Emigrare a quindici anni: "volevo fare l'uomo, però ero un bambino"

April 12, 2026·14 min·1 clip

A 15-year-old boy boards a ship alone, pockets 5,000 euros, and tells his weeping mother not to worry.

The episode is an interview with Vince, hosted by Luisa, focusing on his migration story. Vince begins by explaining he emigrated from Sicily to Venezuela in 1958 at age 15 to reunite with his father who had moved earlier. He describes the emotional departure from his crying mother at the Naples port. On the ship, he befriended an 18-year-old Roman who sneaked them into first class, where Vince had his first whiskey. In Venezuela, Vince rented a butcher shop inside a supermarket and quickly became successful, earning enough in one month to send his mother 400,000 lire, nearly the price of a house. He married an Italian woman in Venezuela, and they had a daughter. Vince lived in the upscale San Bernardino area of Caracas, drove American cars, and imported Italian shirts. He noticed Venezuela's decline starting in 1967-68 due to nationalization. On a trip to Italy, he reconnected with a friend from Venezuela and dabbled in meat trading. A friend in Australia then invited him to visit. Vince traveled to Australia as a tourist, met a Sicilian factory worker in Concord who owned a house and car on a modest wage, and decided to immigrate. He brought his family and opened his first butcher shop on Paramatta Road in Peter Shaw. He expanded to multiple shops and later entered the bakery business, always importing high-quality Italian products. The episode concludes with a promo for another podcast, Work in Progress, about skilled migrants in Australia.

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