- Croats in Argentina
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Croatian Argentine 
Notable Croatian Argentine
Néstor Kirchner Ostoić
Sandra MihanovichTotal population 250,000 [1] Regions with significant populations Buenos Aires Province, Santa Fe, Patagonia Languages Religion Roman Catholic
Related ethnic groups Part of a series of articles on Croats 
RecognizedSubgroupsCroatians in Argentina or Croatian Argentine are Argentine of Croatian descent. Croats and their descendants have made valuable contributions to their new country. Mostly settled in Argentina capital, Buenos Aires.
Contents
Demographics
Argentine of Croatian descent number over 250,000.
History
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries there were 133 settlements, with some 120,000 Croats in Argentina[2], for the most part hailing from the coastal regions of Dalmatia and the Croatian Littoral, who were among the first European immigrants to settle in the Argentine pampas. The pioneers from the island of Hvar were followed by emigrants from other parts of Dalmatia and the other historic Croatian lands, mostly the present-day Republic of Croatia.[3]
The most successful of all the Croats in Argentina was also almost the first to arrive: Nikola Mihanović came to Montevideo, Uruguay in 1867, and, having settled in Buenos Aires, Mihanović owned 350 vessels of one kind or another by 1909, including 82 steamers. By 1918, he employed 5,000 people, mostly from his native Dalmatia Mihanović by himself was thus a major factor in building up a Croat community which remains primarily Dalmatian to this day.
The second wave of Croat immigration was far more numerous, totalling 15,000 by 1939. Mostly peasants, these immigrants fanned out to work the land in Buenos Aires province, Santa Fe, Chaco, and Patagonia. This wave was accompanied by a numerous clergy to attend their spiritual needs, especially Franciscans.
If the first two waves had been primarily economic, the third wave after the Second World War was eminently political. Some 20,000 Croatian political refugees came to Argentina, and most became construction workers on Peron's public works projects until they started to pick up some Spanish.[4] Argentina today has the second largest number of Croatian descendants in Latin America since Chile (380,000 Croats), and the third largest one in the world since USA.
Notable Croatian Argentines
- Daniel Bilos - Footballer
- José María Buljubasich - Footballer
- Darío Cvitanich - Footballer
- Javier Frana - Tennis player
- Estanislao Esteban Karlic - Argentine prelate of the Roman Catholic Church
- Alicia Kirchner de Mercado - Argentine Justicialist Party politician
- Néstor Kirchner Ostoić - Former President of Argentina
- Nicolás Mihanovich - Shipping magnate
- Sandra Mihanovich - Singer/songwriter
- Marcos Milinkovic - Volleyball player
- Daniel Orsanic - Tennis player
- Leonardo Pisculichi - Footballer
- Martin Šarić - Footballer
- Fernando Siro - born Francisco Luksich, actor
- Alejandro Spajic - Volleyball player
- Lita Stantic - Filmmaker
- Juan Vucetich - Anthropologist and police official who pioneered the use of fingerprinting
See also
- Argentine–Croatian relations
- Croats
- Croats of Chile
References
External links
Immigration to Argentina Africa Cape Verdean
Americas Amerindian · DominicanAsia Europe By EthnicityBasque · JewishBy CountryNorthernEnglish · SwedishWesternCentralSouthernBalkanEasternRussian · UkrainianCroatian diaspora Europe Americas Oceania Categories:- Argentine people of Croatian descent
- Croatian diaspora
- Ethnic groups in Argentina
- Immigration to Argentina
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