My Relatives in

Argentina -

The Söderlund

Family

Helena Söderlund (nee Nordlander)

Helena Söderlund (Soderlund), maiden name Nordlander, is a sister to my paternal grandmother Gerda Högman. Helena emigrates from Sweden to Argentina with her husband and children in July 1927. The port of destination for the journey across the Atlantic was Buenos Aires. The following text is a résumé of this. Kristina Helena Nordlander was born on 15 June 1883 and died on 9 December 1970. On 23 June 1904, she married Erik Söderlund, born on 14 October 1879, died 5 November 1955. After the marriage, Helena moved to her husband in Viksjö, Ångermanland province. Helena and Erik immigrated with the children to Argentina in 1927. They had three children: 1. Erik (1905–1986) 2. Emil (1906-1996) 3. Sylvia Helena (1917-2004 ) All children were born in Viksjö parish, Ångermanland, Sweden. Accompanying the Söderlund family on the journey to Argentina was son Erik’s fiancée Sally Elonora Sundin, born on 5 August 1910 in Viksjö, Ångermanland, died on 22 May 2007 in Argentina. The couple was married on 11 July 1936. Their son Emil emigrates to the USA in February 1927 and settles down in California. Emil Söderlund in the USA. The original plan was for the whole family to go to the USA. But when the rest of the family was to emigrate in 1927, the emigration quota to the USA was already filled for the year. So, they decided to move to Argentina instead. Their son Erik, then 21 years old, leaves 6 months in advance to scout and find a suitable place to settle in Argentina. Erik first came to Buenos Aries where he was advised to go to Yerbal Viejo, roughly in the middle of Misiones province in northern Argentina, near the Brazilian border. It is an area with a subtropical climate and fertile red soil. There was already an established Swedish colony there, Villa Svea, founded by Swedes who had emigrated to Brazil a few decades earlier but had made their way south and settled in Misiones, Argentina. The rest of the family, including son Erik's fiancée Sally Sundin, then emigrates to Argentina in July 1927. At that time, the most common way to Argentina was via Brazil, but the Söderlunds went directly to Argentina. They travel by ship from Stockholm to Hamburg and from there by another ship to Buenos Aires. The family settles in the district of Misiones, near the town of Oberá. Misiones is located in the northeast of Argentina on the border with Brazil. In Oberá and the surrounding area, there is a Swedish colony, most of them from the Norrland part of Sweden. The image shows Sarmiento Avenue, Oberá, 2005. The church in the background is the Cathedral of St. Anthony of Padua (Roman Catholic). Wikipedia. Erik and fiancée Sally had been a couple for just over a year before Sally joined the family on the adventure of a lifetime to Argentina. Sally was only 17 years old at the time. Sally's parents Frans Konrad (1887 - 1955) and Jenny Lovisa Sundin (1890 - 1954), whom she never saw again, remained in Viksjö, Sweden. Sally's younger brother Frans Johan (1915 - 1977) also remained in Sweden. Sally, with whom I had many correspondences during the 1990s, felt remorse for leaving her parents, especially her mother who was ill. But they never discouraged her from leaving. Sally herself was looking forward to the adventure of the trip to Argentina. In the vicinity of Oberá, the family bought 104 hectares of land, mostly tropical forest, and after a while another 4,400 hectares of land. Erik and Helena Söderlund bought the land with the relatively large start-up capital of 10,000 SEK they had brought with them from Sweden. Here they start a plantation where they grow mainly yerba, a small tree whose leaves are harvested and dried. The leaves are then used to brew maté, Argentina's national drink (a kind of tea). In Argentina, a plantation is called a charca. The early years were hard work clearing land and the family lived in a simple palm house. The climate in Oberá was unfamiliar, with both high heat and high humidity, which was taxing. Erik and Sally are married on 11 July 1936 in Argentina and have three children: 1. Maj-Britt, born 1937 2. Jan-Erik, born 1941 3. Inger, born 1948 All three children speak fluent Swedish. Sally has visited Sweden three times, the first time in 1955 and the last time in 1990. Their son Jan-Erik visited Sweden in 1958 and 1992 when he also brought his wife Nora Seone with him. Erik and Sally's daughters Maj-Britt and Inger have also visited Sweden a couple of times. Two Swedish princes, Prince Wilhelm and Prince Lennart do at the end of the 1940s a journey to Argentina where they visit several Swedish descendants. The result of their journey is later published in the book "Röda Jordens Svenskar" {Red Soil Swedes} (Nordstedts Publishing House, 1948). The following quotation is from this book: "Erik Söderlund is the owner, a confident Ångermanlander {person from Ångermanland, Sweden}. He welcomes you on the stairs of his spacious house, it's like coming to the home of a well-off landlord in Östergötland, Sweden. Tanned, genial, and with a friendly look out of his gray eyes, he emits authority, conscious of the expected good harvests that a rationally managed charca must yield. What he does not know about the management of a plantation is not worth knowing. We tour the house with Mrs. Söderlund in the simple but well-kept home, built of sturdy cedar planks, where some of the furnishings evoke Sweden. Then it's son Erik's turn to guide us through the plantings. There are 31 hectares of yerba ." Descendant chart, Helena Söderlund.

The Swedish Immigration to

South America

There was a peak of immigration to South America in 1891 which was followed by another peak in 1909. The destination was Brazil. Immigration to Brazil began as early as 1868. Between 1868 and 1871 about 10,000 people annually immigrated to the Rio Grande do Sul province in Brazil. Brazil had an immigration office in Malmö City, in the south of Sweden, and pursued an active immigration policy, offering free travel and favorable conditions for the purchase of 25-hectare plots of land with a 5-year installment. Loans for houses, tools, and roads were also granted. Free travel was particularly attractive to those who could not afford to pay for tickets to the USA. All immigration to South America and Brazil went via Hamburg, Germany. In Brazil, there was a great demand for both plantation workers and sawmill workers. So, not all the immigrants went over to become settlers. Most emigrants arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The settlers then went on to Porto Alegre. From there, they made their way inland by rail as far as they could, then the oxcarts took over. The journey took them to the Uruguay River, where they then made their way by canoe to their plots of land in the middle of the jungle. It took time to get started with the cultivation. First, the undergrowth had to be cleared and then the trees felled. Once they had dried, the branches and twigs could be burned. Only then could they sow among the tree trunks. However, cultivation in Brazil's primeval forests was quite different from that in Sweden. Some of those who emigrated had not even worked in agriculture in Sweden. The Swedes were unfamiliar with the crops grown here, the most suitable time to sow, the subtropical climate where the seasons were reversed from Sweden. Life was very hard and at times hopeless. Diseases such as yellow fever and dysentery were rampant. Droughts and locust swarms destroyed crops. The Uruguay River flooded from time to time. In October 1911, the colony suffered a disaster when the river flooded on a massive scale, taking with it crops, houses, livestock, etc. They even had to write to the Swedish government to ask for help. Between 1890 and 1913, a total of 3,500 Swedes immigrated to Brazil. In the period 1909 - 1911 alone, 2,500 Swedes immigrated. About 900 of these returned home, most of them between 1911 and 1913. The wave of Swedish immigration to Brazil between 1909 and 1911 came to be known as the "Death Caravan", when up to 20% died on the way, most of them children.

To Argentina

To find better living conditions than they had in Brazil's jungles, many of the Swedes crossed over to Argentina, to the province of Misiones. Misiones lies between the Paraná and Uruguay rivers and is largely forested. The name Misiones comes from the Jesuit missions founded in the 17th and 18th centuries. The first Swedes arrived in Misiones as early as 1902. They first settled in Bonpland on the San Javier River a few miles into the Argentine side of the border. The image to the right shows the Argentine flag. Image: Wikipedia. To find better soil, they then headed another 40 km into the rainforest until they found excellent soil, the famous red soil. In 1913 there was a small colony here at a place called Yerbal Viejo. At this time, the Argentine government was investing in the cultivation of yerba in the province of Misiones, and the Swedes could now buy plots of land very cheaply and thus invested in yerba cultivation. The road to the area came to be known as the Picada Suecia (the Swedish Path) and is still called that today. Increasing numbers of Swedish families flocked to the area, an influx that lasted until the 1940s. Here, clearing, burning, and planting had to begin again. The crops grown were maize, beans, manioc, and tobacco in addition to the yerba. However, it took a few years before the yerba bush began to produce a harvest. The colony that emerged was named Villa Svea. The Swedes lived scattered on their chacras, landed estates. The term chacra is also a square measure of 25 hectares. The first dwellings were nothing more than huts and sheds. Gradually, however, real wooden houses began to be built. As times improved, stone houses were built to better withstand the climate. In 1915 the Scandinavian Society Svea was founded. A few years later, the first Swedish congregation, Olaus Petri, was founded. In 1917 permission was granted to establish a cemetery, “Den Svenska Kyrkogården” (Swedish Cemetery), and by 1918 the parish was legally and formally organized. The first permanent parish minister was appointed in 1942 when Pastor Janulf was appointed. In 1956 the church of Olaus Petri was consecrated and is located in the center of Oberá. Until 1973 the sermon was preached in Swedish when the parish minister Sven Arne Flodell retired. However, a couple of times a year you can still hear Swedish preaching in the church when a Swedish-speaking pastor comes from Sao Paolo in Brazil. A Swedish school was established in 1922 and continued until 1952 when it was discontinued. During this time, teaching was in Swedish. In the 1940s, an estimated 927 Swedes lived in the Oberá area. In 1928, the community of Villa Svea changed its name to Oberá when the new town was founded. In 1935, the largest Swedish colony in South America was located in these parts. Many of the names on the town map are still reminiscent of Sweden. About 100 km from Oberá is the capital of the province of Misiones, Posadas. The population of Posadas is 141,000 (1998) and the city is located by the Paraná River. Posadas is an important river port and is the center for the cultivation of maté, tea, and tobacco.

Yerba - The Green Gold

The yerba bush (holly - Ilex paraguariensis) grows wild in Misiones and became the most important crop cultivated. The leaves are evergreen and 7–11 cm long and 3–5.5 cm wide, with a serrated margin. The leaves of the yerba bush are used to make maté, a kind of bitter tea, and ordinary tea. Yerba maté is Argentina's national drink. Yerba maté is also drunk in neighboring countries such as Uruguay, Brazil, and Paraguay. Yerba maté is drunk in special teacups with a spout (a metal straw called bombilla), they look like very large tobacco pipes or hollowed gourds and are called maté cups or yerba maté gourds. The dried tea leaves are put in the cup and then hot water is added. Some people also add sugar to it. Once the tea is brewed, you take turns to sip. The flavor of brewed yerba maté is strongly vegetal, herbal, and grassy, reminiscent of some varieties of green tea. Like coffee and tobacco, yerba maté is addictive. In the 1930s and 1940s, the income from the yerba was very good. In the mid-1940s, the Argentine government decided that all exports of goods should go through the state. This gave the state a monopoly on all exports, so farmers were now forced to sell to the state. The price was set by the state, which bought cheaply and sold expensively. The profits went to the state treasury and were to be used to finance social reforms. Growers often had to wait a long time for payment from the state, which reduced their ability to run the yerba plantations.

Maps

The Söderlund family's journey from Europe.

Photos

Mrs. Helena Söderlund, with family. In the picture Helena is in the middle with her husband Erik Söderlund to the right. Between them is their son Erik and on the far left is Erik's wife Sally (née Sundin).

Links

• Map of the Swedish provinces • Descendant chart, Helena Söderlund • Ancestor chart to Gerda Högman and her sister Helena Söderlund (nee Nordlander) • Descendant chart Nils Nordlander • Emil Söderlund in USA • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yerba_mate • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina • http://www.guayaki.com/index.php?p=mate

Source References

• Misiones, Svenskarna och den röda jorden, Solveig Giambanco, 1996. • Mot löftets land, Den svenska utvandringen, Ulf Beijbom, 1995 • Känn ditt land, nr 8 - Utvandringen, 1980. • Mail correspondences with Mrs. Sally Söderlund Top of page