MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Welsh descendants celebrate

Descendants of the original Welsh settlers in Patagonia celebrated this week in Trevelin, the one hundredth anniversary of the decision to become Argentines, when the area was still under border dispute with Chile.

The settlers had originally arrived in the "Mimosa", and in 1902 an envoy from the British Crown was sent, on request from Argentina and Chile, to help sort things out.

Sir Thomas Hodich, together with the representative from Chile Hans Steffen, and Francisco P. Moreno from Argentina worked out the border line and it was then Welsh descendants, with a referendum, decided on the east side, that is Argentina.

The Welsh colony has since prospered from agriculture and cattle farming, and the town of Trevelin, "mill town" in Welsh, has become the hub of the community..

Settlers have kept the Welsh language, songs and spirit, plus names, Evans, Hughes, Davies, Jones, Thomas, but have also mingled with the locals and consider themselves above all Argentines from Patagonia.

However the beginnings were not easy, the settlers who landed in Puerto Madryn hardly new the language, much less about agriculture, --mostly were miners-- it took them several seasons to adapt to weather conditions in the southern hemisphere and the area was been conquered from the Indians.