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Welsh, Libanese and... Patagonian Boliche
The existence of large expanses of mostly uninhabited land was seen as a problem in the early years for the new nation of Argentina, for whom “governing meant above all populating” the “Argentine desert”. This led to policies for attracting settlers, preferably Europeans.
And the settlers arrived, prompted by the economic difficulties and political conflicts of their respective countries. But why did they come to Patagonia? “There were no frontiers here”, replies Ernest Contìn, an immigrant. “And the land was all ours. Spain was going through difficult times and America was a temptation for all of us… everyone came, not only Basques: Arabs, Italians...”
Many immigrants arrived from Northern Europe: Germans and Swiss in the areas of Bariloche; the English and the Scots in the province of Santa Cruz; the Welsh in that of Chubut. The Italians and Spaniards, however, settled in the valley of the Rio Negro, and specialized in fruit and vegetable cultivation. The Lebanese settled in northern Patagonia, and began trading, opening up the now legendary boliches, a sort of general store with the result that the words boliche and ‘Turk’ are almost interchangeable in the region’s social memory.
But internal migration was also constant, and in the second half of the 1900s many of the region’s urban areas were populated in this way.
Out of the various groups of immigrants, the Welsh are possibly the most unusual. The first community of Welsh immigrants settled in the Chubut River valley in the mid 1800s, beyond the uncertain borderline. Because of difficult living conditions, the first few years were actually very hard, but the Welsh managed to establish a relationship with the indigenous Tehuelche people: the latter obtained meat for them, and taught them how to use bolas to hunt. In exchange the settlers offered them bread, when they had some. The economic and cultural systems of the Welsh and the Tehuelche were complementary in some ways. The balance of their relations was only destroyed during the Conquest of the Desert, the Argentine military campaign that drove the indigenous peoples out. But traces of the friendship between the two groups remain in a letter sent by the Welsh to General Vinter in 1883 in which the “people of Chubut” sought to intercede on behalf of their indigenous friends: “we have known the Indios for a long time, and for this reason we request your benevolence and protection”.
(19/10/2005)
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