Is there much Italian and German influence in Chile?

Answer 1

German Immigration

The origin of the German immigrants in Chile began with the Law of Selective Immigration of 1845. The objective of this law was to bring people of a medium social and high cultural level to colonize the southern regions of Chile.

The German immigrants revived the domestic economy and they changed the southern zones. They established themselves principally in the Llanquihue, Osorno and Puerto Montt areas. This area continues as the only completely-German language settlement in Chile.

Today the German language is still spoken by about 20,000 Chileans in daily life.

The German military culture had great influence on the Army of Chile.

The areas where the Germans settled prospered with industries, including shipyards, Gristmills, shoe factorys and many more enterprises....also the first Steel Mill in South America.

The German sweets and its bakery has strong influence in Chilean cuisine today: Küchen, Strüdel, Stolen, Berliners, beers, wursts, etc

Among many distinguished descendants of the Germans in Chile are counted the commander Fernando Matthei Aubel, the architect Mathias Klotz, tennis players Gabriel Silberstein and Hans Gildemeister, the athletes Sebastián Keitel and Marlene Ahrens Ostertag, the musicians Patricio Manns and Emilio Körner, the economist Ernesto Schiefelbein, the politicians Miguel Kast and Evelyn Matthei, the entrepreneurs Jürgen Paulmann and Carlos Heller, the painters Uwe Grumann and Rossy Ölckers, television presentors Karen Doggenweiler and Margot Kahl, writer César Müller, and the actors Gloria Münchmeyer, Antonia Zegers, Aline Kuppenheim, and Bastian Bodenhofer.

It is difficult to tabulate the full number of German descendants in Chile today because of the large quantity of time that has passed and because they have mixed with the Chilean population for more than 150 years. Because many areas of the Chilean South are sparsely populated, the traces of German immigration are rather obvious. In reality, the descendants of these first immigrants mostly live in the big cities. According to the 2002 census, approximately 6,000 German immigrants resided in Chile at that time.

Italian Immigration

After independence, the Chilean government encouraged emigration Italian, but without getting the results from the nearby Argentina.

However, there was a substantial flow of migration Liguria to the area of Valparaíso, which came to control 70% of the city. These immigrants founded the 'Body of Fire' (called "Cristobal Colon") of the city and its 'Italian School', whose building has been declared by the Government of Chile as historic monument.

Italian Chileans along with French Chileans contributed to the development, cultivation and ownership of the world-famous Chilean wines from haciendas in the Central Valley ever since the first wave of Italians arrived to colonial Chile in the early 19th century.

At the end of the nineteenth century many Italian merchants are rooted in the northern part of Arica, where they began exploiting the rich mines of saltpetre. Meanwhile, many Italian families settled in the capital Santiago, Concepción, Viña del Mar and Punta Arenas.

The Chilean census officially states 600,000 Chileans of Italian descent. According to other estimates, Italian Chileans reach 800,000 residents with some Chileans (distant or close) Italian ancestry, including Italo-Argentinian transplanted in Chile. One of the notable Italian influences in Chile is, for example, the sizable amount of Italian surnames of a proportion of Chilean politicians, businessmen and intellectuals, of whom a good number intermarried into the "Castilian-Basques" elites.

Although being just a fraction of the size of the migration to Argentina, Italian immigration to Chile has been present since the arrival of the first Spaniards into the country, like captain Giovanni Battista Pastene who helped Pedro de Valdivia's expedition. Thence, with akin Latin culture, Italians have helped forge the nation, with architects (Gioacchino Toesca), painters (Camilo Mori), businessmen (Anacleto Angelini), Economists (Vittorio Corbo) and statesmen (Arturo Alessandri) among other.