Croatian-Chilean Community

[Chile Raptor]

Croatian-Chilean







Chilean Croatian Community



Croatian immigration dates back to the period from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, mostly from the Dalmatia region and the island of Brac.

Croatian Cementery, Punta Arenas







The number of immigrants in this period was approximately 10.000 people, settling throughout the country, but mainly in the city of Punta Arenas.

A second Croatian immigration took place at the end of the 2nd world war, reaching 30.000 people.



Today they are a group completely assimilated to the Chilean population, approximately between 200,000 and 400,000 Chileans are descendants of Croats (350,000 would be the most correct number) where their descendants still gather and proudly remember the ancient traditions of their ancestors.



Some descendants of Croatians:

Tonka Tomicic



Antonio Vodanovic




Androniko Luksic




Carolina Goic




Savka Pollak



Benjamin Kusevic




Croatian Chilean Community

[Mingle]

Nice thread. Is there any reason why Croats migrated to Chile specifically? Chile is pretty far from Croatia.

Also, I'm curious to know what was going on in Dalmatia and Brach at the time for Croats to migrate from there.

[Jana]

Nice thread. Is there any reason why Croats migrated to Chile specifically? Chile is pretty far from Croatia.

Also, I'm curious to know what was going on in Dalmatia and Brach at the time for Croats to migrate from there.

Gold rush and fishing opportunities in Tierra del Fuego. Same for Argentina. After WW2 due to political reasons.
When it comes to first migrant wave, reason for it was this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peronospora

It destroyed Dalmatian grape vine plantations and left thousands of families starving. It especially hit hard mediterranean region in late 19th/early 20th century.

Dalmatia was extremely poor and neglected before that, with poor soil, poor land connections to European mainland, and full with young people due to demographic boom.
Islands were hardest hit and vast majority of Croatian overseas immigrants in that time were Dalmatian islanders.

My own Island has huge colonies in southern California, Argentina and Chile and more descendants live there than in Dalmatia.

Dalmatians always wanted to migrate close to seas because they are skilled sailors and fishermen.
If you see famous Croat origin people from Americas, most likely their Croatian part is from islands. For example Christian Pulisic, his grandpa is by origin Dalmatian islander too.