Ukrainian Argentines
![]() ![]() | |
Ukrainian Argentines in parade in Misiones Province | |
Total population | |
30,000' (by birth, 2023)[1] +1,000,000 (by ancestry)[2][3][4][5] 2% of Argentina's population | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Predominantly in the Pampas, the North and the Patagonia | |
Languages | |
Religion | |
| |
Related ethnic groups | |
|
Ukrainian Argentines (
History
There were four waves of Ukrainian immigration to Argentina: pre-World War I, with about 10,000 to 14,000 immigrants, post-World War I to World War II, including approximately 50,000, post-World War II, with 5,000 immigrants, and the post-Soviet immigration, which is estimated to number approximately 4,000.[11]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Ukranian_immigrants_cropping_yerba_mate_in_Tres_Capones%2C_Misiones.jpg)
The first wave of
The largest number of Ukrainians migrated to Argentina between the two world wars. This wave of emigrants, whose number is estimated at between 50,000[11] and 70,000 people,[7] was much more geographically diverse, and included many people from Orthodox areas of Ukraine such as Volhynia and Bukovina. It also included more educated or politically oriented people who had been involved in Ukraine's struggle for independence. Approximately half of this wave of immigrants settled in Buenos Aires, while the remainder strengthened the Ukrainian population in Misiones Province or created new Ukrainian settlements in other agricultural regions such as in Chaco Province.
Approximately 5,000-6,000 Ukrainians fleeing Communism entered Argentina between 1946 and 1950. Many of them were university professors, military personnel, skilled workers, or technicians. Some of these educated immigrants contributed to the Argentine government's industrialization policies.[13]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/15/Parte_del_ballet_ucraniano_barvinok_de_obera_misiones.jpg/220px-Parte_del_ballet_ucraniano_barvinok_de_obera_misiones.jpg)
An estimated 3,000 highly educated Ukrainians, many from the third wave, left Argentina for the United States or Canada in the 1950s due to greater economic opportunities. Another 3,000 Ukrainians left Argentina for the Soviet Union during the late 1950s, after having been promised a "prosperous life in the homeland." Only a third of the latter group were able to return to Argentina. These demographic losses were compensated for by small numbers of Ukrainians moving to Argentina from Paraguay and Uruguay.[7]
Following the fall of the Soviet Union, since the 1990s approximately 4,000 Ukrainians have moved to Argentina from Ukraine. Although not as numerous as in the past, the Ukrainian immigration is still present.[13]
Society
Religion
Ukrainian Catholics
The first Ukrainians to Argentina who settled in Misiones came from a predominantly Catholic region of Ukraine,
Currently, over 120,000 of Ukrainians in Argentina are Ukrainian Catholics,[14] comprising approximately 50% of Ukrainian Argentines. Misiones Province, the heartland of Ukrainian immigration to Argentina, has 60 Ukrainian Catholic Churches and chapels.[13] In April 1987 Pope John Paul II visited the Ukrainian Catholic community in Buenos Aires.[15]
Orthodox
The first Orthodox Ukrainians in Argentina were converts from the Ukrainian Catholic Church and came under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church. Many Orthodox immigrants who came to Argentina from Ukraine between the World Wars, among whom were several priests, who created parishes in Buenos Aires and surrounding areas. The newcomers generally belonged to the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.[7]
Approximately 30% of Ukrainian Argentines are currently Orthodox.[citation needed]
Others
The first Protestant Ukrainians were Baptists who emigrated to Argentina from Volyn in the 1920s. During the period when there was no Ukrainian Church in Argentina, many Ukrainians became accustomed to not being involved in any Church and did not return to their ancestral religion when the parishes were established.
Currently, 20% of Argentine Ukrainians are Protestant or indifferent to religion.
Education
Ukrainian all-day elementary and secondary schools, in which classes are taught in Spanish and follow the Argentine curriculum but also have Ukrainian subjects several times per week, exist in the cities of Apóstoles, Posadas, and Buenos Aires. Ukrainian all-day elementary schools exist in Berisso and San Vicente (both towns in the Buenos Aires region). These schools are all run by the Ukrainian Catholic Church.[7] In addition, Argentina's branch of the Prosvita operates Ukrainian Saturday schools.
Argentina's Ukrainian community also has several folk dancing ensembles, as well as the Ukrainian scouting organization Plast.
Notable Ukrainian Argentines
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/63/Chango_spasiuk_Warszawa7mar2009.jpg/150px-Chango_spasiuk_Warszawa7mar2009.jpg)
- Héctor Babenco (film director)
- Gustavo Blanco Leschuk (football player)
- José Chatruc (football player)
- Adabel Guerrero (dancer, actress)
- Olga Gurski (artist)
- Mariano Konyk (football player)
- Boris Kriukow (artist)
- Denis Margalik (figure skater)
- Nadia Podoroska (tennis player)
- Noel Schajris (singer-songwriter and pianist)
- Horacio Spasiuk (musician)
- Vladimiro Tarnawski (footballer)
See also
- Argentina–Ukraine relations
- Eparchy of Santa María del Patrocinio en Buenos Aires
References
- ^ "Datos sociodemográficos por país de nacimiento". RENAPER - Dirección Nacional de Población. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
- ^ Ucrania.com (in Spanish)
- ^ a b "Entre mates y acordeones. La inmigración ucraniana en Argentina".
- ^ a b "Ucranianos en la Argentina: Los motivos del éxodo, la región donde echaron raíces a fines de 1800 y las costumbres que perduran". March 2, 2022.
- ^ a b ""Tememos a las locuras de Putin". Ucranianos en la Argentina: Son 300 mil, cómo viven la amenaza de guerra con Rusia a la distancia". January 25, 2022.
- ^ "Article". Ucrania.com (in Spanish). Archived from the original on February 7, 2005. Retrieved August 5, 2007.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wasylyk, Mykola (1994). Ukrainians in Argentina (Chapter), in Ukraine and Ukrainians Throughout the World, edited by Ann Lencyk Pawliczko, University of Toronto Press: Toronto, pp. 420-443
- ^ Kostiantynova, Svitlana (January 25, 2007). "Argentine-Ukrainians or Ukrainian-Argentines: about two homelands". Instytut Ukrainoznavstva (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on October 7, 2008. Retrieved March 22, 2007.
- ISBN 0-8020-5808-6
- ^ Ukrainian Echo[permanent dead link] From the Life of the Ukrainian Diaspora in Misiones. Ihor Vasylyk. November 6, 2008. (in Ukrainian)
- ^ a b c Kuropas, Myron B. (May 28, 2000). "Hola Argentina!". Ukrainian Weekly. Archived from the original on January 11, 2005. Retrieved March 22, 2007.
- ^ a b Yatsiv, Ihor. "Interview with Joseph Hazuda, about the UGCC in Argentina". Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on March 7, 2007. Retrieved March 22, 2007.
- ^ a b c d Michael Soltys. A different kind of multinational: Immigrants to Argentina from Eastern Europe Originally published in the Buenos Aires Herald, 1998.
- ^ "Session of Permanent Synod to be held in Argentina". Ukrainian Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia. January 25, 2007. Retrieved March 22, 2007.
- ^ Immigration in Argentina, accessed April 7, 2008 Archived March 24, 2008, at the Wayback Machine