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Polacy w Argentynie - Poles in Argentina
History of the community
Arrived in our country almost by chance, this community was made up, among others, of people linked to royalty and European nobility.
Luck had a lot to do with Polish immigration to Argentina. The ship on which the first group traveled to formally settle in the country was actually destined for the United States. But when the ship reached its destination, many of the Polish passengers did not meet the requirements to enter that country. They had two options: turn around or take another course. Some say it was the Argentine consul in Trieste, others say it was the maritime company, the truth is that someone told that group of Poles about Argentina, a place where, as promised, there were more opportunities and a lot of ground to work on.
Thus, in 1897, the first Polish group on record arrived. They came from Eastern Galicia, the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire today divided between Poland and Ukraine. Many of them settled in Misiones, and many others stayed in La Plata and in Buenos Aires City.
Before this group, other members of the Polish community had come to the country, but in an even more disorganized manner. Some came from the military ranks: they were Napoleon's soldiers who would later fight for the country's independence. During the 19th century, Poles were also hired by the Argentine government to carry out mapping tasks or to dedicate themselves to teaching, medicine, ethnography and geology.
Until 1919, Polish immigrants were registered as Russians, Germans, or Austrians. But from that year until 1945, Poles ranked fourth among immigrant collectives after Italy, Spain and Germany. Although it is difficult to determine the exact number of Polish immigrants in Argentina, it is estimated that between 1921 and 1976, 169,335 Poles settled permanently in the country. Today there are around 500,000 Argentines of Polish descent.
The last large group to arrive in Argentina did so between 1946 and 1950. They were war refugees, mostly former soldiers. This organized group that arrived in the country was made up of men and women who, after fighting for their homeland in World War II, had no place in communist Poland: the “dipis”. This last group of immigrants was made up mainly of intellectuals who rejected the changes that took place in Poland and was different from all the previous ones: they chose city life, differentiating themselves from previous groups that settled in rural areas of the interior of the country. . They settled mainly in the City of Buenos Aires where they were actively incorporated in the organizational and cultural work of the community.
Another characteristic of Polish immigration after World War II is that it is made up of nobles who lost everything to the Nazis and Soviets. They were landowning families with long-standing ties to European royalty that went from having everything to starting with nothing in Argentina. Among them are Princes Carlos and León Radziwill, Andrés Grabia Jabrzykowski, Count Henryk Sobañski and also Counts Zoltowski. Many of them were intellectuals and greatly influenced to maintain and spread the Polish tradition in Argentina.
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