Although its population does not reach 5,000, Chipilo, a small town in Puebla, Mexico, can boast of having its own personality that distinguishes it not only from the rest of the municipality of San Gregorio Atzompa or Puebla-Tlaxcala, but also from the rest of the country. country. . Chipilo is unique. Unique in the clearest sense of the expression. After all, he has a unique way of speaking; Veneto is a language influenced by elements as different as Spanish and Nahuatl.

Chipilo is often described as a small piece of Italy planted in Mexico.

“Sevedon”. If you walk the streets of Chipilo you will probably notice a few things; For example, after praying the rosary in the town church, ladies like to snack on tiramisu, which is their neighbor’s love. ristretto or in the middle of the European Cup the canteens burst into cheers every time “Azzurri” scoring a goal Equally striking is the number of light-skinned, eyed, and blonde-haired people wandering the neighborhoods of this Mexican town.

But beyond all these little details, there may be something that surprises you even more: His unique speaking style. It’s different from the rest of the country. Chipileno people greet each other on the street. “Gia mano, come situation” and they say goodbye to your voice “sevedon”. Let’s remember that all this is in the heart of Mexico.

The magic of “Veneto Chipileno”. If you think you’re hearing Italian-sounding words, it’s because Veneto is spoken in Chipilo, the language of the homonymous region in northern Italy. Of course, in a way that has little to do with Venice or Belluno’s speech. In the Mexican town of Veneto, it sounds different because it is mixed with Spanish and Nahuatl, a Yuto-Aztecan language.

Historian Miguel Esteban Kadwrytte Dossetti explains to the BBC that the result is so surprising that there are those who call it the “Veneto Chipileno”. Or Talian. It’s not officially recognized as a variant of Veneto, but the distinctive dialect of the small town of San Gregorio Atzompa is fascinating enough to attract linguists interested in its quirks. One of them, American Carolyn McKay, even tried to put it in writing—with little luck, of course.

And all this… Why? Million dollar question. What’s a piece of Veneto doing in the state of Puebla? Why this linguistic and cultural cocktail? To answer this, we need to go back to the late 19th century. To be more precise, on October 7, 1882, a handful of immigrants from Northern Italy founded Chipilo on Mexican soil. Country He states that there are 38 families from Segusino, a town in the province of Treviso. In the early 1880s, thousands of Italians came to the port of Veracruz to settle in the colonies.

After crossing the Atlantic and landing in Mexico, they purchased land, devoted themselves to their crops and animals, demonstrated their mastery of dairy products, and laid the foundations of what is today a true community. A small piece of northeastern Italy, closely tied to the Puebla-Tlaxcala region.

These pioneers had children, who in turn gave birth to more children, and eventually gave birth to the Chipilenos, who roam the streets of the town today, with many güeros, blonds, light eyes and showing a special taste for tiramisu. ristretto and the kit (and exploits) of the Italian football team.

learned in the cradle. Despite the passage of generations or pressure from other languages, the Chipilo dialect can still be heard in the streets, halls and bars. “They’re talking diversity in Chipilo basso bellunese (Belunted bass). This is very unusual, given that economic and social forces push immigrants to abandon their linguistic heritage after a few generations,” Caroline MacKay, one of the linguists who has studied this dialect, told the English network.

“3,800 of the 4,500 inhabitants are direct descendants of the founders who emigrated from Italy. 90% continue to learn about Veneto from home,” says Arturo Serra Simoni, a descendant of the first expedition that settled Chipilo 142 years ago: Where we started school as children We knew very little Spanish at that time and we understood the teacher very little.

Pictures | Wikipedia 1 and 2

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