First settlers 1865 The idea of a Welsh colony in
Patagonia was put forward by
Michael D. Jones, a
Welsh nationalist nonconformist preacher based in
Bala, Gwynedd, who had called for a new "little Wales beyond Wales". He spent some years in the
United States, where he observed that Welsh immigrants assimilated very quickly compared with other peoples and often lost much of their Welsh identity. He proposed setting up a
Welsh-speaking colony away from the influence of the
English language. He recruited settlers and provided financing;
Australia,
New Zealand and even
Palestine were considered, but Patagonia was chosen for its isolation and the Argentines' offer of of land along the
Chubut River in exchange for settling the still-unconquered land of Patagonia for Argentina. Jones had no doubt of his right to take possession there, writing "other lands are available and they are in complete possession of savage people, such as Patagonia, and it is undoubtedly possible to make a colony in a land like this...". Patagonia, including the Chubut Valley, was claimed by Buenos Aires but it had little control over the area (which was also claimed by Chile). Towards the end of 1862, Captain
Love Jones-Parry and
Lewis Jones (after whom Trelew was named) left for Patagonia to decide whether it was a suitable area for Welsh emigrants. They first visited
Buenos Aires where they held discussions with the Interior Minister
Guillermo Rawson then, having come to an agreement, headed south. They reached Patagonia in a small ship named the
Candelaria, and were driven by a storm into a bay which they named
Porth Madryn, after Jones-Parry's estate in Wales. The town that grew near the spot where they landed is now named
Puerto Madryn. On their return to Wales they declared the area to be very suitable for colonization. On 28 July 1865, 153
Welsh settlers arrived aboard the
clipper ship
Mimosa. The
Mimosa settlers, including
tailors,
cobblers,
carpenters,
brickmakers, and
miners, comprised 56 married adults, 33 single or widowed men, 12 single women (usually sisters or servants of married immigrants), and 52 children; the majority (92) were from the
South Wales Coalfield and English urban centres. Once they reached the valley of the Chubut River, their first settlement was a small fortress on the site which later became the town of
Rawson, now the capital of
Chubut Province. By 1885, wheat production had reached 6,000 tons, with wheat produced by the colony winning the gold medal at international expositions at
Paris and
Chicago. The mouth of the
Chubut River was difficult to navigate, being shallow and with shifting sandbanks, and it was decided that a railway was required to connect the Lower Chubut valley to
Puerto Madryn (originally Porth Madryn) on the
Golfo Nuevo on the southern side of the
Valdes Peninsula.
Expansion towards the Andes 1885–1902 By the mid-1880s most of the good agricultural land in the Lower Chubut valley had been claimed, and the colonists mounted a number of expeditions to explore other parts of Patagonia to seek more cultivable land. In 1885, the Welsh asked the governor of
Chubut Province,
Luis Jorge Fontana, for permission to arrange an expedition to explore the
Andean part of Chubut. Fontana decided to accompany the expedition in person. By the end of November 1885 they had reached a fertile area which the Welsh named (Pleasant Valley). By 1888, this site at the foot of the Andes had become another Welsh settlement, This area became the subject of the
Cordillera of the Andes Boundary Case 1902 between Argentina and Chile. Initially the border was defined by a line connecting the highest peaks in the area, but it later became clear that this line was not the same as the line separating the watersheds, with some of the rivers in the area flowing westwards. Argentina and Chile agreed that the United Kingdom should act as arbitrator, and the views of the Welsh settlers were canvassed. In 1902, despite an offer of a league of land per family from Chile, they voted to remain in Argentina. although some of these families later returned to Chubut and later migrated to Australia. Some other settlers moved to
Río Negro Province in Argentina. Many of those who left Chubut were late arrivals who had failed to obtain land of their own, and they were replaced by more immigrants from Wales. By the end of the 19th century there were some 4,000 people of Welsh descent living in Chubut. The last substantial migration from Wales took place shortly before
World War I, which put a halt to further immigration. Approximately 1,000 Welsh immigrants arrived in Patagonia between 1886 and 1911; on the basis of this and other statistics, Glyn Williams estimated that perhaps no more than 2,300 Welsh people ever migrated directly to Patagonia.
Later development Immigration to the area after 1914 was mainly from
Italy and other southern European countries. Welsh became a minority language. The creation in 1885 of a
co-operative, the '''' (), was important. The Society traded on the settlers' behalf in
Buenos Aires and acted as a bank with 14 branches. The cooperative society collapsed in the
Great Depression of the 1930s. The construction of a dam on the Rio Chubut west of Trelew, inaugurated on 19 April 1963, removed the risk of flooding in the Lower Chubut Valley. The Welsh have left their mark on the landscape, with
windmills and
chapels across the province, including the distinctive wood and corrugated zinc Capel Salem in the Gaiman area and
Trelew's Salon San David. Many settlements along the valley bear Welsh names. During the British Government's
repatriation of the 11,313
Argentine POWs taken during the 1982
Falklands War, Welsh-speaking British merchant seamen and British soldiers from the
Welsh Guards were shocked to find themselves addressed in
Patagonian Welsh by an Argentine POW who was on the way home to
Puerto Madryn. Over the years since, close ties between Wales and Y Wladfa have been re-established. A 2001
BBC article described in detail the recent visit to
Chubut Province by
Archdruid and 30 members of the
Gorsedd Cymru in order to revive the
Gorsedd Y Wladfa in a ceremony held in a specially constructed
stone circle near
Gaiman. Every year, the
Eisteddfod festival takes place in the town of
Trevelin. BBC reporters attended the 2001
Eisteddfod del Chubut at
Trelew and watched as the
Bardic Chair was awarded for the first time in
Y Wladfa to a female poet: Gaiman hotel owner Monica Jones de Jones, for an
Awdl on the subject of
Rhyddid ("Freedom"). The article's author continued, "The Patagonia Eisteddfod itself, while sharing those elements common to Eisteddfodau in Wales itself, nonetheless is, in other respects, quite a different affair. As well as haunting
Welsh folk tunes, and recitations in the unique
Spanish-accented Welsh of the Patagonians, there are also rousing displays of Argentine
folk dancing which owe everything to the
culture of the gauchos and nothing to the somewhat tamer dance routines of the Welsh homeland." Current Eisteddfod competitions are
bilingual, in both Patagonian Welsh and
Argentine Spanish, and include poetry, prose,
literary translations (Welsh, Spanish, English, Italian, and French), musical performances, arts, folk dances, photography, and filmmaking among others. The
Eisteddfod de la Juventud is held every September at Gaiman. The main
Eisteddfod del Chubut is held every October at
Trelew. Other annual eisteddfodau are held at
Trevelin, in the
Andes and at
Puerto Madryn along the
South Atlantic coast. While visiting Patagonia to research his 2004 book
The Last of the Celts, Marcus Tanner visited the Trelew home of local Welsh-language poet
Geraint Edmunds. Edmunds was, according to Tanner, "a Welsh Patagonian of the old type, as fluent in Welsh as Spanish". During Tanner's visit, he noticed that "a beautifully made Bardic Chair", which Geraint Edmunds's poetry had won was on reverent display in the front room. To Tanner's disappointment, however, the bard's son, Eduardo Edmunds, would speak only Spanish and replied when asked about his ancestral language, "I think I'd rather learn English – more useful." Since
Welsh devolution, however, the
Welsh Parliament in Cardiff has provided both funding and teachers to joint Welsh-Spanish immersion schools, such as
Ysgol yr Hendre, in Chubut Province. In 2006, the first of a
two-Test tour to
Argentina by the
Wales national rugby union team was played in Puerto Madryn, which was a 27–25 win for Argentina. In 2019, 1,411 people undertook Welsh courses in the region, which was the highest number on record for the project. During 2023–24, there were over 970 registered learners (schools and adult learners) – a rise from 623 in 2020. In 2014, Professor E. Wyn James of
Cardiff University estimated that there were perhaps as many as 5,000 people in Patagonia who could speak Welsh. In October 2015, the
BBC National Orchestra of Wales undertook an historic visit to Y Wladfa to give two concerts in a newly refurbished concert hall, that had previously been a wool factory on the outskirts of Trelew. These performances attracted thousands of local visitors and helped celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Welsh migration. Welsh harpist
Catrin Finch and conductor
Grant Llewelyn were part of the concerts. ==Welsh relationship with Indigenous people==