Livia Tonin
“But for me it was a paradise here (Canada), and after that I never cried because I was here. I never cried. A lotta people cry. “Oh far away, da da da” I never cry, I was happy all the time with my husband.”
Giovanni Giardino
-Sentivi la mancanza d’Italia?-
“ah, e tutt’ora sempre pero ormai i figli sono grande qua.. che dovrai? Vado per bene là a fare una passeggiata, una visita, mia sorella, mio fratello, pero qua è la terra, la casa nostra, si può dire ormai.“
Bruna and Elio Santi
Elio (having just come to Guelph from Italy): “this guy was there, he was boarding there, and I hear this voice, and I say to myself “I know this voice”, but I didn’t know who he could be. So he came down the stairs, there were two floors, he came down and we see each other. We know each other from home.”
Bruna: “He find all the neighbourhood from back home.”
Rosolino Cescon
“Ogni giorno era una cosa nuova, e la lingua ci dava un po` di svantaggio. Ma noi non ci siamo fermati.”
Famiglia Binotto
“Both [Rino] and [Pierina] grew up in a time when the war caused challenges and poverty for their families. However, they had many stories from their childhoods—usually using humour to get through the hardships. Their experiences gave them the courage to make their way in a new country. While they both had traditional upbringings, they were both working, hands-on parents. They missed their families dearly, but they also learned that they could ‘never go back’, especially after visiting Italy years afterwards. They never lost their love for the beauty and more sociable lifestyle that they left behind.” – Ornella
Riccardo Gazzola
“Se possono farlo loro, perché non posso io?“
“Ero troppo testardo per dire che non potevo farlo.“
Ines Cecchetto
“se me avessi detto che farei quello che ho fatto, non ti avrei creduto per niente.”
** This is a test exhibit for in class use only**
Joe Maggio
“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.
Antonio and Gelsomina Bucci
-Did you want to go back?- (to Italy)
Gelsomina: “Uh in the first time I didn’t like at all to stay here but, and then it was okay.”
Antonio (whispering jokingly): “She met me…”
Interviews with Antonio and Gelsomina Bucci on their lives both separately and together, and their transitions from Italian to Canadian life.
Interviews conducted by their loving grandaughter.
Ladi Furlani
-So you were enjoying life in Canada then? Were you missing Koper?–
“Well you miss it because – you see you don’t miss the lifestyle because you leave home and you have to start living different and you almost forget… I had a good life, I still have a good life – so now that I have kids here I sold most of my land there… But yeah, I’m happy here, no regrets.“
Ida Paolucci
“I like to go to work! I mean I stay home, after I marry, I stay home maybe 5-6 months and I say “What kinda life is this?” To stay home for what, at 17 you stay home? My ambition was to go outside, to go, to learn, to see it, to have money (laughs) I never wanted to stay home. Then Ida Maria was home, so two people, inna small house, whatta you gonna do all day? So then I start to go to work.”
Carm and Tony Squeo
Carm Squeo: “We came to a new country, you’d think that we would change, but we didn’t. It didn’t happen that way. We stayed, kept all our traditions and still think the old way…“
Tony Squeo:”Sono venuto qui in Canada quando avevo dicotto anni. Sono arrivato in pieno inverno, facevo freddo enorme. Io non era abituato al freddo. Piaciuto moltissimo in Canada, e ancore oggi sono fiero di essere italiano e canadese. I’m very proud to be Italian and Canadian.”
Maria Rao
“And it was a shock for me coming here I left all my friends like you have to understand I was a teenager and when you’re a teenager, friends are the most important people in your life. So I left all of them behind including my best friend, which I grew up with….9 months after we were here, I started crying, that I wanted to go back to my country (Italy) but then it just got better because you get use to it, you stick with your relatives more, although my cousins where younger than me. I would play with them and baby sit them. You get older and met a boy and you fall in love, and you get married and then you start your own family but the teenager years have been little tough.”
Ivano Stocco
-Have you ever been annoyed with being asked a question like “What does your art mean”? Or questions like that?-
“Yeah I get that all the time…If there was an easy way to put it to words you wouldn’t need to create something visual, necessarily. I think some of the strongest visual work is difficult to explain in plain language because if it were easier to explain in plain language you would’ve used plain language. You’re using the medium that’s appropriate to what you’re trying to express and get across. I mean, if you think of abstract art, what is it? I don’t know! It resonates in some way, it’s impactful, it’s bold, and it makes an impression on you.”
The heritage language among Italian-Canadians
The immigration of Italians towards Canada began in years the ‘80s and ‘90s. However, there are different reasons for this movement, but the biggest one was the war.These first movements were going to create the first Italian generations in Canada. These generations spoke only their dialects and came to Canada without knowing a word in English. This means, not only they had difficulties to integrate with Canadian society but also with other Italians because of different dialects.
The second generation, on the other hand, made a further step in this process, which means they focused more on how to integrate with society and improve their conditions through education. Indeed, in the 1970s many members of the second generation move up in becoming employers, developers, home ownership, and so on.
Caterina Mirto
L’economia italiana ha lottato dopo la seconda guerra mondiale. Molte persone stavano migrando fuori dall’Italia per sfuggire alla povertà. Per vivere una vita migliore, mia nonna Caterina Mirto è venuta in Canada con poco o nulla. Rina e sua sorella si sono trasferite in Canada insieme, lasciando tutto e tutti indietro. Rina ha dovuto superare molte difficoltà ma l’hanno resa più forte. È stata benedetta con una bella famiglia e vita che è stata creata in Canada.
– Stephanie DeLuca
Familigia Serafin
Questa è la storia e il viaggio di Bruna e Bruno Serafin
raccontati da Lucy Manno, la loro amorevole figlia
attraverso questa mostra possiamo vedere come è stato
essere un immigrato dopo la guerra e come è stata
un’esperienza e una sfida per Bruno e Bruna.
– Dana Berthiaume
Il viaggio della vita di mio padre: Pietro Sborlini
Vorrei ringraziare mio padre per tutto. Se non fosse per te, non sarei dove sono oggi. Mi hai sempre mostrato che ti importa e mi hai sostenuto come un pilastro attraverso tutto. Tanto amore
– Christina Sborlini
Peter Marucci
“He (Peter) was able to work, socialize, participate in charity events as well as document all these occurrences simultaneously.The albums that Peter had collected hold valuable information about the members of the Italian community of Guelph, their social lives as well as their struggles and the difficulty they faced. Peter Marucci had put tremendous effort into these albums to let the world know of the Italian community; he had known that this community is worth the time and effort and thereby deserved to have his 26 albums showcased in the Wellington Museum Archive down in Fergus, Ontario.”
– Yasameen Tareq
Information about Peter Marucci, as gathered from his albums found in the Wellington Archives in Fergus, Ontario.
Tony Ferraro
“Nobody’s given me a handout, I had to get it myself. Oh, I love Canada, sure. I am happy my parents came here, but they weren’t treated how they should have been treated, they were treated like second class citizens, that was not nice, we are supposed to be all brothers and sisters.”
Information about Tony Ferraro, a lovely member of the Ialian community of Guelph. Collected in an interview conducted by Yasameen Tareq, with the presence of Ricardo Gazzola, another lovely member of the Italian community of Guelph.
