Villa Carlota is the name under which two
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
farming settlements, in the villages of
Santa Elena and Pustunich in
Yucatán
Yucatán, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, constitute the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It comprises 106 separate municipalities, and its capital city is Mérida.
...
, were founded during the
Second Mexican Empire
The Second Mexican Empire (; ), officially known as the Mexican Empire (), was a constitutional monarchy established in Mexico by Mexican monarchists with the support of the Second French Empire. This period is often referred to as the Second ...
(1864–1867). This colonization program is not to be confused with the
Carlota Colony, an American settlement in Veracruz.
For strategically and political reasons,
Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico
Maximilian I (; ; 6 July 1832 – 19 June 1867) was an Austrian archduke who became emperor of the Second Mexican Empire from 10 April 1864 until his execution by the Mexican Republic on 19 June 1867.
A member of the House of Habsburg-Lorra ...
's immigration policy included the goal to colonize the Yucatán Peninsula with approximately 600 European families of farmers and artisans per year. The leader of this colonization program was the Imperial Commissioner to Yucatán, José Salazar Ilarregui. At an operation level, the director was the German engineer and cartographer Moritz von Hippel.
Being a pilot program, Villa Carlota attracted 443 German-speaking immigrants, most of them simple farmers and artisans. The majority came as families. The first group, formed by 224 settlers, arrived to the port of
Sisal, Yucatán
Sisal () is a seaport town in Hunucmá Municipality in the States of Mexico, state of Yucatán (state), Yucatán, Mexico. It was the principal port of Yucatán during the henequen boom, later overshadowed when the more modern port of Progreso, Y ...
, on October 25, 1865. These families settled in
Santa Elena, a village with mostly Maya people, around 100 kilometers south of
Mérida, the capital of Yucatán. Another 219 colonizers arrived to that same port on July 15, 1866; most of them were sent to the tiny village of Pustunich, some to Santa Elena and a few others stayed in Mérida or went to work to other Yucatecan locations, such as Holbox, Laguna de Términos or Baca. 72% of the colonists came from
Prussia
Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
and many of them were Protestants.
Although in general these immigrants were well received by the hosting society, and the Imperial government apparently honored to the extent of its capabilities the contract it offered to these farmers, the colonies collapsed in 1867. Passive – and perhaps active- opposition from the Yucatecan elite to the project, the inappropriateness of the cultivation tracts for the purpose assigned to the settlement, organizational problems amongst the colonists themselves and the fall of the Second Empire were some of the most important factors leading to the collapse of the program.
Relatively soon after having settled in Santa Elena, the settler's families started to create relationships with the locals. Marriages between Germans and people of Santa Elena took place; a considerable number of the Germans who were originally Protestants converted into Catholicism; many of the ''padrinos'' were Yucatecans. This explains partly why until our days the oral tradition around this historical event is still so rich.
After the disintegration of Villa Carlota as such, some families migrated to other parts of the peninsula, into the United States and back to Germany. Many stayed, however, in Yucatán, where there are descendants of these pioneers with last names such as Worbis, Dietrich and Sols, among others.
The following characteristics are special about Villa Carlota:
(1) It was probably the first case of subsidized migration into México.
(2) Being a working migration, and not an "elite" one, the Villacarlotans constitute an "exceptional case among the Germans who migrated into Mexico".
(3) Contrary to the settlement patterns found in other Latin-American countries, the Villa Carlotans settled within existing Maya communities: this provided many opportunities for intercultural contact, miscegenation and acculturation.
(4) The results brought about by the analysis of Villa Carlota correct "a long list of inaccurate preconceptions about the migration politics of the Second Empire", as well as the idea that only "elite" German migration was received by Mexico.
In 2008 the Archivo Histórico de Mérida Yucatán hosted a large exhibit about this subject, entitled " Villa Carlota: Una reconstrucción documental de la historia de las colonias alemanas en Yucatán".
Family histories by descendants
Some descendants of these pioneers have already started to research on their own and to publish accounts of their family's histories.
References
External links
* http://yucatanliterario-promocioneditorial.blogspot.com/2010/06/villa-carlota-colonias-alemanas-en.html
* https://web.archive.org/web/20100214042040/http://www.yucatanalamano.com/noticia/sigue-huella-de-inmigrantes-alemanes-en-yucatn
* http://www.cmmayo.com/maximilian.html
Facebook: Grupo alemán de Mérida
* https://web.archive.org/web/20110708212942/http://www.culturayucatan.com/supernews/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1266589105&archive=1278338012&start_from=&ucat=&
{{DEFAULTSORT:Villa Carlota, German Colonies In Yucatan. Mexico
Yucatán
German diaspora in North America
German emigrants to Mexico