Italian Venezuelans (Italian: italo-venezuelani; Spanish: ítalo-venezolanos) are Venezuelan-born citizens who are fully or partially of Italian descent, whose ancestors were Italians who emigrated to Venezuela during the Italian diaspora, or Italian-born people in Venezuela. Italians were among the largest groups of European immigrants to settle in the country. Approximately 5 million Venezuelans have some degree of Italian ancestry, corresponding to about 16% of the total population of Venezuela,[3][4][5] while there were around 30,000 Italian citizens in Venezuela.[2]
Italians began arriving in Venezuela in massive numbers in the last half of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries. Yet Italians began to transmit their cultural heritage, giving and receiving demonstrations of social empathy, which contributed to their integration and to the huge flows into Venezuela in 1947 and in 1948.
The massive presence of travelers, explorers, missionaries, and other peninsular and insular Italian immigrants over the course of almost 500 years made Venezuela acquire a Latin vocation instead of a Hispanic one. Italians also influenced the Venezuelan accent, given its slight sing-songy intonation.[6] Similarly, beyond the ethnic contribution, Italian culture has had a significant impact in Venezuela, a country which is the second in the world with the highest consumption of pasta per capita after Italy.[7]
Before the discovery of large deposits of oil in Venezuela, during the first half of the 20th century, the emigration of Italians to Venezuela was limited. In colonial times, only a few hundred Italians (such as Filippo Salvatore Gilii, Juan Germán Roscio, Francisco Isnardi) arrived in Venezuela with a slight increase during the war of independence, including the privateer Giovanni Bianchi, Colonel Agostino Codazzi, Constante Ferrari, Gaetano Cestari and General Carlos Luis Castelli. The jurist and deputy Juan Germán Roscio was the author of the first republican constitution of Hispanic America promulgated in Venezuela on 21 December 1811. Roscio is considered a forerunner in the defense of civil rights and in the fight against discrimination in Venezuela and throughout the Americas, for his defense of his mestizo mother (Paula María Nieves, native of La Victoria).[8] In the Republican era of the 19th century there was a small number of Italians and their descendants who attained high status in Venezuelan society, such as the surgeon Luis Razetti. The 1891 Venezuelan census recorded 3,030 immigrants from the Kingdom of Italy, just over 6% of the total foreign population in Venezuela.[9] At the beginning of the 20th century, several thousand Italians immigrated to Venezuela, obtaining good working conditions, even while the community remained relatively small.[10]
By 1926 there were 3,009 Italians in Venezuela ... approximately one-third lived in the capital, one-sixth in Trujillo and there were respectable showings in Bolivar, Carabobo, and Monagas. Zulia, with its port of Maracaibo, had gained in importance. ... The "Societa' Fratellanza Italiana" was a mutual benefit society founded in Caracas in 1883. Other organizations of the small Italian community included the "Associazione Nazionale Combatenti", the "Lega Navale Italiana", the "Camera di Comercio Italiana in Venezuela", a section of the "Croce Rossa Italiana" and, founded in 1923, the "Partito Nazionale Fascista", with over two hundred members and organizations in four cities:Caracas, Valencia, Puerto Cabello and Barquisimeto (Duaca). ... Two Italian newspapers, "Eco de Italia", followed by "El Eco de la Patria", were published in the early 1920s. The first attempts to provide schooling in the Italian language date from the late 1930s, as do the beginnings of the first social club, "La Casa de Italia" (officially founded in 1937 with the patronage of the Italian minister). The Casa co-sponsored an Italian school, a cultural institute and several sports teams, notably in soccer and cycling.Susan Berglund[11]
In the 1940s and 1950s, the dictatorship of the general Marcos Pérez Jiménez promoted European immigration to his depopulated country, and more than 300,000 Italians emigrated to Venezuela where they flourished under his administration because he had started many urban infrastructure projects due to the revenues of oil exportation. There were ample opportunities to work in construction developments, and as a result the economic stance increased within its cities, especially Caracas, Valencia, Barquisimeto and Maracaibo. Noteworthy is the presence of many Italians in 1952 in the creation of the agricultural colony of Turén, the most ambitious experience of this type ever carried out in a Caribbean country.[12] The Electoral Law of 1957, which allotted to foreigners voting rights for the very first time, became a detrimental event for the Italian communities in Venezuela. The law was put into place by General Pérez Jiménez, to aid him in his reelection campaign. The loss of Perez Jimenez in the presidential referendum meant that his social programs would end, and a huge gap in leadership would follow.
Filippo Gagliardi
Italian immigrants had notably supported the referendum of 2 December 1957 by President Perez Jimenez, as well as externalizing public support for the dictatorship in a demonstration attended by around 75,000 Italians led by the entrepreneur Filippo Gagliardi. When General Perez Jimenez fell from power on 23 January 1958, the hostile attitude of the provisional military government towards the removed president was also reflected on the groups who were supportive of him. For this reason, many migrants and their families chose to return to Italy through the following year, subsiding towards the end of February, when the Minister of Foreign Affairs recognized the potential damage of this shift and proceeded to guarantee security to the remaining Italians in Venezuela. This is a relevant factor, since acts of disdain towards the Italian populace undoubtedly affected the decisions of that ethnic group in regards to choosing to leave or enter the country.
The Italians in the 1961 Venezuelan census were the biggest European community in Venezuela (ahead of the Spanish).
In 1966, according to the Italian Embassy in Caracas, of the 170,000 Italians present in the country, 90% lived in the main cities. About 96,000 lived in Caracas, 14,000 in Maracaibo, 8,000 in Maracay, 6,000 in Valencia and 5,000 in La Guayra. Most of these Italians were born in Sicily, Campania and Puglia; only 15% were born in northern Italy (mainly in Emilia-Romagna). They initially worked in construction, in the service sector, in commercial agencies and in different businesses (like hotels, banks and restaurants), in manufacturing activities (the shoe industry in Caracas, for example, was fully in Italian hands) and a few also in the oil industry.
In 1976 the "Dirección de Estadísticas" of Venezuela registered 210,350 Italians residents and 25,858 Italians "naturalised" (who had obtained Venezuelan citizenship).[13] In 2001, 126,553 Italians were living in Venezuela.[14]
Marisa Vannini calculated that in the 1980s Italian-Venezuelans made up almost 400,000 of Venezuela's population, including second-generation descendants of immigrants.[15] The Italian language in Venezuela is influencing Venezuelan Spanish with some modisms and loanwords and is experiencing a notable revival between the Italian-Venezuelans of second and third generation.
Santander Laya-Garrido estimated that the Venezuelans with at least one grandparent from Italy can be nearly one million at the beginning of the 21st century (like the former president of Venezuela, Raul Leoni, whose grandfather was an Italian mason refugee of the 19th century).
Currently, Italian citizens resident in Venezuela are reduced to less than 50,000 due mainly to demographic mortality and to their return to Italy (because of a Venezuelan political and economic crisis in the 2000s).[16]
Italian population in Venezuela
Census year
Venezuelan population
Italian population
% of immigrants in Venezuela
% of Venezuelan population
1881
2,075,245
3,237
6.6
0.15
1941
3,850,771
3,034
6.3
0.07
1950
5,091,543
136,705
31.1
3.01
1961
7,523,999
113,631
24.6
1.51
1971
10,721,522
213,000
22.3
1.99
2001
23,054,210
49,337
4.86
0.21
Italian community
Initially, agriculture was one of the main activities of the Italian community in Venezuela. In the 1950s, entire Italian families were moved from Italy to special agricultural areas, such as the "Colonia Turén" of the Portuguesa region.[17]
However, most Italians concentrated in commercial, building and services activities during the second half of the 20th century. In those sectors, Italians reached top positions in the Venezuelan economy. Italian immigration has been a decisive factor for the modernization of production (industrial and agricultural) and commercial activities in the urban and rural areas of Venezuela, as well as for the improvement of living standards.[18]
The community's main Italian newspapers are Il Corriere di Caracas and La Voce d'Italia[1], both published in the capital, and the main Italian school is the Agustin Codazzi of Caracas (with courses from elementary to high school). Since 2002, the Italian government has become the promoter for a provision which makes it mandatory to teach the Italian language as a second language in a consistent number of public and private schools within Venezuela.[19]
Pompeo D'Ambrosio, of Italian descent, responsible with his brother Mino for the golden age of Deportivo Italia, the Italian-Venezuelan football team
Indeed, Italian-Venezuelans have obtained significant results in the contemporary society of Venezuela. The Italian Embassy calculates that one-third of the Venezuelan industries, not related to the oil sector, are directly or indirectly owned and/or managed by Italian-Venezuelans.[21] For example, one of the areas of Venezuelan society most influenced by Italians is gastronomy, with the related food industry. In fact, the consumption of pasta in Venezuela is second in the world only to that of Italy itself, and spaghetti is considered a fundamental dish of the Venezuelan diet (together with pizza).[22]
Another sector of the Venezuelan economy favored by Italians is the footwear industry, especially in the metropolitan area of Caracas. Between the 1950s and 1970s Venezuela experienced a spontaneous boom in industrialization and many of the large production laboratories founded by immigrants became, over time, factories and large-scale distribution industries. Among these was the footwear sector, a business dominated by up to 70% Italian immigrants.[23]
Most of the Italians who arrived after World War II are concentrated in the metropolitan areas of Caracas, Valencia and Maracay.[24] In fact, currently the main community of Italian Venezuelans[25] is that of Caracas, which includes the Church of Pompeii in Alta Florida, the Casa de Italia with Plaza Italia as its main points of congregation (especially in the second half of the 20th century) and now the Italian Venezuelan Center at Prados del Este.[26]
In the Italian community, actually one of the most important in Venezuela, there are Presidents of Venezuela (such as Jaime Lusinchi and Raúl Leoni), entrepreneurs (such as Delfino, who with his "Constructora Delpre" made in Caracas the tallest skyscrapers of South America (Parque Central Complex), managers (such as Pompeo D'Ambrosio), sportsmen (such as Johnny Cecotto), artists (such as Franco De Vita), beauty pageants (such as Daniela di Giacomo and Viviana Gibelli), and many others personalities.
Main Italo-Venezuelan Institutions and Associations
[...] the extraordinary profusion of 115 global and regional Italian-Venezuelan institutions (was) registered in 1990. They include 62 associations, clubs and similar entities; 17 of them are located in Caracas and satellite cities, namely the Italian-Venezuelan Center ("Centro Italo-Venezuelano") and Italy House ("Casa d'Italia"). Another 45 general institutions are established in different cities throughout the country. They include Italy House in Maracay and Maracaibo, the Italian Venezuelan Social Center in Valencia and the Italian Venezuelan Club in Barquisimeto. There are 53 regional associations in the country, most of which group immigrants from southern Italy, particularly Campania, Puglia, Sicily and Abruzzi. There are also associations for people born in other Italian regions. Their role is controversial, as the descendants of some Italians have pointed out, because there is a certain localism countered by the preservation of regional traditions. Some institutions are very important, such as the Sicilia House; others are merely representative. As of the late 1980s, Caracas housed 26 regional organizations of special importance. There are 27 other associations throughout the country, including Barquisimeto, Maracay and Valencia. These organizations have grown in the past years, encouraged by such processes as the election of" Comitati degli ltaliani all' Estero" (Committees of Italians Abroad). The proliferation of Italian institutions defending Italian national and regional identity has permitted the creation of two large coordination centres, "Federazione delle Associazioni Italo-Venezuelane", which brings together global associations, and Comitato Permanente delle Associazioni Regionali Italo-Venezuelane, composed of regional associations.
Coat of Arms of Deportivo Italia (the futbol team of the Italian community in Caracas), that won five Venezuela Championships and the famous Little Maracanazo.Monument erected in Colonia Tovar by the community of Venetian in the world in homage to its founder Agostino Codazzi with the inscription "Italy honored for its extraordinary contribution to the greatness of Venezuela"
The main Italian associations in Venezuela are the following:[29]
Asociación Region Liguria de Venezuela in Barquisimeto, Lara
Associazione Campana di Lara in Barquisimeto, Lara
Associazione Emilia Romagna in Barquisimeto, Lara
Asociación Civil Agustin Codazzi in Caracas
Asociación Civil Abruzzesi e Molisani nel Mondo in Caracas
Asociación Cultural Menfitani in Caracas
Associazione Calabrese in Caracas
Associazione Civile Campani in Venezuela in Caracas
Associazione Civile Regionale Basilicata en Venezuela in Caracas
Associazione Civile Regionale Assolucana in Caracas
Associazione Emiliano Romagnola in Caracas
Associazione Nazionale Marchigiani del Venezuela in Caracas
Associazione Toscani in Venezuela in Caracas
Asociación Region Emilia Romagna de Venezuela in Maracaibo, Zulia
Associazione Civile Campani dello Stato di Aragua in Maracay, Aragua
Associazione Molisani di Aragua in Maracay, Aragua
Associazione Campana Táchira in San Cristóbal, Táchira
Associazione Civile Marchiglia dell'Occidente del Venezuela in San Cristóbal, Táchira
Asociación Civil Abruzzesi e Molisani nel Mondo in Valencia, Carabobo
Asociación Regional Siciliana di Carabobo in Valencia, Carabobo
Associazione Regione Emilia Romagna di Carabobo in Valencia, Carabobo
Associazione Campana Carabobo "Centro Social Italo-Venezolano" in Valencia, Carabobo
Associazione Emilia Romagna in Valera, Trujillo
Camera di Commercio, Industria ed Agricoltura Venezuelana-Italiana in Caracas
Casa D'Italia in Caracas, Maracay, Valencia, Ciudad Bolívar
Centro Italo-Venezolano in Caracas, Barcelona, Maracaibo, Valencia
Circolo Trentino in Caracas
Circolo Trevisani in Caracas
Club Social Italiano in Puerto La Cruz, Acarigua, Calabozo
Percentage of population born in Italy through Venezuela
The Italians who migrated to Venezuela came mainly from the regions of South Italy, like Abruzzo, Campania, Sicily, and Apulia, but there were also migrants from the north, such as from Emilia-Romagna and Veneto.
The Italians are concentrated mainly in the north-central region of Venezuela around Caracas. The Consulate stated that in the same 1977 there were 98,106 Italians in the Distrito Federal of Caracas, 39,508 in Miranda State, 14,203 in Maracaibo, 12.801 in Aragua State and 8,104 in Carabobo State, as well as 66 in the Amazonas equatorial region.
In the 2000s, it was determined that nearly 90% of the Italo-Venezuelans were concentrated in the northern coastal section of Venezuela facing the Caribbean sea. Approximately 2/3 of them are residents of the metropolitan areas of the three main Venezuelan cities: Caracas, Maracaibo and Valencia.
There is also a considerable number of Italian residents that live in the city of San Cristóbal and in the Andes region.
Demographics
Population
States with the highest proportions of Italian-born population tend to be those of the North-central coastal area (Capital and Central Region), the Andean Region (Mérida) and the Insular Region.
At the 2011 census, this was the breakdown of Italian-born population by state, showing that the capital area was the one with the biggest concentration of native Italians.
The Italian language in Venezuela has been present since colonial times in the areas around Caracas, Maracay, Valencia, Maracaibo and the Andes mountains. The language is found in many idiomatic sentences and words of Venezuelan Spanish. There are around 200,000 Italian-speakers in the country, turning it in the second most spoken language in Venezuela, after Spanish.[37] The name of Venezuela itself comes from the Italian Amerigo Vespucci, who called the area "Little Venice" in a typical Italian expression.
During the Venezuelan Wars of Independence some Italians helped Simón Bolivar against the Spanish Empire and they brought some Italian military words to Venezuelan Spanish. The military officer Agostino Codazzi created the first "Atlante" of Venezuela and - as a consequence - many geographical words in Venezuela are loanwords from Italian. In the second half of the 20th century, more than 300,000 Italians moved to Venezuela and left their linguistic imprint on the local vocabulary: "Ciao" is now a usual friendly salute in Caracas, for example. There are even expressions among local young people that mix Italian and Spanish words: "Muérete que chao" is an example.
Indeed after WWII came a huge emigration to Venezuela from Italy and the Italian language started to get importance in the country. The modisms of the upper class in Caracas (called "Sifrinos") are full of Italian words and expressions. Today, there are more than 5 million Venezuelans with some Italian roots: some young Italian Venezuelans in Caracas use slang mixing Italian dialect and Spanish among themselves. Italians also influenced Venezuelan accent, given its slight sing-songy intonation, like Rioplatense Spanish. Nearly all the Italians speaking the Italian language in Venezuela live in the half of the country north of the Orinoco-Apure rivers, while only a few thousands live in the Ciudad Bolivar-Ciudad Guayana and San Felipe areas of the Apure-Amazonas-Bolivar states.
Italian is also commonly spoken (mostly by the older generation) by residents of the town of La Carlota, a town in Venezuela which was one of the main settlements for Italians immigrants, regional languages of Italy were also brought to the country such as Neapolitan and Sicilian, Italian is the second language of many Venezuelans of Italian descent after Spanish, also the Italian government has become the promoter of a provision requiring the teaching of Italian as a second language in a constant number of public and private schools within Venezuela.[38]
Cuisine
Lasagna with parmigiano cheese is one of the most common and national dishes of Venezuela.Venezuelan pasta.
Italian cuisine is one of the most influential in the country's every day in fact, Venezuela is the second country in the world with the most consumption of pasta only after Italy itself. Pasta is the third most consumed product in Venezuela, whose per capita consumption is 12.6 kg.[39]
Pasticho (lasagna in Italian, pl. lasagne) is extremely common dish in Venezuelan cuisine, pasticho basically lasagne is one of the traditional Venezuelan dishes being popular as hallaca, it is consumed in the original form, but also received adaptations, the variants are innumerable, for example, in some, layers of ham are added or the pasta is replaced by banana or by cachapas leafs, a version which is known as chalupa, in others it has been completely modified which involve sauce of chicken or fish, and Pasticho de berenjena which resembles greek Moussaka.[40]
Pizza is one of the most popular dishes in Venezuelan cuisine, pizza has had completely different contrast and variations. The Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana has approved Portarossa, a Venezuelan business, for "La margarita," which comprises mozzarella cheese, and "La Marinada," which contains tomato sauce and garlic, as the eighth Latin American pizza certified as Pizza Napolitana by this establesiment, is an example of the various variants of pizzas in the country; it serves numerous types of pizzas, including "La Pizza Parrilla," which is made with chicken, pork, chorizo, and french fries, as well as Focaccia de Lomito carpaccio.[41][42]
Polenta originated in Italy originally made from boiled cornmeal. Funche as it is better known in Venezuela, has been incorporated into stews. The typical dish is made with chicken. In the East and West of the country they additionally prepare it with sardines. The typical Polenta of Venezuela is a baked cake made from a mix of precooked corn (Harina P.A.N.), water and salt, stuffed with some meat, chicken, fish or pig stew.[43]
Cannoli is a pastry tube filled with ricotta cheese and honey or chocolate. It is a extremely common dish in Venezuelan cuisine.
Notable Italian-Venezuelans
Architecture
Jorge Rigamonti – Designed multiple national and international award-winning buildings
^ abGerencia General de Estadísticas Demográficas (2011). Censo de Población y Vivienda 2011(PDF). Gobierno de Venezuela. p. 41. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
^ abNotargiovanni, Caterina (2017). "Por qué tantos en Venezuela están eligiendo Italia para huir de la crisis" (in Spanish). BBC. Retrieved 31 March 2021. "Estimamos que hay 2 millones de descendientes de italianos en Venezuela", le explica a BBC Mundo el primer secretario Lorenzo Solinas, encargado de prensa de la Embajada de Italia en Caracas.
^Bernasconi, Giulia (2012). "L'ITALIANO IN VENEZUELA". Italiano LinguaDue (in Italian). 3 (2). Università degli Studi di Milano: 20. doi:10.13130/2037-3597/1921. Retrieved 22 January 2017. L'italiano come lingua acquisita o riacquisita è largamente diffuso in Venezuela: recenti studi stimano circa 200.000 studenti di italiano nel Paese
Cassani Pironti, Fabio. Gli italiani in Venezuela dall’Indipendenza al Secondo Dopoguerra. Roma, 2004
Favero L. e Sacchetti G. Un secolo di emigrazione italiana: 1876–1976. Centro Studi Emigrazioni. Roma, 1978
Mille, Nicola. Veinte Años de "MUSIUES". Editorial Sucre. Caracas, 1965
Santander Laya-Garrido, Alfonso. Los Italianos forjadores de la nacionalidad y del desarrollo economico en Venezuela. Editorial Vadell. Valencia, 1978.
Vannini, Marisa. Italia y los Italianos en la Historia y en la Cultura de Venezuela. Oficina Central de Información. Caracas, 1966
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