Italian
The Italian mass immigration to Brazil started shortly after the unification of Italy, in 1871. The first major group of Italian immigrants that came to our country was sent to the coffee farms in the state's countryside region. Together with the Spanish, Italians substituted the black people in the crops.
Despite the promise of being granted with a piece of land and good salaries, as soon as they arrived, the immigrants got disappointed with the reality they faced here. Due to this, many of these people left the countryside and came to the cities to work at the factories and in the commerce.
The first important industry owners in São Paulo - the Matarazzo and the Crepis - formed a group called the "Italians Counts", title they lost decades later only.
The Italians played an important role in economic terms aside from having strongly influenced the eating habits in the regions where they settled down. São Paulo's inhabitants rapidly got into the habit of eating pasta, pizza and wine.