“Cocoliche: el legado lingüístico de la migración italiana en Argentina. Una lectura a través de la serie televisa Vientos de agua”.

This article examines the use of cocoliche, a linguistic phenomenon that emerged from the contact between Italian –primarily in the form of regional dialects– and Spanish in Argentina between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This hybrid variety, born out of the communicative needs of Italian immigrants, manifested itself mainly in everyday speech and in popular Argentine theatre, where it acquired both comedic and dramatic dimensions. In this context, the article focuses on the television series Vientos de Agua (2006), directed by Juan José Campanella, as a contemporary example of the representation of this phenomenon. Vientos de Agua can be considered a “hybrid cultural product” (Shohat & Stam, 1994, p. 205), insofar as it stages cross-migratory movements between Spain and Argentina (and vice versa) through a family saga that begins in 1934 and extends to 2005. Moreover, the series may be interpreted as a device of collective memory that recovers the Italo-Argentine legacy by highlighting how linguistic and cultural contact contributed to shaping a hybrid and multifaceted identity. These elements are essential to understanding the migratory and cultural history of the country.