In the 1970s and 1980s the community of native speakers of English in Lecce was relatively small, perhaps about thirty people. The majority of these people, predominantly women, came to Lecce either because they had married Italians, or to teach English – some in private language schools, some at the University. Many of the latter then settled here. There were also a number of Americans who came for religious reasons: the well-known Baptist minister Mr. Troyer and his family came as “missionaries”, (I think in the 1960s) to convert Catholics, and every 6 months or so two new white American young men came to Lecce to try and convert people to the Mormon religion. However this second group never normally stayed.

 

In 1974 a “tea-group” was set up by ladies wishing to have the chance to chat in their native language from time to time, usually on a monthly basis. Later an attempt was made to set up a club in Viale De Pietro, but there were not enough people to maintain it on a weekly basis.

 

When Professor Bernard Hickey transferred to the University of Lecce from that of Venice, he wanted to set up an Anglophile cultural association, similar to the one that existed in Venice but on a simpler basis. To this end he contacted a fellow Australian, Joan McMullin, who then contacted Nicolette James, who in her turn contacted Hilda Caffery. A first (private) meeting was held on the 22nd February 1990, followed by a second one on March 1st 1990, which included also Valerie White and Clara Ceppi. After these preliminary meetings the first official one, given to present the idea of the Association (open to the general public) was held at the Corte di Cicala (which in those days was a room owned by the Regione used for cultural purposes) on April 2nd 1990. The Director of the Commonwealth Institute, Mr. Ronald Warwick was present, as was the Assessore Torricelli.

 

The association was entitled ‘Berkeley’ because Prof. Hickey said that Bishop Berkeley had probably been the first traveller (or the first we know of) to write about Lecce.

 

The first talk given on May 3rd was about Wales, by Prof. John Christopher, and was followed by a Garden Party in June. The talks and social occasions that followed were very varied, covering all sorts of subjects and formats. [*as can be seen from the Past Programmes]

 

Of course when the Berkeley started in 1990 there was no internet, so communications were by letter, or phone, and we posted the programme in the Mondadori bookshop in Via Monte San Michele, near the then Standa, by courtesy of the owner Alberto Santoro who was always very kind. We also usually managed to get a notice about the forthcoming meeting placed in the Quotidiano di Lecce. At that time the need to be able to hear spoken English was much stronger, as the only real alternative was to listen to the BBC World Service (a bit crackly!) on short wave radio.

 

Later it was no longer possible to use the Corte di Cicala, so various venues were tried: behind the Galleria Maccagnani, the Scipione Ammirato building in via Costadura, the Scuderie of Palazzo Tamborino and other places too numerous to mention.

 

Committee members changed over the years naturally, as did the Honorary Presidents: the first one was Dott. Nicola Galante together with Prof. Bernard Hickey.

 

Contacts were made with many of the other English-speaking Associations in Italy such as in Ventimiglia, and in particular in Bari, with whom we exchanged many speakers over the years.

 

Originally there was a kind of “rinfresco” served at the end of each talk, but it died a natural death after a while. Today with the internet, most talks are enlivened by visuals, films or slides, allowing the audience to participate more easily, and the audience itself has become very multicultural, as more and more non-Italians move to Lecce.

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Nicolette James