ARGENTINA

TRELEW

Our city is one of the most important urban centres in Chubut Province. It´s callesd Trelew. Without being the oldest city of Chubut, Trelew is one of the original Celtic in our country , for the  comprehension of Argentinian people.
Our city´s name means:
TRE=TOWN OR HOME 
LEW=lEWIS (THE NAME OF THE MAN WHO CONSIDERATED THE FUNDING OF THE CITY).
Trelew was born in XIX century. Everything started when a big wooden ship called Mimosa arrived to Golfo  Nuevo (Pto.Madryn).In July 28th 1865. It was a huge group of 153 welsh immigrants that came here from Whales (Europe) looking for a better quality of life.

From Trelew-Victoria, Pedro, Adrian, Natalia, Agustina, Vanina, Florencia and Emanuel.

The Welsh people were oppressed in their own land by the English, and they decided to look for new places in order to live in peace and to preserve their identity. Because of this they got in contact with the Argentinian authorities. Love Jones Parry and Lewis Jones were interviewed by Guillermo Rawson, the Argentinian Minister of Home Affairs in 1863. During this interview, they thought of a Welsh Colony in Chubut. On 24th May 1865, a hundred and fifty three Welsh people, went aboard "The Mimosa", which was a tea-clipper. The day after, they left Liverpool (England) hoping to find their new destiny.

On 28th July 1865 the Welsh landed on the coasts of Golfo Nuevo. As they did not find any fresh water there, they decided to build houses by the Valley of the Chubut River.
They did not know the Patagonian geography, the weather conditions or agriculture. This caused the failure of the first years. The people were very dismayed. The national government asked Julian Murga to give the lands to the settlers, so he travelled to Patagonia. On 15th September 1865 the first Argentinian village in Chubut was officially founded. Its name was "Tre-Rawson", after Guillermo Rawson.

The colony fixes its roots. 

The small group of settlers dismayed by the bad results from their crops, decided to look elsewhere for better opportunities. The majority, led by Lewis Jones, chose to go on with their original objective.
Artificial irrigation was the most important factor for the Welsh to stay. The water that came from the river was carried by the canals up to the crops, obtaining excellent results. The settlers gathered together in a co-operative in order to facilitate the building of canals, houses and the Trading Company, which was created to trade their products. The life in the colony was not only about cultivating the land. The settlers preserved their identity in different ways : in 1868, Richard Berwyn, who was the first teacher in Chubut, started the publication of a newspaper called "Y Brut". There were no schools, but Berwyn, using magazines, taught the children who lived in the colony, the Welsh language. In order to find a way out for their agricultural products, they made a project to build a train that communicated the Valley with the "Golfo Nuevo". Lewis Jones was in charge to put this idea into practice. They also built wooden bridges across the rivers, which helped moving the carts and agricultural machines. The colony grows up 10 years after the first settlers arrived, more people came. They stayed in different parts, for example Lake Musters and Colhue Huapi , next to the mountains, while in the Valley, new villages were growing up: Trelew and Puerto Madryn.

In 1866 during the first wedding in Patagonia, a group of aborigines came to talk to the Welsh. The relationship started when they ate together some home-made bread. The Welsh benefited with the relationship because they did not know the land, the animals and they could not adapt themselves to live here.
The aborigines taught them how to use the bow and arrow, the boleadoras ( stones balls covered with leather and attached to leather straps and thrown so to twist round animal’s legs ) and they taught young Welsh men to work with horses and cows. On the other hand, the aborigines, experts of the place, natural inhabitants of Patagonia got to know home-made bread, and another language and culture.

During a decade, the Argentinian government did not take part in the organisation of the colony, but the Welsh could manage the government with justice and efficiency. Because of the population increase between 1875 and 1876, the national government sent a representative : Antonio Oneto, he had the position of commissioner. Then, other people got that position until Juan Finoquetto arrived, who governed until 1885.
The settlers disagreed with the actions of the government. So, they passed a law that organised the patagonian territory. The National Territories Law nº 1532, date sixteenth October,1884, set the Chubut territories limits from parallel 42º, in the north, to parallel 46º, in the south, and from the sea to the Andean rage. Luis Jorge Fontana was appointed like a governor of this territories.

Trelew is situated on the south east of Argentina. It is in Chubut province. On the 28th of July, 1886, the "Vesta" ship arrived to Puerto Madryn with many immigrants and the necessary elements to start building a railway, from that port to Chubut´s valley. The workers started immediately, and for them and to store materials, they built several houses next to a lagoon in front of the railway in the valley.
The first citizens of Trelew were Mr Josiah Williams and his wife Ann, they had three children: Benjamin, Jane, and Esther. He built the first house in Fontana avenue between Honduras and Don Bosco streets. For many years the cattle pens were there.
The first group of houses according to Abraham Matthews were known as stone houses. If we consider that before this date (1886), there was not any population in the area, we can say that Trelew was born in 1886. The name means "Town of Lewis" in Welsh (Tre: town, Lew: short for Lewis). Because Lewis Jones was the man who worked very hard for the building of the railway. He is considered the founder of the city.
In January 1889 the Police station was created by the government of Chubut. The first people who were in charge of the police station were William Owen Parry, Antonio Civitarrale, and David Jones. In that year the chapel "Tabernacl" was built, thanks to A.P.Bel,l, who was the manager of the railway.
The first newspaper was created in 1891 by Lewis Jones, it worked next to his house. It was called "Y Drafod" (which means the mentor), the newspaper cost 24 cents and it had 4 pages. Its aim was to increase the interest in reading of the citizens. It let the people know about the facts which happened during the week.
The Eisteddfod was celebrated for the first time on the first of March 1891. It is a cultural festival about poetry, music and dancing. It takes place once a year in October. The expression "Eisteddfod", comes from the verb "Eisted" and means to be seated. During the festival, the winner of the best written poem is awarded a replica of the Bard Chair. The first of March, 1892, the Saint David group was founded to build a monument after the first Welsh settlers and to make a place for public acts. Since then it has been used by the people for several cultural events.
The first primary school in Trelew was founded on the 23rd of July,1895. They taught Welsh and the principal and teacher was Robert Jones. In February 1899 the teaching changed to Spanish. The school worked in Lewis Jones´ house for some time, then it moved to a building called "the glass school" and part of it was used by the army.
By this time Trelew had 58 houses and 132 inhabitants. The immigrants were very important to the town, the Italian and Spanish people who lived in Trelew had a great influence on the culture of our city because both groups of immigrants passed their customs, their traditional food, music, etc. For all this Trelew is now a melting pot. The first car in Trelew was brought by a man called Augusto Bishop. In 1911 the citizens from Trelew and Rawson had the possibility of travelling for one village to the other, because of the beginning of a public means of transport, a Fiat car whose driver was Mr. Francisco Corradi.
Today the population of Trelew is about 85 thousand inhabitants. It is an industrial city. It has changed a lot from the small village that it used to be. Now it is quite a modern town, it has many schools, a university, a cinema, a theatre and an airport which connects the southern city with the capital of Argentina, and many other places.
It is a peaceful place to live in.

Puerto Madryn was founded the 28-07-1865, when about 150 Welsh in the Mimosa boat landed in Punta Cuevas. They named it Puerto Madryn because Loves Jones Parry, who was baron of Madryn in Wales. The city was really inhabited in 1886, when with Welsh, Spanish and Italian men made the railway, which joined Trelew with Madryn. From that moment Pto Madryn was used like the "entrance door" and the "exit door" of the Welsh colony. The city was growing around the railway activity, port activity, and other services, like warehouses and shops. The railways and the coast were the most important things of the growing city. That structure still worked until finals of the 50´s and the first years of the 60´s.In that decade, the customs franchises were closed ,and disappear the lasts maritime companies, like the Chubut´s shipping company, and finally the patagonian train.

Beginning the 60´s in the city were installed some textiles industries, protected by tax exemption policies . Some years later closed all the industrial settlement. The population decreased because of emigration, that was concreted in the first years of the 70´s. The urban shape didn´t change much, except for the railway fitting which were empty. The activity which made Madryn grow had disappeared. A change appeared with the construction of Aluar (aluminium factory) and the mineral port, in the 70´s the population grew up in less than 10 years. Now the population is about 45 thousand. In the last year the city  has acquired a tourist character.

The name of the city of Rawson was given by its founders after Dr Rawson, Minister of Home Affairs at the time. At the beginning and during many years, the farmers had their own authorities. They had a council of 12 members that acted as the house of representatives, a governor that was an executive officer and two law courts. The first governor of Chubut was Jorge Luis Fontana. With Colonel Fontana in charge, a new stage of development of territory begins as well as an interest in organizing an expedition to explore new territories and occupy them.

On 14/10/1885 an expedition known as "Los rifleros del Chubut" ("Chubut gunmen") departed from Rawson. It was made up by 30 armed men with the aim of going west to explore the unknown territories. The village was spread out and there were buildings, on both sides of the river. The village consisted of 30 or 40 houses made of mud and bricks , and there was an old boat that crossed people from one side of the river to the other for a small fee.

The majority of the people were Welsh. There were two churches, one was Congregationalist and the other Methodist Calvinist. At the time, there were about 368 people, 148 of these were Argentinians and 220 were foreigners. Then, they made a wooden bridge and in 1917, they made an iron one. Since then, it has been the town’s symbol.

In 1899 there was a big flood that made serious damages to Rawson, the people had to move to Trelew. In the 1920s, Rawson had a slow growth. The technical advances came, an example is the railway. In the 1950s, Rawson was declared the Chubut province’s capital.

TOURING CLUB HOTEL 

The histoy of this hotel is divided into two stages. The first stage corresponds to the bar, with twelve bedrooms. Mr. Agustin Pujol rented it to doferent people, who called the Hotel as: "HOTEL DEL GLOBO", "CAFE DEL COMERCIO", "HOTEL MARTINO", etc. In 1925 the second stage started together with the modern things of the century. Mr. Martino, Mr.Gazin (architect), Mr.Merifico (builder), and Donato Grion (one of the bricklayers) collaborated with this project. Many materials were taken from Europe, to Puerto Madryn by boat and to Trelew by train. This new part of the building was called (in Spanish) "Extraño hombre inglés incrustado en un ambiente de italianos, españoles, sirio-libaneses, portugueses, galeses..." (as it is still called today). In 1949 Luis and Rafael Fernandez (brothers) were in charge of the hotel and they set the natural gas in the building in 1952 they built the first rooms with private toilets. In 1962 Mrs. Jones sold the hotel Fernandez's brothers and in 1969 Rafael re sold it to Luis. His wife, "doña Pepa", and his sons Luis and Rafaelare the last owners. Nowadays, old the presents are provided with private bathrooms, T.V., phone,music, bar, garage, e-mail, medical attention, a hall and all the things you need to enjoy your stay. The luxurious stairs take us to the first floor, where there are 50 rooms with expensive floors , oak cupboards, cristal dishes and silver cutlery. There is a huge ball room, too. All the rooms are adapted to the modern life, but they also have some old characteristics. The oldest part is downstairs. It is the bar, with one hundred years old. The back part of the cafe and the fifteen original rooms are connected by a huge patio and a shadow of a beautiful palm appreciate. When we spoke about "Touring" we must mention its cafe which has always been full of politician, lovers, students, sportsmen, people with crazy ideas...test place, meetings...this walls have listened to thoughts and ideas for a century. In the hotel we can find a bottle connection called "ratas" (rats) with bottles from all over the world. We can find around the touring cafe, photographs and very old elements of the age, and a very impotant element: THE COFFEE MACHIINE FROM 1926. On the 25th July 1995 Touring was declared PATRIMONIO CULTURAL Y NATURAL DE TRELEW.