Cultural food-scapes from the Italian Marchigian hills to Argentina. An explorative research on the food traditions of migrants.

The goal of our research group is to survey certain aspects of the phenomenon of migration from the Marches to Argentina. Between the ending eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century, more than six thousands Marchigians did expatriate to Argentina. The flux was low between 1896 and 1907, stronger in the 1919-1930 period, and continued in the fifties and sixties. The agrarian harsh crisis in Italy and the following social crisis have been supposed as the main causes. Thus the migration received a public support and incentive. The Marchigians emigrated to the rest of Italy and even to other parts of Europe, the Unite States, the Mediterranean region and Latin America. The building of a new railway network in Argentina did allow the cultivation of vast new areas of fertile land, where many Italians found their fortune after years of sacrifice, hard work and capital accumulation. The research focused on a specific topic, the culinary and alimentary behaviors of migrants, their identity significance and the agricultural practices they have introduced in their ‘new world’. Findings will be useful for future bilateral researches.