EMIGRATION from FRIULI VENEZIA GIULIA to ARGENTINA and URUGUAY Javier Grossati, University of Trieste
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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 1876 2. 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 Europe 3. 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 law 4. As in the case of those following, this first group of “Italian” and “Austrian” Friulians were recruited by the Argentine th authorities to populate the agricultural communities of the interior. Between the 18 th and 19 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 1878 7. 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 hard 8. 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 Chaco 10 . 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 Fagagna 11 . 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.