German Guatemalan
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (5,000) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Alta Verapaz, Baja Verapaz, Guatemala city, Quetzaltenango, Zacapa and Jutiapa. | |
| Languages | |
| Spanish, German and Q'eqchi'. | |
| Religion | |
| Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Irreligion and Jewish | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Germans, White Guatemalans, Guatemalans |
A German Guatemalan is a citizen of Guatemala whose ancestors were German settlers (along with other settlers from Belgium) who arrived in the 19th and 20th centuries. Guatemala had a massive immigration of Germans in the nineteenth century, the government of Justo Rufino Barrios these immigrants they were provided farmlands of coffee in the departments of Quetzaltenango, Alta Verapaz and Baja Verapaz, but by the early twentieth century came Germans in Guatemala City, Zacapa and Jutiapa, in these regions there are many descendants of these German people. Guatemala currently has a strong community of Germans who make up the majority of European immigrants in the country, is also the most numerous German community in all Central American countries.
Around 1940 8,000 German immigrants lived in Guatemala. Although by 1944 these Germans were expelled by the oppressions of United States, are now estimated 5,000 or between 7000 and 10.000, as the largest community of Germans in all Central America.
The first German colonists arrived in the mid-19th century, and soon German settlers acquired land and operated coffee plantations in Alta Verapaz and Quetzaltenango. Cobán became an important center for German settlers. Other German operations cultivated tea, cocoa, and vanilla. While most Germans went to Cobán, others went to San Juan Chamelco and Xelaju (Quetzaltenango). Cobán later came to be monopolized by German trade in wholesale stores, but they and, to a greater extent, the fincas dispersed throughout almost the entire region of Alta Verapaz. They paid workers with coins minted by each owner. These currencies could only purchase in the company store of the finca, whereby the employer obtained extra pecuniary gain.
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Wikipedia