Italian Uruguayans (; or tanos in Rioplatense Spanish) are Uruguayan-born citizens who are fully or partially of Italian descent, whose ancestors were Italians who emigrated to Uruguay during the Italian diaspora, or Italian-born people in Uruguay.
Outside of Italy, Uruguay has one of the highest percentages of people of Italian descent in the world. It is estimated that approximately 44% of the total population of Uruguay—around 1,500,000 people—are of Italian ancestry. Furthermore, as of recent estimates, there are around 90,000 Italian citizens residing in Uruguay. Italian emigrants began to arrive in Uruguay in large numbers in the 1840s and this migratory flow continued until the 1960s.
The population of Italian origin, alongside that of the Spaniards, is often regarded as the foundational pillar of modern Uruguayan society, significantly contributing to the country's economic, social, and cultural development. Italian immigrants played a pivotal role in the growth of Uruguay, particularly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, during a period of rapid industrialization and urbanization. Italian influence can still be seen in various aspects of Uruguayan life, from cuisine and architecture to art and music. Uruguayan culture bears important similarities to Italian culture in terms of language, customs, and traditions.
History
In 1527, Venetian explorer Sebastiano Caboto founded San Lázaro, the first European settlement on the Río de la Plata. The first Italians arrived in the Spanish colony in the 16th century. These were, mainly, Ligurians from the Republic of Genoa, who worked on transoceanic merchant ships. The first inhabitant of Montevideo was the Genoese Giorgio Borghese (who Hispanicized his name to Jorge Burgues), who built a stone house on a ranch where he raised cattle before the city was founded. Sailing in the service of the Spanish crown, the Tuscan sailor Alessandro Malaspina undertook a scientific voyage known as the Malaspina Expedition, which led him to explore the coasts of Montevideo in 1789. On board two corvettes traveled botanists, zoologists, draftsmen, doctors, dissectors, geographers, astronomers and hydrographers, whose objectives were to carry out a cartography of the Río de la Plata and observe astronomical phenomena.
Already in the 19th century relations began between Uruguay and the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, which signed some commercial and navigation treaties. After the revolutions of 1820 and of 1830 in Italy, some revolutionaries fled to America from Piedmont, the Papal States and the regions of Southern Italy. The number of immigrants began to increase starting from 1830, after the obstacles imposed on immigration that were in place during the colonial era were eliminated; this also coincided with the political situation in Argentina, which prevented immigration.
In 1835, 2,000 citizens of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia resided in Montevideo and two years later, over 2,500 Italians were registered. These first immigrants were found on the outskirts of Montevideo and were, for the most part, Piedmontese peasants, who arrived in a Uruguay at that time without industrial development, with extensive farming but little agricultural exploitation. Around the year 1842 it was estimated that the colony consisted of 7,945 Italians, with a prevalence of Lombards, dedicated to agriculture or domestic services, and also counting on the presence of Genoese sailors who dealt with the trade of Italian goods. Around the year 1843, Italians were 25% of the immigrants in Uruguay, behind the French and the Spanish.
Subsequently, a significant number of colonists arrived from Sardinia and during the Uruguayan Civil War several Italians participated in the defense of the region led by Giuseppe Garibaldi. To join the ranks of Garibaldi's Italian Legion, in January 1851, about 100 Italian volunteer ex-military officers and a minority of Ticino and Hungarians embarked from Genoa. In recognition, many tributes were paid to the memory of Giuseppe Garibaldi, including an avenue named after him and monuments in Montevideo and Salto. The migratory trend began to change starting from the Uruguayan Civil War, when the Italians, together with the Spaniards, were the first in terms of number of immigrants.
The main ports of departure were located in Genoa, Savona, Livorno, Palermo and Naples. After the unification of Italy in 1861, starting from 1865 there was an increase in the arrival of Italians, facilitated by the laws established in the years 1853 and 1858 which favored immigration to Uruguay. Some immigrants were the product of migratory movements that had previously occurred in Europe, as in the case of citizens of Italian origin born in Gibraltar, children or grandchildren of Ligurians. It was in the early 1860s that the number of immigrants began to grow, mostly from Liguria, Lombardy and Piedmont, and subsequently the arrival of workers from the south of the peninsula, mainly from Basilicata and Campania. During this period, immigration increased year over year without interruption.
In the second half of the 19th century, Uruguay experienced the highest percentage of demographic growth in South America where the country's population multiplied almost sevenfold between 1850 and 1900, due to immigration, mostly Italian. The Argentine historian Fernando Devoto identified the third quarter of the 19th century as the "golden age of Italian emigration to Uruguay".
In 1887, Italians were between 20% and 30% of the total population of Montevideo. It was during this decade that the boom in Italian immigration to Uruguay took place and the first attempts were made by both countries to encourage the arrival of immigrants. The "Taddei contract" was signed between Italy and Uruguay, which provided for the transfer to the South American country of between 2,000 and 3,000 Italian families, mainly farmers and day laborers of Lombard origin. The arrival of Italians continued to be stimulated through consular announcements. The greatest entry of Italians into Uruguay occurred between 1880 and 1890, when 60% of the total arrived. An 1889 census indicated that half of the population of Montevideo was born in Uruguay and Italians were almost half of the foreign population.
However, around the year 1890 there was an economic crisis in Uruguay which conditioned the entry of immigrants. The country took restrictive measures on immigration, such as the elimination of the Commissioner-General for Immigration, who was in charge of housing, food and work for new arrivals. These conditions have diverted a large part of the migratory flow of Italians towards Argentina. In the period from 1880 to 1916, 153,554 immigrants arrived in the South American country, of whom 66,992 (43.63%) were Italians and 62,466 (40.68%) were Spanish. With the Italian entry into World War I, the migratory flow decreased and some Italians residing in Uruguay also enlisted. On 11 November 1918, Uruguay celebrated the signing of the armistice which marked the end of the war. As the Uruguayan minister to Italy Manuel Bernardez stated after the war, among the countries of America "in none as in Uruguay does the Italian spirit flourish with such pride" and he added that "of the Italian war loans, Uruguay was the South American nation which subscribed the highest percentages per capita". The optimal relations between the two countries in that period increased with the arrival to the presidency in 1922 of José Serrato, the 70-year-old son of an Italian immigrant and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Pedro Manini. In 1923, the "Convention for the Abolition of Visa Passports" was signed. With the rise of fascism in Italy, the number of emigrants at the port of Montevideo was not remarkable; in the 1920s, only 18,830 Italian immigrants arrived in Uruguay. Further, around 1938 a certain number of Italian Jews came to Uruguay, feeling rejected in their mother country by the anti-Semitic racial laws.
Alfredo Baldomir Ferrari — of Italian origin — was president of Uruguay from 1938 to 1943. At the beginning of the World War II, Uruguay — hitherto neutral — broke off diplomatic, commercial and financial relations with Italy and with Axis countries in January 1942, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Italian language acquired considerable importance in Uruguay in those years, in 1942, under the presidency of Baldomir Ferrari, and its study became compulsory in high schools. Due to the excess rural population, the lack of employment and the hardships caused by the war, the migratory flow of Italians to Uruguay resumed. In 1952 an agreement on emigration was signed in Rome for the first time between the two countries with the aim of "increase and regulate it" taking into account the demand for manpower in Uruguay and the manpower available in Italy, mainly to cover needs. Italian workers had the same rights as Uruguayans and the Uruguayan government took care of their accommodation and maintenance up to 15 days after their disembarkation.
Historian Juan Oddone defined the period between 1930 and 1955 as a phase of "late immigration". After the end of World War II, this migration was characterized by the arrival of skilled immigrants, mostly from Sicily and Calabria. Already in the 1960s the migratory flow stopped and Uruguay passed from a host country to a country of emigrants.
Characteristics
Already in 1815, the city of Carmelo had the presence of Italian immigrants, who continued to arrive in large numbers in the decades to come. In 1855, a process of colonization began to develop in the agricultural areas of Carmelo, where Italian and French families founded Colonia Estrella, a community whose population was made up of 80% of Italians. According to a 2018 newspaper article, 60% of Carmelo's population had Italian ancestry. In 1858, the Waldensians from the rural areas of Piedmont founded La Paz and Colonia Valdense, and these communities remained ethnically and culturally homogeneous for decades until the 1960s, when the area began to become urbanised. In mid-1883, the city of Nico Pérez was founded, which counted immigrants from the Italian Peninsula among its first inhabitants. Between the years 1879 and 1891 the company of Francisco Piria La Comercial was born, hence the name of the district, where, on the outskirts of Montevideo, plots of land were divided up and sold, which were mostly occupied by Italian immigrant workers. This area was divided into small neighborhoods bearing Italian names such as Caprera, Vittorio Emanuele II (from the name of the homonymous king of Italy), Nuevo Génova, Garibaldino, Nueva Roma, Nueva Savona, Nuova Napoli, Degli Italiani, Bella Italia, Umberto I (from the name of the homonymous king of Italy) or Italiano. The streets were also named after Italian figures, and busts of members of the House of Savoy or of Giuseppe Garibaldi could be seen in the squares. For example, the Umberto I neighbourhood was built in 1890 between the Unión and Buceo districts by Italian immigrants. Its streets evoked protagonists of the unification of Italy such as Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Giuseppe Mazzini or Massimo d'Azeglio.
In the first half of the 19th century, Giuseppe Garibaldi was a participant in Uruguay's wars for independence, and many Italian patriots in Uruguay were attracted to the ideas of the leader. The political movement which joined many residents of the Rio de la Plata with Italian was called Current Garibaldina. In recognition of Garibaldi are many tributes to his memory such as a "Avenida" (Course) of Montevideo with its name, a monument to his memory in the city of Salto, and el 'Italian Hospital of Buenos Aires.