What is Italian Brazilian?

Italo-Brazilian or Italian-Brazilian (Italian: italo-brasiliano, Portuguese: ítalo-brasileiro) is a Brazilian citizen of full or partial Italian ancestry. According to the Italian government there are 25 million Brazilians of Italian descent, which is the largest population of Italian background outside of Italy itself.

Citizenship

According to the Brazilian constitution, anyone born in Brazil is a Brazilian citizen by birthright, including all Italo-Brazilians. In addition, many who were born in Italy have become naturalized citizens after settling in Brazil. In recent years, a considerable number of Italo-Brazilians have also acquired Italian citizenship, as they do not lose their Brazilian citizenship by doing so, but become dual citizens. Italian law grants citizenship to those of Italian descent without requiring them to live in Italy or speak fluent Italian.

Migration

Main article: Italian diaspora As a nation state, Italy only appeared in 1871, 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."^[1] 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. ^[2] 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. ^[3] During the 1860s, transatlantic migration was mainly made by northern Italians ^{[4] [5]} but after the turn of the century they were mainly from Centre-South and South of Italy ^[6]

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.^[7] 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" ^[8]. 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.

border="1" width="450" align="center">

Italian Immigration to Brazil (1876-1920) Source: Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE)
Region of Origin	Number of Immigrants	Region of Origin	Number of Immigrants
Veneto	365 710	Sicily	44 390
Campania	166 080	Piemonte	40 336
Calabria	113 155	Puglia	34 833
Lombardia	105 973	Marche	25 074
Abruzzo-Molise	93.020	Lazio	15 982
Toscana	81 056	Umbria	11 818
Emilia-Romagna	59 877	Liguria	9 328
Basilicata	52 888	Sardinia	6 113
Total : 1 243 633

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 São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, Espírito 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 (colônias de imigrantes). These colonies were established in rural areas of the country, being settled by European families, mainly Germans. These German immigrants colonized many areas of Southern Brazil. 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 Gaúcha). These were Garibaldi and Bento Gonçalves. 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 gaúchos. 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 Criciúma, and later also spread further north, to Paraná.

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 São 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 decidedly would be up to the job, since most of the Italian immigrants were peasants 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 São Paulo and Minas Gerais, and in a smaller proportion also in Espírito 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 São Paulo, Campinas, São Carlos, Ribeirão Preto, etc. In the early 20th century, São 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 their 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 São Paulo), syndicates, newspapers (such as La Fanciulla), magazines, radio stations, and even soccer teams (such as Palestra Itália, later renamed Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras in São 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 São 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 São 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.

Italo-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.

Italian immigration to Brazil, by nationality, decenal periods from 1884-1893, 1924-1933 and 1945-1949 Source: Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE)
	Decade
Nationality	1884-1893	1894-1903	1904-1913	1914-1923	1924-1933	1945-1949	1950-1954	1955-1959
Italians	510,533	537,784	196,521	86,320	70,177	15,312	59,785	31,263

Numbers of immigrants

Language

Virtually all Italo-Brazilians today speak Portuguese as their native language. Italian (literary and vernacular) was widespread in Brazil until the mid-1960s. Some Italo-Brazilians still speak Italian (Talian dialect) as first language in some areas of Rio Grande do Sul. But the Italian language in Brazil is in severe decline among the younger generations.

Italian as a Brazilian ethnic group

The Italian ethnicity became the 3rd most important ethnic group of Brazil, just behind the Portuguese and Multiracial. Italian surnames are common among Brazilians since 25 million Brazilians have Italian ancestors.

Although victims of some prejudice in the first decades (and in spite of the persecution during the World War) Italo-Brazilians managed to mingle and to incorporate seamlessly into the Brazilian society. Many Brazilian artists, politicians, footballers, models and personalities are or were of Italian descent; including three Presidents: Emilio Garrastazu Medici, Pascoal Ranieri Mazzilli and Itamar Franco, several senators, many deputies and ambassadors.

Italo-Brazilians tend to be very participant in local politics and their influence is acknowledged to have improved the economy of the places where they settled.

Influence

The remaining Italian influence is noticeable to the naked eye:

• The use of ciao ("tchau" in Portuguese) as a '' salutation (all of Brazil),
• The adoption of the pizza and pasta in the national cuisine (initially in the South and Southeast, now in all of Brazil),
• Wine production (in the South),
• A bunch of loan words (italianisms), such as ravióli, espaguete, macarrão, nhoque, pizza, lasanha, panetone, esquifoso, feltro, pivete, bisonho, cicerone, and many others.
• The softening of the Brazilian pronunciation (mostly Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul)
• The early introduction of more advanced low-scale farming techniques (Minas Gerais, São Paulo and the South).

References

• Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) in Portuguese

See also

• Italians
• List of Italo-Brazilians
• Italian-American
• Italian diaspora
• Demography of Brazil
• White Latin American
• List of Portuguese words of Italian origin

External links

• Oriundi.net. A site for descendants from Italians in Brazil

•  • [ e] Demography of Brazil

Demography of Brazil Demographic history Economic Social Affluence Educational attainment Household income Homeownership Immigration Income inequality Middle classes Personal income Poverty Religion Social class Unemployment by state Wealth Race Ethnicity Ancestry Race Maps of Brazilian ancestries Racism Indigenous peoples Asian Brazilians (Japanese Chinese Korean Taiwanese Indian) Afro-Brazilians Africans in Brazil White Brazilians (Portuguese German Czech Italian Polish Spanish Lithuanian Jewish Arab Russian Swedish English French Irish Dutch Greek Armenian)

•  • [ e] States of Brazil
Acre Alagoas Amap Amazonas Bahia Cear Esprito Santo Brazilian Federal District Gois Maranho Mato Grosso Mato Grosso do Sul Minas Gerais Par Paraba Paran Pernambuco Piau Rio de Janeiro Rio Grande do Norte Rio Grande do Sul Rondnia Roraima Santa Catarina So Paulo Sergipe Tocantins