Italy's Unofficial Colonies in South America (Argentino Italiano and Italiano Brasileiro) 

If you look at the Argentinian football team you'll see a lot of italian names such as: Messi, Di Maria, Icardi, Biglia, Mascherano, Pastore, Musacchio, Salvio, Perotti, Lanzini, Rulli, Vietto...

Interesting fact: Buenos Aires telephone directory has more italian surnames than that of Rome.

I am 50% japanese, 25% portuguese and 25% italian = 100% brazilian

5:57 As a Portuguese I've talked with a lot of Brazilian on youtube and they definitely are still very aware of the huge Italian influence in the south/southeastern regions of the country. That's not forgotten at all in Brazil, for real!

Argentina had so many italian migrants that the Argentinian spanish has an italian sound. It really sounds italian when they speak!!

In Argentina it is in no way forgotten how significant the Italian influence is. Everyone knows, and here in Buenos Aires everyone is a little Italian. EVERYONE.

The Pope, for example, is an Italian-Argentine.

My girlfriend from Argentina struggled when here in the US, she faced a dilemma on what "ethnicity box" to choose on the census because ignorant Americans think all Latinos are Amerindians/mestizos. Latino is a cultural heritage, for those who don't know it (you can be a Latino white, black, or even Asian). Also, Americans and other Latin Americans think Argentinians are white Americans when they see them for the first time... until they hear them speak Spanish, and even then some think they are speaking another European language. LOL. Also, when Brazilians (white) come to the US, they face the same awkwardness and are told: "But you are not black" as if everyone in Brazil should be black. And even worse, they think Brazilians speak Spanish. NO! Brazilians speak PORTUGUESE. PLEASE EDUCATE YOURSELF MORE, dear Americans. Argentina is the Italy of the Americas indeed. Most north Italians went there between 1880 and 1950 and they settled in the center and south part of the country. The northern part of the country remained mostly with the Spanish and indigenous mixed people. Because of this, today you can see a distinct racial makeup between the north and the center-south. The food they eat is basically Italian. The popular Argentinian accent is pretty much Spanish with Italian accent. The popular "porteño" dialect has many Italian words. The hand and arm gestures, etc. Most Argentinians can get Italian citizenship if their grandparents were Italian.

Argentinians are always welcome here in Italy. Your home country is here for you to discover. Actually, many Argentinians can take Italian citizenship as our country recognises ius sanguinis as a rule for applying.

I'm from Uruguay and at the moment I'm at the office looking around at my coworkers and half of them have Italians last names. There's 3.3 million people in the country and according the census bureau more than a million have Italian heritage. The influence in our daily life is enormous, even right now.

New Jersey is basically an Italian colony.

I'm argentinian and I live in Italy, it's funny how everyone is like "Oh you are from argentina? I have relatives there" well I guess so... 64% of the Argentinian population has Italian roots.

My country Brazil it's the biggest Italian land out of Italy in the world! A lot Brazilian have blood Italian! 😄 greetings from Brazil

The city of São Paulo alone has almost 6 million Italian descendants. It is the city with the most descendants of Italians in the world. 2x more than Italy's capital, Rome. A century ago, more than 70% of São Paulo's inhabitants spoke Italian instead of Portuguese.

Would be interesting to learn about Germans in South America, particularly Southern Brazil and Argentina

Messi, Macri, Zanetti, Lavezzi, Mascherano, Simeone, Ruggeri, Maradona, Cambiasso, Batistuta.......and so many others italian surnames on Argentinians, they are basically italians in southamerica. Btw my surname is an spanish variation of "Riva" an italian surname despise I'm black colombian, I don't know how that last name came to my family

I'm Argentine. Most of my family is Italian, I would say half of the people here have Italian surnames, which are much more varied than the Spanish ones that are always the same. I would say Italians in Buenos Aires are the dominant ethnicity

Garibaldi, who unified Italy in 1859, spent a decade fighting for local autonomy -- and I mean fighting -- in Uruguay and northern Argentina.

i'm italian and i've always lived in Italy but i hope my italian brothers around the world are fine and having a great life

As italian (totaly european) I just wanna thanks all these south americans countries who helped our familiars and friends to survive, giving them a new home and respecting the italian culture (unlike France in italians formers lands). You must know that everyone in Italy love you for that! 🇮🇹♥️🇦🇷🇧🇷🇺🇾 You are always welcome in our country

My opinion on why Italians decided to settle in Latin America is Italians are culturally similar to Spanish/Portuguese i.e. Iberian culture (due to Roman's conquest and influence on the Iberian land) which made it easy for them to assimilate unlike the Italians who emigrated to North America where they would face discrimination and fights because they were considered "less white" by their Anglo neighbors. Fascinating enough, well not really, due to Italians' easy time settling in Latin America, they managed to preserve much of their Italian culture. Argentina is a great place to experience "Italian culture" on a budget. Meanwhile, in North America, most of the Italian culture is non-existent as Italian-Americans are extremely Americanized and the only thing that is Italian is their last name. I noticed you mention mostly Northern Italians settled in Latin America which is interesting considering the fact that most of the Italians who moved to North America are mostly fro Southern Italy.

Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay Received large immigration from Italians

I got to be part of a work project in Uruguay. My experience there was amazing. I must say that the only Spanish influence I saw was the Rio-Platence Spanish, and everything else was Italian! 90% of my Uruguayan colleagues had Italian last names, the food was very Italian in terms of pastas, sauces, drinks etc. Every so often a few Italian words were thrown in to our conversations in Spanish. A lot of them kept an Italian passport just in case. So, yeah South America has a huge Italian influence.

I found this video by chance on RU-vid. I am an Italian living in the US since 1993 and teaching English as a second language to the many immigrants still arriving into the USA. Next summer I plan a trip to Uruguay to visit an old friend who settled there a few years ago. This video is encouraging as I dream of folowing my friend's steps.

Proud to be italian, we have a great history, our ancestors built the western world how we know it, the roman empire's legacy still lives today. Roma aeterna.

I am from Santos (a port-town near São Paulo) and apparently my heritage is so visible in my face that, when I was in Europe, everyone thought I was from Italy. Now, why my ancestors came to Brazil? Well, they were very poor peasants in Italy and Brazil was seen as a "land of opportunities". The same can be said about my Portuguese and Spanish ancestors - all of them arrived in Brazil with that same immigrantion wave. I also have an African and probably Amerindian ancestry as well by the way, and I'm proud of that.

Proud ItaloBrasilerio by way of my mother 🤗 🇮🇹-🇧🇷+🇨🇺=🇺🇸

Italy is a small country, but the culture is everywhere, I am also a Italian descendent and my family still speaks Italian

I have a suggestion for a video: Ukrainian diaspora. There're several places on Earth that got specific names from a significant Ukrainian presence: Zeleny Klyn, or Green Ukraine (far East of Asia, once even became a state), Grey Klyn (Central Asia), Yellow Klyn (Volga area), Crimson Klyn (Kuban'). Also pretty big diasporas in Canada/US, Argentina/Uruguay where Ukrainians moved due to similar nature (steppe - prairie - pampas) to keep their agricultural traditions.

As an Argentine-Italian myself I'd say Italian culture is much more rooted in Argentina than the Spanish one. Nice video!

Alot of Argentinian footballers have italian heritage. For example Messi, Musacchio, Lavezzi, Icardi etc.

I'm from Mexico and my last name is italian, my grandfather was from Córdoba, Argentina. I wish to go there someday.

South Brazil does not look like Amazonia. Our climate its pretty close to Italy.

Italian Brazilian here! Yes, we're strong in numbers and in culture, most certainly!

Even if my family still live in Italy, my great-greatgrandfather left Italy in 1859 when he was only 13 and arrived in Buenos Aires as a factory worker. In 20 years he built Argentina's biggest Steel mill about (100,000 sqm) and provided a job to more than 5.000 people. In 1906 his steel mill controlled 3/5 of the entire Argentinian steel production. His name was Pietro Vassena, called Pedro Vasena in Argentina.

I'm Italian and from all Hispanics I like Mexicans a lot. We almost share the same 🇮🇹🇲🇽 I don't know how to say in English. Viva Messico saluti d'italia ❤️

I guess Rome never fell. 🇮🇹

Your channel has become a favorite of mine and quick

I'm 50% Spaniard, 25% French Basque, 25% Dutch = 100% Argentine!

Your video represents my family and history. Came to Argentina in 1900. The second language spoken in Argentina is indeed Italian!

Being Argentine is to go to other countries and being repeatedly mistaken for an Italian

I'm from Bolivia and my grandfather was Italian he was from Lombardia he came here because he was an engineer to install the light plant he fell in love with my grandmother a very humble woman from the country a granddaughter of españolbolivian grandfathers she had green eyes and he had turquoise eyes like my dad my grandfather died here after having just one child

I am a first generation Italian woman and came upon this video by accident. Both my parents of course spoke Italian at home. I studied Spanish in High School and college, and of course found Castilian Spanish very easy to learn because of my knowledge of Italian. I found your video very informative. My maternal grand father and my father decided to come to the United States because of the poverty in Italy and lack of work. Thus I was born in Manhattan. I am going to look up films made in Argentina so I can hear them speak. Thank you again for making this video.

4 great grandfathers: Two from Spain, One from Wales, another one from Italy. 4 great grandmothers: 2 from wales, one from Germany and another one from Italy= Argentina.

By the way, yes we Italians have the habit, good or bad as you prefer, to trying adapt and integrate ourselves in the local community and learn habits, languages etc. It's really extremely rare to find out Italians that won't try to adapt and instead wants to stick to their own culture. One of our biggest philosophers once said that the Italian immigrants in Germany wouldn't be called "Italians" after a couple of generations, but "Germans". We are too comprehensive with the locals. Accepting to change ourselves for the sake of good cohexistance... You will not find people like us anywhere in the world.

Hey Masaman, great video! I'm Brazilian with Italian Portuguese and French ancestors, but I grew up in city where for the most parts Italians migrated to, it's called Criciuma, in the souther part of the Santa Catarina state. In my state particularly there was a huge amount of Italian and German immigration but also small quantities of Polish and Arabs, and in the recent year an influx of immigrants from Cameroon, Angola and other African countries who make partnerships with the government to exchange college students or people running away from poverty, subhuman conditions, etc. Take a look at Nova Veneza, a small town near my hometown where they even have a gondola sent from Italy at the town square. There's also "Gemellaggios" with cities here in Brazil. Political agreements to exchange culture, economical knowledge, strategies and incentives. It's the name given for an agreement between "brother/sister towns" from different countries.

I am 29% Italian, 21% Portuguese, 19% British, 2% Irish, 2% German, 2% European Jew, 2% Polish, 3% Berber North African, 1% Middle Eastern, 5% Native American, 14% South Saharian Black African, or 81% caucasian, 5% indian and 14% black. I consider myself as non caucasiano, non indian, nor black, but as multiracial. After the DNA test, I was very surprised by the high amount of Italian blood in my veins, but I alread knew that I had some. Even more surprising to me was to find British, German, Polish and Irish into my ancestors. I also expected to have at least the double of Portuguese heritage. I already knew that I had Indian and Black Africans ancestors. North Africans falls in the mediterranean branch of the caucasians peoples. I expected that too, because of the medieval arab/berber invasions in the Iberian Península. The same for the middle eastern arabs. But for me, 29% Italian was a big surprise. I am Brasília, I speak Portuguese and my culture is also mostly Portuguese and Western. Born in Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL.

do a video about the Portuguese diaspora !!

Its always fun to see foreigners coming to Argentina knowing basic Spanish and struggle trying to understand Lunfardo hahaha

Brazil has the largest population of Japanese and Italians outside their own country.

Milllions of Italians came to Brazil, and their cultural influence is very clear in the country's major cities. Emílio de Medici was a Brazilian-Italian former President in the '70s

Italians in brazil rarely marrige with black people, 1 reson is that in São Paulo, Parana, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul, doesent has that much black people like other parts of the country, we create the called Sociedade Italiana de Mutuo Socorro, to help each other, because the portuguese used us like slaves

This is cool. Could you do a video about the welsh community in Argentina?

No mention of the Italian-Argentinian Pope?!? Masaman, you missed a talking point!

This was very interesting. Thanks.

I'm Puerto Rican and I have 25% Italian DNA, Italians settled in Caribbean Latin countries as well

thanks for talking about the subject. even in italy people don't know about italian-brazilians and sometimes i feel that all this una faccia una razza thing doesn't apply to us in the new world.

Dude it is incredible how you got this much accurate information from outside. Thanks and grats for the great work! - by Brazilian guy with Italian surname

Argentinians = Italians who speak spanish

8:50 huehuehue éspyritu santoh. Awesome pronunciation. Seriously, love your videos :)

Argentines are indeed very Italian! They speak Spanish but with a Italian accent and do a lot of hand movements when they speak just like Italians! And not to mention 60% of their population has Italian ancestry just look at their last names 🇦🇷🇮🇹❤️

Good video again. Just love these videos . Great insights and always something to learn, brought without any bias or politics. Some of the best content on youtube and internet.

In São Paulo, everyone you find has either a portuguese or an Italian surname

Hi, I'm from Cordoba (Argentina), my grandfathers were both spanish, my grandmothers were both italians.

My grandfathers from both sides fight in WW2 for Italy, they came with my grandmothers from Italy after the war. They made his life here but they never forget his home. So, for that reason, they taught me and my fathers, the lenguage, the culture and everthing asociated with Italy since i was a child. For that reason, i feel more Italian than Argentine.

I live in Rio Grande do Sul, the extreme south of Brasil. I'm descendent of italians, my whole family speaks most things in italian and some other things in portuguese. And not just me, but my neighboors are like that too. lItalian immigration in South America is not "forgotten"

As a Brazilian from São Paulo of Italian descent, I identify a lot with this video. My family actually originally came from Treviso, just outside of Venice! My family is also very related to the Zanetti. My great-grandparents were Italian.

A ton of great info in this video, thank you! I'm an Italian American who was recently contacted by a 4th cousin who connected with me on one of the DNA testing sites. His Italian grandparents left Italy after WWII and went to Argentina. Then the family moved to Mexico, then Texas. Now I'm wondering how many other cousins I have in Argentina and throughout South America. Interesting to think about the ways it was much easier it was for the South American Italian immigrants to integrate than it was for people like my great-grandparents in the US.

They say Argentina is South America's Italy. Beautiful culture, super thicccc women, wonderful food, sexy language, and outstanding fútbol talent.

Great video. I knew about the Italian influence in the region, but did not know how extensive it was. Well done !

Good video as usual. I believe Italians were able to be aculturated in South American countries because there was not a language barrier like their was with Italian or otther immigrants in the USA like Poles, Germans, Greeks ot even Western Jews from France. The Italian language was so similar to the dominant society of Spanish or Portuguese (Brazil) speakers they could almost be understood in their native language by foreign speakers of the Americas. It is far easy to fit into a society if speak a language which is familiar especially when you consider portions of the Italian homeland was occupied by the Spaniard and French Empires. Moreover the religion help as well since there was not much in terms of how each culture see the world with both being heavy Catholic influenced. Thanks again for the amazing video and all the work you.

In Brazil we didn't have Italian neighborhoods, because we have Italian cities. In Rio Grande do Sul, cities such as Garibaldi, Caxias do Sul (the 2nd biggest of the state), Carlos Barbosa and Bento Gonçalves were basically built by Italian colonists from the scratch. Though they are richer (when it comes to GDP), the aren't half as turistic and recognizable as the German cities (like Ivoti, Morro Reuter, Nova Petrópolis, Neu Hamburg and especially the twin cities Gramado and Canela, huge turistic centers in winter due to the fact that it's one of the only places in Brazil where snow can be seen).

Manu Ginobili is a famous NBA player from Argentina of Italian descent.

I am 96% Vietnamese, 6% French, 6% Hokkien, 2% Champa = 100% The World Nation 🌎

Is very interesting to notice that wile the U.S has a vast majority of southern Italian immigration. The vast majority of Italians in Brasil are originally from the North. Lombardian and Piedmontese are spoken nowadays in Brasil and Argentina. Venetian called Talian or Veneto Basilian(brasileiro) is official in the state of Santa Caterina in Brasil. I meet a huge number of Italo Brasilian and Italo Argentine and almost everybody had roots in Lombardy Veneto Piedmont or Emila. One can even notice how different southerners are different from northerners Italian by looking at the kind of culture input they gave to Brasil and Argentina.

as an Argentine from Buenos Aires...this was spot on and excellent !

Brazil is beautiful country.

This is factually very accurate. Well documented and great job overall!!

We all are mixed from way back.I was born in Uruguay,my last name Moreno,a very Spanish name,not too common in Uruguay.But,there is a group of Morenos from the town of San Carlos that originated from seven brothers that came from Mallare in Liguria,Italy. Originally from Spain,from the time Spain had colonies in Italy.So the Morenos after many generations there moved to Uruguay around 1850,just before Italian unification,married there mostly Portuguese Azorians.I am mostly Azorian,Galician,Spanish,and my paternal great granfather Moreno from Italy. All of that has been going on for thousands of years. Ci veddiamo tutti.Hugo

Cool video, I myself am Brazilian descendant of Italians and Portuguese.

It's very interesting. I'm brazilian and I have Italian and Portuguese blood.

Yes, happy to contribute and thank you to our host for this delightful presentation. I’m older and have been going to South America for decades. In Buenos Aires, it wouldn’t surprise us if they started speaking Italian. Now, that is changing with migration of their neighbors.

Italia - Argentina - Brasil 🇮🇹 🇦🇷 🇧🇷 Friends ❤❤❤

The president of Brazil now is an Italian-Brazilian: Bolsonaro.

Here in Miami, we have a Argentine/Italian restaurant on Miami Beach, Prima Pasta, pretty good food too.

Thank you. I enjoyed this insight into South America.

As Brazilian man born in São Paulo and who's 3/4 Italian (and 1/4 mixed), I can totally appreciate everything said in the video. The Italian influence is so huge in Brazil that even those who have no Italian blood can barely tell if something is an Italian tradition or a Brazilian one. Take language for example. Portuguese, like English, mostly constructs the plural form of its words by adding the letter "s" to it whereas Italian doesn't. Now, you can go about the entire state of São Paulo and you will not be surprised to hear people saying stuff like "os cara" or "as coisa", where the "S" should be there to indicate plural, but isn't. And they don't even realize they're doing it. Really fascinating.

I always wondered why many people from South America had Italian sounding last names, now I know.

I’m from São Paulo and my father’s parents are from the North of Italy...my grandma used to speak Italian with us...

My father, who settled in Brazil was in Argentina visiting his uncle when the ship he was traveling on stopped in Brazil and he met his wife. He came back to Brazil from Italy and stayed.

Excellent video! Italians integrated very well in Latin America, not only because of social similarities, but because we are so culturally similar. Italians and Latin Americans are noisy, passionate, expressive and also kind of crazy.

My grandfather turned 18 at the end of World War II, he wanted to join the navy, but he could not because his parents were Italians (Brazil was on the side of the Allies).

Italy+Brazil+Argentina+Uruguay=13 FIFA world cups!!!

I'm Paraguayan and I'm a quarter Italian. I feel really proud of my Italian heritage. Greats from the Guarani land! Keep it up!

Proud to be Italian-Argentine: TWO NATIONS, ONE HEART

The argentinian slang "lunfardo" uses a lot of italian words. For example: birra, gamba, guarda, etc.

just look at the argentinien soccer team....

my great grand parent was from piamonte, italia. greetings from argentina. great video.

Excellent as usual. But you missed the impact and connection with Italian unification. Most famously represented by Giuseppe Garibaldi; an Italian who migrated to South America. Became involved in political conflicts in Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. Where he learn't and adopted gaucho culture. Then went back to Italy and became a leader in the unification of Italy. Thus Italians were part of the early political conflicts in South America and this then became a part of the process of Italian unification.

Hey, Brazil is a lot more "italian" than you think. In Argentina they had way more control over immigration than here in Brazil because there in Argentina, everything was concentrated in Buenos Aires, whereas here the data we have is mainly from the ports of Santos and Rio, but they came into many other ports from various parts of the country as well. Brazil's got DECADES of missing records! It is on record that the first people from VENICE migrated to RECIFE in the northeast of Brazil in 1536 when it was barely a village and waaaaaay before slavery was ever here. It is important to point out that the data we have is mainly from 1890-1930 when something close to 2 million italians came here ( in 1890 Brazil had between 13-14 million inhabitants at least half of them immigrants already and then we've received 1 million Portuguese, 1 million Italians, 1 million Spaniards, greeks, armenians, Lebanese, Japanese, Polish, Austrian, German, Russian, Ukranian, French, Swedish, Finnish, Syrian, Turkish immigrants in large numbers between 1890 and 1910), but ( and I bet you don´t know this) our Emperor Dom Peter the 1st married an Austrian-Hungarian Princess, Leopoldina. At the time northern Italy was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire so a lot of people today known as Italian started migrating from the 1820's to 1890 so the big immigration waves started during the rules of Peter the 1st and Peter the Second who was half Austrian. Peter the SECOND is very interesting for he was one of the BIGGEST sponsors of Graham Bell and Thomas Edison, which is why Rio got public electricity simultaneously with NYC and was the 3rd city in the world to get a telephone! Dom Peter the II, who ruled for almost 50 yrs, opened the borders of Brazil to immigration, but our immigrant records have virtually no data from that era. Leopoldina, Peter the 2nd's mum, gave incentives to a lot of citizens from her empire in Europe to move here. That's why most Italians in Brazil are actually from the north! Also Italians aren´t only present in the south! Most of them are in the SOUTHEAST actually and from there have moved ALL OVER BRAZIL! We still do have immigration from Italy to Brazil today, but not to the south nor southeast, but mostly to the northeast of BRAZIL! Yes that's right! Like where my mum is going to retire, the town of Porto Seguro and many other resort towns along the coast of the northeast of Brazil. Tons of italians move there to open Inns, Ice cream shops (gelato), pizza places, bars, restaurants so on and so forth. Let's not forget the people of SPANISH and PORTUGUESE heritage. Me for example, my family came from Portugal on both sides, but I did my ancestry DNA and I got 15% italian and we are PORTUGUESE ancestry wise. A friend of mine from the northeast did his and he got 33% Italian and he is sure no one in his recent family has come from there. Being Latin we all have Italian blood from the ROMAN TIMES or from when the King of Spain and Portugal was also the king of the 2 sicilies. WHo Knows! I Know that my DNA test also says I'm 52% IBERIAN, when the Portuguese average from 15-23% today. So although my family has been in Brazil from 4 to 8 generations depending on the side, I am TWICE as "native" Portuguese as the Portuguese today are! LOLOL Brazil is a true melting pot we got immigration here even from places like Latvia, Lithuania, Malta we got a Maori community! This is a true melting pot! LOLOL