Writer, web designer, etc.; born in New York; educated in Argentina, Scotland, and South Africa; now based in London. What is going on in Chile? They’re having a presidential election later this year, and the latest poll figures are out.
The top three candidates are all right-wingers descended from German immigrants, but with very different family backgrounds.
How their ancestors ended up in the Andean republic on the Pacific reflects the varieties of experience in the German diaspora in South America.
■ Read more over at my Substack.
With the Chilean election coming up shortly, I recall my past visit to that fine and historically well-run country, and past contact with many distinguished Chileans, and am reminded that many of Chile’s leading families are of Basque, Welsh, Croatian or indeed German heritage – not quite the usual Latin American mix. (We Poles have a famous Polish-Chilean historical figure – Ignacy Domeyko – but in general Poles gravitating to Latin America tended to emigrate to Argentina and Brazil.)