Imigração italiana: o desafio gastronômico e cultural nas famílias ítalo-brasileiras

Abstract

There were many population immigrations that helped construct Brazil as a deeply mixed and diverse country by their huge influence in the history, culture and gastronomy of the country. One of the groups that immigrated to brazilian soil where the Italians. That movement of immigration became known in the XIX century as The Great Italian Immigration, and it happened due to the precarious living situation of Italians in their country combined with the promises and incentives given by the brazilian government to attract immigrants. Considering that Brazil is a country with great extension of territory in a continental level, its government had the objective of occupying the frontiers of the country and have the immigrants work for the agricultural business. In this context, the Italians immigrants, who had lost their homeland, found a way to persevere in a new world by having their ideals such as their faith as a foundation to their survival. It is evident that the Italians and their descendants found a way to suppress difficulties such as the unknown, hunger and abandonment to have prosperity in fertile lands by working hard and being compensated with robust crops. That intimate contact with the soil, production and food where decisive points for a change in the cultural history of Brazil, a country that became one of the greatest food exporters and acquired a variety of intercontinental gastronomy by the exchange of costumes between Brazil and Italy. This research had the objective of analyze the Great Italian Immigration and its development in the brazilian territory and study the gastronomy and nutrition dynamics lived by the italian descendants established in Brazil. For the realization of this research, the methodology utilized was the bibliography and field research. The bibliography research prioritized the literature focused on the historical analyses of the XIX century, the immigration and first challenges about the migration inside the new country and the agricultural aspect, in particular, the subsistence agriculture focused on gastronomy and food. After the bibliographic contribution, it was made field research in the state of Santa Catarina in which it was applied a questionary in person to understand the experiences of Italian-Brazilians and their gastronomy, habits, costumes and ways of nutrition.