Colón village was founded in 1863 by Justo José de Urquiza, former caudillo of Entre Ríos and then the first constitutional Argentinian president. Due to its port, Colón became a strategic location to bring regional products. The City of San José’s urban nucleus was formed years earlier by Urquiza with the intention of welcoming immigrants especially from France, Switzerland, and Italy. In the mid XIX century an influx of european immigrants who came to América in order to have a better life and escape from economic, political, religious hardships they were forced to endure. Most people belonged to the Alps region such as Canton of Valais (Switzerland), Piedmont (Italy) and Savoy (France). It is well documented that these immigrants disembarked in 1857 and began to work the land right away. Some of the reasons for the immigrants to come to Colón were:
- there was no work for those immigrants since those people used to live in the mountains.
- there were wars in Europe that were affecting the population.
- Switzerland prohibited its citizens to be mercenaries so they couldn’t be soldiers.
- There were religious conflict between catholics and protestants.
- the indomitable nature caused floods, avalanches,
- people didn’t see any bright future for their children.
As a consequence of all these factors, Colón became a point of interest for those immigrants who wanted a better quality of life. Most of these immigrants were farmers who knew how to work the land. Once they were somewhere in Argentina, they called their family in Europe and encouraged them to come and join them in South America.