The first Poles to arrive in Argentina were, in all probability, veterans of the Napoleonic wars. They were followed by successive waves of Polish political and economic emigration and joined the local liberation struggles. Among Argentina's national holidays is the Day of the Polish Settler (Día del Colono Polaco), which falls on 8 June.

History of the creation of the Polish community in Argentina

The Polish community in Argentina, which today numbers between 120,000 and 450,000 people, arose as a result of successive waves of emigration from Polish lands. The first were of a political and military nature: veterans serving under Napoleon, November and January insurgents and emigrants after the Second World War came to La Plata. The economic exodus was initiated with the settlement of fourteen families from Malopolska in the province of Misiones.

After the 1905 revolution, a large group of workers came from the Kingdom of Poland and settled in Buenos Aires. Between the wars, some 150,000 Polish citizens settled in Argentina, including many Jews and Ukrainians. The settlers, especially in the provinces, struggled with difficult living conditions. Often, contrary to their announcements and expectations, they arrived in the forest, which they were yet to clear in order to settle there. They also struggled with many diseases, insects and a difficult climate - and yet more Poles kept arriving.

Polish organisations in Argentina

In 1890, the Polish Society, the first Polish organisation in Latin America, was established. In the inter-war period, the authorities of the Republic of Poland gave a boost to the lush development of Polish life with their support. The Polish-Argentine Chamber of Commerce, which is still active today, was established at that time. During the Second World War, the Argentine Polish community organised collections of money, sending parcels to prisoners of war and caring for refugees in aid of Polish soldiers. Even approx. 2000 Argentines with Polish roots enlisted in the Polish Army.

Today, the Union of Poles in Argentina has 34 organisations, and the centre of the Polish movement remains the province of Misiones (where the first Polish clusters were established). Since 1960, there has also been a Polish Library named after Ignacy Domeyko in Buenos Aires. Several Polish newspapers are published, including "Głos Polski: a non-partisan and independent periodical" (continuously since 1922). The Polish Catholic Mission in Argentina is also active.

First Polish settlements in Argentina

The sad truth about the Second Polish Republic is that it was home to several million people who could not secure a decent standard of living, let alone social advancement. In agriculture: land could not be divided indefinitely, and the most radical reform would not satisfy its hunger. In industry, even the ten Central Industrial Districts would not have absorbed the inhabitants of the overcrowded countryside, not to mention the profitability of their potential production.

The way out of the situation of dramatic rural overpopulation was to become settlements outside the country. One attempt to deal with this issue was the activities of the Maritime and Colonial League, established in 1930. The organisation, in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, sought land for the mass settlement of Polish citizens, including on the Argentine-Brazilian-Paraguayan borderland.

The International Settlement Society was established to implement the government's settlement policy on the South American continent. Its activities in Argentina and Brazil were carried out through settlement companies that purchased land. The settlement action in the Argentine province of Misiones was carried out by the Compaña Colonizadora del Norte (owned by the Polish government). By the outbreak of the Second World War, 144 families had been brought in (the first arriving in 1937). They established the first Polish colonies, which they named Polana, Wanda (in honour of Jozef Pilsudski's daughter) and Gobernador Lanusse.

Far more numerous, however, was the grassroots emigration to Argentina. After the defeat of 1939, the Argentine government took over the company's lands and - despite attempts at revindication by the Polish People's Republic authorities and the Polish community - has owned them to this day.

Poles who are remembered in Argentina

Witold Gombrowicz (1904-1969), one of the most outstanding Polish writers of the 20th century, arrived in Argentina as a journalist reporting on the maiden voyage of the passenger ship MS Chrobry. When the war broke out, he decided to wait it out in Buenos Aires, where he lived until 1963. However, it is worth mentioning at least three other representatives of the Argentinean Polish community.

The Vilnius-based Robert Adolf Chodasiewicz (1832-1896), a military officer, engineer and topographer, pioneer of balloon armies, fought in a number of wars in Europe and the Americas. In 1890 he co-founded the Polish Democratic Association in Buenos Aires. His funeral was attended by the then President of the Argentine Republic.

A native of Ternopil, Jan Szychowski (1890-1960), although he completed only a few forms of primary school, was a well-known designer (including the first lathe made in Argentina), inventor and entrepreneur (his factory producing agricultural machinery brought him fortune and fame, as did Amanda, a family business known worldwide for its production of yerba mate). Szychowski's ingenuity and entrepreneurship were recognised by the Polish Government, which awarded him the Bronze Cross of Merit in 1936, and by the National Geographic Society, which made him an honorary member in 1957. Since 1997, the Juan Szychowski Museum has been operating in Apóstoles .

Back in Argentina, Kresowian Florian Czarnyszewicz (1900-1964) created, in his autobiographical novel Nadberezyńcy , wonderful literary images of the Polish landed gentry of the early 20th century in Minsk (Belarus), whose extermination was carried out by the Soviet NKVD in 1937-1938 as part of the so-called Polish Operation.

Day of the Polish Settler

Día del Colono Polaco , celebrated on 8 June (since 1995), established by the Argentine Parliament as a national holiday, commemorates the arrival of the first fourteen Polish families in Buenos Aires in 1897. Every year at this time, a week-long series of cultural events dedicated to Poland and Poles is organised in Buenos Aires under the patronage of the Polish Embassy in Argentina, the Union of Poles in Argentina and the Asociación Cultural Argentino Polaca and Fundación Argentina.