Interview with female Oral History Project Leader at the Forest of Marston Vale

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Interviewee

Interviewer

Antrobus, Stuart

Document Type

Date

18 Aug 2003

Interview Date

18 Aug 2003

Biography

Carmela Semeraro was born in the Brindisi Province of Puglia (also called Apulia in English), Italy on 30th August 1949. She was one of six children (two older brothers, one younger one, two sisters) in a large traditional family. Her father worked hard on the land and encouraged his children to do well at school. He taught them all to read, even though only the boys would be allowed to continue their education. This was unusual in the local area; her father's workmates ridiculed him for sending children, particularly boys, to school. Carmela had to leave school at 12 years old. Though the Italian system at the time required all children to stay in school until 14, there were not enough schools for them to go to. The boys had to travel 7 kilometres to get to their secondary school, which was used as a reason for not sending Carmela to the same school. Her mother was very traditional and was keen to enforce the rules of the older generations. She believed in allowing the boys to go out and do whatever they liked but thought that girls had to be at home with their mothers learning household skills. Carmela read a lot of books, including Homer's Iliad, despite her mother's objections. At 15 or 16 one couldn't get jobs without a school diploma. Carmela tried to study at home, while her mother left home to help her brother, leaving the girls to cope alone. It was impossible for them to do exams in this situation. At the age of 17 or 18, Carmela became depressed and began to think about going away. Life was hard in Italy, particularly South Italy, at the time, leading to a lot of migration. At age 19, some friends of the family gave her the opportunity she had been seeking to travel to England, and she stayed there with them. She initially came to Baldock but struggled as she couldn't speak English. She needed a permit to work here, but a clothes factory applied for one to enable her to work as a machinist for a year. She had very few chances to learn or practise English in this environment. During a day trip to London, an advert in the Evening Standard for a new job in dressmaking caught her attention. The job was in London and paid £23 per week, an improvement on £10. Her host family couldn't believe that someone with no English ability could get such a job. She moved to Hornsey in London after successfully applying to the job using her friend as an interpreter. While there she enrolled in community college in Finsbury Park, learning English for two years. Carmella married an Englishman and moved to Biggleswade. Here, she started evening classes for an O-level (GCSE as it is now) in English at Stratton Upper School. This was difficult, being the only non-English student - she was advised to join the English as a Foreign Language but refused. Just after her son was born, she was able to pass the English exam. She then gave up her London job to look after her son and was unable to take day classes. As a result, she started taking evening classes. It was around this time that she found the Workers' Educational Association, where she took a number of courses, including equal opportunities for women, children's literature, popular literature, and American literature. As the only Catholic in the popular literature class, she was able to relate especially to the content of Brideshead Revisited. In American literature, she was introduced to Emily Dickens poems, to which she related as Emily was a housewife secluded in her own little world. It also featured a lot of every day language, which Carmella could understand and relate to easily. At the same time that she started to work freelance at home, she began attending evening classes for French. Through these language lessons, she was asked to teach Italian at Stratton Upper School as there were not many Italian people in town at the time. She went to teacher training for adults as well as learning by watching her French teachers. She ended up teaching Italian for nearly twenty years. Some of these years were spent teaching evening classes to adults at Biggleswade and Sandy Community College. During this time, she was divorced, which had a powerful effect on her life. She soon decided to pursue further studies, taking an Access course at Bedford College. Subjects she studied in this part-time one-year course included Geography, History, Literature, Study Skills, Science and Maths. On the same day as her final exam, she was in court settling her divorce. When she mentioned that she believed she had done well in the exam and would go on to do a degree, she was laughed at by the court. But she had indeed passed the exam and was offered a place at De Montfort University Bedford (now University of Bedfordshire), on a new three-year Modular Degree course. She took modules in History, Literature, Sociology and Drama, though she later dropped some of these. She received the maximum grant, as she was a single mother and her ex-husband paid no maintenance. She was determined not to disrupt her children's lives so attended college only in the mornings before they finished school. Her best and favourite subject was History. After the three years, she graduated in a ceremony at the Bedford Corn Exchange. By this time, her son was a teenager, and came only reluctantly to the ceremony. After this Carmella got a job as a supply teacher for Italian in an Upper School, teaching year nine up to A-level. She later had a part time job at Luton University (now another campus of University of Bedfordshire) starting with three hours a week, which increased to six, nine and then twelve hours. Here, she had the opportunity to set up a new course on Women's History in Europe. She focused on the Italian perspective of women in the 20th century, including changes in the law and society. She was then able to take an MA in Women's History at Royal Holloway University of London. She also taught Italian for a year at Biddenham Upper School. After finishing her MA, Carmella got involved with local community in Bedford, finding that the Community Library had no records about Italian people in the area, leading her to begin a research project with the local Italian community about their experiences of migration. Other topics she discussed over the years included childhood, home remedies, witchcraft, food, marriage and stories. She was increasingly able to get funding for these projects from archives that wished to have a more complete community history. The Italian communities started to feel more valued as a result of her work. She also wrote a book using the material, a bi-lingual book limited to 100 pages. Carmella continued to do a lot of voluntary work with the first generation Italian people. She also led an Oral History Project at Marston Vale called 'Changing Landscapes, Changing Lives.' She interviewed over 270 people from various places. The collection reflects and represents people from all walks of life and age groups.

Length (minutes)

120

Copyright and Source Archive

Material sourced from Bedfordshire Archives and Records Service