British Latin American

A British Latin American (Spanish: latinoamericano británico; Portuguese: Latino-americano britânico ) is a Latin American of British ancestry.

British immigration to Latin America occurred mostly in the 19th and 20th centuries and went primarily to Argentina, Chile and Brazil.

Argentina

Most of the English Argentine population consists of Anglo-Argentines in the Buenos Aires area. In the mid-1980s English Argentines were estimated at 100,000. Famous Argentines of significant or full English ancestry include Jorge Luis Borges and Olivia Hussey, the latter famous for playing Juliet in the movie Romeo and Juliet. Carlos Pellegrini, who was President of Argentina (1890–92), was English through his mother and Franco-Italian through his father.^[1]

The country has had a Welsh community in the Patagonia since their arrival from Liverpool in 1865. Its creation was an effort by nonconformists to build a "little Wales" away from English speakers.^[2] Welsh Argentines currently number around 50,000.^[3]

A Scottish Argentine population has existed for 180 years. The Scottish diaspora in Argentina is estimated in 100,000.^[4] The first Argentine woman to earn a Doctor of Medicine degree was Cecilia Grierson, of Scottish ancestry.^[5]

Brazil

The Gracie family, famous for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, was founded by George Gracie, a 19th-century Scottish immigrant.

Oscar Cox, son of a British diplomat, introduced football to his native city, Rio de Janeiro, a century ago. He founded one of the top teams in Brazil, Fluminense Football Club.

The Brazilian Bawden family branch was initiated by Thomas Bawden, an early 19th-century Cornish immigrant, who was very successful in gold prospection in the region of Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais province, in the then Brazilian Empire. Following his goldmining enrichment, his daughter Mary Angel Bawden was married to a Brazilian nobleman, the Second Baron of Camargos, whose father, the first Baron of Camargos, was a prominent political figure in the aforementioned province.

Chile

Chile currently has the largest population of British descendants in Latin America. These descendants, according to some estimates, would be between 350,000 and 420,000 people.^[6] Other books give larger estimates of more than 700,000 for the descendants of British settlers in Chile.^[7]

Chile, facing the Pacific Ocean, had an important British presence.^[8] Over 50,000 ^[9] British immigrants settled in Chile from 1840 to 1914, an important number of them settled in Magallanes, especially the city of Punta Arenas when it flourished as a major global seaport for ships crossing the Strait of Magellan from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. Also, around 32,000 English of them settled in Valparaíso .^[6] That significantly influenced in the port city, which became practically a British colony during the last decades of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.^[10] However, the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 and the First World War took many of them outside the city.

Some British Chileans are of Scottish and Scots-Irish origins. Some Scots settled in the country's temperate climate and forested landscape with glaciers and islands, which reminded them of their homeland (the Highlands and Northern Scotland), while English and Welsh made up the rest. The Irish immigrants were frequently confused with the British, and arrived as merchants, tradesmen and sailors, settling along with the British in the main trading Cities and Ports.

The British founded the first football club in Valparaíso, and in Santiago sometime later, such as Santiago Wanderers, Everton and Prince of Wales Country Club, among others.^[11]

Chileans of British descent include former president; Patricio Aylwin, Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna; writer and politician; Alejandro Foxley, Pedro Dartnell, Claudio Bunster, Bernardo Leighton, Vivianne Blanlot, Agustín Edwards Mac Clure; Minister of Foreign Affairs; Jorge Edwards; former Minister of Foreign Affairs; Gustavo Leigh; member of the former Government Junta of Chile Roberto Elphick; Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church; Juan Williams; commander-in-chief of the Chilean Navy at the beginning of the War of the Pacific; Patricio Lynch, William Thayer, Robert Winthrop Simpson, Juan Pablo Bennett, Alberto Blest Gana; writer members of the Edwards family; Hernán Somerville, banker Harold Mayne-Nicholls, president of ANFP and Chilean Football Federation; Mary Rose McGill, socialite, etc.

Colombia

Famous Colombians of British descent include Jorge Isaacs, the author of María, who was born to the daughter of a Spanish naval officer and an English Jew.

Peru

A British Peruvian is a Peruvian citizen of British descent. The phrase may refer to someone born in Peru of British descent or to someone who has immigrated to Peru from Britain. Among European Peruvians, the British were the fifth largest group of immigrants to settle in the country, after the Spanish, Italians, Germans, and French.

Between 1860 and 1950 it is estimated that around 900 British settled in Peru, although many of them returned to Europe or emigrated to countries like Argentina and Chile. The regions from which most of the British immigrants originated were Southampton and London, and Birmingham. There are an estimated 8,000 Peruvians of British descent.^[12]

Other countries

See also

• English settlement in Argentina

References

• Carlos Pellegrini and the Crisis of the Argentine Elites, 1880-1916 by Douglas W. Richmond.