Swiss Argentine
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|---|---|
| Total population | |
| (c. 300,000) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Mainly Santa Fe Province, Buenos Aires Province and others. | |
| Languages | |
| Rioplatense Spanish, German (especially Swiss German), Argentinien-schwyzertütsch dialect, French, Italian | |
| Religion | |
| Mostly Catholicism and Calvinism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Swiss people · Swiss Brazilians · Swiss Chileans · other Argentines of European descent (especially German Argentines, Italian Argentines, and French Argentines) |
Swiss Argentines are Argentine citizens of Swiss ancestry or people who emigrated from Switzerland and reside in Argentina. The Swiss Argentine community is the largest group of the Swiss diaspora in Latin America.
Approximately 44,000 Swiss emigrated to Argentina until 1940, who settled mainly in the provinces of Córdoba and Santa Fe and, to a lesser extent, in Buenos Aires. In 1856, 200 families of immigrants from Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium and Luxembourg founded the city of Esperanza, the forerunner of agricultural colonies in Argentina, thus kickstarting a long process of European colonization and immigration. In Río Negro, Swiss settlement began in early 19th century in the village of Colonia Suiza ("Swiss Colony").
An Argentine of Swiss origin, Dr. Ernesto Alemann, founded the Colegio Pestalozzi in 1934 with the aim of creating a place for free and humanistic education in accordance with the philosophy of Swiss pedagogue Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi.
Félix Fernando Bernasconi was a Swiss Argentine shoe manufacturer to whom Francisco Moreno sold a property on the southside of Buenos Aires. On this site Moreno had already established a charitable school. After the death of Bernasconi in 1914, additional funding by the Argentine government allowed to build the largest school in Buenos Aires at the time, called the Bernasconi Institute, which opened in 1929.
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