In San Juan, Leopoldo Gómez de Teran from Salerno was a professor of physics and hydraulics for many years at the school of engineering applied to mines. Luigi Scappatura held chair of history and geography in the historic college of Concepción del Uruguay, of which he was also deputy director.
This function of Italian thought, exercised by authoritative professors in the faculties and middle schools, gave rise to the need for Italian bookstores: the first attempt is due to Eligio Aloy, from Veneto, who associated the book shop with that of postage stamps and sold the popular editions of Italian writers. Then came Angelo Sommaruga to introduce the best of Italian book production on the Bonaerense market; and after him others, until the creation of the Dante Alighieri Library of the ALI, which also became the center of Italian intellectuality. In the sale the scientific book occupies the very first place and especially the one dealing with Law and Medicine, then that for building and mechanical constructions.
Meanwhile, the Italian economic forces began to take on a collective form and the first Italian bank was founded in Buenos Aires: the Banco d’Italia del Rio della Plata, followed by the Italo-French Banco, the Nuovo Banco Italiano, etc.; and the Italian press, after several attempts, established itself with La Patria degli Italiani, which is now the property of an anonymous company and for more than half a century has been the authoritative spokesperson for the Italian guests of the Argentine republic. Another newspaper was then added to the Giornale d’Italia.
The activity of the Italians, from trade and agriculture, extended to industries, and in Mendoza and San Juan they excelled in the wine sector, in Buenos Aires in that of matches and fabrics and knitwear.
With the creation of the various collective bodies, the numerous and industrious phalanx of Italian workers asserted themselves in the social evolution of the young nation and the statues of Mazzini and Garibaldi that arise, by Italian initiative and by Argentine will, in the most beautiful squares in Buenos Aires and several other cities of the republic. So Juan B. Alberdi was right to write, referring to the trip made with Juan María Gutiérrez to Italy in 1847: “From the lips of these pure and lovable people we learned to admire the great and beautiful soul of the tribune of Italy, whose statue today adorns the beach, not of Genoa his native country, but of the Argentine republic, in the midst of the Italian republic that emigrated to a world that owes its discovery to an Italian, its name to another,
This Italian influence, the result of thought and works through all the stages of Argentine history, from the times of discovery to those of the viceroyalty, from the days of independence to modern times, from the assiduous work of the parents it was inherited to the very numerous and energetic offspring which is not second to that of the other lineages hosted in the generous republic.
The increased commercial and industrial function of the Italians who emigrated to Argentina was gradually accompanied by the creation of new collective bodies, such as the various Chambers of Commerce, the sections of the Dante Alighieri society, the Naval League, the Combat Fasci (which made their first appearance at the feast of 12 October 1922) and the ever-growing development of several religious associations, such as that of Don Bosco, which has numerous ramifications in the republic. So that the Italian community, while being, everywhere, an integral part of the Argentine population, while enjoying the wide benefits of its laws, constitutes a harmonious body which, compared to the national organization, represents an active cell for the inexhaustible elaboration of the progress of the republic.
These activities, of every time and place, were not limited only to the work of the fields, to commerce and to industries, but they radiated to the whole field of human labors. Thus the Italian opera house was, until a few years ago, the only one in honor in the republic; all the most famous Italian singers interpreted in our language all the operas in the famous winter seasons of the old and new Colón theater and the Opera, delighting the Argentine generations. In 1813 a modest musician, Giovanni Picazzari, organized the first orchestra, causing a revolution in the theatrical field where the guitar predominated. Then gradually came Bassi, Mancinelli, Mugnone, Melani, Toscanini, Marinuzzi, and the musical education of the Argentine people,
And the dramatic theater performed its most intense and least showy action with our major artists: Adelaide Ristori, Ernesto Rossi, Tommaso Salvini, Giovanni Emanuel, Giacinta Pezzana, Adelaide Tessero, Eleonora Duse and down to Vergani and Ruggeri.
Giuseppe Aguiari founded the first school of drawing and painting in Buenos Aires; Francesco Romero was the first director of the Estímulo de Bellas Artes society, and he took it to such a height that the government nationalized it and transformed it into the current Academia de Bellas Artes. Casa Rosada – the government building, the building of the medical faculty and the military hospital of Buenos Aires are the works of Eng. Tamburrini; the Congress building is due to the architect Meano; the Practical School of Medicine with the attached recognitory were built by the architect Gino Aloisi; the ancient Colón theater was built on the plans of the engineer. Carlo E. Pellegrini; the new one on the plans of the Meano. And the list would become very long if the works performed in the other cities of the republic were listed.
Eng. Giovanni Pelleschi; the military port near Bahía Blanca is a gigantic work of eng. Luigi Luiggi; Giacomo Bove explored the territory of Misiones and Tierra del Fuego; eng. Alfredo Del Bono held important positions in the State Railways; eng. Giuseppe Pedriali, general administrator of the Anglo-Argentine tram company, unified the service of the various pre-existing companies and was the initiator of the first underground railway; eng. Giovanni Carosio, after having founded and organized the Italo-Argentine Electricity Company, founded the Italcable which unites Argentina directly to Italy with submarine cables.
Giovanni Chiabra, Antonio Porchietti, Francesco Capello, Giuseppe Tarnassi, Clemente Ricci, Angelo Licitra, all university professors, are still to be remembered as Latin and Greek scholars; Emilio Zuccarini, well-known publicist and professor of literature, director of the Italian Department of the Institute of secondary professorship. Of the descendants of Italians, after the great precursors and operators of the Argentine revolution and independence: Manuel Belgrano, Juan José Castelli, Manuel Alberti, and Luis Berutti, we can mention Ignazio Pirovano, Pietro Arata, Emanuele Podestà, Juan B. Ambrosetti, who he founded the ethnographic museum, Salvatore Debenedetti, who was a disciple of Ambrosetti, and succeeded him in the direction of the museum; General Luigi Dellepiane, Minister of War in 1928, Eng. Domenico Selva, Teofilo Isnardi, Santiago Barabino, Sebastiano Ghigliazza, Cristoforo Giagnozi, Emilio Ravignani, dean of the faculty of philosophy and literature; Nicola Besio Moreno, Davide Spinetto, the senator Diego Luis Molinari, Giovanni Rolleri, Pio Collivadino, Giovanni Ripamonti; and we should also remember Florentimo Ameghino, Argentine naturalist of universal fame, Giuseppe Ingenieros, well-known physician and publicist, Coriolano Alberini, former dean of the faculty of philosophy and literature.
