Buenos Aires celebrates Greece

The Government of the City of Buenos Aires entertained the Greek community that celebrated 190 years since the declaration of independence at a meeting held at 500 Avenida de Mayo street, in front of the "Casa de la Cultura".

Greeks in Argentina

The Greek community in Argentina numbers between 35,000 and 60,000 people. The first immigrants arrived at the end of the 18th century, while the bulk of immigration occurred during the first half of the 20th century.

History

Stephanos Roditis, an explorer, is recorded to be the first Greek to arrive in what today is Buenos Aires with Pedro de Mendoza's unfortunate expedition in 1536.

Rear Admiral Giorgos "Jorge" Kolmaniatis, who arrived to the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata in 1811, strongly contributed in the Argentine War of Independence by leading and training the newly formed fleet. A fellow naval officer from Hydra, Samuel Spiro, scuttled his ship in the Uruguay River rather than surrender it to the Spanish Armada. Both men's names were honored with Argentine Navy ships christened after them in 1937.

But the first true wave of mass immigration started in the late 1880s, when Argentina's governments encouraged European immigration policies under the presidency of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento. The scope was to establish a strong concentration of population in the huge extents of land where demographic vacuum was the common. These Greeks, who arrived with Ottoman Empire passports, were either from Constantinople or Asia Minor, and included Phanariotes from Romania. Some were wealthy and prepared people who easily made their way in businesses such as tobacco importation, jewellery and maritime trade.

The second wave of Greeks arriving to Argentina, happened in the 20th. century, mainly after the Asia Minor Campaign and disaster in 1922, with the end of the Megali Idea. Again huge masses of refugees who were sent to Greece by the population exchanges ordered by Kemal Ataturk, came towards these latitudes seeking for a change to re-start their lives from zero. Most of them were from Smyrna, Ayvalik and other Ionian cities. They settled in what is today known as the capital of foreign immigration in Argentina, the city of Berisso, near La Plata.

The third wave, taking part in the early 30's instead was the first one with a strong concentration of immigrants coming form the mainland, mostly villagers and peasants from Arcadia, Laconia and Messenia in the Peloponnese. The choosing of Argentina as a destination was due the temporary denial for immigration in the United States, making South America and Argentina in particular the new Eldorado.

The fourth and major wave occurred after the Second World War and the Greek Civil War left Greece in a very impoverished condition. This time, Hellenes from all over the country, but mainly Macedonians and Pontians, Cretans and other islanders settled down far south.

The majority chose Buenos Aires as their place to stay, but others instead made their way far in the interior such as Cordoba and Mendoza. Port cities like Rosario and Necochea are -of course- also places where Hellenic immigrants established.

The main contribution that Greeks made to Argentina's every day life is the installing of the kiosk, very similar to those in Athens, Piraeusand Istanbul. The kiosk came to be for the porteño the place where he could buy cigarettes, or the newspaper and even play his chance in the local lottery games. During the 50's and 60's nearly all the kiosks in the Buenos Aires downtown were owned by Greeks. Besides, candy majorist distribution came to be one of the main jobs performed by Greek-Argentinians.

As long as the Greek community was getting bigger, their everyday life became more concentrated around two main institutions: The Greek Orthodox Church and the Greek Community Centers, known in Spanish as "Colectividad Helénica" or "koinotita" in Greek. The necessity of teaching the Greek language developed in an informal "Greek School" that was held in the afternoons, from Monday to Fridays. Each Greek or Greek-Argentinian child would go to the official Argentinian school in the morning and to the "unofficial" Greek school in the afternoon.

With the advent of the 60's and 70's the official Greek School in Buenos Aires was established but an informal "Saturday School" still took place in the koinotites. During this time, many teachers from motherland Greece arrived with the sponsorship of the Greek government and the embassy. During this period the first graduations of Greek blooded professionals -mainly doctors, lawyers and business accountants- took place in the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina's main national university.

Ethnically, the Greeks of Argentina are a very "endogamic" society, maybe the most after the Jewish, although intermarriage between people from different European descent is the common throughout the country.

In terms of cultural background, the lack of using the Greek language is making third and fourth generation Greek-Argentinians to start losing it. Instead, the knowledge of Greek folk dances and music in Greek-Argentinians is extremely remarkable, being this highlighted by the Greek Government itself during the Annual Cultural Exchange Trips for Greeks Abroad, known as "Programa Filoxenias tou Apodimou Ellinismou", where Hellenic-Argentinian boys and girls show greater skills and performances than every other diaspora Greeks -and even better than those from motherland Greece.