349 . Italiani di seconda e terza generazione > conversazione con Yolanda Persico

About this episode

Carla Rotondo interviews Yolanda Persico about her experiences growing up as a second-generation Italian in New Zealand.

In this fourth episode of a series exploring what it means to be second or third-generation Italian in New Zealand, Carla Rotondo talks to Yolanda Persico. Yolanda grew up in Nelson in The Wood, a neighbourhood densely populated by the Italians. Most Italians arrived in Nelson by chain migration from Massalubrense, including her paternal grandfather Giacomo, who became a naturalised citizen and returned to Italy to marry Yolanda's grandmother. Yolanda’s mother emigrated as a girl with her Gargiulo family; they also settled in The Wood and worked, like most of the Italian community, in the tomato growing production. She is telling the stories of the Italian families she grew up with in The Wood, a very close-knit community of people’s homes and glass houses. Yolanda has contributed to the book ”Pasta, Prayer & Promise” the ultimate book about the Italians immigrants in Nelson. Stories from the 1950's and during World War II, when Italy was an enemy to the Allied Forces and some Italians were classified as enemy aliens and interned on Somes Island in the Wellington Harbour. Per il supporto alla realizzazione di questo programma Ondazzurra ringrazia l’Ambasciata d’Italia a…

People in this episode

Host: Carla Rotondo

Guest: Yolanda Persico

Topics covered

• Italian diaspora
• cultural identity
• immigration
• community
• history

Keywords

• second-generation Italian
• third-generation Italian
• Nelson
• Massalubrense
• Pasta, Prayer & Promise
• World War II
• enemy aliens
• Gargiulo family
• tomato growing production
• The Wood

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Pasta, Prayer & Promise

Books & works: Pasta, Prayer & Promise, Ondazzurra ringrazia l’Ambasciata d’Italia a Wellington

Places: New Zealand, Nelson, The Wood, Massalubrense, Italy, Nelson, Somes Island, the Wellington Harbour, Nuova Zelanda, Aotearoa

More episodes of Ondazzurra‘s Podcast

• 352. Te Tiriti per Italiani > quarto episodio · April 21, 2026 · 20 min
• 351. I viandanti della cultura > Alessandro Melazzini · April 7, 2026 · 27 min
• 350. Terzo episodio di "Solitudine: voci dall'estero" > Daniele Scanzi · March 24, 2026 · 44 min
• 348. Sul mare luccica...conversazione con Paolo Rotondo · February 24, 2026 · 34 min
• 347. Te Tiriti per Italiani > terzo episodio · February 9, 2026 · 39 min
• 346. Secondo episodio di "Solitudine: voci dall'estero" > Roberta Capelli · January 28, 2026 · 37 min