italia mentre il resto di loro emigrò. Non gli fu permesso di entrare negli Stati Uniti per alcuni anni dopo.
Olive Oil:
My grandfather always used to tell us the stories of him working from a very young age and how lucky we were to be able to go to school and not have to work. He grew up picking olives and taking them to the mill to be pressed into olive oil and that was his job as a little boy.
Olio d’oliva:
Mio nonno ci raccontava sempre le storie di lui che lavorava da un’età molto giovane e quanto eravamo fortunati ad andare a scuola e non dover lavorare. È cresciuto raccogliendo le olive e portandole al mulino per essere pigiato in olio d’oliva e questo era il suo lavoro da piccolo.
The Christmas Tree:
My grandmother told me about the Christmas she spent with them that they had their first Christmas Tree. She was giggling when she talked about it and said it looked like a scraggly little Charlie Brown Christmas tree. But they were so happy to have one. That was the same year that she had given each of the girls a baby doll.
L’albero di Natale:
Mia nonna mi ha parlato del Natale che ha passato con loro e che hanno avuto il loro primo albero di Natale. Stava ridacchiando quando ne ha parlato e ha detto che sembrava un piccolo albero di Natale di Charlie Brown. Ma erano così felici di averne uno. Quello fu lo stesso anno in cui aveva dato a ciascuna delle bambine una bambolina.
The Baby:
My great aunts told me about my Nonni and the hard time she had before leaving Italy. She had just lost a baby and was in a depression. She was not able to pack up the house and her husband had to but when he packed everything up, he left all the photos on the walls, so they didn’t bring hardly any of them when they immigrated. There is one portrait of the baby. But Nonni was determined, they had to leave because the boys were starting to hang around their cousins who were involved in gangs. My aunt Concetta said that the only thing that kept her going was knowing that she had another baby on the way. So, they left, and she travelled on the ship pregnant, awaiting a better life for her children.
Il bambino:
Le mie prozie mi hanno raccontato del mio Nonni e del periodo difficile che ha avuto prima di lasciare l’Italia. Aveva appena perso un bambino ed era in una depressione. Non era in grado di mettere in valigia la casa e suo marito doveva farlo, ma quando ha fatto le valigie, ha lasciato tutte le foto sui muri, quindi non ne hanno fatto quasi nessuno quando sono immigrati. C’è un ritratto del bambino. Ma Nonni era determinato, dovettero andarsene perché i ragazzi stavano iniziando ad aggirare i loro cugini che erano coinvolti in bande. Mia zia Concetta ha detto che l’unica cosa che l’ha aiutata è stata sapere che aveva un altro bambino in arrivo. Così se ne andarono e lei viaggiò sulla nave incinta, in attesa di una vita migliore per i suoi figli.
Reflessione (Reflection)
Reflection:
Having completed this project I have learned many things about my family and what it took to get here. There were many stories that I did not know and photographs that I had not seen. It was quite interesting to hear stories of my great grandmother, her mannerisms, and her absolute adoration for her family. It makes me sad that I could not know her. That said, I feel as though I am lucky to have bits of her surrounding me in the family that I do have. My grandfather looks like her, and from what I’m told my mother is much like her. I myself even have some of her mannerisms. Some of the photographs of my aunts and uncles as small children resemble my young cousins. The shapes of their faces and their great big eyes. But the stories that I love the most are those of the love my grandparents have for each other. They met when they were younger than myself and at 77 and 81 their love is still strong; it is a love that I could only someday hope for.
Riflessione:
Avendo completato questo progetto ho imparato molte cose sulla mia famiglia e su ciò che è servito per arrivare qui. C’erano molte storie che non conoscevo e fotografie che non avevo visto. È stato piuttosto interessante ascoltare storie della mia bisnonna, i suoi manierismi e la sua adorazione assoluta per la sua famiglia. Mi rattrista che non potessi conoscerla. Detto questo, ho la sensazione di essere fortunato ad avere qualcosa di lei che mi circonda nella famiglia che ho. Mio nonno assomiglia a lei, e da quello che mi è stato detto mia madre è molto simile a lei. Io stesso ho anche alcuni dei suoi manierismi. Alcune delle foto delle mie zie e dei miei zii somigliano ai miei giovani cugini. Le forme dei loro volti e dei loro grandi grandi occhi. Ma le storie che amo di più sono quelle dell’amore che i miei nonni hanno l’uno per l’altro. Si sono incontrati quando erano più giovani di me e a 77 e 81 il loro amore è ancora forte; è un amore che potrei sperare solo un giorno.