SU_T_51

[i] Hello [name] .

[r]  Hello.

[i]  How are you?

[r]  Good.

[i]  Welcome.

[r]  Thank you.

[i]  May I ask you to introduce yourself and tell us where it came from?

I am 44 years old, I come from Ecuador and have been living in Italy for almost 19 years.

[i]  19 years is a long time.

[r]  Yes.

[i]  Why did you choose to immigrate and why did you choose Italy precisely?

[r]  When I came to Italy for the first time, I came to my brother-in-law for the holidays. And if, like him, he asked me if I want to work before returning to my country, I actually found a job and they accepted me and I stopped. I had a job in my country.

[i] What work did you do in Ecuador?

[r]  In Ecuador, I was a secretary in a telephone company. On behalf of the state.

[i]  When you came to Italy for the first time, how did you experience this change? Let’s talk about a young South American Latin boy who comes to Europe how was the impact for you?

[r]  I already liked Italy when I was in Ecuador. And my brother-in-law told me that it’s a beautiful country, so I preferred to spend my holidays here.

[i] And how did you experience your first day?

[r]  I tell you the truth on the first day by comparing Italy with my country. I wanted to see a country like America all new skyscrapers at least as those who have done now here of some bank that do not know what it is.

[i] The San Paolo bank.

[r]  Yes Sao Paulo, so are the buildings in my country.

[i]  So you found yourself in a different reality of your imagination?

[r]  Yes, I imagined a different Italy. But with time, the first month, the second month, I started to like it thanks to its people.

[i]  [name]  during the first days and the first months how did you integrate yourself and become part of this society? What were your first steps?

[r]  The first step is that if you have to be good at it, then you have to catch others. And learn the Italian language quickly.

[i]  Clear. Did you think before you would stay here all this time?

[r]  Not, because if you hadn’t told me my brother-in-law that they needed a person at work, I would have gone back to my country. Also because in my country I had a real job that was paid differently but the job is there I had it.

I would like to go back with you a bit behind the first time in Italy, after how long you returned to Ecuador?

[r]  I’ve been 5 years because I didn’t have the documents I had taken in 2003 during an amnesty. I took the documents in 2003 and had a good employer.

[i] How was the first day in Ecuador after all these years?

[r]  It was exciting to come back and see my family and my daughters who I missed so much.

[i]  Sure. And did you manage to preserve Ecuadorian culture or did you adapt so much to Italian life that you feel more Italian than South American?

[r]  Let’s say that the two cultures are almost the same, only the music changes. But now here I see that everyone dances and listens to Latin music so I’m used to it. Instead for food it’s different just that we eat rice and they eat pasta but the rest is almost the same.

Did it ever happen to you that some Italian friend asked you to try some typical Ecuadorian dish?

[r]  Yes. I have many Italian friends, including work colleagues and friends of the heart, and I made them taste some of our dishes and they liked it. But only for breakfast because the dishes of lunch and dinner are a bit ‘complicated. Because if he makes a trio and it is not like in Italy that there is the first the second …. but we make a single dish a trio.

[i]  Is there any dish in Italian cuisine that you like and that you have also learned to cook?

[r]  I’ve learned to cook all the dry pasta… let’s say all that if you do with pasta I know how to do it.

[i]  Let’s say you chose the easiest dish.

[r]  Yes, the easiest because working is not that you have time to do other things.

[i]  Sure.

[r]  Polo is something else.

[i]  And we say [name]  here in your field of work in your search for friends how do you feel? Do you feel like one of them or have you ever felt isolated or prejudiced?

[r]  Never, because when I got to work and everyone accepted me. And here, just because you know how to play football, you become everyone’s best friend.

[i] Oh yeah?

[r]  The first one who takes you to play and you see that you score goals and you’re good you become a friend and everyone will look for you job. And thanks to God for this gift he gave me I found a good job.

[i] So can we say you’re a good footballer?

[r]  I was.

[i] Why were you?

[r]  Because 3 years ago playing a friendly game they almost broke my knee.

[i] Can’t you play now?

[r]  I play but not as much as before I played an 8-man championship at Collegno. Together with my friends we have 3 cups but then I haven’t played anymore.

[i] And how do you meet the Ecuadorian community here in Turin during the holidays in your country, for example?

[r]  Let’s say yes, we meet more during the election when we have to vote for the president or a new law or something. During these activities we meet, or there is a park called Ruffini Park where we meet all Ecuadorians.

[i]  [name]  during all this time you managed to study did you get any diplomas? Did you learn a trade or did what you knew how to do in Ecuador suffice?

[r]  Thank God I learned so many things in Italy that I never imagined to do when I was in Ecuador. If I was working behind a computer like that, I never imagined that I would be a welder here. I studied to be a welder, an electrician and a plumber, let’s say I can do anything.

[i]  [name]  you think you’re going to stay here forever or you’re going to go back to your home country.

[r]  I’ve estimated that I want to be with my family but it depends on fate so nobody knows.

[i] True. You had me that you are married and that you have daughters with you here. Can you pass on your culture to your girls?

[r]  I think so, but only the good part and if they will drink to the Italian part it’s fine but only the good part. Any tradition is enough that it is on the good side.

[i]  I would like to ask you a different question but it has to do with the theme of immigration. What do you think of these young people who come by sea risking their lives to reach Italy? How do you see this phenomenon and what can you say to these young people?

[r]  I would say that you have to think before you do this. Because then your country will be empty and the people here from Italy will go to you. And they’ll have a lot of work because since there’s nothing there they’ll build the walls from underneath. That’s what I can tell you, and that those who stay there will have more money and those who come here if they don’t find a job like I found will be either a bum or a thief.

[i]  Since when did you come to Italy, have you visited other places besides Turin?

[r]  I’ve been to almost all of Italy because thanks to my first job I did the deliveries and so I’ve been touring everywhere until I got to France. I know Milan Genoa Florence Ancona Naples Rome Pisa Viareggio…

[i]  In short, you’ve done enough shooting.

[r]  Yes, the Ben Veneto Venezia Udine. And I went to Austria, Romania, Russia, Belgium, Switzerland, I just miss getting to know Germany.

[i]  Then I wish you to visit it one day. Can I ask you what your opinion is on Turin and Turin? If I’m tolerant enough and if you’ve ever had clashes with local people who made you feel like an unwanted stranger?

[r]  I’ve never been there before because I’m a person who fits everything. How I talk to him and how they treat me, I talk to him and how they treat me. Besides, I am not a closed person, I am open and an open person finds and makes friends with everyone.

[i] And what then to tell people who judge others only on the basis of their belonging the color of the skin and also on the basis of their religion? What then to say to these people who if they rely only on these things to judge?

[r]  They judge badly because they don’t know us from within and only know us from the outside. And they don’t know us but the other person and looking at the other person they think that we are all equal. And it’s not like that.

Do you have anything else to achieve?

[r]  When I had my second job, the gentleman who hired me was 76 years old. And I called myself “The Foreigner” because I was the only foreigner in the company. And I was proud to be the only foreigner in that company where I am still there.

[i] So you’re still working there?

[r]  Thank God, yes, and I’m going forward. Because I think that when someone is good and does his job well, the least he can do is welcome him.

[i]  Of course. Can I ask you [name]  if you have any goals or dreams that you want to realize here in Italy and maybe you haven’t realized yet?

[r]  I have so many expectations. But I am a person who hopes that things will gradually come to pass if they take one step at a time. I’m waiting for the will not waiting for what I think, because if I want to do something else I can do it now but I don’t know how it will end.

[i] I understand. Thank you for this interview and I wish you many good things.

[r]  Okay and thank you.