Crossed paths: The experience of the Italian immigrants in southern Brazil

Abstract

The proposal of this study is to analyze the relationships built from the emigration of employees of an Italian wool industry in the last decade of the 19th century, and the construction of a woolen mill in a town in Colônia Caxias in Rio Grande do Sul. The history of a group of emigrants, who leave northern Italy, particularly the Province of Vicenza, is triggered by a series of sociopolitical crosses, which are intertwined around historical events. The history of the Italian woolen mill Lanerossi, located in Schio, in the Province of Vicenza, and the installation of the São Pedro woolen mill in southern Brazil are common ground in this study, which identifies, by means of migratory processes, relationships established and built around the imaginary that was de point of departure. This study is descriptive, and it brings data about those emigrants who made a common history between these two countries. It includes issues involving the process of modernization of the wool industry in Italy as well as the position that employees had in their country’s economy, their political unification, and their working conditions. The authors that supported this study are Giovanni Fontana (1985, 1986, 1995), Giorgio Roverato (1985), Sandra Pesavento (1985), Emilio Franzina (2001), and Nardello (2008). The study made use of documental sources that helped to rebuild the paths of these emigrants as letters, mail, minutes, reports, regulations.

Keywords: historical migrations, Italian immigration, workers’ village.