In Talian, Massolini Responds to Tajani on Italian Identity in RS

A video in Talian, the Venetian dialect spoken by descendants of Italians in Rio Grande do Sul, went viral among Italian-Brazilian communities this week. In it, physician and historical leader of the movement to valorize Italian immigration in the state, Paulo Massolini, responds to statements made by Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani during his visit to Brazil, according to reporting by Insieme.

What Tajani Said in Brazil

During his visit to the country, Italy's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, questioned why Italian identity would have been, in his words, "abandoned by generations" among descendants of Italian immigrants in Brazil. The statement, made in the context of an official agenda, quickly circulated among outlets and networks linked to the Italian-Brazilian diaspora, provoking critical reactions from community leaders who see in the declaration a misunderstanding of the real history of Italian immigration in the country.

Tajani is one of the main figures behind the Decreto Tajani (DL 36/2025, converted into Lei 74/2025), which significantly restricted access to Italian citizenship by descent for those who are not direct children or grandchildren of a native Italian. The measure, which has already caused significant impact among descendants scattered throughout Brazil and other countries of Italian immigration, is closely followed by Raízes Italianas, which has covered the legal consequences of the new law for those seeking recognition of their own origin.

Massolini's Response in Talian

Paulo Massolini's response, according to Insieme, did not come in standard Italian or Portuguese — it was recorded entirely in Talian, the language that thousands of families in the interior of Rio Grande do Sul have preserved for generations, even without any institutional support coming from Italy. Massolini, a physician and one of the most respected voices of the movement to rescue Italian-Gaucho culture, used the dialect itself as an argument: if Italian identity had been "abandoned," there would be no way for him to be expressing himself in that language decades after the arrival of the first immigrants.

In the recording, Massolini accuses Tajani of misunderstanding the real trajectory of Italian immigration in Brazil — marked by decades of isolation in rural colonies, linguistic repression during Getúlio Vargas's Estado Novo, and almost total absence of cultural maintenance policies coming from Italy itself. For him, the community did not abandon Italian identity: it kept it alive on its own, often despite the Italian State, and not because of it.

The choice to respond in Talian, rather than Italian or Portuguese, reinforces Massolini's own argument: the existence of the language, still spoken today in municipalities of Serra Gaúcha and other regions colonized by Italians, is concrete proof of an identity that resisted time without depending on official recognition from Rome.

Why This Matters for Descendants

The episode gains relevance because Talian is officially recognized as a linguistic and cultural heritage of Italian immigration in Southern Brazil, registered by the Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional (Iphan) as a Brazilian cultural reference. It is a living language, transmitted orally between generations in rural communities, and continues to be spoken, taught, and celebrated at festivals and community gatherings throughout the Gaucho interior.

The exchange of barbs between Massolini and the Italian chancellor rekindles a broader debate about how Italy views its own diaspora. While the recent Italian government has adopted measures that make accessing citizenship by descent more difficult, communities like those in Rio Grande do Sul claim recognition for how they preserved culture, language, and traditions over more than a century, often without any practical support coming from Italy.

For descendants following the changes in citizenship legislation, episodes like this carry symbolic weight: they show that the relationship between official Italy and the Italian-Brazilian diaspora continues to be marked by tensions, even amid rhetoric about shared blood ties and shared identity. Raízes Italianas continues to follow the developments of the case and other news involving the Italian-Brazilian community and Italian government policies directed at the diaspora.

Those interested in topics related to culture, language, and the daily life of those living between the two countries can also follow the Life in Italy coverage published by the portal.

The case illustrates how the statement of an Italian authority, even when directed at official audiences, can reverberate strongly among communities that carry immigration as a central part of their identity — and that, increasingly, do not hesitate to respond, including in the very language they helped keep alive.

Source: Insieme