ZAGREB, June 9, 2019 – A TV series – The Croatian Community in Chile – by Mariana Campera and Damian Bazan Mamić, produced by the HRT national broadcaster, was presented at the Croatian Heritage Foundation (HMI) in Zagreb last Thursday.
The series consists of five documentary episodes with interesting stories about the life of Croatian emigrants. It is estimated that about 200,000 Croatian emigrants and their descendants live in Chile.
Campera and Mamić are reporters for the HRT’s Spanish-language programme for Croats outside Croatia.
The first episode – “To the End of the World and Back” – deals with the history of emigration of Croats to South America, which started in the second half of the 19th century, while the second episode, “Searching for white gold”, speaks about the first Croats to settle in northern Chile, attracted by the search for sodium nitrate (used as fertiliser at the time) in the Atacama Desert.
“A Croatian City at the End of the World” is the title of the third episode, which deals with Croats in Tierra del Fuego, who arrived there in search of gold. Today they live mostly in Punta Arenas, a community which has the highest percentage of Croat population on the South American continent.
Croats in politics, culture, education, the church hierarchy and business circles is the topic of the fourth episode, while the fifth episode – “Chilean Writers of Croat Origin” – is dedicated to the Chilean Language Academy, which has 34 members, including six full and four corresponding members of Croat origin.
More diaspora news can be found in the dedicated section.
