Hello, I'm Manon and I'm one of the Coleg Cymraeg Secondary School Ambassadors at Ysgol Bro Edern, Cardiff.
I am a direct descendant of the Welsh people who migrated to Patagonia during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. My mother comes from Gaiman, which is the most Welsh-speaking village in the region, and I consider myself very lucky that I can speak Welsh and Spanish with people there and appreciate both cultures. I visit the place often, and I feel like I belong to both countries. I think it is extremely important to honour this rich history between both countries.
Where is Patagonia?
Patagonia is vast, but when we speak of Patagonia in the context of the Welsh language, we are referring to an area within Argentina (some 8,000 miles from Wales).
The history of the Welsh language in Patagonia:
Welsh people began emigrating to Patagonia in 1865 to establish y Wladfa, a national community with Welsh as the official language of politics and all aspects of everyday life. Did you know that women were able to vote in y Wladfa before women in Wales won the right to do so? Also, an intermediate school, Ysgol Ganolraddol y Camwy (known as Coleg Camwy by now) was established in 1906 which was, at the time, the only secondary school in the world to teach through the medium of Welsh. However, with many people from other countries moving to Patagonia, and the fact that the Argentine Government insisted on the use of Spanish in local government and education, the Welsh language receded and became the language of the family, farming, chapels etc.
Since 1997 the British Council's Welsh Language Project has partially funded learning activities there; it started with lessons for adults, but, for years, Welsh has extended into schools.
The current situation:
There are three Welsh-medium/bilingual primary schools, and some Spanish-medium primary and secondary schools also offer Welsh second language lessons. Indeed, figures published in 2021 by the British Council showed that over 1,400 people of all ages were learning Welsh. In addition, a large bilingual (Spanish and Welsh) Eisteddfod is held in Patagonia every year – Y Wladfa has its very own Gorsedd of Bards!
The future of the Welsh language:
Here in Wales, sometimes young people switch too easily to English, but in Patagonia, despite all the uncertainty about the future of the Welsh language there, young people see Welsh as something cool, and take pride in their roots and culture.
