Distribution and growth rate
Ranked as the third least populous country in South America after Suriname and Guyana, Uruguay has a population of 3.4 million (2022), the vast majority of which (96%) is concentrated in cities, half of which are in the capital. The population growth rate remains the lowest in Latin America (excluding Guyana and Suriname) at only 0.50%. The main factor in this low rate is the low birth rate, which is only 13 per 1,000, the lowest in Latin America. The other cause is considerable emigration, mainly to Argentina, Brazil and Spain (almost 630,000 Uruguayans live outside the country). Added to this is a remarkably low aging of the population (by 2050, the population aged 65 or more is expected to increase from 8% to 17.5%) and a life expectancy of 73 years for men and 81 years for women (19.44% of Uruguayans are under 14 years of age, 65.1% are between 15 and 64 years of age, and 15.46% are 65 years of age or more). These three factors combined give an age pyramid similar to that of a developed country.
The population and its origins
Uruguay is different from other Latin American countries because of the homogeneity of its population. In fact, the country has almost no indigenous people since they were all exterminated by the Spanish settlers and especially by the landowners. Thus, at the end of the XVIIIth century, the governor Andonaegui ordered the camp master Manuel Dominguez, to pass by the thread of the sword all the natives of more than 12 years. According to a chronicler of the time, José Apolinario Pérez, "the decree of blood, even tempered by its executors, was carried out". During the War of Independence, the indigenous people, especially the Charrúas, fought alongside Artigas against the new Brazilian colonist. They were not rewarded, because a few years later, on April 11, 1831, a "friendly meeting" was to bring together the Charrúas caciques and the first president of Uruguay, 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 to join the army to guard the borders. This meeting was in fact an ambush intended to annihilate this people, who were no longer of use to the independent Criollos, who were eager for territories to exploit. The massacre is known as the Matanza del Salsipuedes and is considered the starting point of a real genocide. Many Charrúas were decimated that day. Others were suspicious of Rivera's summoning of women and children and managed to escape, but the hunt continued unabated. Four of the last Charrúas - the cacique Vaimaca Pirú, the healer Senacua Senaqué, the horse trainer Laureano Tacuabé Martínez, and the Indian woman Guyunusa - were arrested and handed over to the director of the Colegio Oriental in Montevideo, the Frenchman François de Curel. He wanted to take them to Paris to exhibit them and have them studied by scientists. The exoticism of these last four representatives of a people on the verge of extinction, he thought, would attract the curiosity of a large public at least as much as the couple of rheas (ostriches) that accompanied the expedition of February 1833. The healer Senaqué was the first to die in June 1833, in the tent set up in the 9th district. For fear of reprisals from a public that was becoming more and more sympathetic to the Charrúas, in view of the mistreatment that de Curel inflicted on them, he fled with his natives to show them off in another menagerie. The cacique Vaimaca Pirú died in turn in September, of "melancholy" according to the doctors. Then Guyunusa gave birth to a girl. Under the pressure of public opinion, the justice wanted to order the return of the survivors to their country, but de Curel embarked for Lyon where he sold them under false identities to a circus. A warrant was issued for the arrest of de Curel, who never returned to Europe. We also lost track of the last Charrúas until July 1834, when the Indian woman Guyunusa was admitted to the hospital in Lyon, where she died. As for Tacuabé and the girl, they disappeared without a trace. They would have escaped from the circus and settled in Lyon thanks to the solidarity of the inhabitants... In 2002, the remains of the cacique Vaimaca Pirú made the trip from Paris to the National Pantheon of Montevideo, a way like any other to honor, one hundred and seventy years later, the memory of the indigenous people of Uruguay. If this anecdote is not proven, there are still descendants of these proud and reckless warriors in Uruguay, who have gradually mixed: the intrepid gaucho would be one of the fruits of these mixtures. It is assumed that the descendants of the Charrúas constitute about 8% of the total population of the country. The Charrúa people had similarities with the Puelche of the Argentine pampas and the Tehuelche of Patagonia, but also with the Guaraní (Paraguay and northeast Argentina). A statue of the last of these Charrúas can be found in the Parque del Prado, in Montevideo. To learn more about the Charrúas, we recommend the 26-minute film by Dario Arce Asenjo (Productions Chromatiques, 2003), The Last Charrúas, or when the gaze imprisons.
A land mainly populated by immigrants
If we exclude the soldiers and the first Spanish settlers, the first great wave of immigration took place in the 1830s. In 1835, the city of Villa Cosmópolis was founded on the outskirts of Montevideo to accommodate the new arrivals. During the Guerra Grande, many emigrants settled there and foreign legions (the most famous of which was undoubtedly Garibaldi's Italian legion) took part. Many of these people stayed, especially the French Basques, who represented half of the foreigners of the time. The Swiss and the Piedmontese founded agricultural colonies off the coast of La Plata. At the end of the Great War, Montevideo had nearly 19,000 immigrants among its 31,000 inhabitants. In addition, the end of the war attracted a large number of Brazilians to the north of the country. In 1860, the 77,000 foreigners in the country represented more than 35% of its population. In 1908, according to the census, Uruguay received 62,000 Italians, 55,000 Spaniards, 28,000 Brazilians, 19,000 Argentinians, 8,000 French, 1,000 Germans, as well as English, Swiss, Belgians and Russians. The first half of the century was then marked by waves of migration from Eastern Europe, Armenians and Jews. Finally, there has been a recent influx (over the last thirty years) of Arab emigrants, mainly Palestinians and Lebanese. As in the rest of the continent, Arabs are generally referred to as Turcos (Turks). They are mainly concentrated in the border towns of Rivera and Chuy, where they participate actively in the bustling commercial life.
The Afro-Uruguayan population
The black community is the result of forced immigration and fierce slavery. The first slaves were brought to Uruguay by the Portuguese to found Colonia del Sacramento, but it was the royal decree in 1779 that made Montevideo the only port of entry for slaves in the Southern Cone that led to the growth of this population. Thus, by 1780, Montevideo already had nearly 2,800 Africans among its 10,000 inhabitants. The latter were mainly used as servants and did not suffer the fate of the slaves from Brazil, who were used as beasts of burden in the mines and plantations. Slavery was then gradually abolished with the beginnings of independence (1830), but it was not until 1853 that this abolition was complete. Unlike in Argentina, this community remained in Uruguay. In 1819, it represented between 20 and 25% of the population of Montevideo. In 1950, there were more than 10,000 blacks and nearly 50,000 mulattoes. Currently, this population represents about 8% of the Uruguayan population. In the 2011 census, nearly one in ten Uruguayans identified themselves as "afro-descendientes." 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 victim. In this sense, it is committed to transmitting its history and traditions, especially with the Candombe (musical expression) and the National Day of the Afro-Uruguayan, celebrated on December 3. The Mundo-Afro association, among others, is an example of this new emancipation. If the equality of all citizens is a principle of law, it is still hesitant in practice. For example, the average black person in Uruguay earns 20% less than a white person, and nearly 60% of the military is black. Similarly, this community is trying to rewrite the history made by and for whites. In the schools, for example, it is taught that slavery in Uruguay was less harsh than in Brazil. The Afro-Uruguayan then questions whether one can speak of benign slavery. The black student who hears in elementary school the praises of the different components of the Uruguayan community (the astuteness of the Italian, the hard work of the Basque, the ingenuity of the English, etc.) wonders if his only quality is to know how to dance and sing. Today, this community is looking back to the past and trying to affirm its identity, especially through associations such as the Red de turismo comunitario Barrio Sur y Palermo (guided tours of the neighborhoods of Palermo and Barrio Sur). Recent archaeological research has been done at the Caserio de los Negros, a sinister building located in the bay of Montevideo that housed the slaves who were quarantined as soon as they arrived. By excavating the site and analyzing the burials, it was possible to learn more about the specific rites of the slaves and to know their exact African origin. Until then, it was assumed that the ancestors of this Afro community were Bantu, Congolese and Guinean.
