Italy, as a nation state, only appeared in 1861, before
that Italy
was politically divided, it was only a geographic region, the Italian
peninsula, home to several kingdoms. Many Italians fled Italy after the
failure of revolutionary movements in 1848 and 1861 but mass migration
started only after the Italian unification."
Before 1914, the
typical Italian migrant was a man without a clear national identity but with
strong attachments to his town or village of birth, to which half of all
migrants returned." For these immigrants the feeling of a national
Italian identity and of being one united ethnic group was created later on,
when they were already in Brazil.The reason for northern and
southern Italians to immigrate was the poverty and lack of jobs and income.Thus
most of the Italian immigrants were very poor peasants, mainly farmers.During the 1860s, transatlantic migration
was mainly made by northern Italians but after the turn of the century they
were mainly from Centre-South and South of Italy.
The poor economy
in Italy, particularly in the southern regions which had been taken over by disease,
starvation and several epidemics of cholera and malaria adding the fact that
water, in the main towns of southern Italy, was a luxury, roads and streets
were impossible to cross on bad weather conditions. This caused as many as
2 million Italians dying each year.Migrants left
behind a stagnant economy, a poorly cared land and high taxes. The Sicilian
revolt in 1866 against the Italian government also caused a wave of
emigration. While migration from north Italians was mainly to Europe, southern Italians migration was mainly
transoceanic. Brazil
being one of the destination countries. Brazil's -Great Naturalization- naturalized all the
immigrants residing in Brazil
prior to Nov. 15, 1889 into Brazilian citizens "unless they declared a
desire to keep their original nationality within six months". At that time
a great number of Italians was thus naturalized
Brazilian. In Italy, the Prinetti decree, in 1902, forbidding subsidized immigration
diminished the wave of Italian immigration to Brazil.
[Table of
Migration from Italy
by Region (1876-1920) at Wikipedia ]
Italian
settlement in southern Brazil
Italian
immigration to Brazil
was quite significant, especially from 1880 to 1930. The main areas of
settlement were in Southern and Southeastern Brazil,
namely the states of S?o
Paulo, Rio Grande
do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paran?, Esp?rito Santo, and Minas
Gerais.
Italians had
been settling in Brazil
as single individuals or small groups since the country was discovered in the
16th century.
However, the first large groups of Italian pioneers arrived in Brazil in 1875.
The Brazilian
government, headed by Emperor Pedro II instituted an open-door immigration
policy towards Europeans, especially after 1850, when the traffic of
African slaves was abolished in Brazil,
thus creating potential labor shortages.
In the early
19th century,
the Brazilian government created the first colonies of immigrants (col?nias de imigrantes). These colonies were established in rural
areas of the country, being settled by European families, mainly Germans.
Following the same project, colonies with Italian immigrants were also created
in southern Brazil.
The first colonies to be populated by Italians were created in the highlands of
Rio Grande do Sul (Serra Ga?cha). These were Garibaldi and Bento Gon?alves. These immigrants were
predominantly from Veneto, in northern Italy.
After five years,
in 1880, the great numbers of Italian immigrants arriving caused the Brazilian
government to create another Italian colony, Caxias do Sul.
After initially settling in the government-promoted colonies, many of the
Italian immigrants spread themselves into other areas of Rio Grande do Sul
seeking further opportunities. They created many other Italian colonies on
their own, mainly in highlands, because the lowlands were already populated by
Germans and native ga?chos.
The Italian
established many vineyards in the region. Nowadays, the wine produced in
these areas of Italian colonization in southern Brazil is much appreciated within
the country, though little is available for export. In 1875, the first Italian
colonies were established in Santa Catarina, which
lies immediately to the north of Rio
Grande do Sul. The colonies
gave rise to towns such as Crici?ma,
and later also spread further north, to Paran?.
In the colonies
of southern Brazil,
Italian immigrants at first confined themselves within their own ethnic
group, where they could speak their native Italian dialects and keep their
culture and traditions. With time, however, they would become thoroughly
integrated economically and culturally into the larger society. In any
case, Italian immigration to southern Brazil was very important to the
economic development, as well to the culture and ethnic formation of the
region.
Italians
in coffee plantations of Southeast Brazil
The poverty and
political turmoil occurring in Northern Italy in the last quarter of the 19th
century brought many immigrants to Brazil
(as well as to other countries, such as Argentina
and United States).
A part of them settled in the colonies in Southern Brazil, however, the
majority of them settled in Southeast Brazil (mainly in the state of S?o Paulo). After 1888, when the slavery was finally
abolished by a decree of the Imperial government, the number of farm
workers fell drastically in Brazil,
due to the fact that most black (former) slaves, with no lands of their own and
no money to buy them, moved to big slums in the cities. Moreover, the coffee
plantations were spreading enormously in the region. Coffee became the main
export product of Brazil
and there were few workers for planting and harvesting it. Furthermore,
contrariwise to sugarcane and cotton plantations, coffee required better
trained and educated rural workers, and Europeans decid
edly would be up to the job, since most of the
Italian immigrants were peasant/farmers in their own country. Therefore,
the Brazilian government started to attract more Italian immigrants to the
coffee plantations. In the beginning, the government was responsible for
bringing the immigrants (in most cases, paying for their transportation by
ship), but later the own farmers were responsible to make contracts with
immigrants or specialized companies in recruiting Italian workers. Many
posters were spread in Italy,
with pictures of Brazil,
selling the idea that everybody could become rich there by working with
coffee, which was called by the Italian immigrants as the green gold.
Most coffee plantations were in S?o
Paulo and Minas Gerais, and in a smaller proportion
also in Esp?rito Santo and Rio de Janeiro.
Italians used to
immigrate to Brazil
in families. The colono, as rural immigrants
were called, had to sign a contract with the farmer and was obliged to work in
the coffee plantation during a minimum period of time. However, the situation
was not easy. The Italian immigrants were substituting for the African slaves,
so many Brazilian farmers used to treat the immigrants in much the same
manner as they had their slaves, imposing indentured labor. The boom of Italian
immigration in Brazil
happened in the late 19th century, between 1880 and 1900, when more than 1
million Italians immigrated. Most of them were Northern Italians from the
regions of Veneto, Lombardy,
Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna. On the other hand, during
the 20th century, Central and Southern Italians predominated in Brazil, coming from the regions of Campania, Abruzzo,
Molise, Basilicata
and Sicily.
While, in
Southern Brazil, the Italian immigrants were living in relatively
well-developed colonies, in Southeast Brazil
the situation of semi-slavery in the coffee plantations were hard. Many rebellions
against Brazilian farmers occurred, which caused great commotion in Italy and
forced the Italian government to establish difficulties and barriers to further
immigration. In consequence, the number of Italian immigrants in Brazil fell
drastically in the beginning of the 20th century.
Despite the
problems, most Italians in Brazil,
after some years working in the coffee plantations, earned enough money to
buy their own lands and become farmers themselves. Some of them became big
owners and very rich in the process and attracted more Italian immigrants to
their possessions. Others left the rural areas of Brazil
and moved to Brazilian urban centers, mainly S?o Paulo, Campinas,
S?o Carlos, Ribeir?o Preto etc. In the early 20th century, S?o Paulo was known as the city
of the Italians, because 30% of its inhabitants were Italians (even
today, is one of the largest "Italian" cities in the world, second
only to Rome...).
In Campinas,
street signs in Italian were frequent, a large commercial and services sector
owned by Italians developed, and more than 60% of the population had Italian
surnames. In 1907, Belo Horizonte
had nearly 60% of its population composed of Italians and first-generation
descendants. Italians and th eir
descendants were also quick to organize themselves and establish mutual aid
societies (such as the Circolo Italiano ), their
own hospitals, schools (such as the Instituto Dante
Alighieri, in S?o Paulo), syndicates, newspapers
(such as La Fanciulla ), magazines, radio
stations, and even soccer teams (such as Palestra
It?lia, later renamed Sociedade
Esportiva Palmeiras in S?o Paulo, and Cruzeiro in Belo
Horizonte after World War II.)
Italian
immigrants were very important to the development of many big cities of Brazil,
such as S?o Paulo, Porto Alegre, Curitiba
and Belo Horizonte. Bad conditions in
rural areas of Brazil
made thousands of Italians move to these big cities. Most of them became
laborers and participated actively in the industrialization of Brazil in the
early 20th century. Others became investors, bankers and industrialists,
such as Andrea Matarazzo, whose family became
the richest industrialists in S?o
Paulo, with a holding of more than 200 industries and businesses.
Italians were
divided in two groups in Brazil: those living in Southern Brazil were closed in rural colonies, in
contact only with other Italians, where they were able to create a New
Italy. In the other hand, Italians living in Southeast
Brazil, the most populated region of country, were quickly
integrated into Brazilian society.
Italian Brazilians in
other parts of Brazil
Although the
majority of Brazilians of Italian descent live in the South and Southeast part
of the country, in recent decades (1960s-present), people from southern Brazil,
many of Italian descent, have played a vital role in settling and developing
the vast cerrado grasslands of central
and northern Brazil. These areas, once economically neglected and almost
uninhabited, are fast becoming one the world's
most important agricultural regions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Brazilian