Italian Venezuelans


Italian Venezuelans are Venezuelan citizens of Italian descent. The word may refer to someone born in Venezuela of Italian descent or to someone who has emigrated to Venezuela from Italy. Among European Venezuelans, Italians are one of the largest groups of immigrants to settle in the country.

History

Before the discovery of huge deposits of oil in Venezuela, during the first half of the 20th century, the emigration of Italians to Venezuela was limited. A number of Italians moved to Venezuela from Italy during the colonial times and the Simón Bolívar era. In the second half of the XIX century there was a small number of Italians and their descendants, who were able to reach important levels inside the Venezuelan society, like Luis Razetti.
In the 1940s and 1950s the Venezuelan President Marcos Pérez Jiménez promoted European immigration to his depopulated country, and more than 300,000 Italians emigrated to Venezuela.
The Italians in the 1961 Venezuelan census were the biggest European community in Venezuela.
In 1966 -according to the Italian Embassy in Caracas- of the 170000 Italians present in the country, 90% lived in the main cities: about 96000 in Caracas, 14000 in Maracaibo, 8000 in Maracay, 6000 in Valencia and 5000 in La Guayra. Most of these Italians were born in Sicily, Campania and Puglia; only 15% were born in northern Italy. They initially worked in construction, in the service sector, in commercial agencies and in different businesses, in manifacturing activities and a few also in the oil industry.
In 1976 the "Dirección de Estadísticas" of Venezuela registered 210,350 Italians residents and 25,858 Italians "naturalised". In 2001, 126,553 Italians were living in Venezuela.
Marisa Vannini calculated that in the 1980s Italian-Venezuelans made up almost 400,000 of Venezuela's population, including second-generation descendants of immigrants. The Italian language in Venezuela is influencing Venezuelan Spanish with some modisms and loanwords and is experiencing a notable revival between the Italian-Venezuelans of second and third generation.
Santander Laya-Garrido estimated that the Venezuelans with at least one grandparent from Italy can be nearly one million at the beginning of the 21st century.
Currently, Italian citizens resident in Venezuela are reduced to less than 50,000 due mainly to demographic mortality and to their return to Italy. The Ambassador of Italy in Venezuela, estimated that 5-6% of the current Venezuelan population is of Italian origin.

Professions

Initially, agriculture was one of the main activities of the Italian community in Venezuela. In the 1950s, entire Italian families were moved from Italy to special agricultural areas, like the "Colonia Turén" of the Portuguesa region.
However, most Italians concentrated in commercial, building and services activities during the second half of the 20th century. In those sectors, Italians reached top positions in the Venezuelan economy.
The community's main Italian newspapers are Il Corriere di Caracas and La Voce d'Italia , both published in the Capital, and the main Italian school is the Agustin Codazzi of Caracas. Since 2002, the Italian government has become the promoter for a provision which makes it mandatory to teach the Italian language as a second language in a consistent number of public and private schools within Venezuela.
Most of the Italian community in Caracas but even in the rest of Venezuela followed Deportivo Italia football club, as its own representative team.
Indeed, the Italian-Venezuelans have obtained significant results in the contemporary society of Venezuela. The Italian Embassy calculates that 1/4 of the Venezuelan industries, not related to the oil sector, are directly or indirectly owned and/or managed by Italian-Venezuelans.
In the Italian community, actually one of the most important in Venezuela, there are Presidents of Venezuela, entrepreneurs, managers, sportsmen, artists, beauty pageants, and many others personalities.
One winner of the title Miss Venezuela was born in Italy: María Antonieta Cámpoli in 1972.

Main Italo-Venezuelan Institutions and Associations

The Colegio Agustín Codazzi in Caracas is an overseas Italian school recognized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy.

There are also multiple Italo-Venezuelan schools in the country:

Caracas:
Eastern Venezuela:

Western Venezuela:
The Italians who migrated to Venezuela came mainly from the regions of South Italy, like Abruzzo, Campania, Sicily, and Apulia, but there were also migrants from the north, such as from Emilia-Romagna and Veneto.
The Italian Consulate in Caracas stated that in 1977 - of 210,350 Italians residents in Venezuela - 39,855 were from Sicily, 35,802 from Campania, 20,808 from Abruzzi, 18,520 from Apulia, 8,953 from Veneto, 7,650 from Emilia-Romagna and 6,184 from Friuli – Venezia Giulia.
The Italians are concentrated mainly in the north-central region of Venezuela around Caracas. The Consulate stated that in the same 1977 there were 98,106 Italians in the Distrito Federal of Caracas, 39,508 in Miranda State, 14,203 in Maracaibo, 12.801 in Aragua State and 8,104 in Carabobo State, as well as 66 in the Amazonas equatorial region.
In the 2000s, it was determined that nearly 90% of the Italo-Venezuelans were concentrated in the northern coastal section of Venezuela facing the Caribbean sea. Approximately 2/3 of them are residents of the metropolitan areas of the three main Venezuelan cities: Caracas, Maracaibo and Valencia.
There is also a considerable number of Italian residents that live in the city of San Cristóbal and in the Andes region.

Demographics

Population

States with the highest proportions of Italian-born population tend to be those of the North-central coastal area, the Andean Region and the Insular Region.
At the 2011 census, this was the breakdown of Italian-born population by state, showing that the capital area was the one with the biggest concentration of native Italians.
StateItalian-born PopulationPercentage
Amazonas190.013
Anzoátegui1,1160.0798
Apure630.0137
Aragua2,4920.1537
Barinas3510.0434
Bolívar8850.0631
Capital District5,7920.3003
Carabobo3,0110.1349
Cojedes930.0216
Delta Amacuro180.01
Falcón3550.0373
Federal Dependencies200.9438
Guárico5820.0785
Lara1,4490.082
Mérida5580.678
Miranda8,2630.3122
Monagas4940.0566
Nueva Esparta9150.1886
Portuguesa8510.0986
Sucre2960.038
Tachira3380.0291
Trujillo3490.051
Vargas5570.1591
Yaracuy3390.0566
Zulia1,6450.0446
Total Venezuela30,9010.1137