Porvenir

Porvenir is a very small town located on the Chilean side of Tierra del Fuego, its name means future. Founded in 1894 in what was the whereabouts of the gold seekers who came to the shores of a quiet bay that connected with the Strait of Magellan. From its beginnings, it was constituted as a community made up of migrants from all over Europe as well as people from Chiloé in the south of Chile. My grandparents arrived there from Croatia looking for the fortune that had been so elusive in their homeland, after endless days of work in the inhospitable steppe of that land, they managed to emerge and fulfill their dreams of a good life. I spent every summer with my family in the field that belonged to my grandfather and I have the best memories of my childhood. After their departure, for economic reasons, everything that had been obtained with so much effort was lost. Thinking of the generations of my family to come, I wanted to keep part of this story for them so that they would not lose their roots or the memory of where they came from. I wanted to rescue this story as a tribute to my ancestors and to all the inhabitants of this town who continue to search for gold from their mountains, pasture for their sheep, and the prominent future that America promised.