Mario Chiarvesio

Alumni Type: Immigrant
Country of Origin: Italy
Ship Name: MS Vulcania
Port of Entry: Halifax
Date of Arrival: October 21, 1951
Age on Arrival: 23

The Immigration Story of Mario Chiarvesio (Italian Immigrant)

Mario Chiarvesio was born on April 3rd, 1928, the last of three children of Bonaventura Chiarvesio and Giulia Lizzi in the town of Fagagna in the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia region of northeast Italy.

In 1951, Italy was still recovering from the Second World War. It was hard to find a job and food was in short supply. Since Mario’s father was visually impaired, he was expected to support his parents and extended family.

With no job prospects, Mario decided to join his uncle – Edoardo Chiarvesio – in Timmins, Ontario. Mario’s plan was to work in Canada a few years so he could make some money and then return to Italy. Mario had never met his uncle. Edoardo had immigrated to Canada in the early 1900s and worked in the mines.

In September 1951, at the age of 23, Mario travelled to Rome to visit the Canadian Department of National Health and Welfare. At the office, he passed his physical and was granted a visa that he was to present at a Canadian port of entry within four months.

After borrowing money from one of his sisters to cover the cost of his journey, Mario travelled by train across northern Italy to Genoa and boarded the MS Vulcania on October 10, 1951. With a suitcase containing a few of his personal belongs, Mario began his voyage across the Atlantic Ocean alone.

Eleven days later, Mario arrived at Pier 21 in Halifax. From there, he boarded a train for Montreal and then another for his long journey to Timmins. In Timmins, Mario found a job shovelling snow at the local train station for 60 cents an hour.

During his first months in Canada, Mario hooked up with a fellow immigrant – Mario Pecile – who was from his hometown in Italy and would become a lifelong friend. A local family provided them with room and board and they both got jobs as miners at the Preston East Dome Mines. By the mid-1950s, Mario and his friend decided to move to St. Catharines, Ontario where they found work laying tile, marble and terrazzo flooring.

Mario eventually moved to Toronto where he spent more than 30 years working for the Brooks Marble and Tile Company. He laid flooring at many of the large construction projects in Toronto during this time, including subway stations, buildings at Queen’s Park, the Yorkdale Shopping Centre, and the lobbies of the King Edward Hotel and the head-office towers of Canada’s major banks.

Mario’s father passed away in Italy in 1952, and 1956, his mother became seriously ill. By this time, Mario had saved enough money to fly back to Italy. It was during this visit to his hometown that he met his future wife, Nives Zuttioni, at the bar her parents ran in Fagagna.

Mario wrote to Nives for four years, and after her visit to the Canadian Department of National Health and Welfare in Rome, she was granted a visa to come to Canada.

Mario often said Nives was destined to immigrate to Canada because her birthday is on July 1st – Canada Day. As well, Mario’s father-in-law, Luigi Zuttioni, was an Italian soldier during the Second World War. Luigi was captured by U.S. soldiers during the war and brought to New Jersey where he worked as a bread maker. Luigi saw first-hand the opportunities that were available in North America and was not afraid to let his daughter immigrate to Canada.

Luigi always said the best flour you could make bread with was la farina manitoba. Little did Nives know that the flour came from a province in Canada called Manitoba – the province she was going to live next door to for the rest of her life.

At 20 years of age, Nives arrived at Montreal’s Dorval Airport on June 3, 1960. In Montreal, she boarded another plane and landed in Toronto early and Mario was not there to pick her up. Luckily, another passenger on the plane who spoke Italian gave her 10 cents so she could use a payphone to let Mario know she had arrived.

On July 2, 1960, Mario married his sweetheart in Toronto, and they moved into a flat on McRoberts Avenue in Toronto’s Little Italy. Their son Paul was born in 1962. The following year, Mario bought a bungalow in the west end of the city for $16,000 to support his growing family. In 1966, their daughter Linda was born.

A stay-at-home mom, Nives learned English by watching the I Love Lucy show on TV. Every Saturday night was dedicated to watching Hockey Night in Canada and then playing bingo with friends, including Mario Pecile and his family.

Over the years, Mario brought his children to Italy to visit their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. In 2019, Mario celebrated his 91st birthday and Nives her 80th. They will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary in July 2020.

Today, as a proud Canadian citizen, Mario still shovels snow from his driveway and tends to his vegetable garden in the backyard. Nives still cooks her traditional Northern Italian dishes like polenta and their son-in-law, a retired RCMP officer, has become their driver – or as Mario likes to call him – Uber.

When he first arrived, Mario had little money but plenty of hope. Together with his beloved Nives – and with lots of hard work, sacrifices and perseverance – they made a better life for themselves, their children and their grandchildren. They set an excellent example for the next generations to follow.

Thank you to the Canadian Museum of Immigration for providing us with a place to preserve Mario’s story.

Written by Linda Chiarvesio, Toronto, Ontario, September 2019