Polish Chileans include immigrants to

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

from

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

and their descendants who recognize their Polish ancestry.

Immigration

A small number of Poles came to Chile, with first of them coming during the

Napoleonic wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

. In early 20th century, there were around 300 Poles in Chile. One of the most notable Polish Chileans, Ignacy Domeyko became chancellor of the

University of Chile The University of Chile ( es, Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843.

between 1867 and 1883. A remarkable architect, Luciano Kulczewski Garcia the grandson of the November 1831 Uprising, has been called the ¨national¨ architect of Chile for his unique and original buildings from the first part of the 20th century. After the World War II, 1947–1951, around 1,500 Poles, mostly former ''

Zivilarbeiter Zivilarbeiter (German for ''civilian worker'') refers primarily to ethnic Polish residents from the General Government (Nazi-occupied central Poland), used during World War II as forced laborers in the Third Reich. Polish Zivilarbeiters The res ...

'' (forced laborers in Nazi Germany), as well as former soldiers and inmates of Nazi concentration camps settled in Chile. In 1949 the Association of Poles in Chile was founded (reestablished formally as "Zjednoczenie Polskie w Chile im. Ignacego Domeyki" /Unión Polaca de Chile "Ignacio Domeyko" in 1992,ZJEDNOCZENIE POLSKIE W CHILE IM IGNACEGO DOMEYKI
a notice president Andrzej Zabłocki ). A significant majority of Polish Chileans live in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...

.Poles in Chile
In addition, during the

Interbellum In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War. The interwar period was relative ...

around 1000

Polish Jews The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the l ...

immigrated to Chile, mostly for economic reasons. Another Polonia organization in Chile is Koło im. Jana Pawła II ("Pope John Paul II Circle"), chairman Ewa Odachowska Also, the Polish Catholic Mission (under Polish Episcopal Conference; :pl:Polska Misja Katolicka) operates in Chile.

Notable people

* Ignacy Domeyko * Rodrigo Goldberg Mierzejewski, footballer * Katty Kowaleczko, actress * Luciano Kulczewski, architect * Cecilia Domeyko, journalist/filmmaker/author * Karen Poniachik, journalist/politician * Sonia Tschorne, architect/politician * David Rosenmann-Taub, musician/poet * Paz Domeyko, author/biographer

Immigration

Notable people

See also

References

Further reading