Nitsa Benkovic (née Pingos)

FAMREF011

Participants
Nitsa Benkovic (née Pingos)
Intervieweer(s)
Theo Xenophontos
Date and Location
July 9, 2023
Kitchener, ON
Languages
English
Permalink
Project
Film as Mediator: Cultivating a Cypriot Canadian Community Audiovisual Media Archive
Reference ID
FAMREF011
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Categories
Tags
Decades Referenced
Locations Referenced
Cyprus; Troodos Mountains; Limassol; Kambos (Nicosia District); Makarios Avenue (Nicosia); Apostolos Andreas Monastery (Famgusta District); Kyrenia; Australia; Melbourne; Canada; Kitchener; University of Waterloo; Toronto
Occupation(s)
As a teenager, she worked in the cafeteria at the University of Waterloo with her mother.
Parents Occupation(s)
Her mother worked in the cafeteria at the University of Waterloo.
Names Referenced
Theodoros Xenophontos; Helen Power (née Xenophontos); Makarios III; Georgios Grivas; Nikos Sampson

[00:00:17] Growing up in Troodos and school years in Limassol

[00:03:40] Family history and memories

[00:08:51] Migrating to Canada after the 1974 invasion

[00:11:24] The political situation and the invasion

[00:18:03] Her family's religious practices

[00:20:07] Her cousin's disappearance in 1974

[00:22:21] Her father’s sponsored migration to Canada

[00:23:36] Family split between Cyprus, Canada, & Australia

[00:28:24] Coexistence of Greek and Turkish Cypriots

[00:30:12] Settling in Kitchener among other Greek Cypriots

[00:33:24] Early struggles learning English

[00:36:40] Easing into Canadian society, but staying Cypriot

[00:39:00] Identifying as Cypriot not Greek

[00:41:33] Differences between Cypriot and Greek language

[00:42:52] Discrimination around her name from Canadians

[00:45:24] Interactions with Greeks and Cypriots

[00:47:30] Communication with friends back in Cyprus

[00:50:18] Her children's resistance to learning Greek

[00:55:25] Differences between village and city dialect

[00:58:13] Lack of interest in audiovisual preservation

[01:00:48] Photographs aiding the remembering of the past

[01:03:36] Feeling more Canadian than Cypriot

[01:08:30] Her trip to Cyprus in 2005 and her aspirations