French Chileans
| File:26042007g00010 Bachelet.jpg Notable French Chileans Michelle Bachelet | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Throughout Chile | |
| Languages | |
| Chilean Spanish. Minority speaks French language and Basque language. | |
| Religion | |
| Predominantly Roman Catholicism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| French people, French Argentine, French Uruguayan |
A French Chilean (French: Franco-Chilien, Spanish: franco-chileno) is an Chilean citizen of full or partial French ancestry. Between 1850 and 1950, 20,000 to 25,000 French people immigrated to Chile[1]. The country received the fourth largest amount of French immigrants to South America after Argentina (239,000), Brazil (40,000) and Uruguay (more than 25,000). Today around 500,000 Chileans are of French descent.
French immigration to Chile
The French came to Chile in the 18th century, arriving at Concepción as merchants, and in the mid-19th century to cultivate vines in the haciendas of the Central Valley, the homebase of world-famous Chilean wine. Araucania Region has also an important number of people of French ancestry, as the area hosted settlers arrived by the second half of the XIX century as farmers and shopkeepers. With akin Latin culture, the French immigrants quickly assimilated into mainstream Chilean society.
From 1850 to 1950, around 25,000 Frenchmen immigrated to Chile. 80% of them were coming from Southwestern France, especially from Basses-Pyrénées (Basque country and Béarn), Gironde, Charente-Inférieure and Charente and regions situated between Gers and Dordogne[2].
Most of French immigrants settled in the country between 1875 and 1895. Between October 1882 and December 1897, 8,413 Frenchmen settled in Chile, making up 23% of immigrants (second only after Spaniards) from this period. In 1865, 1,650 French citizens were registered in Chile. At the end of the century they were almost 30,000[3].
In World War II, a group of over 10,000 Chileans of French descent, the majority have French relatives joined the Free French Forces and fought the Nazi occupation of France [citation needed].
Today it is estimated that 500,000 Chileans are of French descent.
The current president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet is of French origin. Former dictator Augusto Pinochet is another Chilean of French descent. A large percentage of politicians, businessmen and professionals in the country are of French ancestry.