Venetian Dialect In Mexico

Venet – the Venetian dialect – is spoken in a few areas outside of a 100-mile footprint of Venice itself. You can still hear it along the Dalmatian Coast, in latter-day Croatia, for instance, where the Venetians held sway in key ports that lined their shipping routes to the East.

Weedy as the Venetian Empire might have grown at its zenith, its tendrils never quite stretched as far as the rocky Mexican interior. Yet, amazingly, that’s where you’ll find a large community of Venet speakers – with surnames like Lavazzi, Galeazzi, and Martini.

It turns out that in 1882, the President of Mexico, Porfirio Diaz, sought European immigrants to colonize parts of the country so as to import new methods and ideas in agriculture and industry and to lift the living standards of the indigenous people. As a part of the recruitment effort, Mexican emissaries traveled to the countryside just outside of Venice. They managed to persuade around 500 or so residents of towns like Belluno, Segusino, and Feltre to relocate to a remote Mexican village called Chipilo, about 100 miles outside Mexico City, about as far from the land of sun-dried tomatoes and macchiati as you can get. Here’s an antique postcard depicting Segusino in the 19th century. Who knows? It may include one of the original Chipilo emigrees.

They had their reasons to uproot. The Piave river was running dry in those days. Agriculture was tough. The general economic conditions were dodgy in Northern Italy, overall. The Mexican envoys appealed to the people's desperation and sense of adventure. It worked.

Things were tough at first, but ultimately the community flourished, mainly via agriculture and ranching. Chipolo also is famed for Segusino pine furniture, wonderful antique Mexican reproductions, said to be inspired by furniture found washed up on a beach by an emigree. Today, While the chipileños can all speak Spanish, Venet can still be heard in the streets and homes. And the community has remained more or less homogeneous, with Venet marrying Venet, for over 120 years.

For a little more English language reading on Venet in Mexico, here's an article from travel-italy.com that Venioceblog reader Dawn was kind enough to point me toward. And here's an article in Spanish by Eduardo Montagner Anguiano that was helpful in creating this post. (This article is cached, since the website appears to be dead.)

Comments

[Esau]

My father's ancestors come from Asturias (Celtic part of Spain, in the North) and from Italy. The Italians lived in Michoacan in Mexico in a town called Nueva Italia, and it is very interesting to read these articles, I might visit Chipilo in a few weeks, I want to see the arquitecture and the Veneto culture in the beautiful state of Puebla!
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If you do, PLEASE take pix. We would really appreciate it! I'd love to hear about your visit, too.

[Nora Rawlinson]

You got me fascinated with Venet and Chipilo. I did some searching around the Web myself and discovered there is a researcher at Ball State University (Muncie, Indiana) who has studied it:

http://www.bsu.edu/benefacta/article/0,,24480--,00.html

Thanks for this great Blog. For those of us longing to be back in Venice, this is a good substitue.

Nora

[alex]

MY papi is from chipilo i was there this summer. I really didnt know that much about the history.Now i do thanks. Email me if u have n e thing else good to tell me about chipilo.

[Francisco Zago (dagot)]

The entire familly from my father is from chipilo, I grew up in mexican and italian cultures, two languages, cultures and costumes, my goal is to visit Italy and I have understood that Chipilo and Treviso are still in contact.
Im proud to be involved in the familly I am. For sure visit chipilo, is 10 km far the capital of the state of puebla, and its, relatevely modern but it still keeps caracteristi acent look.
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I think it would be quite cool to visit Chipilo. On my list.

Norman

[Nancy]

Thank you for this blog! My great-grandparents (from my father's side) immigrated to Chipilo in 1882. My grandparents and father were born and raised in Chipilo. I try to visit Chipilo every time I go to Mexico. It is a beautiful town that should be visited. I highly recommend it.

[Daniel Galeazzi]

I am from Chipilo. The history of my family is one of my passions. I am the fourth generation of Italians born in Mexico. In my family we still speak the Venetian dialect, and it is the same case in most of the families in Chipilo. You can find a lot of information at wikipedia.org

[Ismael Orrantia]

The reason of my message is to know if I can get permition to post the amasing fotograph of early Chipilo, I work in Family History Library.
We are putting together a wikifamilysearch to help the people that are interested in finding their ancestors.
Who ever owns this picture please send me a email with authorization if you may to use and post in the internet.
For your time thank you.

[Gustavo Galeazzi Alnzo]

Hi everyone!
Its very nice to see so much interest in Chipilo. My entire family lives in Chipilo and are the original immigrants in that area. My grandpa's Great great grandap named Columbo Galeazzi bought up most of the land in Chipilo. I can say I go there to visit my family and its a nice feeling when most of that city is a Galeazzi. They speak a italian/spanish dialect called chipliano. I dont speak it but all of my relatives do. If you have any questions email me at galonzo.2008@gmail.com

By the way my last name is Alonzo but my moms maiden name is Galeazzi. And it is now my middle name