Mrs. Gisella Billo talks about her mother, Filomena
Michetti, who was born in Italy in 1886. After an
arduous voyage she arrived in Hylo, Alberta in 1917 in the
middle of winter and in the "middle of nowhere" to
join her husband who established a homestead there six years
earlier. Conditions were primitive, she was a "real pioneer from beginning" and times continued to be tough during
the depression of the 1930s. Economic
conditions for the farmers in the Venice-Hylo area improved
during and after WWII.
The interview of Gisella Biollo, daughter of Filomena
Michetti, was conducted by Giancarlo Grelli for the Dante Alighieri Oral History Project in 1973.
This oral history project was initiated by Sabatino
Roncucci, a founder of the Dante Alighieri Society, for the
purpose of documenting immigration history so that it
could be shared not only with the Italian community but also
the community at large.
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