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Evgenia comes from Albania ; she was born in 1924 at Eleftherohori, a village near Agioi Saranda) and came in Greece for the first time in 1994. At the time of the interview her worked as a 'Pensioner'.
Interview date: 13/01/2006
Researcher who did the interview: Raymond Alvanos
Subfield of the interview: Historical culture
In Albania Evgenia´s father was a tailor and her mother was working in the fields. Her grandfather was Greek and Evgenia attended Greek school in Albania. She also has relatives in the township of Efxinoupoli near Volos and that is why she and her family decided to migrate to Volos. In the war of 1940 during the Greek army´s advance her family had hosted Greek soldiers in their house. She describes the tensions between Greek and Albanian villages at that time. In 1942 Eugenia contracted an arranged marriage with a man from her home village. She then moved with her husband to Tirana and had eight children. He was a sweets peddler and she worked as a bus conductor. During the war they were on the partisans´ side and they liked Hoxha, but later on they were disappointed about the regime and felt betrayed and isolated. During the communist period there was a great fear within the family because they kept speaking Greek and performing religious practices. Evgenia was and still is a very faithful Christian and religion seems to be very important for her. Through her narration we learn much about gender relations in post-war Albania. She mentions that she brought her daughters up strictly in contrast to her sons who enjoyed a greater freedom. She came to Greece legally by bus, in order to see the country and her children who were already living here. Some of her children live in Volos, some in Albania and others in the U.S. She now lives with her grandson, who is 25 years old. She notes that she cannot return to Albania because she feels it is her duty to stay with her grandson and take care of him until he gets married.
