Argentina is home to one of the more surprising Albanian communities in the world. Most of its Albanians are not recent arrivals but the descendants of the Arbereshe, the centuries-old Italo-Albanians of southern Italy, who joined the great wave of Italian emigration to Argentina a hundred years ago. This guide tells that unusual story.
It is part of our Albanians Around the World series.
Quick Facts: Albanians in Argentina
- Population: Not recorded by the Argentine census. Published estimates of people of Albanian descent vary widely and cannot be verified.
- Origins: Mostly Arbereshe (Italo-Albanians) who emigrated from southern Italy between the 1890s and the 1930s.
- Where they live: Greater Buenos Aires, Berisso, Rosario, and Cordoba.
- Community roots: The Sociedad Albanesa de Berisso, founded in 1907, was the first ethnic society in that town.
On This Page
- How Many Albanians Live in Argentina?
- An Albanian Community by Way of Italy
- Where Albanians Live
- Frequently Asked Questions
How Many Albanians Live in Argentina?
There is no official count of Argentines of Albanian descent, because the census does not record Arbereshe or Albanian ancestry, and published estimates vary widely. Unlike most of the diaspora, this community did not come directly from the Balkans. The great majority descend from the Arbereshe, ethnic Albanians whose ancestors had settled in southern Italy from the 15th century and who then emigrated onward to Argentina generations later.
An Albanian Community by Way of Italy
Between the 1890s and the 1930s, millions of Italians crossed the Atlantic to Argentina, and among them were Arbereshe from the Albanian villages of Calabria, Sicily, and the Italian south. They arrived carrying with them a heritage already five centuries in the making. In Argentina they preserved a sense of Albanian identity alongside their Italian one, founding cultural societies, the earliest documented being the Sociedad Albanesa de Berisso in 1907. Smaller numbers of Albanians have arrived more directly in recent decades.
Where Albanians Live
The community is concentrated in Greater Buenos Aires and the industrial town of Berisso near La Plata, long a magnet for immigrants, along with Rosario and Cordoba. Albanian-Argentine cultural associations keep the heritage alive.
From the Villages of Calabria to the River Plate
To understand the Albanians of Argentina, it helps to start in the villages they left. The Arbereshe of Italy are concentrated above all in Calabria, especially in the province of Cosenza. Small towns such as Acquaformosa and Lungro in Calabria and San Costantino Albanese in Basilicata are historic Arbereshe communities, as are Piana degli Albanesi and Mezzojuso in Sicily.
For five centuries these villages kept three things alive: the Arberesh language, Italian, and the Byzantine rite of worship, with Greek used in church. When the great emigration from southern Italy began at the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th, the Arbereshe left alongside their Italian neighbors, bound for Argentina, Brazil and the United States.
The Italian community network italiani.it, writing from La Plata in 2021, names the places in Buenos Aires Province where this emigration put down roots: Tapiales, Luis Guillón, Berisso and La Plata. It adds that the families there come especially from two Calabrian villages, Acquaformosa and Frascineto.
The movement did not stop with the first wave. Alejandro Greco, who led an Albanian Orthodox church in Buenos Aires, told the Kosovo daily Koha that his father came from the Arbereshe village of San Benedetto Ullano in Calabria, and that the family arrived in Argentina in 1950, after the Second World War. He also described a smaller, direct emigration from Albania itself, mainly in the 1920s.
Berisso: Home of Argentina’s First Albanian Society
The best documented Albanian community in Argentina is the one in Berisso, the port and factory town beside La Plata. A study by María Eugenia Costa of the National University of La Plata explains why immigrants came. A British company, La Plata Cold Storage, opened a meatpacking plant there in 1904, followed in 1915 and 1916 by the American firms Armour and Swift. Costa describes these as the largest meatpacking plants installed in Latin America.
When Armour and Swift opened, they employed about 3,000 workers, and in the busiest periods of the 1940s the two companies employed between 10,000 and 15,000. Workers came from many countries, and one national group after another formed its own society.
According to Costa, the Albanians were the first of all these communities to organize. They founded the Sociedad Albanesa de Berisso in 1907, two years before the Lithuanians and four years before the Greeks created their own societies. The Albanian society gave newcomers what it called moral help, and it also helped them find work in the meatpacking plants or at the port of La Plata.
Berisso’s immigrant heritage later became official. In 1978, decree number 438 declared the town the Provincial Capital of the Immigrant, and the ethnic associations joined together to hold an Immigrant Festival every September. Greco told Koha that Berisso has a well-known Albanian ensemble of dances and songs made up of young people, which is invited to perform in other places as well.
Luján, Mendoza and Other Communities
Berisso is not the only center. In the same interview, Greco described an organized community in Luján, made up mostly of the children of Arbereshe settlers, and he mentioned communities of Arbereshe origin in Mendoza and in the south of the country. In Buenos Aires itself he pointed to an association named after Skanderbeg, founded long ago by Albanians who had come directly from Albania.
He also noted that his church kept in touch with smaller communities of Albanian origin in Brazil, Uruguay and Chile.
Faith: The Byzantine Rite in Buenos Aires
The Arbereshe of Calabria are traditionally Catholics of the Byzantine rite, and that tradition crossed the ocean with them. The Eparchy of Lungro, the Italo-Albanian Catholic diocese for mainland Italy, lists among its institutions a chaplaincy for Italo-Albanians living in Buenos Aires. It is attached to the Church of San Giorgio Megalomartire in Luis Guillón, Buenos Aires, and its chaplain is Father Nazariy Kashchak.
The italiani.it report adds a telling detail: Father Nazariy is a Ukrainian priest, and he celebrates the Divine Liturgy for the Italo-Albanians once a month. The community in La Plata hoped to have a monthly celebration of its own.
Alongside the Catholic chaplaincy there is an Orthodox strand. Greco, who used the title of Orthodox metropolitan of the Albanians in the diaspora, traced his church’s line of bishops back to Fan Noli, the founder of the Albanian Orthodox Church in America. He explained that it had no institutional link with the Orthodox Church in Albania, and that services were held in Spanish with some prayers in Albanian.
What Happened to the Language
After several generations, the Arberesh language has largely faded in Argentina. Greco was frank about it in 2019: “It is difficult to find someone who speaks Albanian well.” His own father spoke Arberesh fluently, but it was the old dialect of the Calabrian villages, not the standard Albanian of today, and on a visit to Albania in 2014 Greco found that some of the words he knew were not understood.
What survived better, he said, were customs: dances, songs and cooking, preserved within families and community groups. Members of his church were also teaching themselves Albanian, since there were no teachers available.
Ernesto Sabato: Argentina’s Most Famous Arbereshe Son
The best-known Argentine of Albanian descent is the writer Ernesto Sabato. He was born on June 24, 1911, in Rojas, in Buenos Aires Province. His father, Francesco Sabato, came from Fuscaldo in Calabria, and his mother, Giovanna Maria Ferrari, was an Arbereshe from the village of San Martino di Finita.
Sabato wrote three novels: El túnel (The Tunnel, 1948), Sobre héroes y tumbas (1961) and Abaddón el exterminador (1974). He won the Cervantes Prize in 1984. At the request of President Raúl Alfonsín he also presided over CONADEP, the commission that investigated the fate of people who were forcibly disappeared during the Dirty War of the 1970s. Its report, Nunca Más (Never Again), was published in 1984.
Sabato spoke publicly about his Arbereshe origins, and Koha counts him among the most prominent Argentines to have done so. He died on April 30, 2011, in Santos Lugares, in Buenos Aires Province.
Argentina and Kosovo
When the International Court of Justice examined Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence, Argentina filed a written statement, dated April 17, 2009, arguing that the declaration was not in accordance with international law and citing the principle of territorial integrity. Our list of countries that recognize Kosovo tracks where each state stands today.
Greco’s interview suggests the community itself felt differently. He said that Albanians in Argentina had followed Kosovo’s path to independence with concern and solidarity.
Key Dates for Albanians in Argentina
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1904 | La Plata Cold Storage opens a meatpacking plant in Berisso, drawing immigrant workers |
| 1907 | The Sociedad Albanesa de Berisso is founded, the first ethnic society in the town |
| 1911 | Ernesto Sabato is born in Rojas to a father from Fuscaldo and an Arbereshe mother |
| 1915 and 1916 | The Armour and Swift plants open in Berisso |
| 1920s | A smaller direct emigration from Albania reaches Argentina, according to Alejandro Greco |
| 1950 | The Greco family arrives from the Arbereshe village of San Benedetto Ullano, part of a post-war emigration |
| 1978 | Berisso is declared Provincial Capital of the Immigrant |
| 1984 | Sabato wins the Cervantes Prize, and the Nunca Más report is published |
| 2009 | Argentina files its written statement in the Kosovo case at the International Court of Justice |
| 2011 | Ernesto Sabato dies in Santos Lugares |
Frequently Asked Questions
How many Albanians live in Argentina?
There is no official figure, because the census does not record Albanian or Arbereshe ancestry, and published estimates vary widely. Most are descendants of the Arbereshe of southern Italy.
Why are there Albanians in Argentina?
Most descend from the Arbereshe, Italo-Albanians who joined the mass Italian emigration to Argentina between the 1890s and 1930s.
Where do Albanians in Argentina live?
Mainly in Greater Buenos Aires and Berisso, with communities in Rosario and Cordoba.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Albanians in South America
- Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Memoria Académica: Costa, M.E. (2003), Identidades sociales y culturales en una comunidad industrial, el caso de Berisso (1915 a 1955)
- itLaPlata (italiani.it): La comunidad italo-albanesa de La Plata
- Koha: “Blood is not water”, true for Arberesh people in Argentina
- Wikipedia: Ernesto Sabato
- Eparchia di Lungro: Chiesa di San Giorgio megalomartire in Buenos Aires, Argentina
- International Court of Justice: Written Statement of Argentina, Kosovo advisory proceedings
Related Reading
Author: Val Demiri
Valbona is an editor and writer at ALB Connection, where she covers the people, businesses, and culture shaping the Albanian diaspora. A journalism graduate of the University of Iowa, her work spans community profiles, success stories, and features on Albanian life across the US, Europe, and beyond. She is drawn to stories that celebrate Albanian achievement and keep the community connected across borders.
