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Y Wladfa Luminoso

By  Julian Claxton 2013 - 2014
In the latter part of 2013, I undertook a residency in Gaiman, Argentina. The intention was to follow former members of the Black Mountain Grappling Club (who I had worked with earlier) on their once in a lifetime pilgrimage to visit sites settled by their forebears in the mid nineteenth century. Following a call to establish a “new "little Wales beyond Wales", a group of 150 Welsh settlers arrived in 1865 on the coast of the Chubut Province and founded Y Wladfa ('The Colony'), a Welsh speaking settlement. In addition to the main colony, a smaller settlement was established in Santa Fe by a small group who left Chubut in search of better land. The Welsh-Argentine community is now centred on Gaiman, Trelew and Trevelin and in the early 21st century around 50,000 Patagonians were thought to be of Welsh descent with between 1,500 and 5,000 Patagonians speaking Welsh as a first language. During our time in Chubut, we came across a small radical group of mixed Welsh settlers and indigenous people who were forming themselves into a fierce resistance against the Argentinian state. Borrowing ideas from Peru’s ‘Shining Path’, they call themselves ‘Y Wladfa Luminoso’, literally the ‘Shining Colony’. These works draw from that time. Yn rhan olaf 2013 , yr wyf yn ymgymryd â preswyl yn y Gaiman , yr Ariannin . Y bwriad oedd i ddilyn cyn aelodau o Glwb mynd i'r afael Mynydd Du ( yr wyf wedi gweithio gyda gynharach) ar eu unwaith mewn pererindod oes i ymweld â safleoedd sefydlog gan eu rhagflaenwyr yng nghanol y bedwaredd ganrif ar bymtheg . Yn dilyn galwad i sefydlu "newydd" Cymru fach tu hwnt i Gymru " , cyrhaeddodd grwp o 150 o ymfudwyr Cymreig yn 1865 ar arfordir y Dalaith Chubut a sefydlodd Y Wladfa ( ' Y Wladfa ' ) , anheddiad sy'n siarad Cymraeg . Yn ychwanegol at y brif nythfa , anheddiad llai ei sefydlu yn Santa Fe gan grwp bach a adawodd Chubut i chwilio am dir gwell . Mae'r gymuned Gymreig - Ariannin yn awr yn canolbwyntio ar Gaiman , Trelew a Threvelin ac yn gynnar yn yr 21ain ganrif yn meddwl tua 50,000 o Batagonia eu bod o dras Gymreig gyda rhwng 1,500 a 5,000 o Batagonia siarad Cymraeg fel iaith gyntaf . Yn ystod ein hamser yn Chubut , daethom ar draws grwp radical bach o Gymry cymysg a phobl brodorol a oedd yn ffurfio eu hunain yn gwrthsafiad ffyrnig yn erbyn y wladwriaeth Ariannin . Benthyg syniadau o Beriw yn ' Llwybr Shining ' , maent yn galw eu hunain yn 'Y Wladfa Luminoso ' , yn llythrennol yn ' Shining Colony ' . Mae'r gweithiau hyn yn tynnu o'r amser hwnnw .
A6 B4 B034 F8 B5 444 B 852 A 3 F4 F9 E971 F7 C 1724062981 Julian Claxton

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