Galeterias: serving up Italo-Gaucho heritage in the South of Brazil.

This article discusses galeterias, restaurants that serve Galeto al primo canto, an Italian-Brazilian culinary specialty of the Gaucho Highlands region of southern Brazil s Rio Grande do Sul state. It further illustrates the shifting meanings of Italian ethnic identity within the Brazilian nation-state, thereby highlighting the discursive role of tourism and heritage institutions in cultural production process. Aspects considered include: regional and ethnic foods in Brazil; cultural diversity in Rio Grande do Sul; the production of Italo-Gaucho identities; the commodification of ethnic and regional heritage; and the role of Galeterias as an intangible cultural heritage in encouraging Brazilian eating habits and family-oriented commensalism, a threatened gastronomic element.