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taught more about the countries to which the Swiss had emigrated than about their
nation of origin. The children quickly mastered English, a skill which perhaps increased
their status wdthin the home and helped to break down the traditional power stmcture:
instead of gaining aU knowledge and wdsdom through their parents or the village
elders, as their illiterate father had done, they had access to new sources of
information. In situations demanding a good knowledge of English they could act on
their parents' behalf Since both Loretta and Pietro presumably spoke the dialect of
Gordevio, this skill must also have been passed on to the children, although the
younger ones appear to have acquired very little.'"* Loretta, who, was able to read and
write in ItaUan, often corresponded with her friends the Tognazzinis in California. Her
youngest children never saw her write to her own family in Switzerland, however,
suggesting that by the end of the nineteenth century everyone she cared most about
was living in the Colony and that her direct ties with the homeland had grown weak.
At some stage Loretta's parents had retumed to Hepbum from Happy Valley
and were now living a short distance away. There was a continual coming and going
between the two families, the children, who were always eager to visit their
grandparents, taking a risky leap over Spring Creek on the way to their house.
Loretta's sister Valeria had died in 1884, following a fall into a fire during an epUeptic
fit. Her nieces and nephews had not been spared the tragic circumstances of her
death, children of the time being taught to understand death as an integral part of life.'*
Though they had lost theu aunt, the younger Gaggioni children had many aduk carers,
their older si':ters having nursed, fed and played with them as babies, and watched over
them as they grew up. The working life of the family was stmctured in such a way that
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