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Mar 26,2006 - Apr 2,2006 |
13 - The Arrival of a Future Ruling Class
Caracas daily La Voce D'Italia fights for rights of Italian Immigrants in Venezuela
By Antonio Maglio
Originally Published: 2002-10-20
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Founder and editor of La Voce D\'Italia Gaetano Bafile
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The defeat of Adua (1896), where the Abyssinians destroyed the army of General Oreste Baratieri, governor of Eritrea, and thus won the first Italian-Ethiopian War, burned in the hearts of many for a long time. The colonial policy of Francesco Crispi, which had been approved by King Hubert I, was indicted along with the errors of Baratieri, who had stubbornly insisted in pursuing vengeance for the previous year's massacre at Amba Alagi, not foreseeing that the troops led by Ras Mangascià would join with those of Negus Menelik at Adowa.
The century closed amidst furious controversies in the press and in Parliament, while the street rallies followed one another and strikes rocked the country. Adowa had put an end to the African dream of thousands of unemployed people who hoped to find in East Africa the job they couldn't get at home. However, they did not give up: they crowded the piers of Naples and Genoa and left. They were mostly bound for the United States, Brazil and Argentina, but some of them stopped in Venezuela.
Oil had not yet been discovered, and the country had an economy based on agriculture. Most of the bold emigrants from Italy were peasants, so set easily to plant orchards, cultivate cocoa and coffee, and raise cattle. They were pioneers, not only because they introduced new agricultural techniques, but also because they were the vanguard of the Italian immigration to Venezuela.
Not that there were many of them. The figures would grow larger and larger after World War II, when Venezuela became a frequent choice for those who looked for a job overseas. They came mostly from Abruzzi, but there were also Sicilians, Apulians, Campanians, Lucanians, and Friulians, exhausted after a bloody military and civil war. They sailed from Genoa and Naples in increasing numbers, and became a crowd. Most were adults, but many were children, such as Giuseppe Giannetto, today the rector of the Central University of Venezuela; or Egidio Romano, who currently manages the Venezuelan Research Institute, the country's most important scientific organization; or Bruno Teodori, nowadays the principal of the prestigious Italian school Agustin Cudazzi in Caracas; or Antonio Costante, who is now one of the most successful theatre directors of Venezuela. Those ships carried the future ruling class of the country.
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