Friday, 17 August 2012

Presenting - Maria Minna - An Italian-Canadian Immigrant Story and a Life-Long Fight for Justice

Everyone in the neighborhood of Canada is officially represented at three levels: municipal, provincial and federal level. What's Beach neighborhood for I had already had the opportunity to explore the local representative of the City Council and Deputy Mayor Sandra bus and the province of Parliament, Michael Prue. I was really looking forward to meet the federal Member of Parliament Beaches / East York Riding by Maria Minna.

Maria and I met with a small local Chinese restaurant called the Honeybee. This restaurant is located right opposite the beaches Library, has been around forever, and on Saturday afternoon, we sat down on a nice late lunch. Mary began to tell his own background and reveals that he had been born in a small town near Rome Pofi. He spent his first nine years of his life in Italy and grew up on a farm. He refers to his childhood in a privileged, because he grew up and holistic food, such as indigenous grapes, fruits, and cherries. His parents were also added chickens, rabbits and pigs to their families' needs. Maria used to go to school half a day, and would do chores in the afternoon. His parents would take wheat to the mill and come back to the bags of whole wheat flour. Even after many years in Canada, Mary's mother never buy canned, bottled or frozen vegetables.

In 1957, Maria came to 9-year-old Pier 21 in Halifax with his mother and siblings. None of them spoke any English. His father was already in Canada. A small anecdote, Mary, the arrival in Canada to illustrate the initial culture shock: on the train from Toronto's mother wanted to buy bread for their children, but was offered only in white Wonderbread slices of bread. His mother was a look at the bread and said: "This is not bread." Until the end of mother's day, white bread was only good for toast.

Two days and nights on the train through the snow the mother wondered where his father had taken them. Maria admitted that the first few years were difficult: he does not speak any English, and had to leave his friend behind the Italian. Her dog was also missed, and died of heart break. In the beginning he had trouble in school because he did not speak any English. He put the year back to school, had to learn only basic maths and had to write with a pencil again. In Italy, he was already writing and fountain pen. In grade four, he eventually recovered, and between the quality of one year. His mother was illiterate and worked in a factory, where his father worked in the construction industry. This was a time when there were very few health and safety standards for workers, especially migrant workers. Italian children are regularly flowed into vocational schools with lower academic standards. As late as 1987 only 7% of Italian children went to college.

Maria enlightened me a little bit more the fate of the Italian immigrants of years ago. During the war, many of the Italian-Canadian man arrested in the Petawawa military camp. Even if they were Canadian citizens to their property, are often sold with one or two dollars. The Italians were informed of enemy aliens, and fingerprints. When Maria arrived in the earlier part of the Italian immigrants do not want to deal with the new, they wanted to blend into Canadian society and not get noticed. Italian men and women were often exploited, and endangering their health because they are often forced to employment agencies in orange county california.

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