Czech Colombians

Czech Colombians are Colombian citizens of full or partial Czech ancestry. Most of the Czech immigrants originated from the Czech lands or succession states, now known as Czech Republic.

History
The first Czech immigration to Colombia began in the colonial era, during the missionary of Czech jesuits. From 1860 to 1870, Czech botantist Benedikt Roezl founded the cycad plant Zamia roezlii on the Pacific coast of Colombia. During the construction of the Bogotá brewery, there have been two Czech experts in beer production, Bedřich Stříbrný and František Haramul. The initiative to build the brewery came from Rudolf Kohn, who was a Czech native in Colombia.

Until World War 1, several jesuits, farmers, and missionaries escaped persecution reasons and began their settlements in Bogotá, Barranquilla, Cali, Medellin, Cartagena, Cúcuta, and Manizales. But the most preferred destinations for the immigrants were Argentina, Brazil, Canada and the United States were countries that received a mass number of Czechs from the former Czechoslovakia. The second one was during World War 2, in spite of fleeing from Nazi regime of Czechoslovakia. Nonetheless, the current Czech community in Colombia is small but there are few cities in the country where Czech catholic churches have been established by those immigrants.

Notable people

 * Rafael Valek, football player.