Little Germany In Venezuela: How Descendants Of German Migrants Live

With all the current instability in Venezuela, there are still places that seem to stay out of all the turmoil

CARACAS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th April, 2019) With all the current instability in Venezuela, there are still places that seem to stay out of all the turmoil.

The town of Colonia Tovar, dubbed the German alpine village in Venezuela, is just two hours away from Caracas. The descendants of German migrants, who arrived in the country in the first half of the 19th century, still live and work here. A Sputnik correspondent visited the village and talked to its residents.

Tovar's history is rather interesting. In the turbulent times of the German Confederation, a small group of residents of the Grand Duchy of Baden was invited to Venezuela by the country's President Jose Antonio Paez. They sailed to distant shores at the end of 1842, fleeing the turmoil and epidemics that were plaguing Europe. They sailed for a reason, so they could help Venezuela with the development of new mines and agriculture.

Local authorities allocated pieces of land, or rather mountain slopes, for the European immigrants, so they could settle down and start a new life. And, it is worth noting, they succeeded.

It has been almost two centuries. The village not only survived under difficult conditions, but also turned into one of the main attractions near Caracas.

"There used to be more tourists, but there are still many. In general, we earn a living [due to tourism business]," a manager from a local restaurant, Andres Gut, told Sputnik.

Back in 1840-s the Germans started their life on the new continent by cutting down the jungle, which covered the mountain slopes. Then they built a town named after the Venezuelan politician who was in charge of handing over land to the settlers.

According to Gut, agriculture helps Tovar and its inhabitants to survive.

"Though there has been a decline in tourism in recent years, a lot of people from the cities of Caracas, Maracaibo, Valencia always come here just to buy the freshest vegetables and fruits," he said.

In general, the situation in the town is better than in many other places of the country. For example, electricity was not switched off here during the recent national blackouts, and there is almost no crime in the town.

Tovar is apparently the only town in Venezuela which brews a real draft beer. There used to be schnapps too, but now the production of this German alcohol in the town is closed, and the alcohol is brought from Germany in small batches.

"We cannot say that we are isolated. We depend on the whole country. And we help the country as much as we can, because we send a huge amount of agricultural products to the rest of Venezuela," the manager added.

You do not even have to ask to understand that Tovar is a place which preserves German national traditions, it is enough just to walk along its streets. The Sputnik correspondent came to Tovar at the end of the week, during Easter holidays, so there was something to look at.

Groups of cheerful grandmothers in national German costumes gathered near a local church. People around also wore traditional clothing. All of this looked very colorful combined with the real Venezuelan mountains on one side and the traditional German houses and restaurants on the other.

"We carry on our traditions, preserve culture, although the language we use to talk to each other is already far from German. It is called Alemanish and it is a mixture of German and Spanish words," Gut noted.

The Sputnik correspondent asked him to say a few phrases in Alemanish and did not understand a word, but they still use German in writing.

"We all are Venezuelans. Last year, about 600 town's residents left the country [out 22,000 people]. Mostly young people decide to leave the country, but in general, people stay, they want to work and they feel just fine," Gut said.

Local elderly women in national costumes who gathered at the church shared Gut's view.

"No, we will not go anywhere. This is our homeland, we will die here. And we need to fight and overcome problems, as our fathers taught us," Anna, who has lived in Tovar for almost 65 years, told Sputnik.

Locals said that after World War II, a couple of people allegedly appeared in the town. They migrated from Europe for completely different reasons - they were former Nazis from defeated Germany. But they lived quietly and peacefully and are now long dead.

To tell the long story short, the town was created by the hands of ordinary German settlers on the slopes of the Venezuelan mountains. And now, many residents of Caracas, who are tired of noise, crime and frequent economic difficulties, come here to enjoy this small piece of the Alps and Germany.