This new edition of Encuentros Latinoamericanos proposes some issues and problems on a subject that the journal has been addressing since its inception: European immigration, crafts and entrepreneurship in the origins of the industry in Latin America. If the "Latin American" is the central issue of these studies, this does not mean avoiding other perspectives. In this regard, interest in European contributions on these issues in Latin America is seen, and studies on migratory movements and their relationship with the development of craftwork and the industrial revolution in Europe are assumed to be equally relevant, as both perspectives concur shed new light on our questions and reflections.

In previous issues of Latin American Encounters, binding studies between European immigration and business activities were favored in Latin America, mainly in the southern region and Brazil. More recently, attention has focused on the artisanal universe, due to its undeniable relationship in the development of an industry on the continent. This issue of the journal brings together six original works, which articulate three thematic areas: the relationship between immigration and artisanal development; the training of labor in two spaces: the workshop and a technical education institution; finally, the transit of the artisan to the status of employee and their participation in the social struggles of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.