Today, the
Italian population is approximately 59 million. But how many people around the
world have at least one Italian ancestor? Surprisingly, more than there are
Italians in Italy. According to estimates, there are around 80 million
descendants of Italians worldwide, spread mainly across Argentina, the United
States, Brazil, Uruguay, France, and Australia. In Argentina, a staggering 62%
of the population has at least one Italian ancestor: more than half of the
entire population!
While some
of these people have severed all ties with the motherland, others proudly
maintain the traditions of their home regions, in language, cuisine, and
celebrations. Thus, in the rural town of Hammonton, New Jersey, every July 16th
Italian descendants celebrate Our Lady of Mount Carmel with a huge procession,
or in Cordoba, Argentina, they enjoy Piedmontese bagna cauda on Good Friday.
But when
did Italian communities around the world form? It depends. The first Italians
settled in South America as early as the 16th century. But the great diaspora
that scattered Italians, especially throughout the Americas, occurred between
the end of the 19th century and the 1930s: it was the so-called "Great
Emigration." During the Fascist period, on the other hand, the Italian
government attempted to discourage emigration or direct it toward Italian
colonies in Africa. After World War II, emigration resumed, this time directed
primarily toward European countries (France, Belgium, Germany) and Australia.
Today,
thousands of social media pages unite people with shared Italian roots: people
who, by exchanging memories of distant vacations in Calabria, dialect words,
and grandmothers' recipes, keep alive, generation after generation, the thread
that unites Italy to every continent.
