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Total population | |
c. 100,000 | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Argentina | |
Languages | |
Spanish. Minority speaks English, Scottish Gaelic, Lowland Scots as first language. | |
Religion | |
Christianity Roman Catholicism, Protestantism (Presbyterianism, Episcopalianism) |
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Related ethnic groups | |
Scottish people, Scottish Americans, Scottish Brazilians, Scottish Canadians, Scottish Chileans, Scottish Mexicans, Scottish Uruguayans |
Scottish Argentines are Argentine citizens of Scottish descent or Scottish-born people who reside in Argentina. A Scottish Argentine population has existed at least since 1825. There are an estimated 100,000 Argentines of Scottish ancestry, the most of any country outside the English-speaking world. Frequently, Scottish Argentines are wrongly referred to as English.
The first Argentine woman to earn a Doctor of Medicine degree was Cecilia Grierson, of Scottish ancestry. Two schools in Argentina have been founded by Scottish immigrants: St. Andrew's Scots School in 1838 and Balmoral College in 1959. In addition, the association football club Club Atlético Douglas Haig is named after the Scottish military commander Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig.
Argentine President Juan Domingo Peron had Scottish ancestry on his father's side. His great-grandmother, Ann Hughes Mc Kenzie, traced her roots to Scotland.
There have been Scottish Gaelic classes in Buenos Aires for over ten years now, and they are taken by Guillermo Santana MacKinlay, who is himself a Scottish Argentine.
The so-called "father of Argentine football" was a Glaswegian schoolteacher, Alexander Watson Hutton, who first taught football at St. Andrew's Scots School in Buenos Aires in the early 1880s. On 4 February 1884 he founded the Buenos Aires English High School [sic] where he continued to instruct the pupils in the game. In 1891 Hutton established the Association Argentine Football League, the first football league outside of the British Isles. Five clubs competed but only one season was ever played.