Why 3.5 million Italians moved to Argentina
The Lanterna in Genoa’s harbour was probably the last thing Italian emigrants saw as they left their homeland for a new life in North and South America. In my blog, I’d like to focus on the Italians who emigrated to Argentina – you’ll soon find out why.
The last glimpse of home: The Lanterna, the lighthouse in the old port of Genoa.
Photo: Dana Rinder
Argentina: second most popular immigration country
Between the foundation of the state in 1861 and the 1960s, Italy experienced the largest mass migration in recent history. 25 million people left the country. In addition to destinations in Europe, Italians were also drawn to the New World. Argentina became their second most popular destination after the USA.
Between the 1850s and the 1950s, 3.5 million Italians crossed over to Argentina. One of the reasons for emigration was widespread poverty, especially among the rural population.
Source: Italian Argentines, Wikipedia article, accessed 7.2.2025
As third-class passengers on the luxury liner
At the port of Genoa, Italian emigrants would board one of the steamers that regularly crossed the Atlantic. Most of them could only afford third-class tickets, where most of the accommodation was provided.
The typical itinerary would take them from Genoa to Rio de Janeiro and Santos in Brazil, Montevideo in Uruguay and Buenos Aires in Argentina. In the 1890s, the crossing took 35 days. Since 1909, when the Principessa Mafalda, the largest and fastest passenger ship of the time, was launched, it has been only 14 days. The flagship of the Italian shipping company Navigazione Generale Italiana was famous for tourists, celebrities and thousands of emigrants who crossed from Genoa to Buenos Aires and New York.
That’s what the Bergoglio family from Piedmont had in mind. Nineteen-year-old Mario and his parents had already booked their tickets on the Principessa Mafalda, which was scheduled to leave Genoa on 11 October 1927. However, due to a delay in the sale of their farm in the province of Asti, they were unable to set off for Argentina until two years later.
The story of the Bergoglio family and their fortunate missed voyage on the Principessa Mafalda
is told on the panels in the Museo della Lanterna.
Photos: Dana Rinder
The sinking of the Principessa Mafalda: how the Pope's family was spared
The Bergoglios were lucky because the Principessa Mafalda sank off the Brazilian coast on 25 October 1927. They were the father and grandparents of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, known today as Pope Francis. If the Bergoglio family had boarded the Principessa Mafalda in October 1927, there probably wouldn’t be an Argentine Pope, and he couldn’t be quoted with the words: Anche io sono figlio di migranti. (I too am the son of migrants).
In the adjacent museum of the Lanterna della Genova, displays tell the story of the Bergoglio family and their missed journey. However, Pope Francis is not mentioned by name. But everyone in Italy probably knows who Jorge Mario Bergoglio is!
Sources:
- La Principessa che non fece ritorno: 90 anni fa il naufragio
del piroscafo «Mafalda», article in the «Corriere della sera», 1.8.2017, accessed 7.2.2025 (Italian) - L’epopea dei Bergoglio, article in the «Repubblica», 29.9.2016, accessed 7.2.2025 (Italian)
‘I too am the son of migrants.’
Argentinian Pope Francis
comes from a family
of Italian emigrants.
Photo: Annett Klingner, Pixabay
The greatest tragedy in Italian seafaring
Less fortunate were the 314 of the 1252 people on board who died when the Principessa Mafalda sank off the Brazilian coast on 25 October 1927. After the incident, which was one of the greatest tragedies in Italian seafaring, the Principessa Mafalda became notorious as the ‘Italian Titanic’.
Mimi Bucherer and the sunken jewellery
Most of the victims were third-class passengers: 206 in all. The 32 first-class deaths included a number of prominent business people and aristocrats from various countries.
Among them was 29-year-old Swiss Wilhelmina Bucherer-Heeb, known as Mimi. She was the daughter-in-law of the famous Swiss watchmaker and founder of the luxury watch brand Carl F. Bucherer, and ran a watch and jewellery shop with her husband in Santiago de Chile. She would travel regularly to Switzerland to stock up on new merchandise. On her return to South America, all the precious watches and jewellery sank with her in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.
In 2007, 80 years after the disaster, the watch brand Carl F. Bucherer dedicated the ʼTribute to Mimiʼ to the young woman of the founder generation. The richly decorated Art Deco watch is a reinterpretation of the one Mimi was wearing when she died.
Sources:
- The prominent victims of the first class, The Sinking of the Principessa Mafalda, accessed 7.2.2025
- About Mimi Bucherer-Heeb, archive.today, accessed 7.2.2025
Mimi Bucherer ran a watch and jewellery shop in Chile with her husband. She was among the first-class passengers who lost their lives when the Principessa Mafalda sank.
Photo: archive.today
Over 60% of the Argentine population has Italian roots
Argentina is still a hotspot for Italians living abroad. In 2024, it was estimated that at least 30 million Argentines (62.5% of the country’s population) had some degree of Italian ancestry. This places Argentina as the country with the second largest Italian diaspora outside Italy, after Brazil.
Do you have an ancestor who emigrated to Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Australia or the USA? If he or she left from an Italian port, there’s a good chance you’ll find them in the online database of the Centro Internazionale Studi Emigrazione Italiana (CISEI)! And if you’re even luckier, you’ll find further information about the person (age on arrival, date of travel, ship name, ticket price, origin, occupation, marital status and even whether he or she could read and write).
Extract from the CISEI database with the entry record of Pope Francis’ father
Mario Bergoglio. Screenshot created on 7.2.2025.
Source: www. ciseionline.it
