This contribution focuses on Genoa, a city in north-western Italy characterized by the stable presence of Hispanic-American communities, especially from Ecuador and Peru. Based on a study on a corpus of photos taken in restaurants and food shops and on some interviews given by their owners, this contribution analyzes the presence in the city of words and expressions related to gastronomy, as well as the function that food exercises in communities and in the territory. The analysis attests that the use of language in the urban space observed is closely related to the different ways of integration, as well as revealing the process of reterritorialization and appropriation of the space, a way to mark the terrain in which to redefine one's identity.
