Eldorado, Misiones

Danes have lived in the small town of Eldorado since the industrial cultivation of the northern Argentine province Misiones in the 1920’s.

Two Argentine Danes, Carl Engwald and Oluf Johansen, were – along with their families - among the first pioneers who participated in the cultivation of the Argentine jungle with its rough climate. Still today, the Danish element is visible in Eldorado in form of memorial stones, a building complex called ‘casas de Johansen’ (the Johansen houses), a house named ‘casa Danés’ (Danish house), representation of Danish families in the town museum, a community center called Haabet (Hope), street names like ‘Christiansen’ and ‘Dinamarca’ and not least the gravestones on the Danish graveyard.

Based on information from our consultants, we estimate that today there are ca. 15 Danish-speaking persons left in Eldorado. The Danish Voices-project recorded 11.

If you are interested in reading more about Danishness in Argentina, we point to the report (in Danish) ’En snert af dansk mellem pampa og urskov’, written by Nadia Hansen and edited by Jan Heegård and Karoline Kühl.