Written By Phillip Vieira
I’ve always known Mary as my friend Lucas’ Grandmother. During this interview, I had the pleasure of finding out just how much more she truly is.
Introduction
- The purpose of this interview was to engage in community outreach with Italian-Canadian immigrants and document their stories and experiences of immigration from Italy to Canada. I conducted the interview in Mary Tice’s home as it is a setting very familiar to her, and one where we would both be comfortable.
- Mary Tice was born in Roseto Valfortore, a town in Italy, on April 10th, 1948. Mary immigrated to Canada when she was only two years old, so while she doesn’t have any memories of home, she was even further disadvantaged as a new immigrant. Experiencing all the prejudice, while having none of the fond memories of home. After speaking to her, I feel confident in saying that this gave Mary the strength she needed to overcome adversity. Despite all the challenges, she assisted, and persisted in helping her parents raise her younger siblings, and eventually had three children of her own, who have all blessed her with grandchildren.
Interview
I would like to apologize for background noise during the interview. Mary’s pug walks out of frame, noises heard were me petting him as Mary and I spoke.
- Ultimately, I think this project was a wonderful experience, I got to learn about how it felt to arrive and grow up in a nation foreign to your own. I was also able to contrast to stories I’ve heard from my mother, who came here from Portugal when she was three years old, she remembers a little more than Mary did. However, my mom had two older siblings which made the transition a little easier. For her siblings who were born here, Mary was that foundation. It was also a very different era; my mother was born in 1977 and only arrived here in 1980. Mary arrived here in 1950, meaning by the time my mother arrived, it was much more accepting. She still faced hardship, but it paled in comparison as she lived in a very Portuguese neighborhood, where she had a community who understood her.
- My own ignorance led me to not even consider gender as a factor, but I should have. I was oblivious to the fact that Mary faced discrimination on two fronts, both as an Italian immigrant, and as a woman. It was a time where it was not yet the “norm” for women and girls to work. All in all, I loved hearing about Mary’s experience and how she overcame those challenges. As someone who has known her for a while, admittedly not well, it was a lot of fun hearing about her life experience and story. It goes to show just how privileged we truly are, her father was a prisoner of war! And mine complains when I wake him up before 10am on a Sunday. I’ve always known her to be a remarkable woman, but now I know just how true that is, she’s been through immense struggle, and it shows just how truly humble she is.
Summary
Below I have attached a summary of the interview, I used questions that were approved and given to me by Faculty, as well as following up with some of my own.
SUMMARY OF INTERVIEW
| Questions | Answers |
| Date of Interview | Wednesday, Oct 15, 2025 |
| Name of Interviewee (use initials if the person wants to remain anonymous; only person conducting interview knows the person’s identity) | Mary Tice |
| 1. What age group/generation are you in? | Silent Generation |
| 2. What first brought your family to Canada? | Her father had been in the war, not many jobs in their hometown in Italy. So they decided to come to Canada to make a better life. Her mother’s brothers were indentured servants, which is what allowed them to come over. |
| 3. Did you know anyone else on your way to Canada? | Upon the expiration of their three year “contract” her mother’s brothers were free to do what they wished, they enabled Mary and her parents to come over. |
| 4. Where did you come over to Canada? Followup: How did you get here? | Halifax, Nova Scotia February 1950, no commercial planes at the time, so they had to arrive at a port. Boat ride was about three weeks. |
| 5. What Barriers or Obstacles did you encounter coming over from Italy? | Usually, immigrants gather with others around them, she didn’t live in any of those areas, didn’t have supportive community |
| 6. Who did you find discriminated against you most? | In school, both students and teachers seemed to be unfair. Mary says it is unsubstantiated but how it seemed from her perspective. It seemed less so when she moved to St Ann’s school |
| 7. Do you have any heirlooms or items from family? | She showed me her grandmother’s knife, it is taped at the handle, she says it’s the best knife she’s ever used. It cuts everything to this day. I was also shown her father’s P.O.W book with his stamp from Texas, it’s a dictionary that was done with a typewriter and has various common words and expressions. |
| 8. Assuming your life played out the exact same(kids, husband, grandchildren) would you have stayed in Italy? | She’s unsure, went when Stephanie(daughter) was 9 and Paul(son) was 5. Found very different culture, everyone laidback, businesses closed in afternoons |
| Considering your background in education, had you stayed in Italy do you think you would’ve followed that career path? | “Not if we stayed in the hometown, no” Schools only really went to grade 5, and could speak Italian, but just a dialect. Because kids weren’t in school for long, they never really spoke perfect italian |
| 9. Follow up to #8- Do you know what you think you would’ve done? | Women still very much stayed at home during that time, most females in university(Canada) would still go and try to get married, career wasn’t taught to be a priority. And there were a lot of barriers. |
| 10. Did you have any cousins come over? | No, very few first cousins, all on her mother’s side, just her two uncles on mom’s side, no cousins on father’s side. Father’s brother Vito died in a German P.O.W camp of starvation. 14-year-old sister died, one brother became a priest and the other just didn’t have any kids. |
| 11. Do you have anything else to add that you’d like to discuss? | Although we think of them as English speaking, and don’t really think about it, the first immigrants were the Irish, severely discriminated against. Then the Italians came, so for a long time you didn’t see Italian politicians. |
Gallery
Bibliography
All photographs included have been approved for sharing from the private collection of Mary Tice.
Vieira, Phillip. “Exploring Italian Heritage” YouTube. 15 October 2025. https://youtu.be/OOCwzjBdWPI.
access at Italian Communities in Canada: Heritage, Cultural and Ethnographic Studies as of October 2025, www.italianheritage.ca.
How to cite this page
Vieira, Phillip. “Exploring Italian Heritage: Mary Tice” In Italian Communities in Canada: Heritage, Cultural and Ethnographic Studies, suprv. Teresa Russo. University of Guelph, 15 October 2025, Guelph (https://www.italianheritage.ca/2025/10/21/exploring-italian-heritage-mary-tice/). Italian-Canadian Narratives Showcase (ICNS), Sanda Parmegiani, Kyra Bates, and Gurpreet Kaur.