EMIGRATION FROM FRIULI VENEZIA GIULIA

TO ARGENTINA AND URUGUAY

Javier Grossati, University of Trieste

1877 – Agricultural emigration: Friulian settlers in the Argentine countryside

The first agricultural community with a considerable number of Friulian

peasant farmers was not very far from Reconquista, in the north of the province

of Santa Fe. The first ten Friulian families got to “Estrella de Italia” (Star of

Italy) on 6 November 1877.

The Italian entrepreneur Vincenzo Gaetani had recruited the families to work in the

potash factory he had set up, the first of its kind in Argentina (in fact the area is

known today as ‘Potash’). Gaetani intended to bring over about fifty families who

would be given a free plot of land and the guarantee of a job in the potash factory. He

had received financial backing from the national authorities who were interested in

populating the area. Another ten families arrived at “Estrella de Italia” some time

later: overall there were 85 in the group (50 male and 35 female). The group settled in

the area called the North Frontier, practically along the line of military outposts set up

to resist incursion by the native Indians. The initiative, however, was not successful

and in the first months of 1879 the Friulian settlers asked Colonel Manuel Obligado,

the commanding officer of the North Frontier of Santa Fe, Cordoba and Santiago del

Estero if they could be transferred to the recently created national colony “Presidente

Avellaneda”1.

The experience of the “Estrella de Italia” and that of the “Tres de Febrero” or

“Brago” (today it is called San Benito) in the province of Entre Rios was different

from the other main agricultural communities occupied by the Friulians because it 1 With regard to the agricultural community “Estrella de Italia” cf. Colonia Estrella de Italia, in Memoria de Inmigraciòn, Buenos Aires, Ministerio de Agricoltura, 1878, p. 24; Manuel H. Roselli, La Estrella de Italia, Reconquista. 1978; Manuel I. Cracogna, La Colonia Nacional Presidente Avellaneda y su tiempo. Historia de la colonia, con sus antecedentes, fundaciòn y evoluciòn politica y socio econòmica, priluera parte, Avellaneda, Municipalidad de Avellaneda, 1988, pp. 82 and 120; Victor J. Braidot, Avellaneda en el tiempo, Avellaneda, Municipalidad de Avellaneda, 1995, pp. 42-47; Eno Mattiussi, Los friulanos, Buenos Aires, Asociacién Dante Alighieri, 1997, p. 93.

was an attempt at populating by private individuals. The majority of “Italian” and

“Austrian” Friulian settlers went to Argentina between the end of 1877 and the early

1880s attracted by the promise offered by Law n. 817 on Immigration and

Colonisation, the so-called Avellaneda Law, passed in 18762. Among the advantages

of the law was the chance, provided by art. 85, for the first hundred heads of families,

among the settlers in every section in which the territories to be colonised were

divided, to get land free or at least to be able to buy it at a good price (art. 86). This

was the clause which pleased the Friulian and Italian farmers the most. In actual fact

the handing over of state-owned land and its administration, the cost of the journey, a

house, food, animals for work and for breeding, seeds and agricultural equipment,

paid in advance for at least a year (art. 88) were measures which had already been

tried occasionally and systematically by other Argentine provinces (the first being

Santa Fe) to help the influx of settlers above all from Europe3. In the case of Law n.

817, the lack of available public resources and the network of opposing interests

(particularly with regard to the land concessions) often impeded the actual carrying

out of the norms provided by the law4. As in the case of those following, this first

group of “Italian” and “Austrian” Friulians were recruited by the Argentine

authorities to populate the agricultural communities of the interior. Between the 18th

and 19th

centuries the settling of unpopulated lands favoured, on the one hand, the

opening up of the frontier of the pampas, and on the other, the development of an

export economy for Argentina based on agricultural products (wheat, maize, flax, rye

and barley)5.

The propaganda campaign carried out in Europe by consuls and special agents

employed by the Argentine government to promote the arrival of settlers was already

active before 1876 and even anticipated Law n. 817 (arts. 4 and 5) which were the

2 Cf. Graciela M. De Marco — Raùl C. Rey Balmaceda — Susana M. Sassone, Extranjeros en la Argentina. Pasado, presente y futuro, in “Geodemos”, 2 (1994), pp. 399-4 13. 3 Cf. Informe de la Comisiòn de Còrdoba correspondiente al anno 1876, in Memoria de Inmigraciòn, Buenos Aires, Mmisterio de Agricoltura. 1876. pp. 76-77 4 Cf. Fernando J. Devoto, Politicas migratorias argentinas y flujo de poblaciòn europea (18 76-1925), in Id., Movimientos migratorios: historiografla y problemas, Buenos Aires, Centro Editor de América Latina, 1992, pp. 7 1-72. 5 Cf. Ezequiel Gallo, Frontiera, stato e immigrati in Argentina 1855-1910, in “Altreitalie”, 6 (1991), pp. 13-23.

outcome of it. The first colony populated by the Argentine government based on the

Avellaneda law was Libertad (which today is Chajari) in the north east of the

province of Entre Rios. In December 1875, the government in Buenos Aires charged

their emigration agent Pablo Stampa “para traer 50 familiaas lombardas y tiroleseas,

y en Abril de 1876 estaba aqui con la mitad de las familias, viniendo las damas poco

despues”6 (to bring 50 Lombard and Tyrolese families, and in April 1876 he was here

with half the families, while the remaining ones arrived shortly after”).

The Friulian settlers reached Libertad between 1877 and 18787. Domenico Ellero, for

example, wrote from Villa Libertad on 27 June 1878 to a fellow villager from

Artegna:

The soil here is more fertile than in your villages, the settlers who

are already here only have to break the earth with a plough, sow

the seeds and then wait for the harvest, there is nothing else for

them to do, work out for yourselves whether it is better or not

than yours, there is not a twig to impede the plough which, with a

couple of oxen attached, runs smoothly. If you are thinking of

coming here, come and you will be happy at least for the last

years of your life without working too hard8.

But natural disasters seem to give the lie to Ellero, because on 29 September 1878 a

swarm of locusts destroyed nearly the whole crop, “Los collonos han trabajado sin

cesar, plantando el maiz y papas, hastas tres veces, y gracias a estos esfuerzoa

podran mantenerse, pero difficulto que puedan pagar la primera cuota que les

correspondia por los adelantos recibidos”9 ("the settlers have worked without

stopping, planting corn and potatoes, sometimes three times, and thanks to these

efforts they will be able to survive, although I doubt they will manage to afford the

6 Cf. Libertad, in Memoria de... op. cit., p. 14. 7 Cf. César M. Donadio Varini, La colonia oficial italiana mas antigua del pais: Villa Libertad, in Francesco Citarella, Emigrazione e presenza italiana in Argentina. Acts of the International Congress in Buenos Aires 2-6 November 1989. Rome, National Council of Research, 1992, p. 266. 8 Cf. Gabriele L. Pecile, Cronaca dell ‘emigrazione, in “Bullettino della Associazione Agraria Friulana”, v. I (1878), pp. 170-171 9 Cf. Libertad, in Memoria de... op. cit. p. 15.

first instalment they owe for the loans received). In 1879 there were 197 families at

the Libertad colony (of which 178 were foreign, mainly Italian), a total of 982 people.

Between 1877 and 1878 more contingents of Friulian smallholders disembarked

at Buenos Aires. On Wednesday 27 December 1877 the Buenos Aires newspaper

“La Prensa” reported the arrival of 700 immigrants from Genoa aboard the

steamer “Sud America”. There were many Friulians among them who only a

few weeks later, on 17 January 1878, were transferred to Resistencia in the

province of Chaco10.

There were about 250 Friulians (38 or 39 families) who disembarked at the port of

San Fernando, in Chaco, on 26 (or 27) January. 44 of the families came from

Fagagna11. In the Cronaca dell’emigrazione”(The Emigration Chronicle) which

appeared in the “Bullettino dell’Associazione Agraria Friuliana” (Friulian Agrarian

Society Bulletin) in 1878 Gabriele Luigi Pecile noted:

The raising of numerous cattle and pigs, the abundance of pastures, the cultivation on

a large scale of alfalfa and clover had brought Fagagna to a commendable level of

agriculture. There was not a single place unrented, not a small piece of land, no

matter how stony, which was not sought after. There were no real poor people and

even these were helped. What persuaded many families to emigrate to Argentina was

not poverty, but the fear of poverty. Emigration to Germany had ceased to be

profitable. The harvest for two years had been poor; taxes were going up, and that on

grist was unbearable; instead of finding something left over at the end of the year

they saw themselves reduced to using up the savings of the previous years […] With

things in this state they found it easy, that last autumn, to listen to the people who had

emigrated to Argentina, to listen to their news and all their tales. 33 passports for 93

people of all ages were applied for. Of these 63 left, 30 were left behind because they

did not have the means to pay for the journey. […] Most of those from Fagagna

10 Cf. Seferino A. Geraldi, Los quepoblaron la Secciòn Resistencia, Resistencia, Banco del Chaco, 1979, p. 20. 11 On the Friulians from Fagagna who arrived in Resistencia cf. Gino e Alberto di Caporiacco, 1877-1880 Coloni friulani in Argentina, in Brasile, Venezuela, Stati Uniti, Reana del Rojale, Chiandetti Editore, 1978, pp. 96-106.

found themselves on the Rio Negro, near Chaco, at the Resistencia colony, which had

600 people of various nationalities12.

The first to cross the ocean, as much for Argentina as for Brazil, were smallholders,

those who could scrape together the money needed for the journey: by giving up their

land or selling what was left of their household goods, tools and animals if they were

sharecroppers or settlers13. Farm hands, with the exception of a few, could not

emigrate. “In the end the conditions of life became insupportable for many farm

hands and many smallholders, but only the latter, for the moment, had the means to

leave: the biggest emigration came from the pre alpine region, the foothills and the

hill areas because that was where most of the smallholdings were […] it was a region

already used to temporary emigration of considerable proportion”. In the 1870s,

however, “temporary exodus, on a mainly seasonal basis, was no longer enough: the

capacity to take on workers in the countries of Central Europe was no longer

sufficient for the numbers looking for work, the demand for labour from 1874-1876

declined considerably”14. The condition of these emigrants, although not exactly

desperate, was confirmed by Juan Dillon, the commissar general for immigration for

the Argentine government :

En los primeros meses de 1878, comenzaron a venir muchas

familias agricultoras, que habjan pagado su pasaje, y trajan

algunos ùtiles de agricultura, y mucho equipaje lo que denotaban

pertenecer a una clase medianamente acomodada, es decir, que

no eran de los que en su pas se consideran destitujdos de

recursos. Pero no tenjan los suficientes para establecerse por su

cuenta y crejan poder contar con los adelantos que harja el

Gobierno, al ménos, asj lo habjan entendido, leyendo el art. 88

12 Cf. G. L. Pecile, Cronaca dell’emigrazione, in “Bullettino della Associazione Agraria... op. cit., pp. 92-93 13 In the area of Sacile, for example, the first departures for Brazil in July 1877 left from communities where the number of property owners among the population was higher; cf. Javier Grossutti, Da Vallegher oltreoceano. Emigranti canevesi in Brasile fine Ottocento, in Gian Paolo Gri (edited by), Caneva, Udine, Società Filologica Friulana, 1997, pp. 367-384. 14 Cf. Antonio Lazzarini, Campagne venete ed emigrazione di massa (]866-]90Q), Vicenza, Istituto per le ricerche di storia sociale e di storia religiosa, 1981, pp. 182-185.

de la ley [Avellaneda]. Pasado el tiempo de la cosecha, no es

fàcil encontrar colocacién a familias con mucha prole, y sobre

todo, cuando vienen en nùmero considerable [se] ordenò que se

diera cumplimiento a la ley del Honorable Congreso, poblando

los terrenos de Caroya, en la Provincia de Cérdoba y la Colonia

Resistencia que se habja trazado en el Chaco frente a Corrientes,

la Colonia Sampacho en la Provincia de Cérdoba y que se

mandasen màs familias a la de Villa Libertad en la Provincia de

Entre Rjos15

("In the first months of 1878, many farming families who had paid for their journey, started to arrive, bringing with them some tools and a great quantity of luggage, which suggested they belonged to a reasonably comfortable class, meaning that they were not considered, in the country they belonged to, destitute people. Nevertheless, they did not have enough means to settle down on their own and though they could count on the loans that the government would provide according, at least as they had understood, to article 88 of the law [Avallaneda]. Once harvesting time has passed, it is not easy to find a place for families with many children, specially when they arrive in large numbers, it was decided to implement the law of the honorable congress, allowing settlement in the lands of Caroya, in the province of Cordoba and in Resistencia, the colony established in Chaco in front of Corrientes, the Sampacho colony in the province of Cordoba, and to send more families to Villa Libertad in the province of Entre Rios.")

Without doubt, commissar Dillon was referring to the Friulian settlers who

disembarked between 1877 and 1878. The situation awaiting the settlers at the

Resistencia colony was not without its problems either :

Esta Colonia establecida en el Chaco, en el lugar denominado

San Fernando, a principio de 1878, ha sido muy contrariada;

primero por las lluvias torrenciales que sobrevinieron cuando

aun los colonos no estaban bien alojados, siendo tan contjnuas

que no se poda contar con dos djas buenos. Al mismo tempo tuvo 15 Cf. Juan Dillon, Familias agricultoras de Italia y del Tirol austriaco, in Memoria de... op. cit., p. il.

lugar una inundacién como no se habja visto desde el siglo

pasado. Estos colonos estaban costantemente con los piés y

ropas mojadas de cuyas resultas la mayor parte fueron postrados

por el chucho, interrumpiéndose la censura. Apenas pasaron

estos inconvenientes, los colonos se dedicaron al trabajo, pero

después vino la langosta y una especie de gusano que destruyé

los sembrados, particularmente a los maizales que fueron

sembrados hasta tres veces. A pesar de estos inconvenientes la

Colonia por su situacién, clima, fertilidad de la tierra y riqueza

de sus producciones, serà en breve una de las màs prosperas16.

("This colony, established in Chaco at the beginning of 1878, in a

place known as San Fernando, has been ravaged; first by the

torrential rains that started to fall before some settlers were

properly housed, which were so continuous that one could not

count on two dry days. At the same time there was a flood of

such force that had not been seen for a century. These settlers

constantly had wet clothes and feet, as a result the majority were

weakened by the flu, interrupting the census. As soon as these

problems had passed, the colonizers got to work. However,

locusts soon arrived and a worm species that destroyed

plantations, particularly the corn ones, which were planted up to

three times. Despite these inconveniences, thanks to its position,

climate, richness of soil and of products, the colony will soon

become one of the richest".)

A second contingent of Friulian families arrived in Buenos Aires on 14 January

1878: the 458 Friulians were divided into two groups, the largest was sent to the

recently formed national colony “Presidente Avellaneda” in the north of the

Santa Fe province, whilst the remaining

16 Cf. Colonia Resistencia, in Memoria de... op. cit., p. 17 e pp. LX1V-LXXX; for the history of the colony see also Ottorino Burelli — Sergio Gervasutti, Friuli nella Pampa, Udine, Ente Friuli nel Mondo, 1978, pp. 112-118.

families stayed at the Hotel de Immigrantes in Buenos Aires until 12 March when they were finally taken to Caroya colony in the province of Cordoba17. It is likely, therefore, that the group which went to Avellaneda left the Argentine

capital at the same time as the other group, which had arrived in Buenos Aires two

weeks earlier, got to Resistencia. The first months for those who went to Avellaneda

were difficult not only because of the climatic conditions, above all the rain (which

made the rivers flood) but also because of malaria. Within a few short months, in the

first days of June, some of the families who had arrived in Avellaneda asked to be

transferred to the colony of Caroya, where they arrived at the end of July. The

conditions of the colony established at Avellaneda do not seem to have been very

different from those of Resistencia. It would therefore not be too much to hazard that,

as was referred to in the Memoria de Immigraciòn of 1878, the desire of some of the

Avellaneda settlers to get to Caroya was due to the fact that “estàn lejos de los

parientes que les pueden atender y que han venido con ellos, y no se integran al resto

de los colonos” (“they are far away from relatives who can care for them and who

have arrived with them, and they do not integrate with the rest of the settlers”).

Obviously the group had been divided.

After the first 60 families (about 300 people) arrived at Caroya colony (at first this

was called San Martin colony) on 15 March 1878, a further 7 families followed on 13

April, then the families from Avellaneda in July, others from other colonies in

September and December, whilst in the month of February 1879 a further contingent

of 40 families arrived. Many of the families which founded Caroya came from the

area around Gemona, Campolessi, Taboga and Campagnola18, whereas only a few

came from Austrian Friuli and the Italian Tyrol (Trentino)19.

17 Cf. Marta Nunez, Colonia Caroya cien aios de historia, Cordoba, Editoria! TA.P.AS., 1978, p. 101. 18 Cf. Luigi Ridolfi, I friulani nell ‘Argentina, Udine, Arti Grafiche Friulane, 1949, p. 19; Matteo Ermacora, Coloni e pionieri gemonesi nelle Americhe. Note sulle partenze nei primi anni della “grande emigrazione” (1877-1888), in Enos Costantini (edited by), Glemone, Udine, Società Filologica Friulana, 2001, pp. 191-206. On the historic evolution of the colony and the keeping of original cultural traces cf. also Nora L. Prevedello, Identidad étnica de la comunidad caroyense de origen friulano. in Trinidad Bianco de Garda (edited by). Presencia e identidad de los italianos en Còrdoba,, 1999, pp. 101-122; Silvia Gerosa -- Silvia Cattoni, El immaginario colectivo en un grupo de inmigrantes del noroeste cordobés: Colonia Caroya, in T. Bianco de Garcia (edited by), Presencia e identidad... op. cit., pp. 123-141. 19 Cf. Colonia Caroya, in Memoria de... op. cit., p. XLV.

No fue un clima acogedor el que encontraron los colonos que

llegaron a Caroya. El afio anterior, habja sido realmente

agobiante por la sequa, que se prolongò durante 245 djas. En

aquel afio de 1878, la ùltima lluvia se produco el 8 de abril y a

partir de entonces, comenzò a hacerse sentir la sequa, durante

183 djas y recién el 8 de octubre lloviò poco màs de treinta

miljmetros [...] en 1879 la seca volviò a hacerse presente durante

195 djas, habiendo cajdo la ùltima lluvia de aquel otolio el 16 de

abril. Tendrjan los habitantes de Colonia Caroya cierto aliciente

en 1880, para volver a padecer en 1881 el mismo fenòmeno, a

partir del 27 de abril, durante 166 djas. También la sequa se hizo

presente en 1882, 1884, 1887, 1888 y afios siguientes, y una de

las oportunidades en que màs se mostrò implacable fue en

191620.

“The settlers arriving in Caroya did not find a welcoming

climate. The previous year had been extremely trying because of

the drought, which lasted 245 days. In that year, 1878, the last

rains fell 8 April, after that the drought set in, lasting 183 days, it

rained 8 October, but little more than thirty millimeters [...] and

in 1879 drought hit once again for 195 days, as the last rains to

fall that autumn had been on 16 April. The inhabitants of the

colony of Caroya would have a break in 1880, only to suffer drought once more in 1881, beginning 27 April, lasting 166 days. More would follow in 1882, 1884, 1887, 1888 and following years, while one the most catastrophic droughts was that of 1916.”

In fact the lack of water for irrigation was the most difficult problem that the

Friulians at Caroya colony had to face. The building of the n° 1 canal “Huergo”,

completed in 1930, was the first decisive intervention to solve the problem. It was

planned and built completely by the settlers. The canal runs through underground 20 Cf. Efrain U. Bischoff,…. Y ellos forjaron un pueblo. Historia de Colonia Caroya. Còrdoba, Talleres Graficos “La Docta”, 1968, p. 67.

tunnels, about a meter wide and two meters high, for 700 meters, collecting water

from the subsoil. The effort made by the settlers was considerable “Cada metro lineal

de canal representaba màs de cien metros cùbicos de tierra que los colonos debieron

mover una, dos, tres, cuatro y en algunos casos hasta cinco veces para dejarla

definitivamente en su nuevo lugar21” (“Every meter of canal corresponded to more

than a hundred cubic meters of soil that the settlers had to move one, two, three, four

and sometimes five times in order to leave it in its definitive final place”). The

improvement in the conditions of life of the settlers was due to a large extent to the

spread of viticulture. “The importance of this colony is represented by the cultivation

of vines, from 1,140,000 plants, 7,200 Bordeaux producing 200 litres each were

produced in 1894” observed Augusto Margueirat, Inspector of Soils and National

Colonies22. Viticulture, the cultivation of wheat and maize, the production of apples,

peaches, pears, black cherries and vegetables in general (which were sold at Jesus

Maria and in some provinces in the north of the country), animal husbandry and the

production of bricks (in 1887 there were 12 brick kilns in the colony) constituted the

most important resources of Caroya. Some decades further on the progress of the

colony and the promotion of agricultural techniques were evident. In 1908, Giosuè

Notari, the Italian consul at Cordoba, on his way to the province of Tucumàn noted:

After leaving the municipality of Cordoba and the countryside which

is green from the irrigation of the waters from the San Rocco basin,

the land begins to get dusty with stunted vegetation, where few herds

graze, and the occasional rancho (a mud hut covered with plants

called paja) attests to the presence of man. After about 50 kilometers,

the flat, monotonous tableland is interrupted by some hills, and then,

like an oasis in the desert, the colony of Caroya appears, where more

21 Cf. Santiago C. Rizzi, Nuestra Colonia Caroya de ayer in El Cooperativista , 27 June 1959, p. 6

22 Cf. Emilio Zuccarini, Il Lavoro degli Italiani nella Repubblica Argentina dal 1516 al 1910, Buenos Aires, La Patria degli Italiani, 1910, p. 273.

than 4,000 Italians, fighting the lack of water, have cultivated vines

and vegetable gardens23.

According to Emilio Zuccarini, Caroya, “kept like the most important colony of the

Republic”, was the only point in Argentina where “the settlers practise intensive

cultivation”24.

The 21 Friulian families who left Genoa on 10 November 1878 and arrived in the

port of Buenos Aires on 28 December were destined to repopulate the “President

Avellaneda” colony and arrived there on 18 January 1879. They came from

“Austrian” Friuli and were recruited in Italy by th e Argentine consul in Genoa,

Eduardo Calvari, who had, for some years, been discussing with the national

government the possibility of introducing 2,000 families for agricultural work 25.

Many among these were the Friulians who had decided to leave regardless of the

official signing of the agreement between Calvari and the Argentine government

which was finalised on 27 March 1878. In art. 1 of the agreement , undersigned by

Juan Dillon and Eduardo Calvari, the Argentine Government authorised the consul in

Genoa to recruit “in Italy, Switzerland, Savoy and the Austrian Tyrol, three hundred

farming families to put in the colonies of the Republic”. In Memoria de Inmigracion

in 1878, it was noted that:

a las familias se les ha dado colocacién segun las érdenes de V.

E.; estableciéndose una nueva colonia en el territorio nacional

del Chaco, en la màrgen izquierda del Arroyo del Rey

[Avellaneda], robusteciéndose la colonia Resistencia también en

el Chaco, y las de Sampacho y Caroya, teniendo en vista el

fomento de los ferrocarriles nacionales, y por fin el ùltimo grupo

23 Cf. Giosue Notari, Le provincie argentine di Tucuman, Salta e Jujuv in relazione all immigrazione italiana, in Ministero degli Affari Esteri - Commissariato dell’Emigrazione, Emigrazione e Colonie. Raccolta di rapporti dei rr. Agenti diplomatici e consolari, v. III, America, p. TI, Argentina, Roma, Cooperativa Tipografica Manuzio, 1908, p. 137. 24 Cf. E. Zuccarini, Il Lavoro degli Italiani op. cit., p. 273. 25 On emigration in Austrian Friuli cf. Francesco Micelli, L’emigrazione dal Friuli orientale, in Furio Bianco — Maria Masau Dan (edited by), Economia e società nel Goriziano tra ‘800 e ‘900. Il ruolo della Camera di Commercio (1850-1915), Mariano del Friuli, C.C.I.A.A.-Edizioni della Laguna, 1991, pp. 173-190.

se remitirà a Formosa, sitio designado por V. E. para la nueva

capital del Chaco, o bien al territorio de Misiones, segun lo

disponga V. E. cuando sea llegado el caso26.

(“families have been allocated according to the orders of V.E;

establishing a new colony in the national territory of Chaco, on

the left side of the Arroyo del Rey [Avellaneda], reinforcing the

colony of Resistencia, also in Chaco, and those of Sampacho and

Caroya, keeping in mind the development of national railways,

and finally the last group will be sent to Formosa, designated by

V.E as the new capital of Chaco, or possibly to the territory of

Misiones, depending on V.E's decision when the case presents

itself”).

The settlers were accompanied across the ocean by Emilio Zuccheri from Cormons

who as they wrote in Genoa on the eve of their departure “is coming with us on the

steamer Pampa and will keep us company as far as Buenos Aires (South America) to

check on the truth of the emigration and colonisation laws and to find out if the earth

is as fertile as they have told us”. In the same declaration, reported by the emigration

agent Giacomo Modesti and published by “Giornale di Udine” on 18 April 1879, the

21 families who got to Avellaneda declared that they had found “a very pleasant

place with all that was needed for a colony, and not a short distance away we have

the beautiful and navigable Rio Arrojo del Rey as well as beautiful woodlands and

enough wood to meet the needs of any family, what is more we are only a half hour

away from the town of Reconquista, which if we ever need anything, such as a

doctor, medicine or whatever we can go there, the earth is very fertile”27. This

statement, speaking extremely highly of the colony, was not fortuitous and was all

part of the lively debate going on between those who were in favour of emigration (in

the case of an emigration agent) and those, on the other hand, such as the exponent of

the Committee for the Friulian Agrarian Association who protected the Friulian 26 Cf. Familias agricultoras de Italia y del Tirol austriaco, in Memoria de... op. cit., p. 13. 27 Cf. Comunicato, in “Giornale di Udine”, 18 April 1879.

farmers who had emigrated to South America, Gabriel Luigi Pecile, who maintained

that “whoever leaves his homeland should at least know what is waiting for him, and

should ensure before leaving, as far as is possible, the conditions which will be

offered him”28. The debate was interspersed by the publication of a number of letters

from emigrants trying to dissuade others; these were opposed by a few letters with

the opposite intention, which were published, upon payment, by the “Giornale di

Udine”29. The statement from a group from Cormons who went to Avellaneda does

not in fact seem completely sincere. The Memoria de Inmigracion of 1878 noted that:

La falta de comunicaciòn directa con los centros populares, serà

un motivo de retraso para esta y otras colonias que se funden en

el Chaco. Para remediarlo en lo posible se hace indispensable la

limpieza del arroyo del Rey, y el que la Colonia sea dotada de un

vaporcito para el remolque, de 25 a 30 toneladas de carga y dos

pequefias embarcaciones de poco calado, para el transporte de

pasageros y equipajes desde la boca del arroyo hasta el puerto

de la Colonia30

(“The lack of direct communication with central areas will be a

cause of underdevelopment for this and other colonies

established in Chaco. In order to reduce this the cleaning of the

affluent of the Rey river was fundamental, as well as equipping

the colony with a towing steamer, with a 25 to 30 ton capacity,

and two small boats with a low draft, to transport passengers and

goods from the mouth of the river to the port of the colony”).

Despite the difficulties of the first years the colony developed quite quickly: “In

1910”, Luigi Ridolfi observed, “there were more than 3,000 inhabitants. They began

28 Cf. G. L. Pecile, Cronaca dell ‘Emigrazione, in “Bullettino della Associazione Agraria Friulana”, v. 1(1878), p. 8. For an analysis of the political debate on overseas emigration between the 19th and 20th centuries cf. F. Micelli, Emigrazione friulana (1815-1915). Liberali e geografi, socialisti e cattolici a confronto, in “Qualestoria”, 3 (1982), n. s., pp. 5-38

29 On this point see for example Emilio Franzina, Merica! Merica! Emigrazione e colonizzazione nelle lettere dei contadini veneti in America Latina 1876-1902, Milano, Feltrinelli Economica, 1979; G. e A. di Caporiacco, 18 77- 1880 Coloni friulani in... op. cit., pp. 107-175.

30 Cf. Colonia Presidente Avellaneda, in Memoria de... op. cit., p. 18.

swarming in and new colonies at Villa Ocampo and Malabrigo were started, in the

same district as General Obligado31.

While one part (about 130) of the 300 families, recruited by the Argentine consul of

Genoa who crossed the ocean in 1879, were assigned to the colony of Avellaneda, the

rest of the settlers were destined to strengthen Resitencia, Caroya and Sampacho. In

the end the last group was taken to the colony of Formosa.

The evolution of the Gobernador Rodriguez (Sampacho) colony in the

department of Rio Cuarto (province of Cordoba) was very troubled. The first

hundred Italian families, coming from the South, reached the area on 5 March

1875.

The devastation of the crops, above all those of wheat and beans, by locusts, the lack

of water and the harshness of the weather led about thirty families to leave the

community. To strengthen the colony, the Argentine government decided to take

about 50 families from Trentino there; they arrived at Sampacho on 19 November

1878. Antonio Donda and GioBatta and Francesco Bressan were part of the group,

they were probably originally from “Austrian” Friuli. The first numerous contingent

of Friulians (about 35 families), however, reached the colony on 18 March 1879:

towards the end of the year the population of the colony had reached 814, of whom

159 were Argentine, 13 French, 5 English, 6 Chilean and 621 Italians and Tyrolese

(from Trentino)32. In 1905, the consul Notari, wrote a different version about the

creation of the community of Sampacho which included Friulians among its

founders.

The colony of Sampacho - he wrote - was founded by the provincial

government and its first inhabitants were 130 families from southern

Italy and Friuli. For the first ten years this colony suffered many sad

ups and downs:

31 Cf. L. Ridolfi, I friulani... op. cit., p. 24. 32 Cf. (Various Authors), Album de recuerdos en el centenario de Sampacho 1875 5 de mayo 1975, Sampacho, Municipa1idad de Sampacho, 1975, pp. 15-17,

while the incursions of the Indios kept the colonists continually

agitated, there was prolonged drought, sometimes torrential rains

flooded the crops, the locusts and other plagues made conditions

very difficult. Hail fell so frequently that insurance companies

stopped insuring them […] I wanted to question one of the older

settlers, whose wicker carriage, a memento from his native Friuli,

was waiting in front of his door to take him to mass. The old settler

was 68, and he had come to America 35 years ago: he understood

Italian quite well, and I spoke to him, even though he preferred to

talk in his native dialect. When he had arrived in Sampacho, in 1875,

the Andes train only ran once a week33.

According to Notari’s observations therefore it would seem that Sampacho was the

first agricultural community populated by Friulians in Argentina.

With the arrival of new contingents of peasant farmers from Trentino and Friuli by

horse between 1878 and 1879, the situation in the colony considerably improved:

La mejor animacién reina entre los pobladores, que hasta el

presente arreglan sus diferencias pacificamente, sin intervencién

de mas autoridad que la del comisario. A ello contribuye mucho

la presencia de un sacerdote que los acompafia desde la

fundacién de la colonia y para el cual he de pedir a V. E. una

subvencién mensual por un tiempo determinado. La plantacién

de una escuela mjsta es reclamada con mucha urgencia. El

terreno es fertiljsimo34.

(“The best of moods reigns amongst the settlers, who until this

moment have settled their differences peacefully, without the

intervention of any authority other than that of the commissioner.

33 Cf. G. Notari, La provincia di Còrdoba (‘Repubblica Argentina) e alcune delle sue colonie agricole, in “Bollettino dell’Emigrazione”, 22 (1905), pp. 1810-1812 (partly modified, il Rapporto del Console cav. G. Notari was subsequently published in the Foreign Ministry’s — Commissariato dell’Emigrazione. Emigrazione e Colonie. Raccolta di rapporti dei rr. Agenti diplomatici e consolari, v. III, America, p. TI, Argentina, op. cit., pp. 19-135).

34 Cf. Colonia Sampacho, in Memoria de... op. cit., p. 19 e pp. LVIII-LXIII

The presence of a priest, who has been with them since the

foundation of the colony and for whom I have to ask V.E for a

monthly allowance for a determinate period, has much

contributed to this. The opening of a mixed school is requested

with great urgency. The land is extremely fertile”).

All the colonies requested a teacher, but above all a priest and therefore a church and

a school. “La iglesia y la escuela son elementos indispensables para el progreso y

desarrollo de una colonia, y su falta es causa de nostalgia en los colonos, lo que les

impide trabajar y radicarse con entusiasmo estando siempre dispuestos a mudarse a

otra parte”35. (“A church and a school are essential elements for the progress and the

development of the colony, and the lack of them is a cause for nostalgia amongst the

settlers, which stops them from working and settling down enthusiastically, as they

are always ready to move somewhere else”).

The founding of the Formosa colony, in the so-called central Chaco, followed the

verdict of the US President Rutherford B. Hayes, who in 1878, resolved the

territorial dispute between Argentina and Paraguay after the war between the

two countries (1865-1870). To complete the populating of the Formosa colony

the Argentine government took three contingents of Friulians and Italians there

between April and July 1879.

Hayes’ verdict, on 12 November 1878, assigned the disputed part of northern Chaco

to Paraguay, and so the Argentine authorities had to leave the area of Villa

Occidental, the then national territory capital of Chaco. Formosa was chosen as the

new capital and was officially occupied on 8 April 1879. The following weeks saw

the authorities involved in moving the inhabitants of the town of Villa Occidental

which was then handed over to Paraguay on 14 May 1879. With the intention of

completing the populating of Formosa, then known as Vuelta Hermosa, the Argentine

government decide to create an agricultural community (which was at first called

35 Cf. Colonia Resistencia, in Memoria de... op. cit., p. 17.

Monteagudo) and between April and July of the same year (11 April, 30 May and 9

July) three contingents of Friulians and Italians were taken there (about 160 people).

The Memorie de Inmigraciòn refers to it as follows:

Habiendo V. E. dispuesto que la capital del Chaco se traslade a

este punto [Vuelta Hermosa], acordé también que se trace una

Colonia y que se envien familias de las que el Gobierno està

obligado a prestar asistencia, y en cumplimiento de lo dispuesto,

he enviado recientemente trece familias con un personal de 74

individuos. Segùn todos los informes, Vuelta Hermosa es uno de

los mejores puntos para colonizar. El terreno cultivable arranca

de la misma arranca, a la que pueden atracar los vapores de

mayor porte que surcan el rjo Paraguay, siendo el sitio de arribo

forzoso para los buques de vela, e indispensable para los

vapores: de manera que la colonia estarà en comunicacién

directa y continua con la Capital, y los colonos tendràn

oportunidad de entretener un pequefio commercio con sus

productos de corral, huerta y lecherja, lo cual entra por mucho

en la prosperidad de una colonia36.

“As V.E. had established that the capital of Chaco should be

moved to this point [Vuelta Hermosa], I decided a colony should

be created and that those families to whom the government is

obliged to provide assistance should be sent there and, so as to

comply therewith, I have recently sent three families with a staff

of 74 individuals. According to all reports, Vuelta Hermosa is

one of the best areas to colonize. Fertile land begins from the

very point where the largest steamers sailing the Paraguay river

can dock, a hazardous point for sailing boats to dock and

fundamental for steamers: in this way the colony will be in

36 Cf. Nueva Colonia en Vuelta Herinosa, in Memoria de... op. cit., p. 18

constant and direct communication with the capital, and settlers

will have the opportunity to trade meat, agricultural and dairy

products, which can be of great help to the prosperity of a

colony”

The difficulties connected with settling almost virgin territory and the droughts which

effected the area at the beginning led some settlers to abandon the area and go to

other parts of Argentina, but on the whole the majority stayed at Formosa37. The

married couple Ursula Pernochi and Giuseppe Vicentini (originally Visintin), for

example, got to Formosa on 11 April 1879; they came from Austrian Friuli, and

would leave the colony in 1883. On 18 September 1887, Visintin, born in Gorizia in

1853, together with other inhabitants of Estaciòn Espinillos, in the province of

Cordoba, wrote a petition sent to the Government Minister for the Province of Josè

del Viso. In it the settlers requested that the place be declared “Villa y con el nombre

de Marcos Juàrez en vista del progreso de esta localidad que apenas cuenta dos

afios de existencia y tiene ya ochenta y seis casa, todas de material cocido y formas

de azotea; un molino en construccién que molerà doscientas fanegas de trigo diarias,

cuyos edificios ocuparàn un millén y doscientos mil ladrillos; doce casas de negocio,

algunos de bastante importancia y 25 à 30 casas à construirse tan pronto que se

tenga material”38.

(“Villa and with the name of Marcos Juarez [...] in light of the progress of this city

that was barely founded two years ago and already has eighty six houses, all of baked

materials and terraced shapes; a windmill under construction that will press two

hundred fanegas of flour daily, whose buildings will require the use of one million

two hundred thousand bricks; twelve trading houses, some of considerable

importance and 25 to 30 houses to be built as soon as materials are available”).

Giuseppe Visintin, who signed the petition as Cosè Vicentino, would appear to have

37 Cf. Alejandro Cecotto, Historia de Formosa y episodios atinentes, Formosa, Tip. J. M. Cecotto, 1957, pp. 17-23. 38 Cf. Villa Marcos Juarez, in “El Interior”, 20 October 1887

been the leader in the founding of two places: Formosa in 1879 and Marcos Juàrez in

188739.

Among the agricultural communities founded by provincial governments and

populated by the Friulians that of Reconquista (in the province of Santa Fe) deserves

to be remembered. It is situated on the right bank of the Arroyo del Rey, opposite

Avellaneda. The first inhabitants were eleven Welsh families, three French and one

Swiss family recruited in 1875. Four years later, on 21 February 1879, the Argentine

government took another 49 (about 300 people) there, 36 families from Friuli. The

population of Reconquista thus reached 1,900 inhabitants40.

The “Tres de Febrero” or “Brugo” colony (today known as San Benito) is about

9 km from the city of Paranà, and was one of the two communities started by

private individuals and populated by Friulians41. The first eight families, coming

mainly from “Austrian” Friuli arrived at Paranà bet ween 11 and 13 April 1879,

but probably only managed to occupy the land assigned to them in the colony by

July.

A French traveller, Alejo Peyret, who visited the province of Entre Rìos in the month

of March 1888 described the arrival of the Friulians in the colony “Tres de Febrero”:

La base de esta colonia fueron ocho familias austrjacas o furlanas,

que los empresarios [Brugo] tomaron del Hotel de Inmigrantes [di

Buenos Aires]. Todas estas ocho familias fueron perfectamente

instaladas en la colonia, proporcionàndoseles casa donde vivir,

arados de primera clase, bueyes, caballos, lecheras, manutencién

por un aflo. Un avez instaladas dichas familias, estas comunicaron

a Europa, por intermedio de la empresa, su arribo al pas, el buen

trato que han recibido e instalacién completa para emprender los

trabajos de las tierras; esto aparte de otros detalles que se omiten

39 Cf. Marcelo Vicentini, Historia de la Familia Vicentin. De Gorizia a Formosa y Marcos Jurez, in http ://sunwc .cepade.es/vicentin

40 Cf. Colonia Reconquista, in Memoria de... op. cit., p. 21; E. Mattiussi, Los friulanos, op. cit., p. 68 41 On the colony of “Tres de Febrero” (built as a parish with the name of San Benito in 1887) cf. Anibal J. Gonzalez, Semblanzas de San Benito. Colonizaciòn friulana, v. I, Nogoyà, Ediciones del Cié, 2000, pp. 57-82

y que produjeron muy buen efecto entre las familias que deseaban

emigrar a este pas. El resultado de estas comunicaciones fue

inmediato, puesto que a los pocos meses la empresa fue invadida

por cuarenta y cinco familias, sin previo aviso, todas ellas

emparentadas y amigas de las primeras familias fundadoras; y as

sucesivamente fueron llegando familias hasta que la empresa tuvo

que decir:basta42.

(“The basis of this colony were eight Austrian or Friulian families,

which the businessmen [Brugo] took from the Immigrants Hotel

[of Buenos Aires]. Each of these eight families was perfectly

settled into the colony, providing them with a house to live in, a

plow of the best quality, oxen, horses, a dairy, and a year’s worth

of maintenance. Once settled, these families, through the company,

communicated their arrival in the country back to Europe, the

excellent treatment they were given and all the equipment to start

working the land; this along with other omitted details had a great

effect on those families that wanted to emigrate to this country.

The result of this flow of communication was immediate, as only a

few months afterwards the company was invaded, with no prior

notice, by forty-five families, all related to or friends of the first

founding families; many other families arrived in this way, until

the company was forced, finally, to say: no more”).

In the month of December 1879 about a hundred settlers reached Paranà; for the most

part they were Friulians, many were related to, or friends of, those who had arrived in

April43. They were put in the recently created Municipal colony, on the edge of the

town, not far from the “Tres de Febrero” community: “Estas dos colonias — Alejo

42 Cf. Alejo Peyret, Una visita a las colonias de la Republica Argentina, v. I, Buenos Aires, 1889, p. 177

43 Among the settlers who arrived in November there were also a few Slovene families from the area of Gorizia. cf. Carlos C. Bizai, Crònica de una familia eslovena en Entre Rios (157 anos de historia, 122 anos en la Argentina), Buenos Aires, Editorial Dunken, 2001, pp. 39-71.

Peyret commented in 1888 - en realidad son una sola” (“these two colonies are

really just one”).

Other agricultural communities set up by private individuals and populated by

Friulians were for example Ortiz colony (founded in 1885 about 20 km north of the

town of Rosario), the Ricardone colony (created in 1890 about 25 km from San

Lorenzo) and the Jesus Maria colony in the province of Santa Fe44 (not far from

Rosario where five families from Martignacco settled in 1878). In the last years of the

1870s and the first years of the 1880s, however, individuals, families and groups of

Friulian settlers could be found all over the Argentine countryside, but most of all in

the province of Santa Fe, Cordoba, Entre Rìos, Chaco and Buenos Aires. “Caroya,

Resitencia with its ramifications in Chaco, Avellaneda with Ocampo, Malabrigo,

Reconquista and San Benito were the classic, historic colonies of the Friulians. They

well deserved their accolade as excellent settlers and their undisputed claim to moral

integrity, for which our small ‘homeland’ should feel indebted for the never-ending

recognition and the high esteem earned by these heroic pioneers. But we must not

forget the minor settlements and more recent communities and the families of

Friulian agricultural workers in the provinces and territories of the Republic of

Argentina”, observed don Luigi Ridolfi in 1949. The Friulian chaplain who, among

the agricultural colonies populated by the Friulians, omitted, however, Sampacho and

Formosa, noting instead, Ceres, Armstrong, Rafaela, Elortondo and Las Rosas (in the

province of Santa Fe); Santo Tomé (in the province of Corrientes)45. The news and

the letters of Friulian settlers coming from Argentina and published in 1878 in the

“Bullettino della Associazione Agraria Friuliana” (The Bulletin of the Friulian

Agrarian Association) are helpful in identifying other areas of settlement: for

example, Luigi Basso from Arzene and Nani Partenio from Pozzo di San Giorgio

della Richinvelda wrote from Rosario di Santa Fe; a certain Panizzut, originally from

Budoja, wrote from Gualeguaychù (Entra Rios); Giuseppe Coletti from Fagagna

44 Cf. E. Mattiussi, Los friulanos, op. cit., pp. 92-93. 45 Cf. L. Ridolfi, I friulani. op. cit., p. 26.

wrote from San Lorenzo (Santa Fe) and Giovanni Stremis from Faedis wrote from

Candelaria (a private colony in the province of Salta).

Table 1 - The following is a list of those removed from the register of the province of Udine and

divided according to their destination abroad (1876-1914) and those repatriated from Argentina to

the province of Udine (1905-1914).

Total Europe Argentina Repatriates from Argentina

1876 17.561 17.561

1877 17.169 16.769 400

1878 18.036 15.395 2641

1879 16.740 15.194 1546

1880 17.507 16.538 969

1881 19.776 19.439 337

1882 20.816 20.292 513

1883 27.839 25.987 1.820

1884 28.491 25.387 3.104

1885 25.711 23.699 2.012

1886 27.042 25.744 1.298

1887 32.774 29.292 3.482

1888 35.917 31.422 4.495

1889 38.148 34.186 3.962

1890 39.134 38.001 1.133

1891 36.961 36.480 481

1892 39.785 38.754 1.031

1893 43.008 42.121 887

1894 48.323 47.550 773

1895 43.729 42.866 863

1896 42.122 41.398 724

1897 45.563 44.706 857

1898 51.036 50.571 465

1899 55.898 55.485 413

1900 43.428 43.256 172

1901 50.082 49.448 634

1902 45.631 45.069 562

1903 49.761 49.251 510

1904 24.370 23.660 710

1905 36.155 35.567 588 304

1906 32.958 30.943 2.015 455 1907 32.816 31.531 1.285 599 1908 30.815 30.247 568 624 1909 28.598 26.911 1.687 656 1910 32.138 30.751 1.387 623 1911 34.183 33.270 913 847 1912 36.331 35.763 568 867 1913 37.179 33.473 3.706 1.097 1914 42.462 42.208 254 945

Source: The Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, Statistica

dell’Emigrazione Italiana, (Statistics of Italian Emigration) for the years 1876-1914;

the Commissariat General of Emigration, Annuario statistico dell’emigrazione Italian

dal 1876 al 1925 (The annual statistics of Italian emigration from 1876 to 1925),

Rome, 1926 pages 831-867.

N.B. The data concerning those repatriated have been calculated only from 1905.

Departures between 19th

and 20th

centuries: urban destinations

After the 1880s, there were fewer arrivals and with the turn of the century the

whole phenomenon took on a different aspect. The Friulians preferred the

capital Buenos Aires, and to a lesser extent the other capitals of the provinces

such as Cordoba or those expanding rapidly such as Rosario in the province of

Santa Fe.

This fact emerges, among others, from the replies that the mayors at the time, of the

province of Udine, gave to the questions about “The reasons and aspects of

emigration proper”, that is to say, definitive emigration. The enquiry, set up in 1884

and 1888 by the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, investigated the

exact number of expatriate Friulians at that time and went into the reasons for their

emigration, and the economic conditions of the emigrants both in their homeland and

abroad. The country which occurs most frequently among those where “the

emigrants, in general, settled advantageously” was Argentina, while the most

frequent destinations were Buenos Aires, Rosario, Còrdoba and Santa Fe. Very few

Friulians, on the other hand, went to Uruguay. In 1885, for example, in the various

insurance companies of the capital, Montevideo, the number of those insured coming

from Veneto, the Tyrol and Friuli was only 4% of the total46.

In the survey for the year 1888, the mayors of Friuli also gave information about the

kind of jobs the emigrants were doing overseas. Brick-layers, furnace workers,

carpenters, stone masons, metal workers and smiths and tailors had now joined the

agricultural workers, showing that the cities had now taken the place of the

countryside as the destination of emigrants. According to the mayor, in the area of

Codroipo, for example, 18 emigrants from Rivolto were going to Buenos Aires “as

porters in the wood warehouses, and settlement was easier and more lucrative for

brick-layers, metal workers and smiths and furnace workers”; the carpenters from

Bertiolo, on the other hand, “found work easily and advantageously” at Rosario in

Santa Fe47. These Friulians had no intention of joining their compatriots who had

settled ten years previously in the agricultural communities, they filled the job sectors

most in demand in a growing city. At the end of the 19th

and beginning of the 20th

century therefore, urban settlement and jobs connected to the building industry were

more and more in evidence.

The disembarkation lists of the port of Buenos Aires (Lista de immigrantes: entrada

de ultramar Immigration lists: overseas arrivals) provide useful information

regarding the groups of Friulians. The lists, compiled by the navigation companies,

signed by the captain, and seen by the immigration authorities, are in chronological

order, according to the date of the arrival of the ship at the port of Buenos Aires. The

46 Cf. Giosuè E. Bordoii, Montevideo e la Repubblica dell ‘Uruguay Descrizione e statistica, Milano, Fratelli Dumolard, 1885, p. 95; Silvia Rodriguez Villamil — Graciela Sapriza, La inmigraciòn europea en el Uruguay Los italianos, Montevideo, Ediciones de la Banda Oriental, 1983, pp. 101-102. On the characteristics of Italian emigration to Uraguay in the period before the great depression of the 1930s cf Maria Magdalena Camou – Adela Pellegrino, Dimensioni e caratteri demografici dell’immigrazione italiana in Uruguay, 1860-1920, in (Various Authors) L ‘emigrazione italiana e la formazione dell ‘Uruguay moderno, Torino, Edizioni della Fondazioni Giovanni Agnelli, 1993, pp. 37-75; Juan Antonio Oddone, La politica e le immagini dell’immigrazione italiana in Uruguay, 1830-1930, in (Various Authors), L’emigrazione italiana e la formazione... cit., pp. 77-119. 47 Cf. Ministry of Agriculture Industry and Commerce, “Statistica dell’emigrazione italiana all’estero”, in Bianca M. Pagani, L’emigrazione friulana dalla metà del secolo XIX al 1940, Udine, Arti Grafiche Friulane, 1968, pp. 134- 153.

passengers, divided according to class, were written down as family groups; the

“observations” column noted whether the passenger was an immigrant or not, if they

had used a pre-paid ticket and if they were going to disembark at a different port than

Buenos Aires. Complete data about the ship was also included: the name, the flag, the

registration number, the tonnage, the name of the captain and doctor aboard and the

crew. Up until 1914 the forms were handwritten, whether in Spanish, Italian, French,

English or German, and sometimes the languages were mixed (mainly where the

spelling of the names was concerned). Interpretation problems about names,

surnames and even occupations were thus very frequent48. However we have a

document, full of information, which, if we link it to that in Italy, from the registry

offices in Friuli, enables us to identify the point of departure, the time spent travelling

overseas and the existence of particular chains or networks of migration. The

Argentine authorities began to systematically note the place of birth of any immigrant

only from 1923. For 1920, however, the Centro de Estudios Migratorios

Lationamericanos (CEMLA) (The Centre for Latin-American Migratory Studies) in

Buenos Aires (which made an inventory and catalogue of the documents) was able to

provide the birthplace of any immigrant. The name and surname, relations, age, sex,

civil status, occupation, religion, education, class occupied on board ship, port of

disembarkation, identification code of the ship and date of arrival of every passenger

was written down. According to the details of CEMLA, 270 Friulians disembarked at

Buenos Aires in 1910, 171 of whom were from places in the province of Udine and

99 from that of Pordenone. In both cases there were more men (210) than women

(60). From among the 185 people whose occupation was known there were more

brick-layers (55) followed by farm labourers (39), smallholders (24), labourers (18),

day labourers (6), stone cutters and masons (5). Those occupations connected to the

building trade were thus most numerous. Of those whose birthplace was known those

from Artegna and Montenars (in the Alpine foothills in the Giulia region) and

48 Cf. Luigi Favero, Le liste di sbarco degli immigrati in Argentina, in “Altreitalie”, 7 (1992), pp. 134-135.

Cordenons (in the Pordenone plain) are most numerous, being 21, 17 and 18 units

respectively.

1882 – 1886 1887 – 1891 1892 - 1896 1897 - 1901 1882 - 1901

Region Arg. % Urug. % Arg. % Urug. % Arg. % Urug. % Arg. % Urug. % Arg. % Urug. %

North West Italy 87.414 57% 2.313 42% 101.035 41% 4.627 45% 77.100 41% 2.413 45% 61.118 28% 865 17% 326.667 41% 10.218 39%

East and Central Italy 27.120 18% 276 5% 65.456 27% 1.595 16% 41.260 22% 311 6% 42.252 20% 376 7% 176.088 22% 2.556 16%

South Italy and the Islands 38.761 25% 2.884 53% 79.943 32% 4.038 39% 69.124 37% 2.614 49% 111.702 52% 3.960 76% 299.530 37% 13.496 51%

Total 153.295 100% 5.473 100% 246.434 100% 10.260 100% 187.484 100% 5.335 100% 215.072 100% 5.201 100% 802.285 100% 26.272 100%

TABLE 2 – Italian immigrants to Argentina and Uruguay according to geographical area of origin (1882-1901)

Source: Statistics Department – Emigration Statistics, Rome 1883-1902.

North West Italy: Piedmont. Lombardy, Liguria.

East and Central Italy: Veneto, Emilia Romagna, Marche, Lazio, Umbria, Tuscany, Molise, Campania

South Italy and the Islands: Basilicata, Calabria, Sardegna, Puglia, Abruzzo.

From La emigracion italiana a Argentina y Uruguay en el siglo X1X. Un enfoque comparado, in Id., by Fernando Devoto. Estudios sobre la

emigracion italiana a la Argentina en la segunda mitad del siglo X1X, Naples, Italian Scientific Edition, 1991, p.37.

In the three cases, the predominance of brick-layers is obvious: Artegna (7) and

Cordenons (6) they are exactly a third; and Montenars two thirds (13). A good

number of brick-layers (27) from the pre-Alpine region embarked together at Genoa

and arrived in Buenos Aires on 22 April 1910 on board the ship “Principessa

Mafalda”49. It is likely that the brick-layers from Montenars and Artegna decided to

go to Argentina to compensate for the lack of work which hit Central Europe just in

those three years from 1909 to 1911. This hypothesis could be collaborated by the

percentage of males among those who embarked. In the two villages, seasonal work

(male) in Germany had been the most widespread migratory habit since the 1880s

and the decision to go to Argentina could have been an alternative choice, linked to

the particular economic circumstances. This would help to explain how, at the

beginning of the 20th

century, it is possible to take into consideration two types of

temporary emigration: one that was near and more familiar (to Germany and Austro-

Hungary), and one that was further and more rewarding (to the United States, Canada

but also Argentina)50. With regard to the latter country the initial temporary stay

became, on occasions, permanent. Similar hypotheses could be put forward for

Clauzetto and for Vito d’Asio (in pre-Alpine Carnia): in 1910, 10 (including 8 brick-

layers and 1 labourer) and 8 (4 brick-layers and 4 stonemasons) left respectively for

Argentina, all aboard the “Principessa Mafalda”51. The case of Cordenons, on the

other hand, merits special reflection because, between the 20s and 30s, more people

49 The “Principessa Mafalda” was built in Italy in 1909. A luxury steamship, like the other ships of Lloyd Italy, emigrants were in the third class. On 25 October 1927 the “Principessa Mafalda” caught fire and sank off the coast of Brazil: 314 people died including passengers and crew, many of whom were Italian emigrants

50 Cf. F. Micelli, Stagioni, luoghi e parole: le lettere di un emigrante temporaneo (1905-1915), in Adriano D’Agostin — Javier Grossutti, Ti ho spedito Lire cento. Le stagioni di Luigi Piccoli, emigrante friulano. Lettere famigliari (1905-1915), Pordenone, Edizioni Biblioteca dell’Immagine, 1997, pp. 26-27. 51 From the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, emigration from the Pre-Alpine region of Carnia in West Friuli mainly headed towards the countries of Central Europe. In 1909 Picotti, noted: “There are only the communities of Meduno, Tramonti di Sotto, Polcenigo and Barcis in the hill area above Pordenone which have emigration worthy of note for America. And even from these communities only some emigrants from some villages are going overseas. In other communities, except for the odd exceptions who have been tempted by letters and hopes of making a fortune in the New World, the mass of emigrants head for the countries of Europe”. cf. Guido Picotti, Le caratteristiche dell’emigrazione d’oltre il Tagliamento, “La Patria del Friuli”, 10 September 1909. On the migratory experiences of the Val d’Arzino and the Val Colvera in the pre-Alpine region of Carnia cf. respectively J. Grossutti, L’emigrazione dal comune di Vito d’Asio nel secondo dopoguerra, in Manlio Michelutti (edited by), As. int e Cjere, Udine, Società Filologica Friulana, 1994, pp. 247-258; J. Grossutti, Le comunità di Frisanco all ‘estero. Traccia per un ‘anagrafe, in Novella Cantarutti (edited by), “Commun di Frisanco “. Frisanco Poffabro Casasola, Maniago, Comune di Frisanco, 1995, pp. 277-294.

emigrated from this Friulian village to Argentina than from anywhere else. The first

years of the 20th

century saw the movement of the first post-war emigrants towards

Latin America. From this point of view the conflict did not seem to represent a break,

even if the flow of emigrants to Argentina involved emigrants with different

professional skills52. And vice versa, the temporary emigration towards European

countries saw a complete change in geographical destination, but the seasonal

behaviour of the emigrants changed much more slowly53. In Cordenons the

preference shown for Argentina by the aspiring emigrants became clear only at the

beginning of the 20th

century. Guido Picotti, inspector of the Provincial Employment

office in Udine, who, between 1909 and 1910, carried out a series of enquiries on the

characteristics and problems of Friulian emigration, put Cordenons with the

municipalities in the plain of the River Tagliamento as “providing a more or less

strong contingent of emigrants for North and South America, according to different

occupations”54. According to Picotti, in the case of those from Cordenons, the most

common occupation was that of a bricklayer55. Luigi Bidinost, from Cordenons, for

example, who became a building entrepreneur after emigrating, arrived in Buenos

Aires in 1911. With the company Fratelli Bidinost and by himself in the early 1940s

he carried out numerous works in the fields of industrial fridges, textiles,

perfumeries, paper as well as bridges and roads in the area of Chacabuco in the

province of Buenos Aires. However, what distinguished Luigi Bidinost was the fact

that his company took on and attracted many people from Cordenons who had arrived

in Argentina in the early 1920s.

52 Cf. F. Devoto, Italiani in Argentina: ieri e oggi, in “Altreitalie”, 27(2003), pp. 4-17. 53 Cf. J. Grossutti, Le scelte migratorie a Tavagnacco, Feletto Umberto e Pagnacco: tra Francia e Argentina (1919-1939), in J. Grossutti — F. Micelli (edited by), L’altra Tavagnacco. L’emigrazione friulana tra le due guerre, Atti della giornata di studio Feletto Umberto 24 March 2000. Udine, Comune di Tavagnacco. 2003. pp. 99-161.

54 The articles on the problems of Friulian emigration written by Guido Picotti, appeared in the newspaper “La Patria del Friuli” between July 1909 and March 1910; cf. J. Grossutti, L’emigrazione dal Friuli. Saggio bibliograjìco, in Adriano D’Agostin — Javier Grossutti, Ti ho spedito Lire cento... cit., pp. 294-296.

55 Cf. G. Picotti, Le caratteristiche dell’emigrazione d’oltre... op. cit.

1910 A photograph of the community from Venezia Giulia

The check carried out by the Centro de Estudios Migratorios Latinoamericanos

(CEMLA) on those who disembarked in the port of Buenos Aires in 1910 has

enabled us to identify a small number of emigrants from Venezia Giulia: about

12 people originally from Gradisca d’Isonzo, Trieste and Gorizia56.

The check by CEMLA, like the conclusions some recent studies have reached on the

migratory characteristics of Venezia Giulia in the period preceding the Great War,

confirm the reduced number of migrants from this area to overseas and to Argentina

in particular. In fact Venezia Giulia, in the period of the Austro-Hungarian empire,

witnessed a period of development and was an area of immigration even for the

Friulians (especially as regards Trieste and subsequently, but to a lesser extent, the

industrial areas of Gorizia and Monfalcone and the port of Fiume – now Rijeka), it

became an area of emigration only after the First and Second World Wars: in both

cases the main reasons for emigration were political.

Emigration in the years 1920-1930

The end of the Great War gave the Friulians once again the choice of

emigration. Argentina across the sea and France in Europe welcomed a large

number of Friulians after 1919. Some villages such as Pantianicco and

Cordenons poured out a substantial number of their population to countries in

South America, recreating large and well-organised communities which would

be a reference point for those who emigrated after World War II 57.

Between the 20s and 30s the flow of migrants increased. “As soon as overseas

communications began again, South America began immediately asking for our work

force; many Friulians left for Argentina from middle and lower Friuli, in particular

from the area west of the River Tagliamento. The majority of this exodus came from

Cordenons, where “from between 1919 and 1920 over 1,000 people left”, observed

56 Cf. Alicia Bernasconi, Los giuliani en la Argentina: una inmigraciòn singular. delivered at the conference Storia e caratteristiche dell ‘emigrazione giuliana nel mondo, Trieste 23-24 January 1996, p. 9 (unpublished). 57 Cf. J. Grossutti, L’altra Cordenons. Folpi ad Avellaneda La otra Cordenons. Folpi en Avellaneda, in I. Zannier (edited by), Cordenons Avellaneda. Caratteri e fotografie di un ‘emigrazione, Pordeiioie, E.F.A.S.C.E. — C.R.A.F., l998,pp. 7-11.

Onorato Lorenzon and Piero Mattioni58. A high number when you take into account

the census of 1921 which put the resident population of the municipality at 9,336

(now there are 8,337).

Old and new emigrants settled in the area of Avellaneda, in the suburbs of Buenos

Aires, where their presence was tangible. “Going along Riachuelo and along the great

Avenida Mitre you saw Impresa Bidinest, Impresa Scian, Impresa Gardonio etc.”

observed don Luigi Ridolfi in 1949: these are typical surnames from Cordenons59.

“After Cordenons, no village in Friuli had as many emigrants to Argentina as

Pantianicco and Bertiolo. Over 1,000 emigrated form Bertiolo and the oldest

emigrant to Argentina was perhaps Malisan Alessandro from Bertiolo, who emigrated

in 1865 and, for a long time, had a property at La Boca. Between 800 and 900

emigrated from Pantianicco” added don Luigi Ridolfi60. The case of Pantianicco and

its emigrants gives much food for thought. On the one hand it allows us to explore

structural conditions and contingent factors of emigration by moving the perspective

from Friulian Pantianicco to that of Argentina, and on the other hand it enables us to

examine a migratory experience whose characteristics rarely occur in such defined

and exemplary forms. The specific nature of the experience of the inhabitants of

Pantianicco, who for decades continued to choose the hospitals in Buenos Aires as

their destination point, emerges from the tales the protagonists told their descendants.

Luigi Della Picca, born in Pantianicco in 1850, arrived in Argentina for the first time

when he was 28. He came back home a few years later and then, in 1887, the registry

office in Mereto di Tomba noted his new departure for Argentina. Around 1890 he

began working at the Italian hospital in Buenos Aires where he became head theatre

nurse. Frequent returns home and departures overseas characterised Luigi Della

Picca’s migratory experience and he became a role model for many of his fellow

compatriots who arrived in Argentina in the first years of the 20th

century and in the

58 Cf. Onorato Lorenzon - Piero Mattioni, L ‘emigrazione in Friuli, Udine, Amministrazione Provinciale di Udine, 1962, p. 54 59 Cf. L. Ridolfi, I friulani. op. cit., p. 29. 60 Cf. L. Ridolfi, I friulani... op. cit., p. 44.

20s and 30s: most of these found work in the Italian hospital, initially as odd-job men

but then as qualified nurses.

Table 3 – Those cancelled from the register of the Province of Udine: the year and their destination

abroad (1919-1938)

Total Europe and the

Mediterranean . The Americas Argentina

Repatriates

from Argentina

1925 27.356 23.373 3.597 2.445

1926 22.317 16.779 5.251 3.671

1927 16.890 9.149 7.292 5.004

1928 13.654 10.706 2.783 1.598

1929 15.273 13.029 2.125 1.196

1930 28.902 25.852 2.892 2.042

1931 13.422 11.686 1.679 1.125

1932 5.465 4.715 689 426

1933 4.862 4.195 562 322

1934 4.004 3.017 744 445

1935 5.517 3.687 (overseas) 1.830

1936 3.512 2.165 1.347

937 5.339 3.396 1.943

1938 4.300 3.323

Source:

1919-1920: Ministry for Employment and Social Security (Statistica dell’Emigrazione Italiana per

l’Estero Italian Emigration Statistics for Abroad); 1921-1925: Commissariat General for Emigration

(Annuale statistico dell’emigrazione Italian dal 1876 al 1925, Italian annual emigration statistics

from 1876 to 1925; Rome, 1926 page 1404 et seq.); 1926-1938 Central Institute of Statistics

(Statistica delle migrazioni da e per l’estero, Migration statistics from and for abroad.).

Job specialisation distinguished the Argentine migratory experience until World War

I, but especially in the 20s and 30s. Just after the war men attracted their families

across the sea: even women began working in the Argentine hospitals and departures

became definitive. Compared to the pre-war period the number of emigrants

increased considerably. According to the registry office at Pantianicco there were 285

emigrants to Argentina between 1919 and 1932. Between 1921 and 1931 the

population decreased by 27.7%, going from 1,222 to 883 (minus 339). Working

overseas enabled them to live a fairly reasonable life style, sometimes even a good

life style, and in any case certainly better than the one they would have had staying at

home. Emigration “for a fixed term and purpose” which seemed to characterise the

period preceding World War I, and which presupposed a return to the countryside to

work at the end of their experience in the Argentine hospitals, was no longer an

option. The difference in lifestyles between town and country, between peasant

farmer on the one hand and life in town on the other, kept many emigrants in

Argentina in the 20s and 30s. Furthermore the rise of fascism did not encourage the

emigrants to return to their homeland.

Between the two wars, the range of hospitals where the people from Pantianicco

worked extended and included places within the province of Buenos Aires. In the

capital, male nurses, but above all female nurses, maintenance workers, odd job men,

porters and drivers were at the Italian Hospital, the “Bernardino Rivadavia” Hospital,

the Mental Health Institute, the “Ricardo Gutierrez” Children’s Hospital, the

“Parmenio Pinero” Hospital, the Tornu Sanatorium and the “Ottamendi Mirali”

Sanatorium. Abele Mattiussi (1993: 41) remembered that in the 1920s 154 of the 291

Friulians working at the Italian Hospital in Buenos Aires were from Pantianicco. The

other Friulians came mostly from Bertiolo and Beano, villages not far from

Pantianicco.

The Latin-American countries not only appealed to the people from Cordenons and

Pantianicco but also to many other Friulians. However departures were well thought

out and not merely for economic reasons. If however, between the two wars France

welcomed the majority of Friulians, and many emigrated to the United States and

Canada for better earnings, it was Argentina which was the only one to respect their

real identity. The arrival in Buenos Aires between the 20s and 30s meant meeting the

other Friuli, it enabled them to rebuild and feel protected by a familiar, rural network

which did not exist anywhere else.

1924 The founding of the Regina colony.

In the 20s some farming communities were set up. In 1924 the Italo-Argentine

Colonisation Company, which owned more than 6,000 hectares of land in the

province of Rio Negro, in Patagonia, recruited 426 farming families: 90% of

them were Italian, of whom a large number were Friulians.

The settlement was called the Regina colony (today it is Villa Regina) in honour of

the Italian, Regina Pacini, wife of the then president of Argentina, Marcelo Torcuato

de Alvear; the settlers were given the task of starting the cultivation of fruit trees61.

Between 1920 and 1930 however, it was not only economic reasons which sent the

Friulians across the ocean. Many went to Argentina because they could not stand the

fascist regime. The geo-morphologist Egidio Feruglio and the musician Rodolfo

Kubik, union leaders Giuseppe Tuntar and Luigi Tonet are examples of political

emigrants, open opponents of the regime62. Giovanni Minut, born in Visco in 1895;

already secretary of the Provincial Federation of Land Workers, after a short period

in Argentina, went to Uruguay: in the 1930s he became technical director of the dairy

farming industry “Conaprole” in Montevideo, the biggest private industry in Latin-

61 Cf. Ottorino Burelli — Sergio Gervasutti, op. cit., pp. 126-138. 62 Cf. Vittorio Balanza, Rodolfo Kubik. Compositor y musico, Buenos Aires, Asociacién Dante Alighieri, 1993; J. Grossutti Una scelta difficile. Egidio Feruglio in Argentine in Id (edited by) Egidio Feruglio L attività scientifica e gli altri doveri verso la Patria (1897-1954). Atti della Giornata di studio nel centenario della nascita, Udine, Comune di Tavagnacco. 1997. pp. 85-115.

America63. This political emigration also included those whose previous work

experience, in the countries of Central Europe, had given them social and political

emancipation which fascism systematically tried to wipe out. Anti-fascism, in some

cases hidden, in others militant, found an outlet outside the homeland, in a country

which, at that time, represented a “free country”. In 1929, for example, Giovanni

Topazzini, a communist, together with some anti-fascist emigrants who were

members of the “Friulian Family” association (set up in November 1927) in Buenos

Aires, created the “Friulian Proletariat Alliance”, which was dissolved due to the

repressive measures of the military government of José Félix Uriburu and Agustin

Pedro Justo in the first years of the 1930s. On 4 August 1932, about forty Friulian

emigrants founded the “Friulian Workers’ Union”, which, according to the provisions

of article 4 of the Statute “having no ties to any political or religious organisation,

and consisting of mainly workers, will support the proletarian anti-fascism of the

Italian emigration”64. The Friulian Workers’ Union was among one of the regional

associations most involved in anti-fascist propaganda and, in 1935, actively

participated in the organisation of the “Congress of Italians abroad against the war in

Abyssinia”.

Between the two wars, those belonging to the Slovene and Croat minorities of

Venezia Giulia made up a considerable part of the emigrants heading overseas, to the

United States but above all to Argentina: for these groups the economic reasons for

emigration were connected to political reasons, but the latter were often more

important65. Around the first half of the 1920s, the fascist measures of

denationalisation against minorities pushed many militants and Slovene and Croatian

activists to leave Venezia Giulia to escape the persecution to which they were

subjected. According to some estimates, in the 20s and 30s, the number of Slovene

and Croatian emigrants from Venezia Giulia was between 100,000 and 150,000

63 Cf. Federico Snaidero, Giovanni Minut (1895-1967). L ‘esperienza politica e di lavoro nell‘emigrazione, in F. Cecotti — D. Mattiussi (edited by), op. cit., pp. 129-137. 64 Cf. Marco Puppini, Appartenenza regionale e convinzioni antifasciste nell’emigrazione in Argentina: alcuni documenti sui casi friulano e giuliano, in F. Cecotti — D. Mattiussi (edited by), op. cit., pp. 109-116. 65 Cf. Aleksey Kalc, L ‘emigrazione slovena e croata dalla Venezia Giulia tra le due guerre ed il suo ruolo politico, in “Annales. Annali di Studi istriani e mediterranei”, VI (1996), n. 8, pp. 23-60.

people: between 1923 and 1937, about 23,000 are thought to have left for Argentina.

Piero Purini observed that, in that period, the reason for which Argentina – the first

destination for emigrants from Venezia Giulia – “was so agreeable for non-Italian

emigrants was because, as well as there already being Slovene communities there

who had settled in Argentina before World War I, international agreements between

the Italian government and that of Argentina opened up the country to emigration

from Italy, especially that of linguistic minorities. The publicity campaign to push the

Slovenes from the Karst region to emigrate was incessant and the Cosulich and Lloyd

Triestino fleets offered big discounts on the journey to those who decided to leave”66.

Table 4 – A list of those, cancelled from the register, who emigrated to Argentina from Venezia Giulia (1921-1937)

Fiume Gorizia Pola Trieste Zara Total Venezia

1921 183

1922 244

1923 3.001

1924 1.224

1925 - - - - - -

1926 34 689 219 3 945

1927 146 959 642 483 19 2.249

1928 346 2.427 1.918 1.079 11 5.781

1929 326 1.239 1.478 1.070 19 4.132

1930 159 822 998 596 16 2.591

1931 30 266 280 249 8 833

1932 24 89 99 86 0 298

1933 9 88 63 48 0 208 66 Cf. Piero Purini, L’emigrazione non italiana dalla Venezia Giulia tra le due guerre, in F. Cecotti — D. Mattiussi (edited by), op. cit, pp. 87-107; by the same author also see, L’emigrazione non italiana dalla Venezia Giulia dopo la prima guerra mondiale, in “Qualestoria”, 2000, n. 1, pp. 33-53 e Analisi dei dati statistici ufficiali italiani riguardanti l’emigrazione dalla Venezia Giulia nel periodo 1921-1938, in “Annales. Annali di Studi istriani e mediterranei”, X (2000), n. 20, pp. 17 1-190.

1934 21 105 56 69 1 252

1935 312

1936 222

1937 460

Total 1.095 5.995 6.223 3.899 77 22.935

Source:

P.Purini, L’Emigrazione non italiana dalla Venezia Giulia tra le due guerre (Non Italian emigration

from Venezia Giulia between the two wars) in F. Cecotti – D. Mattiussi (op.cit. page 101).

For the Friulians, therefore, the flow towards Argentina went at alternate rhythms,

during the whole of the 1930s, but departures tended to drop after 1931. In the years

between 1920 and 1930 there were more emigrants from Venezia Giulia, particularly

Slavs: in 1928, for example, about 5,800 left for Latin America, a quarter of all those

emigrants in the period 1921-1937 went to Argentina. The fascists discouraged and

contained emigration especially after 1927, but this was more in response to the

barriers already raised abroad by the receiving countries rather than a strict control of

emigration.

In Venezia Giulia however, the emigration of non-Italians, was not impeded by the

fascist government, which tried in every way to make it as easy as possible.

1945 – Emigration after World War II

At the end of the Second World War the Friulians were facing a similar

situation to that at the end of the First World War in November 1918. They

began emigrating again to the same countries as before such as France, Belgium,

Argentina and the United States, but emigration extended to countries such as

Canada and to a lesser extent Switzerland which had welcomed a considerable

number of emigrants already since the 1880s; moreover, new destinations

opened up such as Venezuela, Australia and South Africa. However, not many

Friulians went to Uruguay:

They came, for example, from Travesio, Cordenons, Chiusaforte, Morsano al

Tagliamento, Gemona, Talmassons and Lestizza. In 1951, Guido Zannier, originally

from Udine, disembarked at Montevideo, he then became a teacher at the local

university and one of the most important professors of Italian in Latin-America67.

More people from Venezia Giulia seemed to prefer Uruguay: at the time the biggest

groups were from Trieste, Muggia and Fogliano Redipuglia.

1945-1948 – The boom in the Argentine economy encouraged departures

The period 1945-1948 corresponded with an economic boom in Argentina, with

an annual increase in GDP equal to 6.4%. The favourable economic

circumstances, which quickly absorbed the workers available locally, left room

to attract foreign immigrants.

The industrial growth which occurred in this period was backed by political

promotions, helped by the improvement in exchange terms and by the intensive use

of productive capacity which had not yet been fully developed and helped by public

and private investments in manufacturing activities. The favourable economic

conditions, which quickly absorbed the workers available locally left room to attract

foreign immigrants.

The immediate post-war boom in Argentina changed it into a very

desirable destination for many Europeans, who left their

homelands because of the economic crisis and political disarray

which followed the end of the war – observed Maria Inès Barbero

and Maria Cristina Cacopardo. This attraction was the result of a

number of factors and, to a certain extent, even the obstacles to

immigration imposed by other countries, particularly the United

States. Starting from 1946, the Argentine government began a

policy of encouraging immigration which, even though there was

some selection criteria, was in considerable contrast to that of the

67 Cf. Luce Fabbri de Cressatti, Guido Zannier, in Graciela Barrios — Alcides Beretta Curi — Mario Dotta, Estudios humanisticos en memoria al dr. Guido Zannier, Montevideo, Facultad de Hurnanidades y Ciencias de la Educacién Universidad de la Repùblica, 1998, pp. 11-13.

1930s and the years of the war, which had been designed to limit

the entrance of foreigners68.

The first agreement between Italy and Argentina to promote

immigration was on 21 February 1947: it provided the recruitment

of immigrants on the basis of lists compiled by Italian officials

according to the requirements indicated by the Argentine

government. The emigration treaty signed by the Italian and

Argentine governments in January 1948 finally put into effect the

propositions agreed upon in February of the previous year (which

had not yet been ratified) and it took up again some of the aspects

of the Convenio Comercial y Financiero underwritten by the two

countries in October 1947. In addition, in the first years of the

1950s, Argentina became part of the Comitato Intergovernativo

per le Migrazioni Europee (CIME) (Inter-government Committee

for European Migration (ICEM), whose task it was to ensure the

transport of needy emigrants and to support European emigration.

The different mechanisms of recruitment and assistance promoted

by the Argentine and Italian governments did not seem, however,

to reach the desired objectives:

during the economic boom the majority of European immigrants

who got to the country did so through other channels. The

existence of numerous groups of European origin, which settled

in the country during the period of mass emigration, enabled the

system of the “family link” to be a quicker and less bureaucratic

route than assisted immigration. The primary networks offered

68 Cf. Maria Inés Barbero — Marja Cristina Cacopardo, L ‘immigrazione europea in Argentina nel secondo dopoguerra: vecchi miti e nuove realtà, in Gianfausto Rosoli (edited by), Identità degli italiani in Argentina. Reti sociali. Famiglia. Lavoro, Roma, Centro Studi Emigrazione-Edizioni Studium, 1993. p. 289. On the political opinions about Italian emigration after the war see G. Rosoli, La politica migratoria italo argentina nell‘immediato dopoguerra (1946-1949), in Id. (edited by), Identità degli italiani op. cit., pp. 341- 390.

the chance to count on the help of relatives and friends during the

settling-in process in the new country69.

1946-1952: The emigration to Argentina of Istrian and Dalmatian refugees

The end of the war and the changing of the political borders in Venezia Giulia

set emigration in motion once again, this time during the years 1946-1952, with

about 300,000 Istrian and Dalmatian refugees. The United States, Canada,

Australia and Argentina were the destinations mostly chosen by the refugees,

because of the existence of migratory channels arranged in advance by the

international organisations (Catholic Relief Service, IRO, ICEM etc.) rather

than the choice of the refugees themselves for those countries.

In effect, if the Friulian emigrants who reached Argentina in the post World War II

period, with a few exceptions, turned to the social networks set up by their fellow

compatriots who had emigrated before the war (via “family links” for example), in

the case of people from Venezia Giulia the recruitment mechanisms, the way of

emigrating and their integration into their new environment were different. The end

of the war and the changing of the political borders in Venezia Giulia set emigration

in motion once again, this time during the years 1946-1952, with about 300,000

Istrian and Dalmatian refugees. “The United State, Canada, Australia and Argentina

were the destinations mostly chosen by the refugees, because of the existence of

emigration channels arranged in advance by the international organisations (Catholic

Relief Service, IRO, ICEM, etc.) rather than the choice of the refugees themselves for

those countries”70. Those who emigrated from Trieste after 1955, that is, after the

allied powers had withdrawn, did so because of the difficult economic situation

which struck the city, and in many cases they followed already existing migratory

paths.

69 Cf. M. I. Barbero —M. C. Cacopardo, op. cit., p. 293. 70 Cf. Giorgio Valussi, La comunità giuliana in Argentina. Analisi dei processi di mobilità geografica e sociale, in Francesco Citarella, op. cit., p. 378. Regarding the Slovenes who landed in Argentina between 1947 and 1950 cf. Joseph Velikonja, Las comunidades eslovenas en el Gran Buenos Aires, in “Estudios rnigratorios latinoamericanos”, 1(1985),

n. 1, pp. 48- 61.

1948 – Friulians in Terra del Fuego

The only attempt at assisted emigration which involved a substantial number of

Friulians was that set up in 1948 by the entrepreneur Carlo Borsari from

Bologna.

The project, in which 614 people coming from regions in northern Italy joined,

intended to develop the city of Ushuaia, in Terra del Fuego71:

La empresa Borsari se especializaba en el rubro construcciòn de

ljneas ferroviarias, obras edilicias y viales, caminos, obras

hidràulicas, puentes, hormigòn armado y tùneles. En 1948 la

empresa firmò un contrato de trabajo con el Estado argentino.

Refrendaron en corformidad el contrato el contralmirante Mario

E. Sànchez Negrete como Director General de Construcciones

Terrestres del Ministerio de Marina — Gobernador de Tierra del

Fuego y Carlo Borsari empresario italiano. Después de la firma

del contrato, el empresario, a través de sus funcionarios,

organizò diferentes canales de informacién formales e informales

en la zona norte de la pennsula italiana que operaban para el

reclutamiento de la mano de obra para trabajar por cuatro aflos,

es decir durante el periodo 1948 — 1952. Se seleccionaron

ingenieros, técnicos y obreros de la construcciòn. Los mismos

fueron calificados en funciòn de criterios de buena salud,

capacidades y habilidades. La propuesta migratoria para

Ushuaia se articulò en una multiplicidad de aspectos tales como

construir una infraestructura para un futuro desarrollo

industrial de la region, controlar los recursos primarios,

71 Cf. Charles B. Hitchcock. Einpresa Borsari. Italian Settlement in Tierra del Fuego. in “The Geographical Review”, October 1949, pp. 640-648.

defender la soberanja nacional y poblar a partir de la selecciòn

de los inmigrantes72.

(“Borsari was a company that specialized in the building of

railway lines, houses and roads, streets, hydraulic works, bridges,

reinforced concrete and tunnels. In 1948 the company signed a

contract with the Argentine government. The admiral Mario E.

Sanchez Negrete, as General Director of Constructions for the

Navy Ministry, ratified the validity of the contract together with

the governor of Tierra del Fuego and the Italian businessman

Carlo Borsari. After signing the contract, the businessman,

through his assistants, organized different channels of

communication, both formal and informal, in the northern area of

the Italian peninsula, which were directed to the recruitment of

labor that would work for four years, a period spanning from

1948 to 1952. Engineers, technicians and construction workers

were selected. These would qualify according to criteria of good

health, skills and abilities. The migration project for Ushuaia was

articulated in a number of aspects, such as building an

infrastructure for a future industrial development of the region,

controlling primary resources, defending national sovereignty

and population, starting with a selection of the immigrants”).

The Friulians (300 according to some authors73) who reached Patagonia with the

entrepreneur Carlo Borsari came from Povoletto, Faedis, Nimis and Martignacco; for

the most part they were brick-layers and carpenters. After the Second World War,

however, the role of the emigration channels in organising emigration and reducing

the human and social costs of integration in a new environment were decisive: the

areas the emigrants came from were the same as in the 20s and 30s: Cordenons, 72 Cf. Juana Alejandra Coicaud, La migraciòn ‘individual y colectiva’ de los friulanos en Patagonia. Estudio de dos casos: Comodoro Rivadavia y Ushuaia 1948-19 70 (unpublished) 73 Cf. E. Mattiussi, Los friulanos, op. cit., p. 103.

Pantianicco, Bertiolo, Carpeneto, Pozzuolo del Friuli, Jalmicco, Plaino and

Ampezzo74.

But if, until the early years of the 1950s, the political and economic situation in

Argentina showed no signs of disquiet, after 1953 and the experience of the Peron era

the economic formula began to show weaknesses which, as Halperin Donghi

maintained “could only serve for periods of prosperity” 75. And so the Friulians,

despite the existence in South America of a network of relations and compatriots

formed from many waves of migration, preferred to emigrate to other places.

In 1955 ISTAT (the national statistics office) noted for the first time the numbers of

those who left their towns: in the preface to the Yearly Demographic Statistics it

states “The new part added refers to the results of an important survey regarding the

movement of residents within the national territory, and from and for abroad, carried

out on the registrations and cancellations in the registry. The survey provides useful

elements for the study of economic and social problems connected to the movement

of a population and offers first class material on how to execute, in the succeeding

years, new and interesting data processing. In the tables relating to the province the

numbers of registrations and cancellations from and for abroad according to countries

of origin and destination are reported, for France, Belgium, the Federal German

Republic and England as far as regards Europe; Canada, the United States, Argentina,

Brazil, Venezuela and Australia for those overseas, while no indication is given for

the area of the Mediterranean basin.

1967-1968 Repatriates (from Europe) exceed expatriates.

More people returned from Germany and Switzerland, which had been the

main destinations for temporary emigration, than emigrated. The slow building

74 Regarding the experience of emigration to Argentina from Pozzuolo del Friuli and Carpeneto cf. L ‘emigrazione nel territorio communale di Pozzuolo del Friuli, in J. Grossutti (edited by), Chei di Pucui pal mont. I pozzuolesi nel mondo, Udine, Comune di Pozzuolo del Friuli. 2004. pp. 7-27; for Plaino cf. Id.. Le scelte migratorie a Tavagnacco, Feletto Umberto e Pagnacco: tra Francia e Argentina (1919-1939), in J. GROSSUTTI — F. MICELLI (edited by), L’altra Tavagnacco... op. cit., pp. 99-161.

75 Cf. Tulio Halperin Donghi, Història contemporanea de América Latina, Madrid - Buenos Aires, Alianza Editoria!, 1987, p. 355

of a regional work force, confirmed by widespread industrialisation, brought

about the end of an emigration movement which had begun in the 19th

century.

Between 1955 and 1967, the year in which for the first time in Friuli Venezia Giulia

there was a positive balance between expatriates and repatriates, registrations and

cancellations for Argentina (in the provinces of Udine and Gorizia) total 2,293 and

2,049 respectively. The positive balance between registrations and cancellations is a

further confirmation of an exit which, with Argentina, had already considerably

reduced before the Institute of Statistics began its survey on the transference of

residents from and to abroad. Registrations from South American countries indicate a

substantial return of Friulian emigrants in the second half of the 1940s and the

beginning of the 1950s, in a period when other destinations (as much European as

overseas) were preferred to that of Argentina. All cases were those of emigrants who,

for economic reasons (no job vacancies, loss of employment, economic crisis in the

country they had emigrated to, etc.), or for psychological reasons (integration

difficulties, homesickness, “disorientation”, etc.), or socio-political reasons (the

impossibility of a definitive integration etc.) decided to return to their homeland.

During the returns of the 1970s, the percentage of Friulians coming back from

Argentina is modest (1.8%): of the 50,000 or so who came back between 1970 and

1979, only 935 arrived in Friuli from Latin-American countries76.

76 Cf. Elena Saraceno, L’emigrazione fallita: rientri e carriere professionali dei friulani in Argentina, in F. Devoto G. Rosoli (edited by), L ‘Italia nella società argentina. Contributi sull‘emigrazione italiana in Argentina, Roma, Centro Studi Emigrazione, 1988, p. 125

Table 5 - Registrations and cancellations from and for Argentina in the provinces of

Udine and Gorizia (1955-1967)

Registrations Cancellations Bilance

1955 203 213 -10

1956 152 201 -49

1957 148 461 -313

1958 147 91 56

1959 125 110 15

1960 206 153 53

1961 168 56 112

1962 212 457 -245

1963 261 32 229

1964 257 31 226

1965 149 35 114

1966 88 75 13

1967 81 50 31

Source: Istat Movimento migratorio della popolazione residente. Iscrizioni e cancellazioni

anagrafiche (The migratory movement of residents. Registrations and cancellations from the

registry) Rome, National Institute of Statistics, 1955-1967.

1976 A difficult year to forget.

1976 was a turning point: in Argentina the coup d’état threw the country into

the darkest political crisis in its history; in Friuli the earthquake accelerated a

process of wealth and change in society never seen before. Emigrants, but above

all the descendants of emigrants, sons and grandsons, born in Argentina, paid

with their lives a period of terror.

In Argentina, in the years between 1960 and 1970 the situation got worse and worse,

while in Italy and subsequently in Friuli the economy got better and better. 1976 was

the turning point: In Argentina a coup d’état threw the country into the darkest

political crisis in its history; in Friuli the earthquake accelerated a process of wealth

and change in society never seen before. Emigrants, but above all the descendants of

emigrants, sons and grandsons born in Argentina, paid with their lives a period of

terror: they were part of the 30,000 “desaparecidos” created by the murderous

violence of the military government of the time77.

1989-1991: the first “anomalous” returns from Argentina In the period 1989-1991 the people returning and immigrants were on the whole,

the sons, grandsons and great-grandsons of Italians who had emigrated to

Argentina after the two World Wars. The 80s and the arrival in Friuli, between

1989 and 1991, of the descendants of Friulians who had emigrated during the

fascist period, but above all after the Second World War, showed the difference

between two communities who only knew the stereotype of the other.

To Italians and Friulians born in Argentina the towns and villages of parents and

grand parents were very different from what had been described to them. These

repatriates were different from any previous repatriation from Argentina which

concerned Friuli. Those returning from 1989-1991 were on the whole the sons,

77 Cf. F. D. M., La libertà? un miraggio, in “La Vita Cattolica”, 22 April 1978; M. M. Cornici, La vite dai furlans, in “La Vita Cattolica”, 22 April 1978; Flavio Vidoni, I friulani d’Argentina abili o fortunati? Desaparecidos ma non troppo, in “Primipiani Friuli Venezia Giulia”, I (1982), n. 6, pp. 11-12; Dodici friulani tra i desaparecidos, in “Il

Gazzettino”, 24 February 1990.

grandsons and great-grandsons of Italians who had emigrated to Argentina after the

two World Wars78.

More than a hundred years of emigration to Argentina gaverise to a closeness

between Argentina and Friuli that can only be compared to that between Friuli and

France; a closeness between regions of departure and those of arrival which is also

clear in the case of Veneto and Brazil. Of the total of Friulians who emigrated to the

United States, Brazil and Argentina between 1876 and 1965 more than 68% chose the

latter79.

78 Cf. J. Grossutti, I “rientri” in Friuli da Argentina, Brasile, Uruguay e Venezuela (1989-1994), Udine. Ente Regionale per i Problemi dei Migranti — Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia, 1997; Id., L’immigrazione argentina nella provincia di Udine, Udine, Provincia di Udine — Assessorato alle Solidarietà Sociali, 1998.

79 Cf. Mario C. Nascimbene, Italianos hacia América (1876-1978, Buenos Aires, Museo Roca — Centro de Estudios sobre Inrnigracion, 1994, pp. 20-22.