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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.11567/met.2026.1
Croatian newspapers in Punta Arenas at the beginning of the 20th century: Male novine, Domovina, Novo doba and Dom
Ivana Hebrang Grgić
orcid.org/0000-0001-6709-9939
; Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Filozofski fakultet, Zagreb, Hrvatska
*
* Dopisni autor.
Sažetak
At the beginning of the 20th century, about a third of the population of Punta Arenas, in the Magallanes region of southern Chile, were Croats. They came mostly from the Dalmatian part of Croatia, which was, at the time, a part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, so they were identified as Austrians. They came to do hard work, they did not speak Spanish, but had social and information needs related to their new and old homelands. They started to establish formal associations and also to publish newspapers at that time.
The fact that out of the seven Croatian newspapers in Chile, five were published in the very south of Chile, in the province of Magallanes (four of them in Punta Arenas), indicates the social importance of the Croatian community there, its organization, and its specific information needs. The aim of the paper is to point out precisely these specific features – the information needs and the publishers’ and editorial concepts that sought to satisfy these needs. In the paper, newspapers published in Punta Arenas until 1911 are analysed based on available copies and then on the secondary sources. Four titles had been published at the time, and all were somehow interconnected – they had the same editor (Male novine, Domovina, and Dom) or some were successors of the others (Novo doba of Domovina). Bibliographic data and basic technical characteristics related to the editorial concepts of the newspapers were analysed (data sources, headings, scope, data on editors, printers, frequency of publication, circulation, distribution method, etc.).
The research method was an analysis of the content of all 180 available issues that are available in the National Library of Chile (the only location where the issues are preserved). For the first time, primary sources were analysed de visu. Many of the issues were considered lost in previous analyses, they were not available, so some incorrect conclusions were made in those analyses. Based on the analysis of 745 available pages, conclusions were drawn about the way newspapers were edited, the source of information on responsibility, and other data related to editorial and publishing concepts. A detailed analysis of the content is not included, but indications of the social context are given and the role of individuals is described. The analysis showed that at least 198 issues were published in total. All of the 180 analysed issues were technically similar– they use similar graphic design, they publish basic bibliographic data in the same places and in the same way, the headings contain only the newspaper title, they have no imprint, and generally no pagination. They were most often published on four pages. All of them were published in the same printing house, and only in the Novo doba diacritics were used. The circulation was 200-300 copies, the newspapers were financed by sales and advertisements. The frequency of publication was weekly (in the Dom biweekly), and the planned rhythm of publication was generally maintained. The texts were most often not signed with the full name and surname of the author.
This paper also points out errors in the previous literature, in which the analysis was not based on an insight into the copies because they were not available at the time of the analyses, but on the secondary sources. It is also pointed out that the analysed newspapers are rare materials – they are available in only one library. Since they are part of the Croatian cultural heritage, inter-institutional cooperation is necessary in order to digitize them and ensure permanent archiving and access. The results of the research can serve as a starting point for new researches in the fields of history, communication, linguistics, politics, economics, sociology, culture, etc.
Ključne riječi
Croats; Chile; diaspora; newspapers; Male novine; Domovina; Novo doba; Dom
Hrčak ID:
347697
URI
Datum izdavanja:
11.6.2026.
Posjeta: 166 *