An aging urban population
The third most sparsely populated country in South America, Uruguay has a population of 3.5 million according to the latest census (2023), 96% of whom live in urban areas, with more than a third concentrated in the capital. The country boasts the lowest demographic growth on the continent, with less than 1% between 2011 and 2023. This is due to a particularly low birth rate of 12.6 births per 1,000 inhabitants, one of the lowest in Latin America. Added to this is significant emigration, mainly to Argentina, Brazil and Spain, where more than 630,000 Uruguayans live. The population is also aging rapidly. Life expectancy is 73 years for men and 81 years for women, while the current breakdown is 19% under 14, 65.4% between 15 and 64 and 15.7% over 65. Together, these data give Uruguay an age pyramid comparable to that of a European country.
The memory of the Charrúas
What sets Uruguay apart from most other Latin American countries is the homogeneity of its population. The country has almost no indigenous population: most were exterminated by the Spanish colonists, then by the landowners. At the end of the 18th century, Governor Andonaegui ordered his camp master Manuel Domínguez to put to the sword all natives over the age of twelve. According to a chronicler of the time, José Apolinario Pérez, "the decree of blood, even tempered by its executors, was carried out successfully".
Later, during the War of Independence, the natives, first and foremost the Charrúas, fought alongside Artigas against the Brazilian occupiers, but their loyalty was not rewarded. On April 11, 1831, a "friendly meeting" was to bring together the Charrúas caciques and Uruguay's first president, Fructuoso Rivera, accompanied by his nephew Bernabé Rivera and his men, with the aim of signing a treaty granting land to the natives and offering them a place in the border guard army. In reality, this meeting concealed an ambush designed to annihilate these people, who were of no further use to the independent Criollos, eager for territories to exploit. This massacre, known as the Matanza del Salsipuedes, marked the beginning of a veritable genocide. Many Charrúas were decimated that day. Others were wary of Rivera's summoning of women and children, and managed to escape, but the hunt continued unabated. Four survivors - the cacique Vaimaca Pirú, the healer Senaqué, the horse trainer Laureano Tacuabé Martínez, and the Indian girl Guyunusa - were captured and handed over to the director of the Colegio Oriental in Montevideo, the Frenchman François de Curel. He took them to Paris in February 1833, where they were exhibited and studied by scientists. The exoticism of these four representatives of a people on the brink of extinction, he thought, would attract the curiosity of a wide public at least as much as the pair of rheas (cousin of the ostrich) that accompanied the expedition. Healer Senaqué was the first to die, in June 1833, in the tent set up in the 9th arrondissement. Fearing reprisals from a public increasingly sympathetic to the mistreated Charrúas, he fled with his natives to show them off in another menagerie. The cacique Vaimaca Pirú also died in September, of "melancholy" according to the doctors. Then Guyunusa gave birth to a baby girl. Under pressure from public opinion, the courts wanted to order the return of the survivors to their country, but de Curel set sail for Lyon, where he sold them under false identities to a circus. A warrant was issued for de Curel's arrest, but he never returned to Europe. The last of the Charrúas were also lost until July 1834, when the Indian woman Guyunusa was admitted to hospital in Lyon, where she died. As for Tacuabé and the little girl, they disappeared without a trace. They are said to have escaped from the circus and settled in Lyon thanks to the solidarity of local residents..
In 2002, the remains of the cacique Vaimaca Pirú made the journey from Paris to the National Pantheon in Montevideo, a fitting way to honor the memory of Uruguay's indigenous people one hundred and seventy years later.
While this anecdote may not be true, there are still descendants of these proud, daring warriors in Uruguay, who have gradually become mixed race. They represent around 8% of the population. The gaucho, Uruguay's emblematic figure, is one of the fruits of this interbreeding. The Charrúa people shared similarities with the Puelche of the Argentine pampas and the Tehuelche of Patagonia, as well as with the Guaraní of Paraguay and northeastern Argentina.
A statue of these últimos Charrúas can be seen in Montevideo's Parque del Prado. For further information, don't miss Dario Arce Asenjo's documentary (Productions Chromatiques, 2003), Les Derniers Charrúas, ou quand le regard emprisonne.
Uruguay, a land of immigration
Spanish soldiers and early settlers aside, the real first wave of immigration dates back to the 1830s. In 1835, the town of Villa Cosmópolis was founded near Montevideo to welcome the new arrivals. During the Guerra Grande, many emigrants settled here and foreign legions took part in the fighting, the most famous of which was Garibaldi's Italian Legion. Many of these men stayed on, starting with the French Basques, who accounted for half the foreigners at the time. As for the Swiss and Piedmontese, they established agricultural colonies in the Río de la Plata region.
By the end of the war, Montevideo already had almost 19,000 immigrants out of a total population of 31,000. In the north of the country, the post-war period also attracted large numbers of Brazilians. In 1860, 77,000 foreigners accounted for over 35% of the total population. The 1908 census counted 62,000 Italians, 55,000 Spaniards, 28,000 Brazilians, 19,000 Argentinians, 8,000 French, 1,000 Germans, as well as a contingent of English, Swiss, Belgians and Russians. The first half of the 20th century saw the arrival of migrants from Eastern Europe, Armenians and many Jews.
More recently, over the past thirty years or so, immigrants from the Middle East - mainly Palestinians and Lebanese - have settled here. As elsewhere on the continent, they are known as Turcos. They are very present in the border towns of Rivera and Chuy, and play an active part in the bustling local commercial life.
Afro-Uruguayans: from Candombe to demands
Uruguay's black community has its origins in forced immigration and slavery. The first Africans were brought by the Portuguese to found Colonia del Sacramento, but it was not until 1779, when Montevideo became by royal decree the only port in the Southern Cone authorized to receive slaves, that their numbers increased considerably. By 1780, the city already had some 2,800 Africans out of a population of 10,000. The latter were mainly used as domestic servants, and did not suffer the same fate as the slaves in Brazil, who were employed as beasts of burden in the mines and plantations.
Slavery was gradually abolished with the beginnings of independence (1830), but not until 1853. Unlike in Argentina, this community has persisted in Uruguay: in 1819, it represented between 20 and 25% of the population of Montevideo, and in 1950, there were over 10,000 blacks and almost 50,000 mulattos.
Today, this population numbers around 340,000. In the 2023 census, more than one in ten Uruguayans identified themselves as Afro-descendant. Known as " Afro-Uruguayan ", this community is now trying to federate and structure itself in order to protest against the inequalities of which it is still a victim. To this end, it is committed to passing on its history and traditions, notably through Candombe (a musical expression) and the national day of the Afro-Uruguayan, celebrated on December 3. But while the equality of citizens is guaranteed in law, it has yet to become a reality. For example, the average income of blacks is still 20% lower than that of whites, and almost 60% of military personnel are black.
This community, supported by associations such as Mundo Afro, is committed to emancipation and transmission. It is trying to rewrite the history made by and for whites. In schools, for example, we learn that slavery in Uruguay was less harsh than in Brazil. The Afro-Uruguayan then wonders if we can speak of benign slavery. The black pupil who hears the praises of the different components of the Uruguayan community sung at elementary school (the astuteness of the Italian, the hard work of the Basque, the ingenuity of the Englishman, etc.) wonders if his only recognized quality is knowing how to sing and dance.
Today, this community is looking to the past to affirm its identity, notably through the Red de turismo comunitario Barrio Sur y Palermo, which offers guided tours of these emblematic Montevideo neighborhoods.
Scientific research is also contributing to this rediscovery: recent excavations at the Caserío de los Negros - a sinister quarantine building for landed slaves - have made it possible to study burials and funeral rites, and to identify more precisely their African origins. Long thought to be descended from Bantu, Congolese and Guinean peoples, their ancestors now reveal the full diversity of the Afro-Uruguayan community's African roots.
