On February 21, 2024, the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of Italian emigration to Brazil officially began, a date that commemorates the first departure in 1874 of emigrants from Veneto, Friuli, and Trentino from the port of Genoa. The commemorations continue this year in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, where on May 20, 1875, the first Italian immigrants arrived in Campo dos Bugres, now known as Caxias do Sul, and where the second largest community of Italian origin currently exists, after that of São Paulo.

The Ethnographic Museum Dolomiti remembers the exodus that changed the destinies of many Belluno families and communities, showcasing the exhibition Photos of Italian Descendants in Brazil by photographer Luis Tadeu Vilani, which had previously been exhibited in 2003 in the Province of Belluno.

The Museum has dedicated an exhibition section to Italian emigration to Brazil based on historical-anthropological research conducted since 1977 by Daniela Perco and subsequently by Francesco De Melis, Loredana Corrà, Annamaria Seno, Daniele Gazzi, Giuliana Sellan, Andrea Zannini, and Patrizia Pizzolotto. Moreover, the Museum preserves in its sound archive an important heritage of testimonies recorded in the so-called Italian microregion of Rio Grande do Sul.

For this reason, and thanks to the valuable collaboration of Livio Benvegnù, the Museum has decided to set up an exhibition that tells the daily life of Italian-Brazilian descendants in Rio Grande do Sul.

Photographic exhibition by Luis Tadeu Vilani