White Colombians

Population, distribution, and ethnic background

While most sources estimate Whites to be 20% of the country's population, according to Latinobarómetro poll, 26% of Colombians surveyed self-identified as White.

White Colombians primarily live in the Andean Region and the urban centers. Most are of Spanish origin, but there is also a large population of Middle Eastern descendants, as well as some Italian, German, and other European ancestries.

Genetics

According to research published in 2014, which evaluated the genetic pool of 1,659 Colombians living mostly in the city of Medellín, the average genetic makeup was 60% European, 29% Indigenous, and 11% African, with self-identified White Colombians (19.3% of the samples) being 65% European, 26% Indigenous, and 9% African.

History

Before the arrival of Europeans, Indigenous peoples of Colombia populated the region.

Colonial era

The presence of Whites in Colombia began in 1510 with the colonization of San Sebastián de Urabá. Many Spaniards came searching for gold, while others established themselves locally as leaders of Christian social organizations.

European

French

German

Main article: German Colombians

The first German immigrants arrived in the 16th century, contracted by the Spanish Crown, and included explorers such as Ambrosio Alfinger and Nikolaus Federmann. There was another small wave of German immigrants at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, including Leo Siegfried Kopp, the founder of the famous Bavaria Brewery. SCADTA, a Colombian-German air transport corporation established by German expatriates in 1919, was the first commercial airline in the Western Hemisphere.

During the era of Nazi Germany, there were some German Nazi agitators in Colombia, such as Barranquilla businessman Emil Prufurt, but the majority were apolitical. Colombia asked Germans who were on the US blacklist to leave while allowing German and Jewish refugees in the country illegally to stay.

In December 1941, the United States government estimated that at least 4,000 Germans were living in Colombia.

Mennonite

Italian

Main article: Italian Colombians

Polish

Main article: Polish Colombians

Spanish

Basque

Main article: Basque Colombians

Basque priests introduced Handball into Colombia. Along with business, Basque immigrants in Colombia were devoted to teaching and public administration. In the first years of the Andean multinational company, Basque sailors navigated as captains and pilots on most of the ships until the country could train its own crews. In Bogotá, there is a small colony of 30 to 40 families who emigrated due to the Spanish Civil War. File:Emigrazione-italiana.jpg|Italian immigrants arriving in Colombia File:Immigrazione.jpg|Italian immigrants arriving in Colombia File:Consulta Menonita (8095481956).jpg|A meeting of Mennonites in Chachipay, Colombia (1980)

Jewish

Main article: History of the Jews in Colombia

Colombia was one of the early focal points of Sephardi immigration. Jewish converts to Christianity and some crypto-Jews also sailed with the early explorers. It has been suggested that the present-day culture of business entrepreneurship in Antioquia and Valle del Cauca is attributable to Sephardi immigration.

A wave of Ashkenazi immigrants came after the rise of Nazism in 1933, followed by as many as 17,000 German Jews. From 1939 until the end of World War II, immigration was forced to stop through anti-immigrant policies and restrictions on immigration from Germany. File:Fi 322 Isaacs, Jorge.jpg|Portrait of Jorge Isaacs, Colombian Jewish writer and intellectual File:V. de Valenzuela, R. Reyes Jr., Gen. R. Reyes, and J. M. Eder.jpg|Colombian Jewish entrepreneur James Martin Eder

Middle Eastern

Main article: Arab Colombians

The largest wave of Middle Eastern immigration began around 1880 and remained during the first two decades of the 20th century. They were mainly Maronite Christians from Lebanon, Syria and Ottoman Palestine, fleeing financial hardships and the repression of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. When they were first processed in the ports of Colombia, they were classified as Turks (in part because most of them had Ottoman Passports at the time).

During the early 20th century, numerous Jewish immigrants came from Turkey, North Africa, and Syria. Shortly after, Jewish immigrants began to arrive from Eastern Europe. Palestinians, and some Israelis have continued to settle in Colombia.

Between 700,000 and 3,200,000 Colombians have full or partial Middle Eastern descent. Due to a lack of information, it is impossible to know the exact number of people who immigrated to Colombia. A figure of 50,000-100,000 from 1880 to 1930 may be reliable. Regardless of the figure, the Lebanese are perhaps the biggest immigrant group, next to the Spanish, since independence. Cartagena, Cali, and Bogotá were among the cities with Colombia's largest number of Arabic-speaking representatives in 1945.

Arabes en colombia.jpg|Lebanese Colombians in Maicao (2014)

References

Works cited

• Bushnell, David and Rex A. Hudson. "Racial distinctions". In Colombia: A Country Study (Rex A. Hudson, ed.). Library of Congress Federal Research Division (2010).

References

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24. (1992). "En la tierra de las oportunidades: los sirio-libaneses en Colombia". Boletín Cultural y Bibliográfico.
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