Browsing 108 items in the Italian Canadian Women Oral History Collection
Item 1
Collection: Italian Canadian Women Oral History Collection
Title: Italian Interview - Helen Lettieri
Creator: MHSO; Helen Lettieri
Date: 03/05/1984
Subject: Lettieri, Helen - Italian Canadian - Oral History
Description: This interview with Helen Lettieri describes her involvement with the Italian Canadian Benevolent Corporation (ICBC) in the 1970s and the establishment of the Columbus Centre, and Villa Columbo, an Italian senior citizens' home in Toronto, Ontario. Ms. Lettieri was involved in Italian politics from early on, first as part of the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Canadian Italian Business and Professional Association and later as Vice President of the Italian Immigrant Aid Society. She was instrumental in establishing a daycare centre in Villa Columbo in 1976, an innovative program that was highly praised and emulated in other seniors' homes across Canada. She explains that she feels a close connection to Villa Columbo and is very proud of the excellent facilities that support the specific ethno-cultural needs of its Italian residents. Ms. Lettieri also describes the difficulties of being a Board member of the ICBC, and reflects on the gender difference at that level of community politics in the 1970s and 80s. She expresses her ideas and hopes for future ICBC endeavors, and stresses the need to focus attention on Italian youth. This interview provides excellent insight into the establishment of Villa Charities and the needs of the Italian community in the 1970s. Ms. Lettieri's ideas about the role of Italian women in community politics and in entrepreneurship provide an interesting contrast to some of the other interviews that focus on the roles of women in the Italian community before the Second World War.
Item 2
Collection: Italian Canadian Women Oral History Collection
Title: Italian Interview - Rosa Marie Sangali
Creator: MHSO;R.M. Sangali
Date: 03/07/1976
Subject: Sangali, Rosa Maria - Italian Canadian - Oral History
Description: In this interview, Rosa Maria Sangali describes her life in Italy and her immigration to Canada with her adult son and his family in 1975. Mrs. Sangali concentrates on her memories of her childhood in Italy and her married life, with limited discussion of her experiences in Toronto, Ontario. Mrs. Sangali was born in a tourist town, and fondly recalls the carnivals and festivals of her youth. She is the daughter of a successful lawyer, and her parents wanted their four daughters to succeed. To that end, she was educated in Milan, and studied literature, music and French. She married her husband in 1938, and they had one son in 1942 named Fausto. Mrs. Sangali recollects the hardships she experienced in Italy during World War Two, such as having difficulty finding food for her son. After twenty years of marriage in 1958, her factory director husband died. Fausto was married in 1969, and immigrated to Canada in 1975 along with his wife and Mrs. Sangali to start a jewellery store. The store failed, and Fausto and his family returned to Italy. Mrs. Sangali was unable to join them, owing to her poor health. While in Toronto, her son discovered the Villa Colombo, an Italian seniors' residence, and placed Mrs. Sangali there. She describes herself as actively involved in the Villa Colombo's activities, so long as her health permits.
Item 3
Collection: Italian Canadian Women Oral History Collection
Title: Italian Interview - Liana Volpi
Creator: MHSO; Liana Volpi
Date: 06/05/1980
Subject: Volpi, Liana - Italian Canadian - Oral History
Description: This interview is included as a supplement; a description is not available due to poor sound quality, difficulty interpreting the regional dialect, or the subject matter.
Item 4
Collection: Italian Canadian Women Oral History Collection
Title: Italian Interview - Amabile Zanatta
Creator: MHSO; Amabile Zanatta
Date: 07/09/1984
Subject: Zanatta, Amabile - Italian Canadian - Oral History
Description: Amabile Zanatta was born in 1903 in a village near Treviso in northern Italy. She immigrated to Canada in 1924, married and started a family in Sudbury, Ontario. In this interview, she discusses how she came to live in Canada, as well as the employment of her children and her husband. Mrs. Zanatta's parents were farmers. She was one of eight children. In 1924, Mrs. Zanatta's sister, who was living in Britt, Ontario at the time, sponsored her to come to Canada. She describes her journey from Genoa, Italy, by ship to Halifax, followed by travel by train to Ontario. Mrs. Zanatta indicates that shortly after her arrival, she met her husband and they were married. It was not long until they were able to purchase a house, where they lived for fifty-eight years and raised their six children. Mrs. Zanatta is proud of her children, all of whom received an education, found good employment and have families of their own. Mrs. Zanatta never worked outside of the home. Her husband worked the lumberyards in Coniston and later Copper Cliff. Mrs. Zanatta returned to Italy once, alone, forty-eight years after immigrating to Canada. She visited her widowed sister who had breast cancer, and saw how much her village had changed in the nearly half century period that had passed since she lived there.
Item 5
Collection: Italian Canadian Women Oral History Collection
Title: Italian Interview - Lucia Sabucco
Creator: MHSO; Lucia Sabucco
Date: 07/12/1977
Subject: Sabucco, Lucia - Italian Canadian - Oral History
Description: In this interview, Lucia Sabucco shares her memories of life in Welland, Ontario, concentrating on the role of the Plymouth Cordage Company, a rope-making factory, in her family's life. Mrs. Sabucco's father immigrated to Canada from northern Italy in 1905, settling in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and working for the Plymouth Cordage Company. When the company opened a branch in Canada, her father followed, and instructed his family in Italy to change the destination on their immigration paperwork to Canada. Mrs. Sabucco was one year old when she arrived in Welland, and her family moved directly into a company house that her father had secured for them. Mrs. Sabucco explains that the cordage company provided more than jobs and housing; it also cleared the snow from the streets, held an annual fair for the employees and their families, and offered construction classes for boys and sewing classes for girls. Mrs. Sabucco explains the company's hiring practices, wherein all interested applicants would come to the plant office in the early morning and the superintendent would select the people that he wanted. She offers the story of how she spent almost a year applying for work at the company before she was finally selected, at age fourteen, because there was a shortage of labourers during World War I. Mrs. Sabucco provides detailed descriptions of her family's company house, in which they rented rooms to boarders. She describes the work involved in running a household during her childhood, singling out her mother's cooking as noteworthy. She then provides a detailed description of the plant's operations, converting hemp to rope. She briefly touches on her adult life, clarifying that her marriage in 1924 was not an arranged marriage, though that practice was not unknown in the community.
Item 6
Collection: Italian Canadian Women Oral History Collection
Title: Italian Interview - Vittoria Giancarlo
Creator: MHSO; Vittoria Giancarlo
Date: 08/21/1986
Subject: Giancarlo, Vittoria - Italian Canadian - Oral History
Description: In this interview, Vittoria Giancarlo describes her husband's migration to Canada, her own migration to Canada as a proxy bride as well as her married life. She focuses on her family life, work history, and the Italian community in Sarnia, Ontario. Mrs. Giancarlo was born in Italy in 1915 and attended school until she reached grade five. Her husband was a classmate who immigrated permanently to Canada at the age of sixteen. He worked in Timmins, Ontario, but was made to move to Sarnia after refusing to serve in World War II because he did not want to fight against his family in Italy. Mr. Giancarlo sent for Mrs. Giancarlo to join him, and they had a proxy marriage. Mrs. Giancarlo describes her immigration to Canada, and her new life in Sarnia. She earned money by taking boarders into the family home while she raised her two children. She goes on to say that she spent fifteen years working as a chambermaid, but was always home when her children returned from school at the end of the day. Mrs. Giancarlo reminisces about the informal social gatherings that characterized the Italian community in Sarnia, noting that this sense of community deteriorated as families became larger and people had more demands on their time. She positions the church at the centre of the Italian community, describing the importance of offering Italian masses to immigrants like herself who never learned English. She concludes by describing her recently-deceased husband's contributions to the community, explaining that he would have had many stories to share.
Item 7
Collection: Italian Canadian Women Oral History Collection
Title: Italian Interview - Acfredo & E. Maria Proia
Creator: MHSO; Acefredo & E. Maria Proia
Date: 09/10/1990
Subject: Proia, Acefredo & E. Maria - Italian Canadian - Oral History
Description: This interview is included as a supplement; a description is not available due to poor sound quality, difficulty interpreting the regional dialect, or the subject matter.
Item 8
Collection: Italian Canadian Women Oral History Collection
Title: Italian Interview - Francesca Cimicata
Creator: MHSO; Francesca Cimicata
Date: 1/28/1976
Subject: Cimicata, Francesca - Italian Canadian - Oral History
Description: In this interview, Franca Cimicata describes some of the traditions and superstitions she remembers from her life in Catanzaro, southern Italy. She describes several festivals, including the Festival of the Madonna, celebrated on February 2nd, and a June festival where everyone would bring their blankets to their balconies or porches. She recalls practices associated with important Christian holidays: fifteen days before Christmas, residents would bring wood to the church to be lit on Christmas Eve, with the resulting fire burning for two or three days; on Easter Monday, they would hold picnics with friends and family. Mrs. Cimicata also describes diets associated with particular holidays, such as avoiding meat on Christmas Eve, and serving frittata and sweet bread for Easter. She lists several superstitions that were said to bring good luck (such as spilling wine and dreaming of muddy water) and bad luck (such as spilling oil, dreaming of clear water, black cats or starting something new on a Friday). She recalls several practices said to bring good luck to marriage and childbirth, such as marrying on Sundays rather than during the week, indulging in pregnancy cravings, and placing a cross or a Madonna icon in a baby's crib. She also describes some traditional remedies for illnesses.
Item 9
Collection: Italian Canadian Women Oral History Collection
Title: Italian Interview - Anonymous
Creator: MHSO; Anonymous
Date: 12/04/1973
Subject: Anonymous - Italian Canadian - Oral History
Description: In this anonymous interview, the interviewee discusses the details of her immigration from Italy to Canada prior to the First World War, her work life in Canada, and the social organization of Italians in Hamilton, Ontario. This woman arrived in Canada in 1911 to be united with her husband, who was already living in Hamilton. She describes her initial belief that Canada was a temporary home and compares work opportunities in Canada and Italy, noting the availability of more work in Canada. The interviewee reveals her anxiety about the internment of Italians during the Second World War, but explains that she and her family kept to themselves during this time. She explains why she hosted boarders in her home and describes the work duties associated with this job. In 1935 she and her husband purchased a house, which they later renovated into a small hotel. When describing Italian community networks in Hamilton, she notes that there were few organizations for social interaction but points to the Church as a place where Italian Canadian women gathered. She also discusses the schools in Hamilton and describes those attended by her children.
Item 10
Collection: Italian Canadian Women Oral History Collection
Title: Italian interview - Anonymous
Creator: MHSO; Anonymous
Date: 12/05/1977
Subject: Anonymous - Italian Canadian - Oral History
Description: This anonymous interview describes the immigrant experience of arriving in Canada. The woman being interviewed was living in Halifax with her family in the late 1940s and 50s. Her father would send her down to the immigration offices to meet family and acquaintances from Italy. She gives details of the mental and physical state of the people arriving in Canada, and how government requirements were enforced by immigration officials. The interviewee explains the confusion and difficulty immigrants had in communicating and understanding what was required of them. She also describes the poor conditions of the holding stations, what she refers to as 'immigration sheds'. She also describes the efforts of local church groups and the Red Cross to help new immigrants. She pays particular attention to the experiences of female immigrants, describing some of the fashions, luggage and interesting attempts to sneak banned items through customs. The interview is engaging and exposes the sense of alienation, fear and disorientation of arriving in a new place all alone.
