Institution will be in charge of organizing the calendar of events planned for this year and for the course of 2025

The University of Caxias do Sul was formalized on Wednesday, February 28, as president of the executive committee of the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of Italian immigration in Rio Grande do Sul. The designation is in the decree signed by Mayor Adiló Didomenico during an event held at the National Immigrant Monument, which on the same date completed 70 years of foundation. On the occasion, the stamp commemorating the sesquicentennial of immigration, created by the city hall, was also presented.

The executive committee, committed to promoting actions and events full of historical, cultural and emotional references and meanings, is also composed of the City Hall of Caxias do Sul, Municipal Secretariat of Culture, Honorary Italian Consulate in Caxias do Sul, Chamber of Industry, Commerce and Services of Caxias do Sul (CIC), Chamber of Shopkeepers of Caxias do Sul (CDL), Comitato Degli Italiani All’estero and Piccola Italy Association of Caxias do Sul. Another 40 entities, companies and people are part of the official commission, responsible for organizing the celebrations throughout 2024 and 2025.

“We are heirs of history, and history is the teacher of life. We need to look at, analyze, and honor the past. The work of colonization was successful, and basic principles of life and values were present in the culture of the region, such as respect for work, love for family and religious feeling. The formation and transmission of the values that are the basis of the behaviors – which appear in the life of the Italian colony in this region – come from the existence of a series of basic institutions that were brought in the cultural baggage of the immigrants and that, due to their importance, were kept alive in the structures that originated in the new land. These values were foundations of collective consciousness, present in the cultural practices of this region”, highlights the rector of UCS, Gelson Leonardo Rech. “Community sense is the element that unites us, and we are proud to be at the head of a committee made up of people interested in culture and Italianity. I thank you on behalf of the academic community, which has deferred to UCS for 57 years, “concludes the dean.

Mayor Adiló Didomenico expressed the certainty that many people will be engaged in the “noble cause of revering the saga of a people who challenged everything and came here and built this metropolis that today is the second city of Rio Grande do Sul, which is an example of perseverance, struggle and welcoming”.

Permanent studies on immigration

UCS has been dedicated to research on Italian immigration since the 1970s, the decade in which the Instituto Memória Histórica e Cultural (IMHC) was conceived. It is this sector of the University, coordinated by Professor Anthony Beux Tessari, that drew up the calendar of UCS events celebrating the sesquicentennial, presented in January this year. The first in a series of editorial releases, cultural presentations and seminars now takes place in March. One of the highlights of the program is the release of the Album of 150 Years of Italian Immigration in RS, a bilingual edition (Portuguese and Italian) of the Universidade de Caxias do Sul publisher (EDUCS) with about 600 pages, scheduled for May 20, 2025 – official sesquicentennial day.

In his speech at the event that decreed the executive committee of the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of Italian immigration in Rio Grande do Sul, the rector of UCS, Gelson Leonardo Rech, provided moments of emotion when reading excerpts from letters sent by Italian immigrants narrating that experience to their families. One of the letters is from Michele Madalosso, a Vincentian emigrant, written in October 1876: “Tell mother to come too, for I would be very glad to see her here with me, and there is no danger in the journey. Bring with you the tools necessary for the cultivation of the land and all kinds of seeds and vines”. Madalosso already announced what would happen with the planting of grapes and vineyards, an activity that would become centuries old in the region.

Another letter that deals with the planting of vines is by Paolo Rossato (1884), who confirms to the family what he had heard about the fertility of the soil. “It is true what they said, that with few vines they make many barrels of wine, because they do not plant the vines in the fields, as in Italy. They plant them near the houses. And you can’t imagine how a vineyard grows here in three years”.

Photo credit: Ícaro de Campos