Story Highlights
- Historical event:
- 27 July 1865
- Welsh nationalist Michael D. Jones, who wanted to establish a "little Wales beyond Wales" put forward the idea of a project of relocation to Argentina. Patagonia, still relatively sparsely populated by European immigrants, was chosen for colonization. The new settlement was named “Y Wladfa”, which means “The Colony”.
On this day in 1865, a group of 153 settlers from Wales arrived in Argentina.
They landed with a ship in the harbor called Puerto Madryn in Patagonia. These were mostly whole families with children, and their settlement was named “Y Wladfa”, which means “The Colony” in Welsh.
Welsh nationalist Michael D. Jones, who wanted to establish a “little Wales beyond Wales”, put forward the idea of a project of relocation to Argentina. Patagonia, still relatively sparsely populated by European immigrants, was chosen for colonization.
As many as 32 Welsh settlers had the surname Jones, which is the most common one in Wales (two of the perhaps best-known Welsh people today bear that name – Catherine Zeta-Jones and singer Tom Jones).
The Welsh still live in the mentioned place in Argentina. Indeed, Patagonia has a population of 50,000 people of Welsh origin. In the Welsh language, Argentina is called “Yr Ariannin”.
