Italian immigration to Mexico

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Italian Mexican
Total population
Italian residents abroad:[1]5.000
Diaspora:1.500.000 Italian descent.
Regions with significant populations
Baja California · Mexico City · Jalisco · Michoacán · Nuevo León · Quintana Roo
Mexican Spanish · Italian · German
Roman Catholicism
Related ethnic groups
Italians · Italian American

An Italian-Mexican or Italo-Mexican (Italian: italo-messicano, Spanish: ítalo-mexicano) is a Mexican citizen of Italian descent or origin. Most people of Italian ancestry living in Mexico arrived in the late 19th century, and have become generally assimilated into mainstream society.


Italo-Mexican identity rests on the common experience of migration from Italy in the late 19th century, a period characterized by a more general Italian diaspora to the Americas (under the pressures of economic transformation and the process of unification into a nation-state in 1871), and the establishment of communities, primarily in central and eastern Mexico[citation needed]. Only about 13,000 Italians emigrated to Mexico during this period,[2] and at least half of them subsequently returned to Italy or went on to the United States.[3] Most Italians coming to Mexico were farmers or farm workers from the northern districts. Most of these immigrants were from northern Italy, especially from the regions of Veneto, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, and Lombardy.[4] Others arriving in the early 19th century included many from Southern Italy. Significant numbers of Italian settlers arriving in the late 19th and early 20th centuries received land grants from the Mexican government. When Benito Mussolini came to power, thousands of Italian families left Italy for Mexico.

Today, many Italo-Mexicans continue to reside in towns founded by their ancestors[citation needed]. Among these is Chipilo, in the state of Puebla, where a derivative of the Venetian dialect is still spoken by its residents. Other towns founded by Italian immigrants lie in the states of Veracruz (Huatusco), San Luis Potosí, and the Mexican Federal District[citation needed]. In the state of Aguascalientes there is a large population of Mexicans of Italian descent - the result of the invasion of the French and the creation of the Second Mexican Empire. Smaller, but also notable, numbers of Italo-Mexicans can be found in Guanajuato, Estado de Mexico, and in the towns of Nueva Italia and Lombardia in the state of Michoacán, which were founded by wealthy Italians who immigrated to Mexico after the 1880 diaspora and established large agricultural estates known as haciendas[citation needed]. Playa del Carmen in the state of Quintana Roo has also received a notable number of immigrants from Italy[citation needed].

At present, the regions with the highest concentration of Mexican Italians are Mexico City, Monterrey, Puebla, and Veracruz.


Although many Italo-Mexicans now live in urban centers such as Mexico City and Monterrey, many others live in, and strongly identify with, one of the original or spin-off communities that are almost entirely of Italian origin[citation needed]. These individuals still stridently claim an Italian ethnic identity (at least to a non-Mexican outsider), but generally note that they are Mexican as well. In the late 20th century, there were an estimated 30,000 Italian Mexicans in the original eight Italian communities.[3] The total population, however, is uncertain due to the national census not gathering information on any specific ethnicity, as it is done in other countries. Despite this, Italian surnames are not uncommon in parts of Mexico.[citation needed]

The majority of Italian Mexicans speak Spanish, but in Italian communities derived Italian languages (usually mixed with Spanish) are used to communicate among themselves.

Italian Community[edit]

The Italian Feast of Befana in Chipilo, Puebla.
Cemetery of Italian immigrants in Mexico City.

Today, many Italian-Mexicans continue to live in the cities founded by their ancestors. Other cities founded by Italian immigrants in the states of Veracruz (Huatusco), San Luis Potosi.

If you get to travel to the state of Aguascalientes, it can be noted that there exists a large portion of Italian descent, the result of the time of the emigration of French and Italian. Smaller, but notable, the number of Italian-Mexicans who are in Guanajuato, [[State Mexico]], and the Ex-Hacienda (now cities) of Nueva Italia, Michoacán and Lombardia, Michoacán were both founded by Don Dante Cusi originating Gambar, Brescia, and subsequently inhabited by followers of Don Dante who emigrated from Italy (who helped with the farm work and highly specialized advanced at the time, along with the locals).

Today the management of Michoacán by Cusi remains the object of study in English universities. Playa del Carmen Mahahual and Cancun in the state of Quintana Roo has also received a significant number of immigrants from Italy. Several families of Italian-Mexican descent were granted citizenship in the United States during the Bracero Program (which lasted from 1947 to 1964) to make up for a shortage of labor. One notable family of this emigration include the Juan Donato Family, who settled in the city of Santa Cruz in Central California from the state of Guanajuato.

It is estimated that some 300,000 Mexicans have Italian descent although almost all have forgotten the Italian language, while mostly in the capital is a community of nearly 13,000 Italians (passport Italian) in 2008, who speak the Italian language.[citation needed] It should be noted that the Antonio Peconi student says they are over half a million descendants of Italians in Mexico today, because you have to add all children illegitimate since colonial times (especially with Indian women and mestizo, not officially reported paternity).[citation needed]

The vast majority of Italian-Mexicans have achieved a high social status in the Mexican society today.[citation needed] One of the best known is Daniel Mastretta,[citation needed] creator of the first sports car made and designed in Mexico industrially: the Mastretta MXT.

Recent Italian investment and business ventures in Mexico have developed, primarily in tourism and hospitality, sometimes resulting in settlement primarily in the resort locations of the Riviera Maya, Baja California, Puerto Vallarta and Cancun. They have acquired and generated sources of employment, restaurants, hotels and entertainment centers; however, most have not become permanent residents of Mexico and live primarily as ex-pats.

Derived Italian languages[edit]

Since most Italian immigration occurred by way of the establishment of colonies, derivatives of Italian languages exist in Mexico. Besides the best known Chipilo Venetian dialect, derivatives of the Venetian language may also exist in Huatusco and Colonia Gonzalez, Veracruz.

To this we can also add other Italian immigrant languages and dialects:

Notable Italo-Mexicans[edit]

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

References and notes[edit]

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ [2] Italian stadistics 2009
  3. ^ a b Italian Mexicans Orientation
  4. ^ Italianos en México