Kevin, Valentin and Sofia, three Uruguayans in the Malvinas Islands: their stories and their special connection to the islands

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When I arrived at the island, everything was very different. There weren’t that many houses, and the entire upper area, this West District From the citydid not exist. Today this is my home, but it was a multi-year process.”

Karina Serpa is a Uruguayan. She lives in Falkland Islands/Malvinas Islands Since 12 years old. He never thought that he would make a living more than 400 kilometers away from the mainland, but one day he met an islander who worked in a fishing company and came here. Montevideo On the boat, he told Karina where he lived, dropped his psychology degree, left everything behind and moved to the island. Then he fell in love.

When he arrived in November 2012, he Mount Pleasant Airport She felt that this place was different from any place she had ever seen before. “Everything felt different to me, even the air felt different.”

It wasn’t easy at first. A new place added a language I didn’t understand. Although there are more than 80 nationalities living on the island, the official language and the language everyone speaks is English. Karina didn’t know English.

“When I came, I felt myself fading away, and I had to learn to grab the pieces and put myself back together. It took me years. But when I learned to speak English, I felt better, and I began to discover the warmer side of people and their poetry.”

Karina lives in StanleyThe capital of the archipelago is located far from the center. Since he arrived, he has done everything: he works in the tourism industry, takes care of the penguins – observing them, checking if they are Visitors Don’t get closer than you are allowed — on the reservation, at Mount Pleasant Military Base, at airport security, at the port.

“This is where I really learned that ‘never say never’ is true because I never thought I would have a job watching penguins.”

While working at the Mount Pleasant base, about an hour’s drive from Stanley, Karina began to see something different in the desolate landscapes she passed every day.

“I always go, in the rain, in the cold, in the snow. Then I start to see the landscape, rock and Piedrasthey look different. I started seeing beauty, before I saw nothing, now I started seeing beauty. The best rainbow I see them here, and I see the most beautiful sunsets here. I like to call it the beauty of emptiness.”

Outside Stanley/Porto ArgentinaAs the archipelago’s capital and only city, there are small towns here – sometimes 30 people, sometimes 12, sometimes 4 – that islanders usually call camp. Outside Stanley, everything is like this: a place where humans never seem to arrive, where life moves slowly, influenced by the constant howling of the wind and the hostility of the times. Karina calls it the beauty of emptiness.

In the city, life also moves slowly. Especially in winter, there are no cruise ships and no tourists. So, life is like this: “People work, go to the gym, church and bars, there is not much else to do. But there is also nothing else: no insecurity, no corruption, no theft. At most, there are fights in the bars, but then they put the names of the fighters on a list and stop selling alcohol, a kind of blacklist, otherwise everything is quiet.”

Karina isn’t the only Uruguayan Falkland Islands (There is no figure for how many there are). The relationship between Uruguay and the Islands is a story that began a long time ago.

Karina arrived 12 years ago — Karina came here 12 years ago and says this place is different.

It is enough to browse the supermarket shelves and pay attention. Among the hundreds of British products, there are several with Uruguayan labels: Caramel Cookies, Yerba, Caramel Sauceoil, rice, fruits and vegetables, cheese, juice.

Although the islands import many products from the UK – they prefer this so that locals can read and understand English labels – they also Ship loaded with containers arrives from Montevideohe brought fish back to Uruguay when he returned. They also exported wool. Sheep farming Sheep shearing is one of the main activities on the island. Uruguayans make many trips to perform this task.

For the islanders, Uruguay is the main reference on the American continent, a kind of “ally” that, despite defending the position that the sovereignty of the Islands belongs to Argentina, has also played a key role in several issues.

For example, many islanders have British Schoolsin Montevideo. Others are being treated in British hospitals, as hospitals on the island can only meet basic needs. Many speak fondly of Montevideo: they mention the seafront promenade, some of the hotels, the hot weather, the sunshine on the warm beaches, the friendly reception they received, the care they received in the hospitals, and their desire to return.

In town DarwinAbout 90 kilometers from the capital, where the Argentine cemetery is located, there is a stone building with the words “Darwin Corral”, therefore, a mixture of English and Spanish.

The building is one of the symbols left on the island Lafont BrothersBritish merchants dedicated to rural Uruguayan activities – for example, they owned a salt factory. In 1845, they came to the islands, where they applied their knowledge of field work, especially with livestock: they installed a salt factory and brought men (mostly gauchos) on board to work for them.

It was from these people that Spanish began to influence Falkland English. Like “corral”, they also used the word “galpón”, but adapted -galpon, without the stress – “bozal”, “cinchabrake”, and instead of calling it “camp”, they called it “field”. Rural yes Palenchi Say Palenque. This is the case with several terms that generally refer to rural areas.

Although the Spanish presence on the island has weakened – at the end of the 19th century, livestock farming was replaced by sheep farming, especially due to climatic problems and island soil conditions – with the gradual disappearance of these gauchos, today the languages are mixed and they coexist in places with people from all over the world.

In fact, in Darwin there is a hotel, the Darwin House. The head coach last season was Elfo Valentín Lazo, a Uruguayan from Maldonado who has lived between the Islands and his homeland for many years. The chef of the accommodation is his partner, Kary Ana Vidal, born in Merlo.

His relationship with the place began when Valentin’s mother met an islander, fell in love, married, and spent part of her life on the island. He even lived there during the 1982 conflict between Britain and Argentina.

Valentin went to work several times during the island season. He liked the tranquility of the place, they paid him a good salary, he could travel with his wife, and they didn’t need much to live.

Although the islands give priority to locals when offering employment opportunities, the fact is that during the summer, when tourists from all over the world visit the area, the local population is not enough to fill all the positions necessary to accommodate tourists in optimal conditions.

This season, Valentín and Kary are helped by Sofía Canessa, a young woman from Salto who came to the islands for the second time in January. They did not know each other before. Little did they know that in a remote part of the Falklands, they would meet other Uruguayans.

Sofia first went there because she won a competition held by the British Embassy for Latin American students to learn about the Falklands.

Second, they invited her to come back from the island, they offered her a job and accommodation, and she came back despite the fact that she was studying international relations and taking several exams.

“It was a fantastic experience. What caught my attention most when I arrived was that there was no key to the house, because nothing was going on. And the silence: not even the sound of birds could be heard. And the people: the community here is very nice, you feel included and it’s easy to make friends.”