French protectorate of Tunisia
Claudia Cardinale was born Claude Joséphine Rose Cardinale in La Goulette, a neighbourhood of Tunis, French protectorate of Tunisia, on 15 April 1938. Her mother, Yolande Greco, was born in Tunisia to Sicilian emigrants from Trapani. Her maternal grandparents had a small shipbuilding firm in Trapani, but later settled in La Goulette, where a large Italian community existed. Her father, Francesco Cardinale, was a railway worker, born in Gela, Sicily. Her native languages were French, Tunisian Arabic, and the Sicilian language of her parents. She did not learn to speak Italian until she had already begun to be cast for Italian films.