Blog 1 of 3: Rugby, Choirs and Sheep: How Wales Migrated to Argentina.

If we believe the stereotypes, Wales has long been widely known for its rugby, choirs and sheep. (1)

My partner and I decided that we would visit Patagonia in 2026 for his 50th birthday. In our research - both being half-Welsh - we were thrilled to discover that there is a whole Welsh town nestled in the Chubut Valley of Argentina. The locals speak the Welsh language, observe Welsh traditions and customs and have a great relationship with Wales in the UK. My interest was piqued - why on Earth is there a Welsh town in Patagonia and how did it get there? I recently returned from the funeral of my Aunt Audrey - my mother’s sister - in Wales. I had mostly spent time with her when I was a child and teen, visiting my Welsh family. She had a beautiful Southern Welsh accent and loved animals, nature and music. ​

Busnant Wood: the site of my Aunt's funeral in Wales.

At the funeral itself, I was further reminded of Welsh cultural identity. My Aunt Audrey was interred at Glascwm (‘green valley’) in Llandrindod Wells on a natural burial site. The hills, valleys and nature in general are important to Welsh culture and the scenery of Wales is a well known tourist attraction. Sheep outnumber people 3 to 1 and the rolling landscape is stunning. The choice of setting was beautiful and serene; I could hear the birds singing and the only buildings in view were a three-sided shelter where the cardboard coffin was held and a compost toilet on one side. Music was played on the harp, the violin and later, the ukulele by my cousin and her friend as we gathered around family-decorated coffin, then again as we processed to and from the burial site where a tree would be planted on top of my aunt’s remains. Music has always been dear to the Welsh and my cousin and uncle are both professional musicians. The funeral unexpectedly became a participant observation for me, and a reminder of traditions that give Wales its character. As well as the setting, the signage and the music, the celebrant was a humanist, a reflection perhaps of the first Welsh religion of Celtic paganism. She handed out (recycled) paper with a paragraph about the Day of the Goddess on one side and - on the other - the folklore of ‘telling the bees’. (pictured)

It is this recent reminder of Welsh culture and my family who live or lived there that inspired me to explore the historical creation of Patagonian Wales. Is it colonialism to create a new Wales overseas? How did Y Wladfa affect the indigenous people of Patagonia? Is it possible to keep an entire cultural legacy intact? And… are there sheep?

Primary Sources

Happily, there is much material available about both the Welsh traditions in the UK and those historically and currently practiced in Y Wladfa. In the early days of the colony, the settlers themselves published several magazines: Y Brut, Ein Breiniad, Y Dravod. The titles translate as The Chronicle, Our Privilege and The Discussion. There is also a great storehouse of Welsh newspapers at the National Library of Wales covering news from the colony. Many books and articles have been published on the subject including: Memoir and Identity in Welsh Patagonia by Geraldine Lublin, Gwaldfa Patagonia 1865-1965 by R. Bryn Williams, The British World Diaspora, Culture and Identity edited By Carl Bridge & Kent Fedorowich and Hiraeth Stories from Welsh Patagonia by Steph Davies. There is also a broad film archive including British Pathé and the BBC.

Though I am learning the Welsh language, I am only a beginner and the Welsh language source material will be inaccessible to me. I can use an online translator, but some things may be lost in translation. Happily, there are videos interviewing Y Wladfa’s people on the project-hiraeth website with English subtitles and other source materials are available in English as well as Welsh.

History

This small country in the UK has long fought to keep its Welshness alive despite quashings of the language and English interference. Y Wladfa is perhaps a strange example of historical migration, as the driving force of this move involved the nationalistic push to create another Wales outside of the UK. Rather than a colonialist conquering of another land, the Welsh themselves felt threatened by the colonial overlords of England and hoped to create an oasis of Welshness elsewhere. The settlers were not expected to live amongst Patagonian people, but to establish their own lands and bring their culture and language wholesale with them. Or perhaps it was ‘simultaneously colonized and colonizing’ as Lucy Taylor suggests. (2)

​In 1865, 150 Welsh people migrated to Patagonia to create Y Wladfa, ‘The Colony’. A column in the 1898 Rhyl Journal (3) - pictured left - reflects on the migration of its Welsh people. Many had previously settled in different parts of the United States, but the Welsh language was lost within a few generations - due to the necessity of speaking English - and Welsh ‘national characteristics’ were lost. The column continues by discussing the journey of Nationalist, Rev Michael D Jones who went to assess the suitability of Patagonia for a larger Welsh colony where concerns of assimilation might be avoided.

40 years prior to the article being written, Rev Jones bought land with the agreement of the Argentinian government and in 1865, the Welsh emigrants established themselves in Chubut Valley. The article glosses over the difficult early years where the settlers were forced to live in caves and had little to keep them alive until they found a peaceable connection with the local Tehuelche people and were able to establish more fertile lands and irrigation. Within a few decades, the colony grew to some 3.7 thousand residents, with schools, a place of worship, a post office, a reading room and government buildings. The article concludes with a damning literary shrug of the shoulders, suggesting that the Welsh will nonetheless become absorbed by the dominant Argentinian culture. (4) 

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​Michael D. Jones made it clear that the Welsh should not use force against the native Patagonians and instead establish a peace between the settlers and the indigenous people. This was not only morally correct, but ensured the early survival of the settlers by giving them the skills to ride wild horses and hunt the local fare (rhea and guanaco). ​Nowadays, the Welsh settlement towns in Patagonia are Gaiman, Rawson, Trelew, Dolavon, Las Plumas, Paso de Indios and Trevelin. (6)

(5)

(1) James McCarthy, “Wool-d you believe Wales is losing sheep?” BBC News, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c206y40gke5o.
​(2) Lucy Taylor, “Global Perspectives on Welsh Patagonia: The Complexities of Being Both Colonizer and Colonized” Journal of Global History 13, no. 3 (2018): 446–68. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1740022818000232. 
(3) Author unknown. “Y Wladfa.” Rhyl Journal, 23 April 1898. https://newspapers.library.wales/view/3624968/3624970/13.
(4) Ibid.
(5) Image: Welsh settlers and indigenous Tehuelche people. People’s Collection Wales. https://www.peoplescollection.wales/learn/native-patagonians-and-welsh-settlers.
(6) Audrey. Che Argentina Travel. Accessed 2 January 2024 https://cheargentinatravel.com/gaiman-welsh-town-patagonia/.