Italian Immigration to Argentina in the Nineteenth Century: Cocoliche and Lunfardo

Abstract

This paper aims at delving into the topic of Italian immigration to Argentina and to answering one main question: why do people migrate? To be more precise, why did many Italians decide to migrate to Argentina throughout the nineteenth century and not elsewhere? Additionally, this paper aims at showing some of the difficulties that certain Italians suffered during their journey to the country and once they arrived at their destination. Also, a section of the paper will be dedicated to the Immigrants’ Hotel, which was an important institution during this period. Today, it is a museum located in Puerto Madero, which anyone interested in this topic may visit in order to learn more about immigration to Argentina from all over the world. Lastly, two important phenomena, namely cocoliche and lunfardo will be studied in order to illustrate the influence of Italians on the Spanish language, for instance, through the creation of words in lunfardo that continue to be used today. In furtherance of this, several works and authors have been consulted.