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Chapels, tea houses and gauchos: The Welsh in Patagonia. |
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Patagonia: The dream continues 150 years on
Ann-Marie Brierly visited Patagonia as a teacher in 2001. One of her students was Fabio Lewis, whose great grandfather, Lewis Davies, had come over on the Mimosa.
Soon, Fabio's relationship with the land of his fathers had reached an unexpected level of engagement, and he and Ann-Marie were married at her home village in south Wales in the summer of 2003.
"I wonder what my great grandfather and mother would have thought to know that a small part of them had come back to Wales to make a home here," says Fabio.
Now Fabio and Ann-Marie organise tours of Patagonia for the growing number of people from Wales who make the 8,000-mile trip.
Those visitors can tour Welsh-named communities such as Trelew, Trevelin, Puerto Madryn or indeed Fabio's home village of Dolavon. They can walk down streets named after "Miguel de Jones" (the Spanish for the founder, Michael D Jones), and see statues to the founding fathers of the colony. 
One of the flower maidens at the Chubut Eisteddfod, October 2001. Note the Argentine flag in the background. |
Visitors can attend a service in one of the Welsh chapels, sample tea and bara brith in one of the numerous Welsh tea houses, stroll round the Gorsedd circle in Gaiman, or attend one of the numerous eisteddfodau , now bilingual in Spanish and Welsh , which still thrive.
And if they can speak the `language of heaven` they could pass the time of day with one of the many people who can still speak Welsh in this corner of South America, where a people's love of their culture and their religion proved that not even a desert can be stronger than a dream.
Words: Grahame Davies
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