Italian immigration has influenced Uruguayan culture, mainly in language, gastronomy, architecture, religion and music. Anthropologist
Renzo Pi Hugarte stated that the Italian presence in Uruguay "has left deep marks in its popular culture, to the point that the elements that have come to distinguish it are generally perceived as originating in these places and not as adaptations of Italic models". It was with the
unification of Italy in 1861 that the use of a common language, the
Italian language, began to spread throughout the Uruguayan territory. The integration of these immigrants into Uruguayan social life was facilitated by their linguistic proximity to the Spanish language. The preservation of Italian as a mother tongue, over time, has depended on various factors such as age, family composition, cultural level, type of work performed, ties with the mother country or traditions. Studies carried out by the
University of the Republic of Uruguay indicated that Italian immigrants used their mother tongue, but their spoken language was influenced by Spanish, while the next generation — born in Uruguay — learned Italian at home, but this did not interfere with the use of Spanish and finally the third generation no longer spoke the Italian or the dialect of their ancestors but only spoke Spanish. These investigations also suggested that the Italian language was lost faster in Uruguay than in other places, such as
New York City, as Italians in Uruguay were more easily assimilated. , a dialect that has many Italianisms The
Waldensian immigration to the
Colonia Department brought with them
patois, which, although it had been replaced by Spanish over the generations, was to be preserved as an "ethnic language". Accompanying the migratory flow that came from Italy, priests also arrived; While some of them used Italian to preach, others have also offered their services in Spanish over time.
Latin was used by Salesian priests around 1880, a practice which was abandoned due to its dissonance with the local language. The Italian emigrants who landed during World War II tended to have a higher level of education than in the first wave of migration and in comparison spoke a more formal Italian, being able to differentiate it from Spanish and avoiding linguistic mixtures. Besides speaking their regional dialects, they had some knowledge of standard Italian. This is the case with the Waldenses, who spoke patois, French and, to a lesser extent, Italian. This was related to the situation in Italy, where standard Italian was establishing itself as the common language of all social classes and the use of dialects was gradually being lost. Although the diffusion of standard Italian was increasing, its use was not yet fully established and an informal and colloquial version of it, popular Italian, had not yet developed, so immigrants created their own variety of popular Italian outside the Italian language of origin, when they were forced to actually use that language in informal oral interactions with Italians of other regional origins. From the linguistic mixing between the
Italian dialects and Spanish,
cocoliche was born, a slang spoken in the tenements of the Italian immigrants of the
Río de la Plata in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Author Carol A. Klee has indicated that "cocoliche was spoken only by native Italian speakers who were in the process of acquiring Spanish and were not passing it on to their children." Similarly, the writers
José Gobello and Marcelo Oliveri stated that "the first effort to make oneself understood led to cocolic, a transitional language. Immigrants spoke it. The second effort to learn Spanish, that of the children of immigrants, led to lunfardo". Over the years the use of some Lunfardo terms spread to the higher social classes who previously rejected the slang. The origin of the word "lunfardo" is not certain, but it is hypothesized that it may derive from "
Lombard". Italian immigration greatly influenced the
Spanish of the Rio de la Plata, so much so that it became the variant of Spanish with the most Italianisms. Words of Italian root such as "chau", "guarda", "atenti", "minga", "facha" or "gamba" became part of the Rio Plateans vocabulary; also diminutive or pejorative
suffixes were added.
Architecture in
Montevideo, an example of
Italianate architecture in Uruguay Along with the demographic expansion that Uruguay was experiencing, the construction industry flourished between the 1880s and 1920s in the
Río de la Plata area, influenced by Italian and French architecture. The work of Italian builders and architects in that period was to determine the characteristic architectural style of Uruguay, which responded to currents such as
eclecticism and
historicism, with characteristics of the
Italian Renaissance to which then, at the beginning of the 20th, some Italian
modernist architectural motifs were added. It was not just a question of transplanted Italian models, but from them the techniques were adapted to the new territory. At that time Italian immigration was vital to the architectural development of the city, and it was also the largest foreign community in the construction sector; for every Spanish worker there were four Italian workers. Most of the builders who built the projects were Italian immigrants. They also made up the bulk of the highly skilled workforce. They were even more numerous in handicraft jobs and related to the artistic or decorative side of architecture, such as mosaicist, tiler, woodworker, marble, portland plasterer, glass engraver, marble worker, designer or painter. Due to the Italian intervention, there was talk in the region of "
Italian houses" to refer to certain buildings of the time.
Cuisine ,
Uruguay Uruguayan eating habits are heavily influenced by
Italian cuisine, which has adapted to its new environment and merged with other culinary uses found in the country. Italian immigrants introduced some foods to Uruguay that began to be consumed frequently by the Uruguayan population, such as
pasta,
polenta,
cotoletta,
farinata and
pizza. The types of pasta most consumed in Uruguay are
tagliolini,
ravioli,
spaghetti,
vermicelli,
cappelletti and
tortellini. The Italian presence in Uruguay has generated the development of traditions unknown in Italy, such as the consumption of pasta on Sundays or the
gnocchi on the 29th of each month. The
noquis del 29 ("gnocchi of 29") defines the widespread custom in some South American countries of eating a plate of
gnocchi, a type of Italian
pasta, on the 29th of each month. The custom is widespread especially in the states of the
Southern Cone such as Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay; these countries being recipients of a considerable Italian immigration between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. There is a ritual that accompanies lunch with gnocchi, namely putting money under the plate which symbolizes the desire for new gifts. It is also customary to leave a banknote or coin under the plate to attract luck and prosperity to the dinner. The tradition of serving gnocchi on the 29th of each month stems from a legend based on the story of
Saint Pantaleon, a young doctor from
Nicomedia who, after converting to Christianity, made a pilgrimage through northern Italy. There, Pantaleon practiced miraculous cures for which he was canonized. According to legend, on one occasion when he asked Venetian peasants for bread, they invited him to share their poor table. In gratitude, Pantaleon announced a year of excellent fishing and excellent harvests. That episode occurred on 29 July, and for this reason that day is remembered with a simple meal represented by gnocchi. While in Italy most of the dry pasta is consumed, in Uruguay the consumption is divided between dry and fresh pasta. Thus the "pasta factories" proliferated in the countryside of the
Rio de la Plata, places for the preparation and sale of fresh pasta. One of the traditional pasta factories in the town was
La Spezia, active from 1938 to 2017, founded by the Bonfiglio brothers, originally from
Manarola (
province of La Spezia,
Liguria, Italy). sandwich In the 19th century, immigrants from
Liguria and
Campania respectively introduced
farinata and
pizza to Uruguay. At the end of that century, the Italians began to devote themselves to itinerant sales and opened the first pizzerias with a wood-burning oven. Uruguayan variants emerged from the
Neapolitan pizza, such as the "pizza al tacho", made with various cheeses and without tomatoes, made by the Italian pizza maker Angelo Nari at the Bar Tasende in Montevideo in 1931. In 1915, the Guidos, two Piedmontese brothers, founded the first mill for the production of the flour for the farinata. The farinata — originally from Liguria and also known in
Piedmont and
Tuscany — was more widespread and rooted in Uruguay than in Italy. The chivito was born in 1946 in a restaurant in
Punta del Este called
El Mejillón when an Argentine woman asked for a plate of goat meat and, given the lack of this type of meat, the owner and chef of the restaurant Antonio Carbonaro - of
Calabrian parents from
Siderno - made a sandwich with fillet meat, ham and spread with butter. Later other ingredients such as lettuce, tomato and eggs would be added. Since then the dish began to gain more and more popularity. During
World War I, Genoese fishermen introduced
ciuppin, a fish and shellfish soup that was eaten on boats, into Uruguay. Fishermen also brought the recipe to other parts of the world such as
California, where it adopted the
cioppino name and became part of
Italian-American cuisine. In Montevideo it was one of the most popular dishes in the early 20th century and, as in the United States, it was also adapted to local customs, in this case by including
corvina and
marine catfish. Other Italian foods that became part of Uruguayan cuisine are Lombard
busecca,
torte fritta,
polpette, and Ligurian
torta pasqualina. Sweet foods such as
pastafrola,
panettone and massini, a dessert originally from Italy but which has become popular in Uruguay, also arrived in Uruguay. At the beginning of the 1900s, the marketing of
gelato also began; one of the first gelato shops was the Heladería Napolitana, located in front of the
Plaza Independencia in
Montevideo. In 1938, the Salvino Soleri family arrived in Montevideo and opened Los Trovadores, an artisanal gelato shop that stood out for its gelato with flavors such as
zabaione and melon. Subsequently, the Barcella family of
Trescore Balneario in
Lombardy settled in
Punta del Este and in 1998 opened the Arlecchino gelato shop. The Arlecchino gelato shop has been well received by both the local public and tourists, maintaining an elaboration based on the origins of gelato in Italy — importing some products such as almonds or pistachios — and at the same time adapting to the customs of the Uruguayan public, including flavors such as the
dulce de leche. grapes Italian immigration also boosted the production of wine in the country, when small family businesses dedicated to viticulture were established starting in the 20th century. In 1871 the Italian Federico Carrara was successfully producing wine from the Piedmontese
Barbera and
Nebbiolo vines. Buonaventura Caviglia arrived in Montevideo from
Castel Vittorio (Liguria) in 1868 at the age of 21, an important entrepreneur and businessman who during the 1890s began to found various agro-industries to devote to the production of wine in the municipality of
Mercedes from where it expanded and became the largest producer in the area. An 1888 survey found that most winegrowers were Italians or sons of Italians. In Uruguay, between 1960 and 1970, wines were produced from Nebbiolo and
Sangiovese grapes, widespread in the center of the Italian peninsula. Another typical Italian drink introduced in the country was
grappa, and from its mixture with honey
grappamiel was born in Uruguay.
Sport players posing for photographers before
2013 Copa Libertadores preliminary game against
Vélez Sarsfield The name of one of the two most important football teams in Uruguay, the
Peñarol (the other is the
Club Nacional de Football), comes from the deformation of
Pinerolo, the town of origin of Giovanni Battista Crosa,
Spanishized as Juan Bautista Crosa, a Piedmontese immigrant. Crosa arrived in Uruguay in 1765 where he set up a farm and later, on the same plot, he opened a grocery store called "El Penareul". Due to the customs of the time it was common for the immigrants' country of origin to appear in the registry documents, thus Crosa began to appear as Crosa Pinerolo, later Spanishized as Crosa Peñarol. The area in which he had settled was renamed
Villa Peñarol; Crosa died in 1790. There is also another less important club that represented the Italian community, the Club Sportivo Italiano, which managed to play in the
Uruguayan Segunda División.
Miguel Andreolo, originally from
Salerno, also represented the
Italy national football team and was world champion at the
1938 FIFA World Cup, also being included in the
All-Star Team for the competition. Andreolo's was the only case of a football player born in Uruguay and world champion with a national team other than that of Uruguay. ==Institutions==