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As an incomer with a little Mediterranean blood (of which I am daftly proud), I have always been curious about the presence of a strong and highly integrated Italian community in Wales, particularly in the south. I had always assumed, quite erroneously, that Italian immigration into Wales was a relatively recent phenomenon, probably associated with the Second World War. All wrong. Colin Hughes’s fascinating study has righted all my misconceptions and answered many questions that I hadn’t even thought to ask.
Based on an academic thesis, Lime, Lemon and Sarsaparilla is a highly readable yet authoritative combination of historical analysis and social commentary, drawing on a wide range of sources to provide a picture that includes both the individual, personal experiences of Italian immigrants through three generations and the broader international context. I quickly learnt that the first wave of Italian immigrants into south Wales actually arrived in the 1890s and comprised a few bold pioneers, all from the small, rural town of Bardi in northern Italy. Having established their place in south-Walian society – mostly as ice-cream and fish-and-chip vendors or running cafés and temperance bars – these padroni later ‘imported’ large numbers of boys from Bardi, who worked for them in return for bed, board and a small wage. The third wave, between 1901 and 1921, consisted almost entirely of young women: the brides the now-adult boys went to seek in their hometown. A century later, people still go ‘home’ to Bardi (‘a little Wales in Italy’), many of them making use of the regular mini-bus service that runs between Bardi and south Wales in the summer months.
Hughes provides a thorough and convincing argument for why it is that the Italian-Welsh community has achieved that sought-after combination of maintaining a strong connection with its Italian roots whilst being deeply integrated in Welsh society: individual personalities, chosen professions, government policies (both here and in Italy) and international events have all, it seems, had a part to play. And all are covered in this enthralling book.
Suzy Ceulan Hughes
The words ‘lemon, lime and sarsaparilla’ in the title refer to the porcelain barrels, each containing one of these drinks, which the author vividly remembers standing side-by-side on a shelf in Conti's shop and Temperance Bar in Cefn Fforest when he was a boy. This book is an affectionate and evocative account of the Italian-run catering businesses which served the industrial communities of south Wales so well from the 1890s, and the families which owned them, particularly those who settled in the Rhondda.
As well as using a wide range of written sources, the author also interviewed first- and second-generation Italians in Wales, and received letters from others. Radio and television programmes supplied further information. There is a full Bibliography, while notes to each chapter supply the source for each statement or opinion. Appendixes give the numbers of Italian-born people living in Wales and Monmouthshire at 10-year intervals from 1871 to 1931, the names, places of origin and places of arrest appearing on the memorial at Bardi to the victims of the Arandora Star, and the names and addresses of Italians living in the Rhondda around 1938.
After setting the context in which desperately poor young men from the area around Bardi, in northern Italy, came to settle in South Wales, particularly the Rhondda, at the time of an industrial boom, earning a living in the first instance by selling ice cream from hand-carts, the author describes how they prospered and founded families. They worked and saved hard, integrated well and were perceived as honest and friendly, providing a service to the community by keeping their shops and cafés open long hours but putting no pressure on customers to spend more than they could afford. Now, changes in social standards and greater prosperity have led to the closure of many Italian-run cafés and sweet-shops and some members of the third and fourth generations of the families have moved away from south Wales and out of the catering trade altogether.
A tragic chapter describes how, when Mussolini joined the side of Germany in 1940, male Italians who had not yet taken out British nationality were treated as enemy aliens. They were arrested and sent to internment camps. Those thought, mostly incorrectly, to be dangerous, were sent to Canada and Australia. The Arandora Star, heading for Canada, was sunk by a German torpedo, leading to the deaths of 486 Italians as well as 175 alien Germans.
This book is an excellent example of how to present one's research. The style is engaging and the scholarship first-rate. It is essential reading for all those interested in the social and economic conditions in the Rhondda from the end of the 19th century to the 1950s, as well as family and local historians.
Sheila Jones
It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgement should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council.
Gellir defnyddio’r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatâd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru.
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