COMODORO RIVADAVIA

At the Atlantic coast, in the Argentinean region of Chubut to the south, lies the city of Comodoro Rivadavia, with 180,000 people living in it. Croatians came here at the start of the last century, and mostly raised cattle. Harsh, long winters were common in these areas at the time, and they were known to wipe out entire flocks of sheep. According to tales of farmers from the time, sheep would look for food under the snow, as it wasn’t common to store hay. It was for this reason that every sheep in Patagonia would need at least 4 – 5 hectares of land. In 1931, Ivan Lupis Vukić, chronicler and journalist, wrote from Comodoro to Split:

Evo ti me niz kraj u kome uz more od +2 stupnja ne raste ništa preko 50 cm. Dosad našao naša naselja u Comodoro Rivadavia, Pto Deseado i S. Julian.

(So here I am, in a land where nothing grows above half a meter next to the sea, at +2°C. So far, found the towns of Comodoro Rivadavi, Puerto Deseado, and St. Julian)[1]

 

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Lupis’ card which shows the oil fields at Comodoro, where Croatians used to work

 

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Patagonia, on the border with the Santa Cruz province. A common image throughout the history of South America, which can even be found today; the store actually shows a Croatian name, which has surprisingly not been adapted to Spanish (courtesy of Ivan Ahlin)

There is a street called Croacia in Comodoro Rivadavia, as well as the Plaza Croacia square, which was opened on November 26th 2011. The square has a plate bearing the Croatian national crest.

 

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Plaza Croacia žuta tabla

 

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Croatian square in Comodoro Rivadavia (photos courtesy of Ivan Ahlin)

 

 

 


[1] Bezić Filipović, Branka. 2011. Ivan Lupis Vukić, first emigrant journalist. Croatian Heritage Foundation. Split. Page 72.