The Italian immigration in Costa Rica (NINTH PART)

Abstract

Emigration from the southern region of Calabria, in our specific case the province of Cosenza and especially the town of Morano Calabro, deserves a separate chapter due to its particular characteristics. In the first place, it was a homogeneous emigration because it came from the same circumscribed region and also had a certain quantitative importance that, although it did not respond to a phenomenon of massive immigration (as in the case of the Mantuans), was the result of a constant and quite conspicuous "chain" immigration. Proof of this is a work by the Ministero degli Affari Esteri from 1972, which highlights the composition of the Italian community according to the region of origin: out of a total of 967 members, 504 were from Calabria (or more than 50%). ' Also at the beginning of the 20th century, a diplomatic report underlined, regarding the Italian colony in Costa Rica, that of the citizens scattered in the state, most were represented by the provinces of Mantua and Calabria. However, not only the quantitative representation should be highlighted, but also the stereotype with which the Calabrian people are commonly described, which is highly qualitative: tenacious and saver, their motto is committed to "work and family".