For 40 years, Berisso, in the Buenos Aires province of Argentina, has celebrated its migrant heritage by holding an annual feast.

In early October, Luisiana Pilar Delicosta, a fouth-generation Greek woman, was elected Queen of the Immigrants from a field of 20 Youth Queens of the Community contestants.

“This year, at a distance of more than 12,000 kilometres away, a 21-year-old woman filled the entire Greek community with pride,” Greek community club Plato wrote in an open letter to the people of Greece.

Berisso mayor Jorge Nedela said, “Our city lives a party that for 40 years shows that we are a community that knows how to live together and unite the different cultures that immigrants brought us. In a world that continues to have conflicts over ethnic issues, Berisso and Argentina are examples of peaceful coexistence.”

Luisiana’s grandparents, Vasileia Yialouri and Zacharias Delikostas arrived in Argentina from Chios in 1906 and settled in Berisso.

There, next to the house where their five sons were born, they built a second home to support other Greek immigrants arriving without material goods but full of faith and hope for a better life.