ARGENTINA, 1876. The first Italians to arrive in Argentina are from Liguria. Around 1830, the district of La Boca began to rise, not far from Buenos Aires. Mostly emigrants from Varazze settle there, sailors and shipwrights: they build wooden houses and paint them with the bright colors of their boats. Over the years, the Ligurians will organize a growing flow of Italians in search of land and work. In 1876, to counter a serious economic crisis, the Argentine government will decree a law on emigration that grants free accommodation for five days at the Hotel de Inmigrantes in Buenos Aires and the train ticket to reach the places of the pampa, the immense Argentine plain that needs sharecroppers. Between 1876 and 1914, about two million Italians arrived in Argentina.