The 150 years of Mar del Plata, the city of Italians and the magical notes of Astor Piazzolla

The city of Mar del Plata in Argentina it was founded on a day like today, February 10, 150 years ago. Mar del Plata, for a country like Italy, is not a city like the others in the Argentine Republic. And from the second half of the nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century it welcomed thousands of Italian immigrants and became a fundamental enclave of the diaspora. On a day like this, while anniversary celebrations are taking place in the south of the planet, returning to some relevant cultural references is a way of approaching the history that unites us and meets us.

The Italian cultural force covers all areas of Mar del Plata’s history. The city has gone from being a remote point 400 kilometers from the Argentine capital, intended exclusively for an aristocratic sector and for purely tourist purposes, to becoming a driving force in the province with greater influence at a national level. The emergence of this cultural logic in political matters, for example, was achieved by a son of Italians, Teodoro Bronzini, in 1919. A simple son of fishermen from Recanati, in the Marche, who was able to enter national politics from the Socialist Party, becoming mayor of a city oriented towards the elite, promoting openness to the working classes.

Today the city of Mar del Plata is similar in number of inhabitants to Naples. And a significant part of the almost 3 million Italian immigrants in Argentina found their destination in this port city. Italians have built a material and immaterial heritage, the latter often manifested in a culture of encounter. Far from closing themselves off, they have opened up to other people who, like them, have decided and found in Mar del Plata a place to build a life project, work, form a family, an emotional network, friends and continue their lives. customs, many of which are sometimes mixed with others.

It’s not very strange to think about the idea of ​​an Italian eating a Neapolitan pastiera during the Easter period accompanied by a mate. Mar del Plata saw Italians and children of Italians grow up, in an era in which the city, in the image and likeness of Argentina, was taking its first steps in social and urban construction. The city’s favorite son is without a doubt Astor Piazzolla, of an Apulian father and a Tuscan mother, who was born and spent his early childhood in the city, to which he always wanted to return. Among his masterpieces is Adios Nonino, and there the Italian character can be read at a glance. A son of Italians who inherited the passion for music from his father from Trani and transformed the Argentine tango of the second half of the 20th century.

Italians have not only been a force of material construction, and in this regard the intangible heritage is perceptible in everyday cultural life. Even from the religious point of view they have left an imprint that transcends generations and social sectors. Without going any further, every year it is from the parish of the Sagrada Familia, founded by the Italian saint Luigi Orione, the processions of saints originating, among others, from the regions of Puglia, Marche, Campania and Sicily begin. Demonstrations that are massive and bring everyone together, and have turned into cultural events on the national agenda.

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This city, twinned since 2007 with Sorrento, which turns 150 today, was the home of Italian men and women who built buildings and within them gave life to regional communities and educational and cultural centers. The Dante Alighieri Committee of Mar del Plata is now a reference in the training and diffusion of the language at a regional level, and this year the degree course for teaching the Italian language at the National University of Mar del Plata begins on a permanent basis for the first time. Plata.

A city that saw the growth of artists of Italian origin such as Juan Carlos Castagninoand which was also the place where Alberto Bruzzonedescendant of the Genoese Bernardo Bruzzone, chose to live. Alberto Bruzzone, who became one of the most recognized and involved painters in the political and social life of Argentina. From the monuments created by Italians that mark local identity such as that of Fioravanti, to the customs, idiomatic expressions, books and libraries that give content to social history. From civil associations and theaters that give life to an increasingly dynamic present, Italian culture has managed to enter the heart of this city in southern America.

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Mar del Plata, is a clear example that urban education does not depend only on public planning, and that local identity is not built only in elementary schools. There is something beyond planning and it is the pleasure of meeting to set in motion a common dream to be built beyond generations.