The word Trelew, having a Welsh origin, means "Lewis town", in honor of Lewis Jones, a pioneer of Welsh colonization in Chubut.
The history of this city is closely connected to colonization, initiated in 1865. On 20th October 1884, law 1529 was passed and the construction of the railroad between the valley and Puerto Madryn was authorized.
Trelew then emerged as a railroad terminal and was known as such. It was born and grew in the center of the Welsh colony, and this influence was evident, but it was not a Welsh town.
The roots of Welsh spirit and traditions were preponderant during the first decades in Gaiman and Rawson, where other colectivities arrived much later. Then other communities from farther countries arrived, and practiced strange religions and spoke different languages from those cultivated by the colonists who constructed the Ferrocarril Central Patagónico, which gradually transformed the economic development of the region and imprinted a different touch to their habits.
The immigrants of the new town came from Spain, Italy, Syria and Portugal. They arrived to their promised land: the inferior valley of river Chubut. Colonists observed with awe how these foreigners settled in the region previously appointed exclusively to them.
These immigrants arrived from different places, and inhabited a territory almost deserted while incorporating to a community that would later be their own country, and that of their children and grandchildren.
In this way, the village was formed in the middle of the Welsh colony and soon transformed the city not into a Welsh but a cosmopolitan one, where every colectivity promoted fraternal relations in a hardworking society of peace and respect.
As soon as they saw the endless horizon and understood that the land was there, at hand, without an owner, they started to dream. They thought that work could do everything. They worked hard and were austere. They saved to buy the land, first a lot, then a farm, and later a field.
Among the Italians who came to settle in Punta de Rieles, then called Trelew (Lewis town), there were some musicians who formed the first orchestras with accordion, harmonica, mandolin and guitar as main instruments.
Deffinitely incorporated to the new community, they adopted the national language, that they first spoke with a mixture of words from their peninsular dialects.
These peaceful people possess a deep sense of solidarity and hospitality. |
