French in Argentina

[Tannhauser]

Français en Argentine
Franceses en Argentina

The French immigration in Argentina was one of the most numerous of all the European immigrants who came to Argentina from mid-nineteenth century and the middle of the twentieth century. Although far below the two main streams of immigration at that time (Spanish and Italian), French immigration was comfortably placed in a second category along with other communities that also had a significant number.

Thus, It formed one of the most prominent communities of French descendants on the continent and in the world outside of Europe. Between 1857 and 1946 , 261,020 French emigrated to Argentina. Of this number, imore than 100,000 settled permanently in the country. Today, more than 6 million Argentines have some degree of French ancestry(up to 17% of the total population).

While Argentines of French descent make up a substantial percentage of the Argentine population, they are less visible than that of other origins of similar size. This is due to the high degree of cultural assimilation, mixed with other European immigrants, in the case of the French Basque immigrants who had a different cultural background from the rest of the French, and in the case of areas such as the northwest and Cuyo a la lack of important French colonies where French immigrants settled to work in crops or livestock.

French Embassy in Argentina.

Regions of origin


The first wave of French to arrive in the country came mainly from the southern regions of Aquitaine, Midi-Pyrenees. The French-Basque along with the late immigration of Pied Noirs were also a numerically important group.

Half of French immigrants until the second half of the 20th century came from Southwestern France, especially from the Basque Country, Béarn (Basses-Pyrénées accounted for more than 20% of immigrants), Bigorre and Rouergue. Other important groups came from Savoy and the Paris region. It was estimated that at least 70% of French immigrants in Tandil were coming from the Southwestern part of the country and that half of them were of Basque stock. Until the 1880s, the great majority of French immigrants to Argentina were from the Pyrenees.

The flow decreased dramatically during WWI. After 1918, French immigrants to Argentina numbered 1,500 per year and had a slightly positive net migration rate. The flow of French immigrants then gradually dried up. In the 1960s, around 4,000 Pieds-Noirs immigrated to Argentina from the newly independent Algeria, they constituted the last large migration from France to Argentina.

Rue D'Argentine, Paris.

[Alexandro]

Interesting, never knew about this.

In my head I associate the architecture of Buenos Aires with styles like Art Nouveau, Beaux-Arts and French Neoclassical though so I suppose it makes sense.

[Tenma de Pegasus]

Combina muito, acho a cara da vibe de Buenos Aires.

[Tannhauser]

Carlos Gardel - "El Zorzal Criollo".



Birth name: Charles Romuald Gardès
Born: December 11th 1890 Toulouse, France
Origin Buenos Aires, Argentina
Died June 24, 1935 (aged 44)
Medellín, Colombia
Genres Tango
Occupation(s) Singer-Songwriter
Years active 1917–1935

Carlos Gardel (born Charles Romuald Gardès; 11 December 1890 – 24 June 1935) was a French Argentine singer, songwriter, composer and actor, and the most prominent figure in the history of tango. He was one of the most influential interpreters of world popular music in the first half of the 20th century. Gardel is the most famous popular tango singer of all time and is recognized throughout the world.[2][3][4][5] He was notable for his baritone voice and the dramatic phrasing of his lyrics. Together with lyricist and long-time collaborator Alfredo Le Pera, Gardel wrote several classic tangos.

Gardel died in an airplane crash at the height of his career, becoming an archetypal tragic hero mourned throughout Latin America. For many, Gardel embodies the soul of the tango style. He is commonly referred to as "Carlitos", "El Zorzal" ("The Song thrush"), "The King of Tango", "El Mago" (The Wizard), "El Morocho del Abasto" (The Brunette boy from Abasto), and ironically "El Mudo" (The Mute).

Quién te crees que sos? Gardel?
Who do you think you are? Gardel?

[Tannhauser]

Bernardo Houssay, the Argentine who revolutionized diabetes treatment (and was the first Latin American to win a Nobel in Science)

Bernardo Alberto Houssay was an Argentine physiologist who, in 1947, was a co-recipient of a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the role played by pituitary hormones in regulating the amount of blood sugar in animals. He was the first Argentine Nobel laureate in the sciences.

Born: April 10, 1887, Buenos Aires
Died: September 21, 1971, Buenos Aires
Awards: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Guggenheim Fellowship for Natural Sciences, Latin America & Caribbean
Education: University of Buenos Aires (1911), University of Buenos Aires (1901–1904), Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires
Books: Human Physiology

Bernardo Houssay is famous for being the first Latin American to win a Nobel Prize in Medicine, in 1947. But a lesser-known fact is that he was also a genius child. In the 1940s, when he won the Nobel Prize, Houssay was celebrated all over the world ... except in his country, where Peronism ostracized him.

He graduated from school at the age of 13, and not from just any school: from the Colegio Nacional Buenos Aires, one of the most prestigious and demanding educational institutions in the Argentine capital.

He was the first in his family to study in Argentina: his French parents, who had settled in Buenos Aires in 1886, sent their three oldest children to study in France. Not happy with the results, they decided to educate their fourth children in their new adopted city.

The family of the award-winning doctor revealed that, after graduating, he could not fulfill his desire to study medicine since, at only 14 years old, he was too young to enroll in the career. Instead, he enrolled in the School of Pharmacy and Biochemistry at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and took just three years to graduate.

[Tannhauser]

Luís Federico Leloir

Luis Federico Leloir (September 6, 1906 – December 2, 1987) was an Argentine physician and biochemist who received the 1970 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of the metabolic pathways in lactose.

Born: September 6, 1906, Paris, France
Died: December 2, 1987, Buenos Aires
Education: University of Buenos Aires
Place of burial: Recoleta Cemetery, Buenos Aires
Awards: Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize, Canada Gairdner International Award, ForMemRS, Legion of Honour
Known for: Galactosemia, Lactose intolerance, Carbohydrate metabolism

Early years

Leloir's parents, Federico Augusto Rufino Leloir Bernal and Hortensia Aguirre de Leloir, traveled from Buenos Aires to Paris in the middle of 1906 with the intention of treating Federico's illness. However, Federico died in late August, and a week later Luis was born in an old house at 81 Víctor Hugo Road in Paris, a few blocks away from the Arc de Triomphe. After returning to Argentina in 1908, Leloir lived together with his eight siblings on their family's extensive property El Tuyú that his grandparents had purchased after their immigration from the Basque Country of northern Spain: El Tuyú comprises 400 km2 of sandy land along the coastline from San Clemente del Tuyú to Mar de Ajó which has since become a popular tourist attraction.

During his childhood, the future Nobel Prize winner found himself observing natural phenomena with particular interest; his schoolwork and readings highlighted the connections between the natural sciences and biology. His education was divided between Escuela General San Martín (primary school), Colegio Lacordaire , and for a few months at Beaumont College in England. His grades were unspectacular, and his first stint in college ended quickly when he abandoned his architectural studies that he had begun in Paris' École Polytechnique.[6]

Golf Sauce

It was during the 1920s that Leloir invented salsa golf (golf sauce). After being served prawns with the usual sauce during lunch with a group of friends at the Ocean Club in Mar del Plata, Leloir came up with a peculiar combination of ketchup and mayonnaise to spice up his meal. With the financial difficulties that later plagued Leloir's laboratories and research, he would joke, "If I had patented that sauce, we'd have a lot more money for research right now."

[Samnium]

Génial.

I wasn't aware of that

[Tannhauser]

Pigüé, un coin d'Aveyron dans la Pampa.

Pigüé city is the head of Saavedra Municipality. It's located in the south of Buenos Aires Province, and was founded in the Argentine pampas on December 4, 1884 by a young frenchman named Clément Cabanettes, from the town of Ambec, and by his friend Francois Issaly, from Saint-Félix-de-Lunel, both located in the French department of Aveyron (Occitan region), in southwestern France. In 1880 he discovered the territory as a soldier, and during the development operations of a telephone network he came up with the idea of ​​acquiring Argentine land, a golden opportunity for the Averonese (inhabitants of Avieron), who suffered from the small size of the farms agriculture in their region and by the arrival of a plague in the vineyards of the valleys. After obtaining a land concession, thus was founded Pigüé, whose name means "Meeting place" in the aboriginal language, which over time received settlers from all over Europe, especially Spanish, Italians and Volga Germans.

Pigüé today has more than 15,000 inhabitants and in honor of Clément Cabanettes a statue was erected in the central square.

Strong ties between France and Pigüé, past and present.

In Pigüé, where until 1914 "patois" (a sub-dialect of Languedocian, one of the ancestors of the French language) was practiced, the effort to promote French culture, which is at the origins of the city, is remarkable. In all primary, public and private schools, the French language has been taught since 2007, a project created and promoted by the AMICALE DE INTERCAMBIOS PIGÜE, under the auspices of the French Embassy and the General Council of Aveyron. In addition, some inhabitants of Pigüé continue to speak Occitan, the language of their founders. There are also many streets that have preserved the names of the Aveyron region, such as the "City of Rodez" street or the "Saint Côme" Municipal Park. The Rouergue-Pigüé association (sister entity of AMICALE), based in the French city of Saint-Côme-d'Olt, and the French Alliance Pigüense contribute to this task. The latter organizes language courses in the historic building of the French Society of Mutual Sorrows (see below).

Société Française.

Throughout the year, numerous events are organized to celebrate the city's cultural and gastronomic heritage and honor its historical past. Every year, July is designated as "the month of France": the National Holiday of July 14 is celebrated in schools with various artistic shows and in October the "Fête de l'Aligot" arrives for the enjoyment of those with a sweet tooth. , in memory of October 25, 1884, date of the departure by boat of the Averonese to Argentina, organized and carried out by AMICALE for more than 300 students who learn French in local schools ...

Fête de l'Aligot

The Aligot, symbol of conviviality and sharing, prepared as usual by the Amicale d'Échanges , was in the spotlight for this atypical Francophile festival, observing, of course, all the measures of protection and hygiene imposed by the pandemic situation.
2020 Instead of the official toast at noon, and the traditional dinner on July 14, this time the three local French institutions, the Société Française de Secours Mutuels , the Alliance Française and the Amicale d'Échanges Pigüé , gathered around the preparation and sale of a typical Aveyron meal, thus honoring the founders: aligot , sausages and Malbec apples .

Fête de l'Omelette.


Like every year, on Sunday December 4, the Giant Omelette Festival will take place, organized by the “World Brotherhood of the Knights of the Giant Omelette of Piguë”. This festival contributes to preserving the tradition of the Aveyronnais in Argentina.

[French Rolland]

I traveled to Aveyron and Aligot is an huge thing there. (Really tasty by the way) And Piguë really reminded me the place. Only different in the topography.

[Flashball]

I know "Carlos" Cardel!

His parents are from Haute-Garonne. His genealogy here, with some picture family : https://gw.geneanet.org/tinagaquer?l...&n=gardes&oc=1