Hailing from the ancient city of Ragusa in southern Sicily from where so many Italian migrants left for far away places in America and Australia, Delizia found time to meet with Andrew Carrazzo, who himself boasts family links with the old land.
“When I asked Andrew what has stayed with him of the Italian culture, he said that still today every Sunday he has a big family gathering around the dinner table,” Delizia explained. “When I asked him if he remembers anything special about his grandparents immigration experience he said ‘My maternal grandfather came first alone and was separated from his wife and two daughters for 10 years before being able to reunite (so) I'm aware of how many things they had to sacrifice in order to come here’."
A freelance photographer who combines her work with duties as a photography teacher at the Yeditepe University in Istanbul, Delizia felt compelled to make the pilgrimage to Australia after obtaining a masters degree in photojournalism.
“As a documentary photographer I always focus on social issues and ethnic minorities - these are the things that interest me,” Delizia said.
“When I was in the United States my masters thesis involved a photoproject on the Italo-Americans in Brooklyn, but I felt that the project on Italian immigrants would not be completed until I went to Argentina and Australia.
“The problem was, as I saw it in the US, that as Italian migrants are considered white European according to today’s standards they are also considered automatically assimilated, but they are not. Life was really, really tough for them and they made many sacrifices for next generations.”
Mindful that Australia’s great wave of migration came in the post-World War II years, Delizia is seeking out those who not only lived the journey, but those of the next generation and the next, amongst them Carlton’s No.44.
“Before I came here I had no idea there was an Australian Football League,” Delizia said.
“When I got here I asked people what sports were played, whether basketball and soccer, they said ‘No, we have the AFL’ and I asked ‘What is that?’.”
Delizia said she was then given the basic rudiments of the game and told of the Italian connection with Carlton, the Carlton Football Club and Lygon Street.
Andrew Carrazzo meets some fans at the recent Blues BBQ.
“They then began to explain the game to me and they talked to me about Carlton and the football team. I became very happy because I knew that in the 1960s in Carlton, 25 per cent of the population was Italian. They are the people I’m meeting now.”
Delizia intends to accumulate photographs for a book and exhibition, and this one she captured of Andrew amongst friends at Visy Park may well make the cut.
“It was very nice to see how approachable and nice Andrew was to all his fans,” Delizia said.
“The atmosphere at the stadium was joyful and relaxed. While all the players signed autographs, Andrew took extra time to make all his fans happy, not only signing autographs but also having his picture taken with so many of them . . . and he was the last player to leave the stands.”
