The story of the Welsh colony in Patagonia begins with the huge Welsh Diaspora of the 19th century. Similar to Ireland and Scotland, Wales began a long process of depopulation, with many Welsh speakers moving to the USA and Australia. English dominance of Wales became more obvious to those in transition between spaces, with many being required to learn English to fill even low-skilled jobs in their new homes. Coupled with the new English schooling system in Wales, it seemed the Welsh language was to be declawed and pushed to extinction. This trend ignited the imagination of several radical Welsh thinkers, led by the firebrand Revered Michael D Jones, of Bala in North Wales.
Jones drove and inspired the head of the colony, founding the Colonizing Society in 1861. The society campaigned for the establishment of the colony through lecture tours, newspaper articles and the Handbook of the Welsh Colony (Llawlyfr y Wladfa).By 1862, a preliminary mission was sent to Argentina to assess the suitability of Patagonia. This mission was made up of Sir Love Jones-Parry and Lewis Jones, the former a wealthy landowner and politician, the latter a printer and pioneer of Welsh journalism. Together, they entered into an agreement with the Argentine government for one hundred square miles of land on the Patagonian coast. They returned to Wales with a glowing report of the land they had surveyed, comparing the area to lowland areas of Britain and making explicit reference to the possibilities for agriculture. By 1865, the project was truly tenable and on May 28th, a commercial ship, the Mimosa,left Liverpool with 153 welsh settlers aboard.
On July 28th1865, Richard Berwyn Jones leapt from the Mimosa on to the beach of Puerto Madryn; making him to first colonist in the new land. Yet, as the others disembarked, the views that greeted them were not identical to those found in lowland Wales. Rather, they were welcomed by a semi-arid desert with little vegetation or rainfall. The settlers moved up the Chubut valley from the coast, with only a single wheelbarrow to carry their belongings. Their first permanent settlement was established in Rawson, but the Yr Hen Amddiffynfa (The Old Fortress) which the settlers built was the only thing left standing after a flash flood. This marked a low point for the community, with several deaths from the harsh Argentine conditions. Haggared by the weather and with few resources remaining, the odds of establishing a thriving colony looked bleak.
Interactions with native peoples saved this small community. After this initial tragedy, the Welsh settlers began to reach out the native ethnic groups living in the area. They recognised indigenous sovereignty, learned key hunting and gathering techniques and traded with native leaders: such as the apt businessman and chief, Cacique Antonio of the Pampa Indians. Over the next decade a positive relationship grew between the indigenous peoples and the Welsh settler community, marked by mutual respect and longstanding peace. This relationship allowed the colony to expand once more and it was on a stable footing by 1875. Yet, this relationship was not to last. In 1882, the central argentine government, which was sovereign in name only up until this point, began a putative Conquest of the Desert. Indigenous peoples were deported, and the argentine government stepped in to stop the expansion of Welsh language and culture. As the Welsh were Europeans, they avoided the harsh treatment afforded to the natives, but their dream of a Welsh cultural Utopiahad been crushed.
Today, Y Wladfa is not an entity in its own right: the towns which made up the colony are now part of the huge Chubut province. The settlers’ dream of a ‘little Wales beyond Wales’ never came to pass in the way they imagined it. However, a different type of Welsh culture survives and thrives in Patagonia: Welsh is still spoken by 5,000 people, accounting for approximately 10% of the population in the old area of Y Wladfa, an Eisteddfod takes place in Trelew annually and there are strong cultural bonds between Patagonia and Wales. Welsh schools run school trips to Patagonia and Patagonian young people travel to Wales to integrate themselves further in the Welsh language and culture. Y Wladfawas not have a land free of outside influences, instead, it created a new, unique, Cosmopolitan Welsh identity, bridging the gap between Welsh, English, Spanish and Indigenous worlds. This identity is invaluable for a Wales asserting itself linguistically and politically; it must be heeded if what it means to be Welsh is to keep up with a globalising world.
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