Oral History

Heritage Lottery Fund logoMemories from Emilia-Romagna and Sicily
Italian Memories in Wales

Italian Memories in Wales

An ACLI-ENAIP Oral History Project, founded by the Heritage Lottery Fund

 


ragazza accanto al fieno

The "Italian Memories in Wales" Oral History Project seeks to record and preserve the memories of Italian people who migrated to Wales after the Second World War, and second generation Italians there. We are currently interviewing people and recording their stories about growing up in Italy during the fascist regime and in Pilota fascita postwar years; the journey over to Wales, their hopes, expectations and first impressions on arrival; settling into life in Wales, illustrating various industries such ascatering, tinplating and mining, exploring cultural differences and frustrations; their current achievements, cultural and economical contributions to Wales; and how first and second generation Italians relate to their Italian heritage, exploring questions of national identity.

We are currently planning exhibitions, talks and educational activities which will be accompanied by the personal photographs of the people we interview, and we will continually add pages to our website. We are creating an archive of interviews and personal photographs which will be deposited in St.

Pulmino FIAT
Fagans Museum, Newport Museum an Art Gallery and at ACLI-ENAIP. Through bringing out these often hidden stories and photographs, we will preserve the personal and unique experiences of this community and communicate the first-hand accounts of their experiences to a wider community. We hope to enhance a sense of pride in Italian history, culture and contribution to Wales, and to help present and future generations to understand and reflect upon their Italian roots. This will stimulate discussion across generations within the Italian community, yet also beyond that community. We hope that the experiences we record will help promote understanding of Italian immigration to Wales to wider communities and also that these accounts may act as a beacon for new immigrants moving to Great Britain.


Miners

"The scheme to record the life stories and memories of Italians who moved to Wales from the 1950s has been given a lottery grant of almost £50,000.

It will explore their reasons for moving to Wales, how they feel about it and their achievements along the way. The information gathered will be turned into a travelling photo exhibition. Enaip the educational branch of the Christian Association of Italian Workers (ACLI) will be running the project. The exhibition is expected to tour Wales and England, stopping in venues like the St Fagans National History Museum and Newport Museum and Art Gallery. A series of talks and presentations about the project will be organised for groups of schoolchildren and both Italian and non-Italian organisations for them to learn more about the immigration and integration of Italians in Wales. Educational packs will also be created to encourage local schools to carry out mini-versions of the project in their area. Many Italians who moved to Wales 50 years ago worked in heavy industries including farming, mining and tin-plating as well as founding many of the cafes and restaurants."
- BBC news , www.bbc.com

 

Negozio
"In the wake of the industrial revolution, Italian people settled in Wales to create businesses and services for all the new workers who had arrived in Wales to work in the heavy industries of coal, steel and the docks. At one stage there were many Bracchi (Italian cafes) dotted through the valleys, as much a part of the community as the chapel or the pub or the colliery or the miners' institute. However, the two communities had opposing attitudes towards religion, with the Roman Catholic Italians having a very different approach from the Welsh noncomformist one. There were to be clashes over the issue of the Italian cafes opening on Sundays."
- Heritage Lottery Fund, www.hlf.org.uk