European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

In order to do the remaining two years one had to go further away.

This would have meant adding three more kilometres to the three I was already doing.

It wouldn’t have been the biggest problem though.

Most families thought that if they were to make sacrifices it had to be for the boys, not for the girls.

It was customary, so I didn’t even think about it.

After I had finished the third grade I was supposed to stay at home, as there was no money for me to continue.

It was something we were

used to hear and also understand.

Traditionally, as you got married,

you would have to carry what you learned as a woman at home into a new house, in a new family.

However, all you were supposed to do was to be a good wife in your new life,

know how to mend your husband’s pants and how to make socks for him.

That was the current opinion at the time.

As I finished school I started to work in the fields.

In the winter, when it was snowing, I would go to the nuns to learn how to sew and patch.

They wouldn’t teach us embroidering: that was something for the children of the wealthy.

We simply learned to darn clothes, to put patches on the knees

or on the bottom of the trousers, and so on.

Family, social and political context

My name is Giacomina Castagnetti.