Swiss Argentines
| |||||||||||||
| Regions with significant populations | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mainly Santa Fe Province and others. | |||||||||||||
| Languages | |||||||||||||
| Rioplatense Spanish, German (especially Swiss German), French, Italian | |||||||||||||
| Religion | |||||||||||||
| Mostly Catholicism and Calvinism | |||||||||||||
| Related ethnic groups | |||||||||||||
| Swiss people, Swiss Brazilians, Swiss Chileans, other White Argentines (especially German Argentines, Italian Argentines, and French Argentines) | |||||||||||||
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.
