Marta Guzik was born in 1979 in the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, Poland. She only got to live in her country for 7.5 years, as the winds of change swept her family up. In August 1987, packed in their orange Zastava with a trailer and a Wigry bicycle, they went for a vacation in Jugoslavia, only to later settle in the Italian town of Lido di Ostia, where a Polish refugee camp was established at the Castelfusano Country Club. They waited to be able to go further, to Australia, USA, or Canada.
In December 1989, Marta and her family got to Toronto, Canada. A little luck, smart decisions, tremendous amount of work, and a strong spirit made this move a good one.
In Canada, Marta eventually graduated from York University, Glendon College in Toronto, and continued her education at McGill Universty in Montreal. When she was 23, she found work with one of the biggest musical festivals which allowed her to travel around the cities of North America for 8 years. Today, Marta works as Head for Training Programmes with the Canadian civil service.
She lives in Toronto with her husband and 7-year-old son. She visits her family in Poland at least once every two years.
Interview by Joanna Gierak-Onoszko in May 2017 in Toronto.
We left Poland when I was 7 years old. I remember, that it was a very big secret. My parents told me that we were going on holidays to Yugoslavia for 2 weeks. Yet, since I was an inquisitive 7-year-older, so one evening I listed in them talking to my grandma. I don’t remember exactly what I heard , but I understood that it wasn’t just a 2-week trip, yet they really wanted to leave for good. I only knew that it was important not to tell about it to anyone. I don’t remember whether I told them that I had heard it, or just… I told it to my grandma, I guess, that I knew that these were not only going to be a holiday time, but we were leaving for ever. However, I didn’t tell it to anyone else, I guess. Then, we stopped by in several places, for example, at my father’s family, to say goodbye to them. My dad’s brother, my uncle was going together with us. So, we went to take him and on that occasion we said goodbye to the family and left in the evening or so. I even remember it exactly that it was August 22, 1987. My sister was very little those days. She was only several months, a year plus. Yet, it was a holiday time and these were supposed to be like last two weeks of vacations. We were to go on holiday. We were driving like 10 days or so, from Poland, since we had set off. We actually stopped by in Yugoslavia, at the camp site for a couple of days. We also stopped by somewhere... I don't know what country it was, but we stayed at some people's place, in the countryside, really in the countryside. I don't know how my dad and uncle made arrangements with the hosts and they let us put up the tent on their field or in the garden, and we spent one, maybe two days there. I don't remember it clearly. Yet it was one layover. Then, we stayed, or it was earlier, at the camp site for a few days. Later, we moved on to Italy.
The village we lived in was named Ostia. We were staying at the Castel Fusano camp site. These were for us... at least for me, as a child, such long holidays. Despite we were going to school... but we were living in such a place, that was very... vacation-like, I may say. Because there were such long rows... such houses, as town houses, one attached to another, that, in the past... before we arrived here, had been serving for the people for renting purposes, as one might have simply rent a one-room (inaudible). So, we lived there. There were plenty of children. We had lots of freedom. Even far more than the kids, who live in Poland, since when you go outside, your mum asks you where you are going. And here, it was basically... since it was closed, and was situated in such a place, which was actually a camp site, so we were leaving in the morning and coming back in the evening, we were sightseeing. There were two swimming pools there. We were sightseeing various places. When Italians came on holidays to their trailers or houses, there was a bit more of a rush. But when the holiday time terminated and we were there all the time, we could have gone anywhere. We were allowed to do anything and everything was open. So, apparently we had... lots of freedom. Because I was not alone, I was with my family and wasn't the only child in this situation, as there were at least 10 of us. Later on, some people went off. But I had close friends. We stuck together. I don't remember that it was some sort of a huge assimilation or a change. Simply, it was different, yet we felt... we apparently felt safe enough and I felt safe enough that I didn't consider it in terms of questions: "what's next". I knew that it would be temporary, as all the time... since it was such a small group... I don't know how many persons there were, I can't say it right now. There was a group of people, who... all of us were at the same time, the same situation and everybody talked where and when we would be going. "Those have already gone". So, we knew that it was temporary. And, from the very start, my dad had been saying about Australia, because he had some cousins there, in Australia, whom we had met, as they had been to Poland, visiting us, a year prior to our leaving, so we had had an opportunity to meet them. I had met them. My dad saw them once more. So, all the time we were focusing on Australia. So, it was not for me... I didn't expect we would be there for a long time. Though we stayed there almost 3 years. Let's say 2.5 years.
We flew from Rome on December 4, 1989. I had my birthday on that day, so that's why it's not hard to remember the date. The flight itself, well, it was like... basically, all started off very cool and in the state of expectation. On the say, unfortunately, I experienced some unpleasant situations, but apart from that, we were all excited, I guess. We didn't exactly realize what was waiting for us. We had sponsors. We knew those guys, who are going to meet us in the airport. Yet, you never know precisely how it would be. Later, the plane landed first in Montreal, so some people… a lot of people got off in Montreal. And we flew further to Toronto. I remember neither the moment of landing, nor anything like that, as I was asleep, I guess. I remember, that we were driving on the motorway, I saw that this motorway is far wider that what I had seen back in Italy while travelling. We had done sightseeing, too, we had been driving a lot. Burt such a broad highway and so many lights I could have remembered. So, this was the first thing, that surprised us deeply. Simply, it was a new thing , that we noticed. Then, we drove to our new house. We were lucky, that the pople who sponsored us, simply arranged rental of an apartment and drove us in. And, they left us there... I don't remember any more details. They left us some food, I guess. We were left for the first winter night there. And later on, I think, that for the first couple of days, they were coming to us, I guess, to handle even the simplest issues, such as phone, signing me up for school, getting to know, where it was, arranging bank accounts, showing the store to buy some food. So, these were the orientation days, that... I don't remember them clearly and many of those things I am rather guessing than remember them happening. But I know that there was an orientation week, to show us what is what. But I know that I started my school pretty soon, as right before Christmas I attended to my class. So, I had a week off to get to know what was going on and later I started going to school.
So, when we arrived to Canada, our first experiences at school were rather... to all of us in the ESL class - English Second Language… i.e. such compensatory courses in English. I actually spent very little time in my class, except for (attending), for some reason, Maths and French classes. So, despite the fact that I didn't understand anything what was going on, I had to get back to my class to have Maths and French. I had the closest friendship at that moment and we were friends, and I got so close with other kids, girls, boys, who were in ESL with me, as I was spending very little time with the classmates, since I wasn't there so often. I remember, that when I was in my class, since in the place we lived in, particularly in the district my school was located at, the one I attended, those days it was an Italian areas, I may say. These were often such Italians, who were born here, but here or there, for example, the headmaster was speaking Italian. And some children in the class, who... when grandma insisted, so they spoke Italian a little. And for me, it was so exciting and it made me so glad, since there were at least a couple of individuals around me, I could have communicated with, despite their Italian was so, so. Yet, it was enough to talk to them. One girl, I remember, tried to teach me what Maths male or female teacher taught us in English, so she tried to explain it to me in Italian afterwards, so that I knew what was going on and how it worked. And also at the beginning, I remember, I spoke Italian to everyone. I guess I simply knew, I realized that they didn't understand it, but I didn't know why, maybe I decided that I learned one language so everyone should stop bothering me, at least for now. In ESL there was a lady, who... Mrs. Zawadzka, who was born in Canada, but she was Polish. He was always telling me the story, how she was going to the Polish school in the evenings. She helped me, I must admit, that even... it was cool to have someone like that, who was at my side somehow. I mean she was able to explain me, understood some things, that I wanted to sat, more than someone, whom I couldn't have opened my mount to at all. But I can't say that.. she was talking to me only in Polish or, that she made everything easier to me. But it was cool to have a teacher, who at least talked and understood a little.
I don't know if there's a certain moment, on which I can say I felt like home, that I somehow... I always had friends, colleagues, who... that is not hard in Canada, but they came from different places. So, all our childhood we actually spent on counting down the time to our holidays. Some girls were going to Portugal, some to Italy and we were going to Poland. So, for a long time, I must admit, we were living with it, that OK, we had to finish pour school year and the holiday would start and we would be going home. It was our... although, to be honest, I don't know if any of us really felt that Poland was our home. Basically, it suited us, as we had each other as well as different activities and all our reality there, I would say. But somehow for a long period, even up to high school, there was something like "we're going to Poland". Since the moment we had our tickets bought, since January, February, me and the girls were having the countdown, how many days to go... when are you going, when are you going? So, for a long time it worked like that. But I don't think that, I mean we didn't feel like home here. Yet, we simply had such a reference, that there was apparently something different there.
So, when we came here, my first weeks or even months and even longer, while being at school, well.. it was unfortunately not in line with how Canadians are perceived, that they are so open and helpful. Because, except for one friend, who tried to help me, speaking Italian with me in such situations, when I needed assistance, the rest, all other children... I don't remember what. Anyway, for sure no one liked me, no one wanted to... they were laughing at everything. At what I was wearing, that I had braids, that I put the red sweat shirt on, not the green one. I remember... I don't know how we got that blue short fur coat. But I remember I was going to school, wearing the short fur coat tied up with the straps. Everybody mocked at that short fur coat. Since I didn't understand clearly what they were saying, slowly, let's say, for a couple of months I started understanding more or less what was going on... but I know, that... simply you can feel it. If you get stuck in a situation like that, you know, that OK,. everyone pints out at you. So, for the first two years, when I started the fifth grade here, in December, so these were just the last couple of months of the fifth grade... and the entire sixth grade, all of that, was simply as, I don't know, as a tool to make fun of, mock at me. Sandwiches, apples. When I had a tuna and mayonnaise sandwich, there was a boy, who had a song about that, he was always sining, how terrible it smelled. So, it wasn't such a nice welcome. But even that had never... basically I knew that OK, they laughed at the fact that I was having a Barbie backpack, for example, that was allegedly absolutely out of style in the fifth grade. And I liked it very much. I wasn't such a kid, who threw it away to the corner in the house, as they were making fun of me. Simply I thought that I like it. I wanted to have it all the time. It was bought by my parents. I took it with me. But apart from other children, who were with me over those English classes, attended by the kids from the entire world.. I had a very good mate from Poland, but also a good friend, who had come from Chile. Later, we were going to the same class until the eighth grade, because the school I was in had only six grades and then you had to change the school. So, fort the first two years, it was surely nothing nice to me. Well, and I must admit that when I changed the school, in the seventh grade my experience was pretty the same. Basically, we were the girls, who had come from somewhere. And we didn't have such an invitation and such... "you are warmly welcomed", that they... it was opposite to the situation we had had a few years back in Italy. I don't know if it was happening, because there had been less situation of this kind and we hadn't been such a phenomenon, as I would call it. There all the kids had loved us. Girls, friends they had been combing our hair. Over the Christmas time, all the parents had gathered together... I guess it had been our first Christmas, as we had arrived in August... they had to take us in four cars, as all the kids from school, or at least from our classes, I don't remember it clearly, we shared the costs of food, various Christmas items, to have them for Christmas. It was so nice and so touchy to us. And here, as we arrived, no one even asked, simply nothing. A totally different experience.
I think that everything depends on the personality. If you are a child, who adapts easily to everything and is able to cope with what’s going on around him, so… and such a child grows up to be an adult acting the same way, so there’s no difference. But if someone, who is more nervous or more emotional, reacts more emotionally to some situations…. either emotionally, or in a sense that he doesn’t consider it OK, like “now, we are here, we have to adjust to it”, but stubbornly sticks to his opinion, it is for sure more difficult for such a person. If someone is like that, then probably he was a kid of this kind. So, it is the most likely that he had the same hard times in the past. I think, for better or worse, I am rather an indifferent person, when it comes to this issue. I am able to adjust myself. If the situation requires me to do something, so I flow with it. I don’t know, it could also be… someone could say that I am like this, because I experienced what I experienced. I don’t know what comes first, what is a result of what. Or, simply, am I like this or have I become like this due to the events and things that happened to me, that weren’t… I don’t think that it was a huge emotional… emotional experience or tragedy. I was simply a member of the family, that had taken such decisions and our life went that way. I think that everyone, who considers going somewhere and starting a new life in other place has to take into account whether he is ready to accept the fact that things will be different. You don’t have to participate in them, but you have to basically accept that some things are done differently, that you celebrate different holidays, that you wear different clothes or something, that the weather is different. You have to be (conscious) of all of that… be very open to it. Well, not everyone… I basically think that… I don’t know, maybe I am so indifferent. I can get used to the situation. it is crucial to have the important issues there. So, someone who is like that, I wouldn’t like to say “indifferent”, yet easy going and laid back.. I don’t know how to tell it. I guess, he is more prone to get used to it, takes it less seriously, takes it less seriously afterwards. Unfortunately, it also affects your health and mentality in the future. So, if someone, who is so attached and convinced about his ways, it is harder for him to get used to and take advantage of. Not everyone considers is a big opportunity. Yet, for some it could be the one.
The thing whether you are always a stranger, or one day you become a real Canadian, is a matter of the environment you’re in. Now, as an adult, no one suspects me that I am not from here, or I don’t have to face it up on everyday basis. When I don’t tell someone that I came here when I was 10, this is not so clear. Perhaps, somebody, who… there are people, who, in spite that they are.. I have friends, who arrived here at the same age as me. Yet, they, for example, speak English and still have this accent. So, everyone knows they’re not from here. But I know them and we are still friends, and I can’t say that they have been somehow affected, as they are persons, who are successful, they are teachers, they have got their families, they have a bunch of friends. So, at some point, I think that you simply reach a balance, so that… or, maybe, if you’re such a person, who strives for being around these people, who are… or, let’s say, at school, around those who are leaders, popular, who are well-recognized, girls, boys, who are there. When someone wants to be like that, so even with your accent, even not speaking perfect English, aims to join this group, of that kind. Me, personally, I have never aimed to reach it. I always used to hang out with, just like that or accidentally, or not known, yet on purpose… always, some of my best friends are from Italy, some from Portugal. Now, I have very little from Poland, I have to admit. The company has spread out somehow. And we have always hung out together and always…. So, as I mentioned, we had such memories, that in the summertime we used to go… This is something that bound us. I didn’t feel… even my high school years, the need of being the one, who was the most popular or something. And when I went to the university, then I think it totally disappeared such a… who was an emigrant and who wasn’t. Then, students, who came from other countries, matter. No one rather cares for it.
I mean I think that the fact, that we managed to keep Polish in our family is because… firstly, because in our home, always, from the early stage, since the moment we arrived, our parents never approved us speaking English, so even when my sister started speaking English and we talked to each other in English, so there was always somebody in our room and asked us whether we had forgotten that this was the Polish house and you couldn’t speak that way here. And, we had reading, as my sister was attending the Polish school and over some period I attended a bit, too. I think that, basically, it really helps out. The fact that we were going to Poland almost each holidays, as we were kids. But I have to say that, according to me, genetics mattered a lot. Because, simply… some simple feature more natural tendency to learn the language and develop it, and it isn’t a problem to them at all. Me… I have never thought about that. And, basically, I have been using Polish until today. Even when I was living in Montreal for 5 years and spoke Polish with my parents on the phone twice a week, for example. I have never felt that my Polish fades away. I can’t say that I was actively involved in something to keep it up, since I was neither reading, nor watching Polish movies. Well, only, basically, I managed to maintain it. The same with Italian, that I don’t speak on everyday basis, or even once a week, however, when it happens that I have to, it isn’t really a big deal for me at all. Basically, my brain acts this way. When it comes to my son, I think, that in the major part he has got simply the same ability and the same structure, and he inherited it from me. Because he is… I am ready to admit that it is really hardy happening that the child speaks so fluently as he does. I can’t say that I was working on them super actively. Simply, I always spoke Polish with him. At some point, basically, when he was just a couple months old I.. made a decision, or even it came naturally, that I started speaking only Polish with him. And so it continued. But I have also got many friends, whose children, they had also been speaking Polish to, yet later, when the kids started going to school, kindergarten and English became definitely more dominant as compared to Polish. Well, up to the moment, that many of them don’t speak Polish, or it is simply clear that… they can put together a few words, but they are not able to speak, as he does. He is… when we were to watch cartoons, the movie, so I always played it in Polish. Fortunately, we live in the times, when everything is available. So, I didn’t have to put so much effort to find, I don’t know, when he was interested in Winnie the Pooh… I didn’t have to order it in Poland, just I found him all the cartoons in YouTube effortlessly, very easy. So he has always had an even (access) to those languages. In the weekends, practically all the weekends we spend at my parents’ place, where they continue speaking Polish. So, this is combination of good luck and fine genes.
I think that everything depends on the family, they were born in. If they were born in a good family, that is, you know, the most important things, a loving one and where they will be cared for as necessary, where (the parents) have an idea to provide them with what this kid want. No matter, if it’s a soccer, or something more important… I think that these children have more or less… they are not much luckier than the child, who was born in Italy in the same… in the same family and in the same conditions. Basically, I think that a lot depends on... your close environment. On the family, on parents, on what they may or what they may not provide you with at the start. Later, the secondary priority is perhaps the country you live in. But the most important thing is that the support from the closest was strong and that you realize that, for example, you can rely on them.
