Polish Brazilians
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 800,000 – 1.8 million | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Mainly Southern and Southeastern Brazil | |
| Languages | |
| Portuguese · Polish | |
| Religion | |
| Roman Catholicism (ethnic Poles) · Judaism (Polish Jews) | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Poles, Brazilians, Austrian Brazilians, German Brazilians, Ukrainian Brazilians, Lithuanian Brazilians, Czech Brazilians and other White Brazilians and White Latin Americans |
Polish Brazilians refers to Brazilians of full or partial Polish ancestry, who is aware of such ancestry and remain connected, to some degree, to Polish culture, or Polish-born people permanently residing in Brazil. Also, a Polish Brazilian can have one Polish parent.
Polish immigrants began arriving in Brazil in the late 19th century, but their numbers really increased in the 1920s.
The first Polish immigrants arrived in the port of Itajaí, Santa Catarina, in August 1869. They were 78 Poles from the area of Southern Silesia. Commandant Redlisch, of the ship Victoria, brought people from Eastern Europe to settle in Brusque.
They were in total 16 families, among them: Francisco Pollak, Nicolau Wós, Boaventura Pollak, Thomasz Szymanski, Simon Purkot, Felipe Purkot, Miguel Prudlo, Chaim Briffel, Simon Otto, Domin Stempke, Gaspar Gbur, Balcer Gbur, Walentin Weber, Antoni Kania, Franciszek Kania, André Pampuch and Stefan Kachel. The Poles were placed in the colonies Príncipe Dom Pedro and Itajaí, in the area of Brusque.
Fewer Poles immigrated to Brazil than Portuguese or Italians, but many Poles have settled in Brazil. From 1872 to 1959, 110,243 "Russian" citizens entered Brazil. In fact, the vast majority of them were Poles, since Poland was under Russian rule, and ethnic Poles immigrated with Russian passports.
The State of Paraná received the majority of Polish immigrants, who settled mainly in the region of Curitiba, in the towns of Mallet, Cruz Machado, São Matheus do Sul, Irati, and União da Vitória.
Most Polish immigrants to Southern Brazil were Catholics who arrived between 1870–1920 and worked as small farmers in the State of Paraná. Others went to the neighboring states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina and São Paulo, which is a state as well as a city. After the 1920s, many Polish Jews immigrated seeking refuge from Europe, settling mainly in the State of São Paulo. Today most Brazilian Jews are of Polish descent.
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Wikipedia