Introduction

            In order to form a full and complex picture of my grandparents’ lives through the traces that are left of them, I am choosing to critically engage with several concepts that may affect the outcome of my project. This process is ongoing, as I analyze different theories of memory, understand experiences of Italian-Canadian immigrants and interpret oral family history, photographs and historical documents as my archival sources. Photographs will make up the main body of content for this project. Other items, such as postcards, newspaper articles, bocce trophies and certificates, will supplement the photos. As I analyze and categorize the photographs, it is important for me to be self-reflective. The photographs represent layers of historical, social and personal meaning that affect how I choose to articulate the narratives of my grandparents’ lives.

            First of all, I will take into account the forces that led my grandparents to migrate. Due to the economic depression, damaged infrastructure and legacy of fascism caused by World War II, Italians faced widespread unemployment and poverty (Iacovetta 6-8). With few job opportunities available in Italy, my nonno was drawn to Toronto, a city that was not ravished from the war and was experiencing a post-war economic boom that required workers to support its progress (Iacovetta xxii).  My nonno, like thousands of other Italian migrants, had planned on returning to Italy to live there permanently with the money he earned from his years of work in Canada. My nonna, on the other hand, may have been more dependent on her husband’s decisions. As both Iacovetta (77-78) and Cancian (71) assert, the experience of migration is gendered, and my nonna’s journey to Canada was not exempt from this. After marrying her fiancé who was ten years older, my nonna lived with my nonno’s family for six months before migrating to Canada herself. As Cancian points out, many Italian-Canadian women held secure jobs during the 1950s and 1960s, however, they were still primarily valued for their domestic and reproductive abilities (77). While my nonna adhered to social norms, such as patrilocal residence before immigrating to Canada, her new home also offered new freedoms and kinships with other working immigrant women (Cancian 78). Following her husband to Canada also enabled my nonna to improve her socio-economic status, as her family had suffered from poverty in Italy.

            While historical writings and studies allow me to understand the facts and shared experiences that characterized many Italian immigrants’ lives, the subjects of my research are not mere objects of statistical analysis nor strangers. As Brah states, the experience of diaspora cannot be painted with one brush; in other words, it is not a homogenous narrative (208). One of the most blatant issues that I must call attention to while pursuing this project is the fact that I am the descendent of the people I am studying. Because I am related to the subjects of my research, my maternal grandparents, I am innately emotionally tied to their individual stories. Kornhaber and Woodward state that, “there is a natural, organic relationship between the generations that is based on biology, verifiable psychologically and experienced as feelings through emotional attachments” (xx). I find this relevant to my own memory of my relationship with my nonno and nonna, especially since I was only able to have them in my life until I was six and fourteen, respectively. This set of childhood and adolescent memories may affect how I choose to represent their history, because I do not hold recent memories of either of them. As time passes, positive memories and events are more likely to be remembered over unpleasant ones (Walker, Vogl and Thompson 399). Therefore, I cannot be completely objective when I select images and approach the act of writing about my own grandparents.

            Another influential layer I must take into account in my project is that my grandparents are both deceased. Although one’s own memory, according to Nora, is in permanent evolution, (8) first-hand accounts of memory are generally valued when gathering information about an individual’s life. Unfortunately, I do not have access to primary sources for my grandparents’ stories. In order to substitute for the words (both spoken and written) of my grandparents, I turned to their closest living relatives—their children. My mother and my two aunts currently act as my main source of biographical information for this project. Of course, this means that I must take into account the memories of three different people. When recalling and describing events, my mother and aunts may rely on their psychic realities (mental spaces created with memories, wishes, fears and fantasies) to remember biographical events (Burgin 118). Although my mother and her sisters were raised in the same environment, several factors such as birth order may cause siblings’ perceptions of their parents to be different (Salmon 73). For example, my aunt Melissa was born when my grandparents were close to middle age. This factor may lead her memory of her parents to be notably different from her sisters’ reports. My mother Ornella, on the other hand, was born fifteen years earlier to a 21-year old, first-time mother. I assume that my nonna’s parenting style must have changed between raising her first and third child over a decade apart. This aspect is one of several that may alter how each of the sisters remembers growing up. Since my mother is the oldest daughter and the fact that I am in much more frequent contact with her than my aunts, she acts as my first and main source for information about my grandparents’ lives. This is yet another recognized but unavoidable bias that affects what information I receive and how I treat my own project going forward.

            In terms of retracing location, I cannot accurately glean what my grandparents felt about their homeland and Canada. Brah claims that the same geographical location can acquire different meanings for individuals and can change over time (208).  This may have been true for my grandparents, but I cannot assume what their attitudes were towards the two countries. While both my nonna and nonno were involved in the local Italian-Canadian community, they may have experienced residual trauma or a “condition of terminal loss” when relocating to a new country (Burgin 117). My grandparents did identify the value of staying in Canada—likely to give their children a “better future”—although this term is vague and the true reasons can never be confirmed directly by my grandparents.

            After addressing the physical boundaries of my project (I have no direct access to my grandparents, only to their children and not to any other relatives or close friends of my grandparents) and the intangible nature of memory, I must consider the implications and problematic aspects of the main object of study for this project: the photograph. Although I cannot assume that my grandparents were aware of the presence of a camera in every photograph, the lens may have influenced how my grandparents presented themselves in these images. Several studies have proven that both humans and animals adjust their behaviour under surveillance (Wicklund 234). There are also notable gaps in the chronology of remaining photographs. For instance, I do not currently possess any images from the actual journeys of migration of either of my grandparents. The pre-selection of photographs that I could use for my project had already been narrowed down before I began this research. This is because photographs can disappear, go missing or be destroyed intentionally or through time and decay. Levin and Uziel bring up several aspects to consider before using a photograph as a historical source, such as who the photographer is, why the image was taken, who is present and what photographs are missing (266). These are all questions I will consider when selecting and analyzing a range of final photographs in my project.

            As this introduction attests, there are numerous angles from which to analyze the variables (and issues) surrounding my project, from the social-political to the psychological and personal. All of the ideas mentioned here will be considered in the final creation of my project, to ensure an enriched and critical representation of my grandparents.

Identification:
Ornella Osborne (née Binotto) – eldest child of Rino and Pierina Binotto

Vania Zadro (née Binotto) – middle child of Rino and Pierina Binotto

Melissa Binotto – youngest child of Rino and Pierina Binotto