YUGOSLAV STATE AND EMIGRATION IN SOUTH AMERICA 1921-1945
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Authors of the exhibition: Lidija Opojevlić Hofman, Jelena Đurišić, Ivan Hofman, Predrag Krejić
Through the documents before you we wish to present a problem that was very important for the affirmation of the young Yugoslav state. It concerns the number and the social and economic positions of émigrés as well as the national structure of the emigration, the attitude of the Yugoslav state towards them and the attitude of the emigration towards the state and the Yugoslav idea, personified in relations towards the official representatives of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, reactions of emigrants to developments in Yugoslavia, emigration press, etc.
The Yugoslav emigration in South America mostly came from the regions formerly under the Austro-Hungarian Empire, primarily from Dalmatia. Most of them were of Croatian descent and a slightly lower number was from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia and Macedonia. They had emigrated to Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay and other South American states since the end of the 19th century and the emigration intensified in the 1920s. According to some data from 1927/1928, there were about 150,000 Yugoslav emigrants throughout South America.
Emigrants from different South Slav areas established different cultural, educational and support associations on the "tribal" basis. During World War I, emigrants in Chile, the nationally more aware and economically stronger part of the colony, and later those in Argentina, united the emigration societies into the Yugoslav National Defence, giving material and moral support to the creation of the new Yugoslav state. The leadership of this organisation in Argentina, where the greatest concentration of Yugoslav emigrants existed, made the initiative for the opening of the first official representative office of the Yugoslav state. And so, in 1922 the Consulate General of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes opened in Buenos Aires. This office and several royal honorary consulates could not respond to the requests of a large number of emigrants in all of South America. For that reason and in order to consolidate political links with Argentina and other South American states, the first diplomatic representative office of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was opened in South America – the Embassy of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The representative office of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in Buenos Aires was burdened by diplomatic and consular affairs and so the Government of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia later opened representations in Chile (1935) and Brazil (1938).
State representative offices made efforts to provide legal and social protection to a large number of workers and economically unsettled emigrants and to serve compatriots by engaging in regular consular services. This was achieved through the opening of the Emigrant Office and Office of the Ministry for Social Policy. The main concern of Yugoslav representative offices was still to use cultural, education and political activities, support and create new pro-Yugoslav emigration societies, to channel emigration press, to observe the activities of different anti-Yugoslav elements and to prevent their operation in order to link this part of emigration to the Yugoslav idea in a lasting manner and to affirm the Yugoslav state among them. This task was the hardest in view of the distribution of emigrants in the huge area of South America. The greatest problem were the activities of different anti-state organisations and newspapers and this was especially prominent in Argentina and Uruguay, where separatist Croatian, Montenegrin, Macedonian and Communist agitators who came from abroad under the influence of political developments in the Kingdom and found a fertile soil among the economically weak and politically illiterate emigrants. Very liberal laws on the organisations of the press and foreign organisations in Argentina and political atmosphere in Uruguay were favourable for the development of these organisations.
Documents on the Yugoslav emigration in South America, selected for the small electronic exhibition, are in the following funds of the Archives of Serbia and Montenegro: Embassy of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in Argentina – Buenos Aires (385), Consulate General of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in Buenos Aires (765) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia – Inquiry Section (334).
A more detailed insight in this issue can be made by using the following funds: Embassy of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in Chile – Santiago de Chile (389), Embassy of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in Brazil – Rio de Janeiro (387), Honorary Consulate of the KY in Antofagasta (428), Honorary Consulate of the KY in Punta Arenas (Magallanes) (429), Consulate General of the KY in Sao Paolo (427), Emigration Office of the Ministry for Social Policy of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in Buenos Aires (784) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia – Economic and Consular Section (334).
Establishment of links – Initiatives
Prompted by the requests of Yugoslav emigrants, that is their most progressive part headed by the Yugoslav National Defence, the Government of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes requested to be formally recognised by Argentina in order to establish official links between the two countries, which the Argentine Government did in late 1921. In this way the Government of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes primarily intended to protect the interests of emigrants of South Slav descent and promote of the Yugoslav state among them. A logical consequence was the opening of the first official representative office – the Consulate General of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in Buenos Aires.
Respectable emigrants in Argentina gave a significant contribution to the opening of the first diplomatic representative office in Argentina and all of South America.
The offer of respectable emigrant, Nikola Mihanović, to buy a building for the future Embassy of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in Argentina.
(AJ-385-19-90)
Pages: 2
Initiative of Yugoslav emigrants in Argentina (Adriatic Society) to establish official relations between the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and Argentina and to open the first official representative office of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in Argentina.
(AJ-334-94-303)
Pages: 3
General circumstances among the emigrants
Available documents on this topic mostly indicate that apart from the richer and better organised part of the Yugoslav colony in Chile and few members of the elite made up of tradesmen and shipowners in Argentina, Brazil and other states, most Yugoslav emigrants before and after the establishment of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918 were poor, uneducated, unskilful and as such could hardly make a living in the new environment. They mostly worked in the fields, in mines and factories and were rarely small entrepreneurs and traders. The situation in Argentina was especially difficult, because most emigrants worked on farms and were scattered throughout this huge country, located very far away from the centres where state and honorary consulates were situated (Buenos Aires, Parana, Rosario Santa Fe). Upon arriving they were frequently the victims of different local employment agents and revolutionary developments – in a situation where there were no state representatives in the vicinity (Chile, Brazil, etc.). In these circumstances, separatist propaganda found a favourable ground for its operation. The efforts of Yugoslav state representations and social security institutions (Emigration mission, correspondents of the Ministry of Social Policy, Yugoslav Emigration Protection) solved just part of the vital problems of the emigrants. Sometimes emigrants themselves, hit by the difficult economic crisis in Argentina and Uruguay, requested that emigration to these countries be halted. The statistics on the number of emigrants throughout South America is not quite reliable (a total of about 150,000, out of which about 100,000 in Argentina, about 7,000 in Uruguay, etc.). By providing social and economic assistance, but also through educational, cultural and political propaganda, as it will be seen from the other parts of this exhibition, the Yugoslav representation tried to consolidate the ties between the emigrants and the country of their origin.
The general state of the Yugoslav colony in Uruguay – report of the Honorary Consulate in Montevideo (1932)
(AJ-385-2-21)
Pages: 8
The general state of the Yugoslav colony in in Argentina – colony Santa Fe (town Rosario) (1937)
(AJ-385-2-22)
Pages: 5
Problems of the Yugoslav colony in Sao Paolo (Brazil) during the 1924 revolution and non-existence of an official representation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in the country
( AJ-765-1-2)
Pages: 1
Emigrants' associations
Yugoslav emigrants in South America formed different cultural and educational, sports and political associations in order to maintain a strong link with their compatriots and country and thus gain the necessary sense of security in the new country. The largest number of societies (more than 20, excluding the YPC) operated in Argentina, although just a small number of them had any major role in the social life of the emigrants. Important societies were: Jugoslovenski Sokol (Yugoslav Falcon Society), Yugoslav Club, Yugoslav Assistance Society, all from Buenos Aires; Yugoslav Society "Kosovo" in Ensenada, Slovenian Society "Tabor" (Buenos Aires), Yugoslav Mutual Support Society from Rosario de Santa Fe, etc. While the Yugoslav colony was well organised in Chile during World War I (YPC), the scarce Yugoslav colony in Uruguay, mostly based in Montevideo, was organised in a number of emigrant cultural and political societies since the end of 1920s. These societies were either state owned or formed with the blessing of the state, while some were a tool in the hands of separatist organisations.
Emigrant societies in Uruguay – activities, importance, political orientation (1940)
(AJ-385-3-24)
Pages: 2
Letter to the Mission on the formation of the Serbian emigration society "Stevan Sinđelić" in Berize
Pages: 2
Celebration of State holidays and anniversaries; reaction of Yugoslav emigrants to developments in Yugoslavia
Yugoslav emigrants followed the developments in their mother country as much as the communications of the time allowed, trying to help their former homeland. They assisted the inmates or civilians in Yugoslavia, responded to mobilisation, gave political support at the crucial times… The reactions of emigrants to developments in the homeland, through different events and declarations, are an expression of their attitude towards the Kingdom and political strivings among them.
Letter of the Yugoslav Royal Legation in Argentina to the Society “Kosovo” with the Letter of Thanks for the Grant for Yugoslav Red Cross
Pages: 1
Reactions of Yugoslav emigrants to the March 27 and April 6, 1941 (report)
(АЈ-385-10-55)
Pages: 2
Yugoslav schools in South America
The Government of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Yugoslavia) tried to use educational activities among the descendants of Yugoslav emigrants (who were more or less assimilated in the Latin environment) to maintain their awareness of their origin. There were few emigrant schools. One of the better organised was in Antofagasta (Chile) in the 1920s. In late 1930s the Yugoslav government intensified educational activities by sending two teachers to hold courses of mother tongue, history, geography, etc. in the existing emigrant schools. The emigrants themselves frequently requested textbooks from Yugoslavia from the Consulate General and later from the Mission, and they also requested financial and moral support to the activities of Yugoslav schools.
Decorations
Some Yugoslav emigrants in Latin America engaged in the work on national affairs among their compatriots. By conferring state decorations, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia expressed its gratitude to the deserving emigrants for their contribution in activities pertaining to the national affairs as well as to locals, in an attempt to stimulate further work in this area. The Consul General, or envoy, sent his proposal for decoration to the Foreign Ministry of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia based upon his knowledge and most of these proposals were accepted. However, decorations awarded to some people, such as Nikola Mihanović, caused conflicts and protests of a part of the Yugoslav colony in Buenos Aires
List of emigrants proposed for state decorations for their merits in national and educational activities
(AJ-385-14-70)
Pages: 1
Press and propaganda
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia and separatist movements fought for the Yugoslav emigrants in Latin America. The conflicting sides developed wide-spread propaganda with the aim of winning over emigrants for their idea. For that purpose, numerous emigrant newspapers were printed. Newspapers which had evident anti-Yugoslav, separatist orientation and which served as the organs of anti-governmental associations throughout their existence are presented in the section on anti-govermental activities.
Propaganda activities of the Mission of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in Argentina, 1929 godine.
PDF
Cover pages of the most prominent emigrant newspapers
Anti-governmental activities
Since its very beginning the Kingdom of Yugoslavia had numerous enemies among its own citizens who wanted to see this "Versailles creation" dismantled and who wanted to see the formation of a nationally homogenous (and Bolshevik) states on its ruins. The poor, ill-educated Yugoslav population in Latin America was an easy target for the propaganda and other political activities of the Croatian, pro-Bulgarian and Montenegrin separatists and Communists. Archive documents that served as the basis for this exhibition abound in documents on this topic, but the authors chose just a few documents because of the very concept of the exhibition.
Activities of Croatian separatist Marko Fil Vujev and the Croatian Emigrant Home organisation in Rosario de Santa Fe
Pages: 3
Cooperation of the members of the Split football club Hajduk with Croatian separatists and Branimir Jelić, 1931
Pages: 1
Articles and activities of the "Hrvatski domobran" (Croatian defender of the fatherland) newspaper and organisation (Buenos Aires)
(AJ-385-6-42)
Pages: 2
Croatian separatists' attack at the Honorary Consulate of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in Montevideo (Uruguay), 1931
Pages: 2
Separatist activities of the Montenegrin Honorary Consulate in Buenos Aires
(AJ-365-2-10)
Pages: 3