He married Anne Lloyd in and they settled in their new home at Bodiwan, Bala. They had four children: Llwyd, Mihangel, Myfanwy a Maironwen. Although Michael D. Jones visited Patagonia in , he did not settle there. His sons however did emigrate, one to Patagonia and the other to Buenos Aires. Links are provided to records on Copac for these items. Copac is the free, web based national union catalogue, containing the holdings of many of the major university and National Libraries in UK and Ireland plus a number of special libraries.
For more information about accessing items see the FAQs on the Copac website. You can receive regular updates on our special features by joining our mailing list. The Welsh in Patagonia This month we discuss the founding of a Welsh-speaking settlement in Patagonia in the midth century. Collection descriptions Michael D.
Jones : minister and Principal of the Bala Independent College; played an important role in establishing a Welsh colony in Patagonia, including investing financially.
The Welsh people first arrived in Patagonia in They had migrated to protect their native Welsh culture and language, which they considered to be threatened in their native Wales. Over the years the use of the language started to decrease and there was relatively little contact between Wales and the Chubut Valley. After the initial idea to plan the trip of a lifetime is sparked, travelers often wonder about whether Patagonia, Chile, and Argentina are safe.
The short answer is, absolutely! Patagonia is a safe travel destination for Americans and other foreign travelers.
With the arrival of these keen and fresh hands, new irrigation channels were dug along the length of the Chubut valley, and a patchwork of farms began to emerge along a thin strip on either side of the River Camwy. In the Argentine government granted the Welsh settlers official title to the land, and this encouraged many more people to join the colony, with more than people arriving from Wales, including many from the south Wales coalfields which were undergoing a severe depression at that time.
This fresh influx of immigrants meant that plans for a major new irrigation system in the Lower Chubut valley could finally begin. There were further substantial migrations from Wales during the periods , and also , again mainly due to depression within the coalfields. The settlers had seemingly achieved their utopia with Welsh speaking schools and chapels; even the language of local government was Welsh. In the few decades since the settlers had arrived, they had transformed the inhospitable scrub-filled semi-dessert into one of the most fertile and productive agricultural areas in the whole of Argentina, and had even expanded their territory into the foothills of the Andes with a settlement known as Cwm Hyfryd.
By the population of Chubut had grown to around 20,, with approximately half of these being foreign immigrants. The turn of the century also marked a change in attitude by the Argentine government who stepped in to impose direct rule on the colony. This brought the speaking of Welsh at local government level and in the schools to an abrupt end. The Welsh utopian dream of Michael D Jones appeared to be disintegrating.
Welsh however remained the language of the home and of the chapel, and despite the Spanish-only education system, the proud community survives to this day serving bara brith from Welsh tea houses, and celebrating their heritage at one of the many eisteddfodau. Read on to find out why! Yet, in the Chubut Valley, I found myself singing Welsh hymns, eating a Welsh tea, watching Welsh folk dancing, and witnessing the traditional ceremony of the "chairing of the bard" in a cultural festival we in Welsh call an eisteddfod.
The reason for this rather incongruous scenario is that years ago, in , just over Welsh people sailed from Liverpool intent on establishing a Welsh settlement in the Chubut Valley. And although Spanish is now the main community language, there are perhaps as many as 5, people in Chubut today who still speak Welsh, and in recent years there has been a significant revival of interest in all things Welsh. But why was this Welsh outpost established, and why in Patagonia of all places?
The main reasons people emigrate are economic, but there are others, especially those linked to the desire for political and religious freedom, which in turn are closely linked to identity. In the midth Century, a period of political radicalism and growing Welsh national consciousness, most of the population of Wales were Welsh in language and Protestant Nonconformist in religion, all of which contrasted sharply with the ruling classes.
A man of strong religious and political convictions, he placed much emphasis on the importance of nation and community. In , on a visit to family members who had emigrated to America, he noticed that Welsh immigrants assimilated quite quickly into the English-speaking world around them, gradually losing their language, customs and religion. Many immigrants, in all periods, are happy, indeed often anxious, to put the old world behind them and forge a new identity.
But for others, as we can see today, this loss of culture and identity can be a matter of great concern. This loss of Welsh identity was a matter of great concern to Jones, and he began arguing strongly that, if Welsh emigrants were to retain their language and identity, Welsh emigration would have to be channelled to a specific Welsh settlement somewhere remote from English influences, where the Welsh would be the formative, dominant element.
He became the leader of a group of like-minded people, who attempted to realise this objective of a Welsh-speaking, self-governing, democratic and Nonconformist Wales overseas. A number of locations were considered, including Palestine, and Vancouver Island in Canada, but they eventually agreed upon the Chubut Valley in Patagonia - a remote area of South America, with no European settlements, only nomadic indigenous peoples.
Jones didn't settle there himself - he didn't really approve of emigration - the better option, in his view, was to stand one's ground in Wales itself. But he accepted that emigration was a universal phenomenon, and if it was inevitable then he was strongly of the opinion that it should be channelled to create a new Wales overseas.
Despite a very difficult start, by the end of the 19th Century the Welsh settlement in Chubut was experiencing something of a golden age, both economically and culturally.
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