The Italian Immigrant Garden

Mark Conte’s research explores the history and cultural significance of the Italian garden in Southern Ontario. His use of oral history engages him directly in the lives and feelings of one of Windsor’s largest ethnic groups. Immigration historiography, together with oral evidence collected from Italian immigrants living in Windsor and Toronto, reveals a wealth of cultural values and skills transplanted from Italy that persist today in Canada.

Mark is working with graduate chair, Dr. Miriam Wright, whose research includes post-World War II Canada, as well as rural economies. She has helped Mark find resources for doing oral history research and also connected him with recent sources on food as a historical subject.

Mark is an MA Candidate in History defended his major paper in January  2010. He can be contacted at contem@uwindsor.ca

This photo shows Mark's great-great uncle Antonio in his garden in July 2009, age 91 years, who still works his entire garden. This picture shows tomatoes and a grape vine. However, in the family he is known especially for his fig trees; he has about seven, as well as an olive tree.