The Welsh language in Patagonia

Abstract

It was in order to be able to continue speaking Welsh, unhindered by the British state, that Welsh colonists migrated to Patagonia, in the south of Argentina. But the Welsh community soon came under the control of the expanding Argentine state. Respite for the Welsh-speaking community from interference by a powerful, centralised administration proved to be short-lived: what the Welsh had sought to escape from by leaving Britain, simply reappeared in the guise of the Argentine Republic. Relations between the Welsh colony and the government soured, especially from the 1880s until the turn of the century. Second generation Welsh colonists were, of necessity, increasingly bilingual, as Spanish became the official language of Argentina’s fast-growing, multi-ethnic population. The Welsh colony’s schools and local institutions allowed linguistic resistance for a time, as did the written press which had grown up with the settlement.

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