Author: Jarosław Fischbach

We often do not realize how many Poles live in Brazil. According to the statistics, there are 1.2 million people with Polish blood in their veins in this faraway land. Different circumstances led them to this great country in South America. In the 19th century and in the beginning of the 20th century it was earning emigration, they were mainly landless peasants who emigrated from southern and eastern polish lands, from Galicia and Małopolska. After the World War II a wave of political migration started. At that time soldiers who fought in the army of General Andres and also participants of the Warsaw Uprising settled in Brazil. Among the last of them was Janusz Wścieklica. I was lucky to meet him in 2003 during my visit to Brazil.

I met Mrs Janina Wscieklica and her husband in a quite unusal way. Before another expedition to Brazil, I had got in touch with Poles from the Club 44 in Sao Paulo which is an organization of ex-insurgents. Mr Janusz Wscieklica, who is a club treasurer, responded to my letter. Even though he did not know any of us, he send me an e-mail with an invitation for a cruise to tropical islands. In this untypical way we got to the tropical islands located on the Bay of Bahia da Ilha Grande, in between Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

If you are interested in relaxing in a beautiful, secluded, quiet and peaceful place, we invite you to Gostynin Lake District, Budy Lucieńskie. The farm “Pod Lipą” (Under the Linden Tree) is located directly above the large and clean Lucieńskie Lake and is over 4.5km long from west to east, which provides good winds for sailing, making it a friendly basin for sailors and windsurfers. Near to the home grows a beautiful, spreading, nearly 400-year-old linden tree – a natural monument.

There are few places on the world map, where you can come across Polish names of cities, towns, mountains and peaks. Without doubt the most famous are: the Czersky Range in Siberia, Mount Kościuszko – the highest mountain in Australia. Villages and cities, which were established by our settlers, also have Polish names. It is because they were colonized by immigrants from the Polish lands. In the United Stated of America there are a lot of: Warsaws, Częstochowas and Jasna Góra Monasteries.

Almost everyone pondering visiting attractions in Poland, choose the most famous and tourist regions. They sight-see the Tatra Mountains, Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, Bieszczady Mountains, and Sudetes, and relax in the Baltic Sea or Masuria. While in central Poland, near the capital, there is a place where you can spend a couple of a days in a very scenic and authentic way. All you need to do is to go a little more than 100 kilometres from Warsaw in order to reach the Gostynin Lake District.

Following Polish footsteps in the countries of Southern America, it is not hard to miss Curitiba, a city that is the centre of Polish diaspora in Brazil. Three hundred thousand of Brazilians inhabiting the city in whose veins runs Polish blood.

Following Polish footsteps in the countries of Southern America, it is not hard to miss Curitiba, a city that is the centre of Polish diaspora in Brazil. Three hundred thousand of Brazilians inhabiting the city in whose veins runs Polish blood.

Following Polish footsteps in the countries of Southern America, it is not hard to miss Curitiba, a city that is the centre of Polish diaspora in Brazil. Three hundred thousand of Brazilians inhabiting the city in whose veins runs Polish blood.

Chile, a distant country, that only a few Poles have reached. The number of Poles in Chile has never been large. One of the first fellow in this remote country was Ignacy Domeyko. He had arrived to Chile in 1838 and began working in Coquimbo as a professor of chemistry and mineralogy. Domeyko founded there the first School of Mining.Ten years later, for his services, he received a Chilean citizenship.