Spanish Americans

{{Short description|Americans of Spanish birth or descent}} {{About|United States citizens of Spanish ancestry|information on worldwide communities of Spanish descent|Spanish diaspora}} {{Use American English|date=January 2024}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2024}} {{Infobox ethnic group | group = Spanish Americans | native_name = {{native name|es|Españoles estadounidenses}} | image = Map of Spanish Americans in 2023.png | caption = | population = Self-identified as "Spaniard"<br />'''978,978''' ([[2020 United States Census|2020]])<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/09/2020-census-dhc-a-hispanic-population.html|title=Eight Hispanic Groups Each Had a Million or More Population in 2020|date=September 26, 2023|access-date= October 21, 2023}}</ref><br>Self-identified as "Spanish American"<br /> '''50,966''' (2020)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/09/2020-census-dhc-a-hispanic-population.html|title=Eight Hispanic Groups Each Had a Million or More Population in 2020|date=September 26, 2023|access-date= October 21, 2023}}</ref><br>Self-identified as "Spanish"<br />'''866,356''' (2020)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/09/2020-census-dhc-a-hispanic-population.html|title=Eight Hispanic Groups Each Had a Million or More Population in 2020|date=September 26, 2023|access-date= October 21, 2023}}</ref> | popplace = {{hlist|[[California]]|[[Louisiana]]|[[Texas]]|[[New Mexico]]|[[Colorado]]|[[Florida]]|[[New York (state)|New York]]|[[Montana]]|[[Arizona]]|[[Nevada]]|[[Idaho]]|[[Washington (state)|Washington]]}} | region1 = | langs = {{ubl|[[English language|English]]|[[Spanish language|Spanish]]|[[Languages of Spain]] ([[Catalan language|Catalan]], [[Galician language|Galician]], [[Basque language|Basque]], [[Occitan language|Occitan]], [[Aragonese language|Aragonese]] and [[Asturian language|Asturian]])}} | rels = [[Christianity in the United States|Christianity]] (Predominantly [[Roman Catholic Church in the United States|Roman Catholicism]], minority [[Protestantism]]); [[Irreligion in the United States|non-religious]] | related = {{hlist|[[Spanish people|Spaniards]]|[[Hispanic and Latino Americans]]|[[Portuguese Americans]]|Hispanos|[[Isleño]]|other [[European Americans]]}} }} {{Spanish people}} {{Hispanic and Latino Americans|state=collapsed}}

'''Spanish Americans''' ({{langx|es|españoles estadounidenses}}, ''hispanoestadounidenses'', or ''hispanonorteamericanos'') are [[Americans]] whose [[Spaniards|ancestry]] originates wholly or partly from [[Spain]].<ref>Most dictionaries give this definition as the first or only definition for "Spanish American". ''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'' (3rd ed.) (1992). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. {{ISBN|0-395-44895-6}}. ''Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary'' (11th ed.) (2003). Springfield: Merriam-Webster. {{ISBN|0-87779-807-9}}. ''The Random House Dictionary of the English Language'' (2nd ed.) (1987). New York: Random House. {{ISBN|0-394-50050-4}}. ''Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles'' (2007). New York: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-19-920687-2}}. ''Webster's New Dictionary and Thesaurus'' (2002). Cleveland: Wiley Publishing. {{ISBN|978-0-471-79932-0}}</ref> They are the longest-established [[European Americans|European American]] group in the modern [[United States]], with a very small group descending from those explorations leaving from [[Spain]] and the [[New Spain|Viceroyalty of New Spain]] (modern [[Mexico]]), and starting in the early 1500s, of 42 of the future U.S. states from [[California]] to [[Florida]]; and beginning a continuous presence in Florida since 1565 and [[New Mexico]] since 1598.<ref name=loc>{{cite web |url=http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/colonial/jb_colonial_augustin_1.html |title=A Spanish Expedition Established St. Augustine in Florida |publisher=[[Library of Congress]] |access-date=June 29, 2012}}</ref> In the [[2020 United States census]], 978,978 self-identified as "Spaniard" representing (0.4%) of the white alone or in combination population who responded to the question. Other results include 866,356 (0.4%) identifying as "Spanish" and 50,966 who identified with "Spanish American".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/09/2020-census-dhc-a-hispanic-population.html|title=Eight Hispanic Groups Each Had a Million or More Population in 2020|date=September 26, 2023|access-date= November 7, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/interactive/detailed-race-ethnicities-2020-census.html|title=Detailed Races and Ethnicities in the United States and Puerto Rico: 2020 Census|publisher=[[United States census]]|date= September 21, 2023|access-date=November 7, 2023}}</ref>

Many [[Hispanic and Latino Americans]] (the [[Hispanos of New Mexico]] being the oldest group) living in the United States have some [[Spanish diaspora|Spanish ancestral]] roots due to up to four centuries of Spanish colonial settlement and significant immigration of Spaniards after independence. In terms of ancestry, these groups, and especially [[white Hispanic and Latino Americans]] 12,579,626 (white alone, 20.3% of all Hispanics) could be called "Spanish Americans", with the caveat that they can also include European origins other than Spanish, and often [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Amerindian]] or [[Black Hispanic and Latino Americans|African]] ancestry. A number of communities descended from European Spanish immigrants are elided by the “Hispanic and Latino” ethnic category; {{Cn|date=May 2025}} these include the descendants of [[Basque Americans|Basques]] in the western states, [[Isleños (Louisiana)|Isleños]] in the gulf coast states, and [[Asturians]] in states like [[West Virginia]], among others.

The term "Spanish American" is used mostly to refer to Americans whose self-identified ancestry originates directly from [[Spain]] in the 19th and 20th centuries.

==History== {{See also|New Spain|Spanish colonization of the Americas}} [[Juan Ponce de León]] was the first Spaniard to explore what is now the United States. He explored the area of Florida. The first Native American tribe he encountered were the [[Calusa]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://fcit.usf.edu/florida/lessons/de_leon/de_leon1.htm|title=Ponce de León : Florida's First Spanish Explorer}}</ref> The Spanish enslaved Native Americans and drastically reduced their population by transmitting diseases like smallpox, measles, whooping cough, and influenza.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.co.id/books?id=s5X3EAAAQBAJ&pg=RA6-PA106|title=World History Encyclopedia}}</ref>

==Immigration waves== {{See also|History of Hispanic and Latino Americans}} Throughout the colonial times, there were a number of European settlements of Spanish populations in the present-day [[United States of America]] with governments answerable to Madrid. The first settlement on modern-day U.S. soil was [[San Juan, Puerto Rico]], in 1521, followed by [[St. Augustine, Florida|St. Augustine]], [[Florida]] (the oldest in the continental United States), in 1565, followed by others in [[New Mexico]], [[California]], [[Arizona]], and [[Texas]]. In 1598, [[San Juan de los Caballeros]] was established, near present-day [[Santa Fe, New Mexico]], by [[Juan de Oñate]] and about 1,000 other Spaniards from the [[Viceroyalty of New Spain]]. [[File:Alcazar Hotel, St. Augustine, FL, US (107).jpg|thumb|right|200px|Statue of [[Pedro Menéndez de Avilés]], the founder of St. Augustine, Florida.]] Spanish immigrants also established settlements in [[San Diego]], California (1602), [[San Antonio, Texas]] (1691) and [[Tucson, Arizona]] (1699). By the mid-1600s the Spanish in America numbered more than 400,000.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pVcDEfNxEvAC&q=Immigration+and+Migration|title=Immigration and Migration|first=Rayna|last=Bailey|date=June 23, 2010|publisher=Infobase |isbn=9781438109015|access-date=July 27, 2020}}</ref>

After the establishment of the American colonies, an additional 250,000 immigrants arrived either directly from Spain, the Canary Islands or, after a relatively short sojourn, from present-day central [[Mexico]]. These Spanish settlers expanded European influence in the [[New World]]. The Canary Islanders settled in [[bayou]] areas surrounding [[New Orleans]] in [[Louisiana]] from 1778 to 1783 and in San Antonio de Bejar, San Antonio, Texas, in 1731.<ref>Hernández González, Manuel. La emigración canaria a América (Canarian Emigration to the Americas). Pages 15 and 43–44 (about the expeditions and Canarian emigration in Texas), page 51 (about of the Canarian emigration to Louisiana). First Edition January 2007</ref>

The earliest known Spanish settlements in the then northern Mexico were the result of the same forces that later led the English to come to North America. Exploration had been fueled in part by imperial hopes for the discovery of wealthy civilizations. In addition, like those aboard the [[Mayflower]], most Spaniards came to the New World seeking land to farm, or occasionally, as historians have recently established, freedom from religious persecution.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.co.id/books?id=VNCX6UsdZYkC&pg=PA279|title=Encyclopedia of North American Immigration}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.co.id/books?id=W2MWDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT3548|title=Multicultural America}}</ref> A smaller percentage of new Spanish settlers were descendants of [[Sephardi Jews|Spanish Jewish]] [[Converso|converts]] and [[Moors|Spanish Muslim]] converts.

[[Basques]] stood out in the exploration of the Americas, both as soldiers and members of the crews that sailed for the Spanish.<ref>{{cite book | last = Kurlansky | first = Mark | title = The Basque History of the World | publisher = Walker | location = New York | year = 1999 | isbn = 0-14-029851-7 }}</ref> Prominent in the civil service and colonial administration, they were accustomed to overseas travel and residence. Many of them were also wealthy and prosperous merchants, constituting much of the upper class in [[Casta|Spanish colonial society]].{{Citation needed|date=October 2022}} Another reason for their emigration besides the restrictive inheritance laws in the [[Basque Country (historical territory)|Basque Country]], was the devastation from the [[Napoleonic Wars]] in the first half of the nineteenth century, which was followed by defeats in the two [[Carlist Wars|Carlist civil wars]]. (For more information about the Basque, and immigrants to the United States from this region, see [[Basque Americans]].)

===19th and 20th centuries=== {| class="wikitable sortable floatright" |- !colspan=6|Spanish immigration to the U.S. 1820–2000<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VNCX6UsdZYkC&dq=spanish+immigration+to+united+states+68%2C611+20%2C433&pg=PA393 |title=Encyclopedia of North American Immigration|first=John |last=Powell|date=2005|accessdate=26 March 2026}}</ref><ref>[http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/pdfs/by_region/region_table.pdf Total Immigrants from each Region and Country, by Decade], - 1820–2010</ref> |- ! Period ! Arrivals ! Period ! Arrivals ! Period ! Arrivals |- | 1820&ndash;1830||2,616||1891&ndash;1900||8,731||1961&ndash;1970||44,659 |- |1831&ndash;1840||2,125||1901&ndash;1910||27,935||1971&ndash;1980||39,141 |- |1841&ndash;1850||2,209||1911&ndash;1920||68,611||1981&ndash;1990||20,433 |- |1851&ndash;1860||9,298||1921&ndash;1930||28,958||1991&ndash;2000||17,157 |- |1861&ndash;1870||6,697||1931&ndash;1940||3,258||2001&ndash;2010|| - |- |1871&ndash;1880||5,266||1941&ndash;1950||2,898||2011-2020||| - |- |1881&ndash;1890||4,419||1951&ndash;1960||7,894|| - || - |- !colspan=6 style="text-align:left;"|Total arrivals: 302,305 |}

Immigration to the United States from Spain was controversially minimal but steady during the first half of the nineteenth century, with an increase during the 1850s and 1860s resulting from the bloody warfare of the Carlist civil wars during the years of 1833–1876. Much larger numbers of Spanish immigrants entered the country in the first quarter of the twentieth century—27,000 in the first decade and 68,000 in the second—due to the same circumstances of rural poverty and urban congestion that led other Europeans to emigrate in that period, as well as unpopular wars-in this first wave of Spanish immigration. The Spanish presence in the United States declined sharply between 1930 and 1940 from a total of 110,000 to 85,000, because many immigrants returned to Spain after finishing their farmwork.

Beginning with the coup d'état against the [[Second Spanish Republic]] in 1936 and the devastating [[Spanish Civil War|civil war]] that ensued, General [[Francisco Franco]] established a [[Spain under Franco|dictatorship]] for 37 years. At the time of his takeover, a small but prominent group of liberal intellectuals fled to the United States. After the civil war the country endured a period of [[autarky]], as Franco believed that post-[[World War II]] Spain could survive or continue its activities without any European assistance.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/social-sciences-and-humanities/spanish-immigrants|title=Spanish immigrants}}</ref>

In the mid-1960s, 44,000 Spaniards immigrated to the United States, as part of a second wave of Spanish immigration. In the 1960s and 1970s the economic situation improved in Spain, and Spanish immigration to the United States declined to about 3,000 per year. In the 1980s, as Europe enjoyed an economic boom, Spanish immigrants to the United States dropped to only 15,000. The 1990 U.S. census recorded 76,000 foreign-born Spaniards in the country. As from the rest of Europe, 21st century immigrants from Spain are few, only 10,000 per decade at most.{{Cn|date=February 2026}}

Much as with [[French Americans]], who are of French descent but mostly by way of [[French Canadians|Canada]], the majority of the 41 million massively strong Spanish-speaking population have come by way of [[Latin America]], especially [[Mexico]],{{Citation needed|date=October 2019}} but also [[Puerto Rico]], the [[Dominican Republic]], and other areas that the Spanish themselves colonized. Many of the [[Hispanic and Latino Americans]] bring their Spanish-speaking culture into the country. {{Citation needed|date=July 2020}}

==Main areas of settlement== {{Historical populations |type=USA |1850|3113 |1860|4244 |1870|3764 |1880|5121 |1890|6185 |1900|7050 |1910|22108 |1920|49535 |1950|59362 |1960|44999 |1970|57488 |1980|73735 |1990|76415 |2000|82858 |2010|83242 |2020|TBD |source=Spanish-born<ref>[https://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0081/twps0081.pdf Historical census statistics of the foreign-born (Born in Spain) population] - 1850–2000.</ref>}} Spanish Americans in the [[United States]] are found in large concentrations in five major states from 1940 through the early twenty-first century. In 1940, the highest concentration of Spaniards were in New York (primarily [[New York City]]), followed by [[California]], [[Florida]], [[New Jersey]] and [[Pennsylvania]]. The [[1950 United States census|1950 U.S. census]] indicated little change—New York with 14,705 residents from Spain and California with 10,890 topped the list. Spaniards followed into New Jersey with 3,382, followed by Florida (3,382) and Pennsylvania (1,790).<ref name="books.google.co.uk">[https://books.google.com/books?id=SOvskj0HNt8C&dq=immigration++from+spain+to+united+states&pg=PT2057 Immigrants in American History: Arrival, Adaptation, and Integration: Spanish and Spanish-Americans.]</ref> By 1990 and 2000, there was relatively little change except in the order of the states and the addition of [[Texas]]. In 1990, Florida ranked first with 78,656 Spanish immigrants followed by:<ref name="books.google.co.uk"/> California 74,784, New York (42,309), Texas (32,226), New Jersey (28,666). The [[2000 United States census|2000 U.S. census]] saw a significant decline in Spanish-origin immigrants.<ref name="books.google.co.uk"/> California now ranked highest (22,459), followed by, Florida (14,110 arriving from Spain), New York (13,017), New Jersey (9,183), Texas (7,202).

Communities in the United States, in keeping with their strong regional identification in Spain, have established ethnic organizations for [[Basques]], [[Galicians]], [[Asturians]], [[Andalusians]], and other such communities.

These figures show that there was never the mass emigration from [[Iberian Peninsula|Iberia]] that there was from [[Latin America]]. It is evident in the figures that Spanish immigration peaked in the 1910s and 1920s. The majority settled in Florida and New York, although there was also a sizable Spanish influx to [[West Virginia]] at the turn of the 20th century, mostly from Asturias. These Asturian immigrants worked in the U.S. zinc industry after having worked in the smelters of Real Compañía Asturiana de Minas in Arnao, on the north coast near [[Avilés]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.turismoasturias.es/en/descubre/cultura/museos-y-espacios-culturales/otros-espacios/museo-de-la-mina-de-arnao|title=Museo de la Mina de Arnao}}</ref> [[File:Portrait-of-Montegut-family- New Orleans 1790s.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1|[[Criollo people|Spanish Creole]] family portrait in New Orleans, [[Louisiana (New Spain)|Spanish Louisiana]], 1790, painted by [[José Francisco Xavier de Salazar y Mendoza|José Francisco de Salazar]].]] It is likely that more Spaniards settled in Latin America than in the United States, due to [[Spanish language|common language]], [[Catholic Church|shared religion]], and [[Spanish Empire|cultural ties]].

Some of the first ancestors of Spanish Americans were [[Spanish and Portuguese Jews|Spanish Jews]] {{Citation needed|date=August 2016}} who spoke [[Judaeo-Spanish|Ladino]], a language derived from [[Castilian Spanish]] and [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]].

In the 1930s and 1940s, Spanish immigration mostly consisted of refugees fleeing from the Spanish Civil War (1936&ndash;1939) and from the Franco military regime in Spain, which lasted until his death in 1975. {{Citation needed|date=August 2016}} The majority of these refugees were businessmen and intellectuals, as well as union activists, and held strong liberal [[Authoritarianism|anti-authoritarian]] feelings.

===California=== {{See also|Californio}} [[File:Mission Santa Barbara with cross in front.jpg|thumb|260px|Spanish [[Mission Santa Barbara]] in California, founded in 1786.]] A Californio is a Spanish term for a descendant of a person of [[Spanish people|Spanish]] and [[Mexicans|Mexican]] ancestry who was born in [[Alta California]]. "Alta California" refers to the time of the first [[New Spain|Spanish]] presence established by the [[Portolá expedition]] in 1769 until the region's cession to the [[United States of America]] in 1848.

Since 1945, others sometimes referred to as Californios (many appear in the "Notable Californios" section below) include: Early Alta California immigrants who settled down and made new [[Personal life|lives]] in the province, regardless of where they were born. This group is distinct from [[indigenous peoples of California]]. Descendants of Californios, especially those who married other Californios.

The military, religious and civil components of pre-1848 Californio society were embodied in the thinly-populated [[presidio]]s, missions, pueblos and [[Ranchos of California|ranchos]].<ref name="california Conquered">Harrow, Neal; "California Conquered: The Annexation of a Mexican Province, 1846–1850"; pp. 14–30; University of California Press; 1989; {{ISBN|978-0-520-06605-2}}</ref> Until they were [[Mexican secularization act of 1833|secularized]] in the 1830s, the twenty-one [[Spanish missions of California]], with their thousands of more-or-less captive [[Spanish Missions of California#Mission period (1769–1833)|native converts]], controlled the most (about {{convert|1000000|acre|km2}} per mission) and best land, had large numbers of workers, grew the most crops and had the most sheep, cattle and horses. After secularization, the Mexican authorities divided most of the mission lands into new ranchos and granted them to Mexican citizens (already present Californios) resident in California.

The Spanish colonial and later Mexican national governments encouraged settlers from the northern and western provinces of Mexico, whom Californios called "Sonorans." Small groups of people from other parts of [[Latin America]] (most notably [[Peru]] and [[Chile]]) also settled in California. However, only a few official colonization efforts (from [[New Spain]]) were ever undertaken—notably the second expeditions of [[Gaspar de Portolá]] (1770) and of [[Juan Bautista de Anza]] (1775–1776). Children of those few early settlers and retired soldiers became the first Californios. One genealogist estimated that, in 2004, between 300,000 and 500,000 Californians were descendants of Californios.<ref name="sfgenealogy">{{cite web |first=Alexander V. |last=King |url=http://www.sfgenealogy.com/spanish/calfam.htm |title=Californio Families, A Brief Overview |publisher=San Francisco Genealogy |date=January 2004}}</ref>

===Florida=== {{See also|Floridanos}} [[File:Centro Español de Tampa.jpg|thumb|right|285px|[[El Centro Español de Tampa]] is a cultural house built in 1912 in the [[Ybor City]] neighborhood of [[Tampa]], Florida.]]

[[Juan Ponce de León]], a Spanish [[conquistador]], named Florida in honor of his discovery of the land on April 2, 1513, during [[Pascua Florida]], a Spanish term for the [[Easter season]]. [[Pedro Menéndez de Avilés]] founded the city of [[St Augustine, Florida|St. Augustine]] in 1565; the first European-founded city in what is now the continental United States.

The [[El Centro Español de Tampa]] remains one of the few surviving structures specific to Spanish immigration to the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries,<ref name=history>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070629190242/http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/feature/hispanic/2001/elcentro.htm "El Centro Español de Tampa".] [http://www.nps.gov ''National Park Service''.] Retrieved May 6, 2010.</ref> a legacy that garnered the Centro Español building recognition as a [[National Historic Landmark|U.S. National Historic Landmark]] (NHL) on June 3, 1988.<ref name=nhl>[http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=2037&ResourceType=Building "El Centro Español De Tampa".] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090502192324/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=2037&ResourceType=Building |date=May 2, 2009 }} [https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1582/index.htm ''National Historic Landmarks Program''.] Retrieved May 6, 2010.</ref>

[[File:A bit of old Spain as seen at Ybor City, Tampa, Florida.jpg |thumb|right|285px|Postcard for Ybor City, often referred to as a "bit of old Spain".]] In the early 1880s, [[Tampa]] was an isolated village with a population of less than 1000 and a struggling economy.<ref>Mormino&Pizzo, Ch. 9</ref> However, its combination of a good port, [[Henry Plant|Henry Plant's]] new railroad line, and humid climate attracted the attention of [[Vicente Martinez Ybor]], a prominent Spanish-born [[cigar]] manufacturer; the neighborhood of [[Ybor City]] was named after him.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ybortimes.com/cigars.cfm |title=Ybor City: Cigars in Ybor |publisher=Ybortimes.com |access-date=December 26, 2008}}</ref>

===Hawaii=== {{Main|Spanish immigration to Hawaii}}

[[File:Spanish children from the Heliopolis in Hawaii, 1907.jpg|thumb|285px|left|Spanish children from the ''[[SS Heliopolis (1907)|SS Heliopolis]]'' after arriving in [[Hawaii]] in 1907]]

Spanish immigration to Hawaii began when the Hawaiian government and the [[Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association]] (HSPA) decided to supplement their ongoing importation of Portuguese workers to Hawaii with workers recruited from Spain. Importation of Spanish laborers, along with their families, continued until 1913, at which time more than 9,000 Spanish immigrants had been brought in, most recruited to work primarily on the Hawaiian sugar plantations.

The importation of Spanish laborers to Hawaii began in 1907, when the British steamship SS ''Heliopolis'' arrived in Honolulu Harbor with 2,246 immigrants from the [[Málaga]] province of [[Spain]].<ref name="fernandez1">{{cite web |title=Archive / Archivo: Heliópolis |author1=Fernández, James D. |author2=Argeo, Luis |name-list-style=amp |website=Spanish Immigrants in the United States (website) |date=December 7, 2012 |url=http://tracesofspainintheus.org/hi/recortesclippings/ |access-date=November 5, 2013}}</ref> However, rumored poor accommodations and food on the voyage created political complications that delayed the next Spanish importation until 1911, when the SS ''Orteric'' arrived with a mixed contingent of 960 Spanish and 565 Portuguese immigrants, the Spanish having boarded at [[Gibraltar]], and the Portuguese at [[Porto]] and [[Lisbon]]. Although Portuguese immigration to Hawaii effectively ended after the arrival of the ''Orteric'', the importation of Spanish laborers and their families continued until 1913, ultimately bringing to Hawaii a total of 9,262 Spanish immigrants.<ref name="fernandez1"/>

Six ships between 1907 and 1913 brought over 9,000 Spanish immigrants from the Spanish mainland to Hawaii. Although many of the Portuguese immigrants who preceded them to Hawaii arrived on small wooden [[sailing ship]]s of less than a thousand [[gross tonnage]] capacity, all of the ships involved in the Spanish immigration were large, steel-hulled, passenger [[steamship]]s.

===Louisiana=== {{See also|Canarian Americans|Isleño (Louisiana)}} [[File:EstopinalOfLouisiana.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Albert Estopinal]], Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana]] [[File:Royes Fernandez.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Ballet dancer [[Royes Fernandez]] was born in [[New Orleans]].]]

The majority of them descend from [[Canary Islanders|Canarian settlers]] who arrived in Louisiana between 1778 and 1783. Its members are descendants of colonists from the [[Canary Islands]], which is part of Spain off the coast of Africa. They settled in [[Spanish Louisiana]] between and intermarried with other communities such as [[French people|French]], [[Acadians]], [[Louisiana Creole people|Creoles]], and other groups, mainly through the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Isleños originally settled in four communities including [[Galveztown, Louisiana|Galveztown]], [[Isleños in Louisiana#Valenzuela|Valenzuela]], [[Barataria, Louisiana|Barataria]], and [[St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana|San Bernardo]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LsYXeiw7XEUC&pg=PA52|title=The Canary Islanders of Louisiana|author=Gilbert C. Din|date=August 1, 1999|publisher=Louisiana State University Press|isbn=978-0-8071-2437-6|page=25}}</ref>

[[File:El_Museo_de_los_Isleños.jpg|thumb|left|Los Isleños Museum Complex in [[Saint Bernard, Louisiana|Saint Bernard]].]]

Following significant flooding of the Mississippi River in 1782, the Barataria settlement was abandoned and the survivors were relocated to San Bernardo and Valenzuela with some settling in [[West Florida]].<ref name="González2005">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IM8SAQAAIAAJ&q=1779|title=La Emigración Canaria a América|author=Manuel Hernández González|date=January 1, 2005|publisher=Centro de la Cultura Popular Canaria|isbn=978-84-7926-488-8|page=51}}</ref><ref name="odisea canaria">Balbuena Castellano, José Manuel. "La odisea de los canarios en Texas y Luisiana" (The Odyssey of the Canarians in Texas and Louisiana). Pages 137, 138, 150 and 152. (ed) 2007, editorial: Anroart Ediciones.</ref>

===New Mexico=== {{See also|Hispanos of New Mexico}} {{More citations needed|date=January 2017}} [[Hispano]]s of New Mexico (less commonly referred to as ''Neomexicanos'' or ''Nuevomexicanos'') are descendants of Spanish and Mexican colonists who settled the area of [[New Mexico]] and Southern Colorado. Most made the journey from [[New Spain]], now principally modern Mexico.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/59c64521aba5f03e98aaee528978d768/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1818256 | title=The Oñate-Moctezuma-Zaldívar Families of Northern New Spain | website=[[ProQuest]] }}</ref><ref>[http://www.drclas.harvard.edu/revista/articles/view/577] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080430234919/http://www.drclas.harvard.edu/revista/articles/view/577|date=April 30, 2008}}</ref><ref>[http://www.nmculturenet.org/heritage/cuartocentenario/spanish_view.php] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071006190603/http://www.nmculturenet.org/heritage/cuartocentenario/spanish_view.php|date=October 6, 2007}}</ref> The vast majority of these settlers married and mixed with the local indigenous people of New Mexico. Like the ''[[Californio]]s'' and ''[[Tejano]]''s, the descendants of these early settlers still retain a community of thousands of people in this state and that of southern Colorado.

New Mexico belonged to Spain for most of its modern history (16th century – 1821) and later to Mexico (1821–1848). The original name of the region was [[Santa Fé de Nuevo Mexico]]. The descendants of the settlers still retain a community of thousands of people in this state. Also, there is a community of Nuevomexicanos in Southern [[Colorado]], due to shared colonial history. Currently, the majority of the Nuevomexicano population is distributed between New Mexico and Southern [[Colorado]]. Most of the Nuevomexicanos that live in New Mexico live in the northern half of the state. There are hundreds of thousands of Nuevomexicanos living in New Mexico. Those who claim to be descendants of the first Hispanic settlers in this state currently account as the first predominant ancestry in the state.

There is also a community of people in Southern Colorado descended from Nuevomexicanos that migrated there in the 19th century. The stories and language of the Nuevomexicanos from Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado were studied by Nuevomexicano ethnographer, linguist, and folklorist [[Juan Bautista Rael]] and [[Aurelio Macedonio Espinosa Jr.|Aurelio Espinosa]].

===New York=== {{See also|Little Spain}} [[File:Rita Hayworth Only Angels Have Wings.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Actress [[Rita Hayworth]], whose father was Spanish.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://hemeroteca.abc.es/nav/Navigate.exe/hemeroteca/sevilla/abc.sevilla/1984/03/24/003.html|title=Del firmamento al limbo|last=Márquez Reviriego|first=Víctor|date=March 24, 1984|language=es|newspaper=[[ABC (newspaper)|ABC]]|access-date=April 5, 2012}}</ref>]]

"Little Spain" was a Spanish American neighborhood in the [[New York City]] [[borough (New York City)|borough]] of [[Manhattan]] during the 20th century.<ref name="El País Crónica">{{cite news |url=http://ccaa.elpais.com/ccaa/2014/06/20/catalunya/1403283886_070626.html |title=Rostros familiares en Nueva York. |last=Thero |first=Xavier |date=June 20, 2014 |newspaper=El País |access-date=June 21, 2014}}</ref><ref name="El País Edición Impresa">{{cite news |url=http://www.meatpackingproductions.us/_contents/news/images/EL_Pais_2014_06_20_Xavier_Thero.pdf |title=Rostros familiares en Nueva York |last=Theros |first=Xavier |date=June 21, 2014 |newspaper=El País |page=5 |access-date=June 20, 2014}}</ref>

Little Spain was on [[14th Street (Manhattan)|14th Street]], between [[Seventh Avenue (Manhattan)|Seventh]] and [[Eighth Avenue (Manhattan)|Eighth]] Avenues.<ref name="El País USA">{{cite news |url=http://blogs.elpais.com/usa-espanol/2010/11/un-documental-repasa-la-historia-de-little-spain-en-la-calle-14.html |title=Un documental repasa la historia de Little Spain en la calle 14 |last=Aguilar |first=Andrea |date=November 18, 2010 |publisher=El País USA |access-date=September 18, 2010}}</ref> A very different section of [[Chelsea, Manhattan|Chelsea]] existed on a stretch of 14th Street often referred to by residents as "Calle Catorce," or "Little Spain".<ref name="Hartford Courant">{{cite news |url = http://www.courant.com/topic/vvl2-3478638nov17,0,2652149.story |title = Un documental repasa la historia de Little Spain en la calle 14 |date = November 18, 2010 |newspaper = Hartford Courant |access-date = October 18, 2010 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110526164120/http://www.courant.com/topic/vvl2-3478638nov17,0,2652149.story |archive-date = May 26, 2011 }}</ref> The Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe (No. 299) was founded in 1902, when Spaniards started to settle in the area.<ref name="HERALD TRIBUNE">{{cite news |url=http://laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=378105&CategoryId=13003 |title=Documentary Brings Manhattan's Little Spain to big screen. |last=Valenzuela |first=David |date=November 20, 2010 |newspaper=The Herald Tribune |access-date=June 19, 2009 |archive-date=January 26, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126035029/http://laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=378105&CategoryId=13003 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Although the Spanish businesses have given way to such nightclubs as Nell's and Oh Johnny on the block between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, the Spanish food and gift emporium known as Casa Moneo was at 210 West 14th from 1929 until the 1980s.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nybooks.com/online/2023/08/22/paradise-on-thirteenth-street/ | title=Paradise on 13th Street &#124; Sam Fentress | date=August 22, 2023 }}</ref>

In 2010 the documentary ''Little Spain'', directed and written by [[Artur Balder]], was filmed in New York City. The documentary pulled together for first time an archive that reveals the untold history of the Spanish-American presence in Manhattan. They present the history of the streets of Little Spain in New York City throughout the 20th Century.<ref name="Hispanic New York Project">{{cite news |url = http://hispanicnewyorkproject.blogspot.com/2010/11/un-documental-repasa-la-historia-de.html/ |title = Hispanic New York Project |last = Remeseira |first = Claudio Iván |date = November 18, 2010 |publisher = Hispanic New York Project |access-date = September 18, 2010 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110708041850/http://hispanicnewyorkproject.blogspot.com/2010/11/un-documental-repasa-la-historia-de.html |archive-date = July 8, 2011 }}</ref> The archive contains more than 450 photographs and 150 documents that have never been publicly displayed.<ref name="EFE America">{{cite news |url = http://www.efeamerica.com/31_espectaculos/922585_la-historia-de-la-little-spain-de-nueva-york-se-convierte-en-documental.html |title = Un documental descubre la historia de Little Spain |date = November 19, 2010 |publisher = EFE America |access-date = September 18, 2010 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110526181911/http://www.efeamerica.com/31_espectaculos/922585_la-historia-de-la-little-spain-de-nueva-york-se-convierte-en-documental.html |archive-date = May 26, 2011 }}</ref><ref name="Antena 3 TV">{{cite news |url=http://www.antena3.com/noticias/mundo/little-spain-barrio-nueva-york-donde-solo-hablaba-espanol_2010112000018.html |title=Little Spain, el barrio español de Nueva York |last=Abad |first=José Ángel |date=November 18, 2010 |publisher=Antena 3 TV |access-date=January 28, 2015}}</ref><ref name="Informativos Telecinco">{{cite news |url = http://www.telecinco.es/informativos/cultura/noticia/1408057/1408057 |title = Nueva York descubre su Little Spain |date = November 18, 2010 |publisher = Informativos Telecinco |access-date = September 18, 2010 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110526090646/http://www.telecinco.es/informativos/cultura/noticia/1408057/1408057 |archive-date = May 26, 2011 }}</ref><ref name="Radio Television Española (RTVE)">{{cite news |url=http://www.rtve.es/mediateca/audios/20101207/afectos-noche---primera-hora---07-12-10/954570.shtml |title=Little Spain |date=November 18, 2010 |publisher=RTVE |access-date=September 18, 2010}}</ref><ref name="Onda Cero Radio">{{cite news |url = http://www.ondacero.es/OndaCero/Little-Spain-barrio-Nueva-York-donde-solo-hablaba-espanol/NWS_10112014_1 |title = Little Spain, el barrio español de Nueva York donde sólo se hablaba español. |date = November 18, 2010 |publisher = Onda Cero Radio |access-date = September 18, 2010 }}{{dead link|date=May 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref name="La Opinion A Coruna">{{cite news |url = http://mas.laopinioncoruna.es/suplementos/2010/12/05/saga-gallega-en-manhattan/ |title = Saga Gallega en Manhattan. Robert De Niro, Taxi Driver y la energía del pasado. |last = Conde |first = Arturo |date = November 18, 2010 |newspaper = La Opinion de A Coruna |access-date = September 18, 2010 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101216034658/http://mas.laopinioncoruna.es/suplementos/2010/12/05/saga-gallega-en-manhattan/ |archive-date = December 16, 2010 }}</ref><ref name="Diario Informacion">{{cite news |url=http://www.diarioinformacion.com/cultura/2010/11/29/artur-balder-rescata-documental-memoria-espanola-manhattan/1069990.html/ |title=Artur Balder rescata en su documental la memoria española de Manhattan |last=Payá |first=Juan José |date=December 18, 2010 |newspaper=Diario Informacion |access-date=September 18, 2010}}</ref>

Other important commerces and Spanish business of Little Spain were restaurants like La Bilbaína, Trocadero Valencia, Bar Coruña, Little Spain Bar, Café Madrid, Mesón Flamenco, or [[El Faro Restaurant]], established 1927, and still today open at 823 Greenwich St. The Iberia was a famous Spanish dress shop.

[[File:Iglesia_Nuestra_Senora_de_la_Guadalupe.jpg|250px|thumb|right|The [[Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Manhattan)|Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe]] in [[Little Spain]], important nucleus for many decades.<ref name=Historia>{{cite web|title=Historia de la iglesia|url=https://guadalupeshrineny.org/who-are-we|work=Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe|access-date=November 5, 2020}}</ref>]]

The heart of the [[Spain|Spanish]] [[United States|America]]n community in that area were the two landmarks: the [[Spanish Benevolent Society]] and the Roman Catholic [[Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe (New York City)|Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe]], founded at the turn of the 19th century, being the first parish in [[Manhattan]] with mass in Latin and [[Spain|Spanish]].

Another area of influence is the [[Unanue family]] of [[Goya Foods]]. Its founder, Prudencio Unanue Ortiz, migrated from [[Spain]] in the 20th century and established Goya Foods, the largest [[Hispanic]]-owned food company in the United States.<ref name="forbes.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/erincarlyle/2013/05/08/how-goya-became-one-of-americas-fastest-growing-food-companies/|title=How Goya Became One Of America's Fastest-Growing Food Companies|date=May 8, 2013|website=[[Forbes (magazine)|Forbes]]|access-date=August 15, 2020}}</ref> The family's members include [[Joseph A. Unanue]] and [[Andy Unanue]]. Goya Foods is the 377th largest private American company.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/business/lists/2008/21/privates08_Goya-Foods_8GO6.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121026034713/http://www.forbes.com/business/lists/2008/21/privates08_Goya-Foods_8GO6.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 26, 2012 |title=America's Largest Private Companies: #377 Goya Foods |work=Forbes.com |access-date=August 15, 2020}}</ref>

===West Virginia=== In the early 1900s, thousands of Spaniards (mainly from [[Asturias]]) migrated to West Virginia. The Asturian diaspora in West Virginia was mainly connected to region's zinc refining industry in towns such as Ziesling ([[Spelter]]) and [[Moundsville, WV]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://tracesofspainintheus.org/west-va/ | title=WV | date=December 4, 2012 }}</ref> Asturians that immigrated to the state typically came from the [[Gozón]] and [[Piedras Blancas]] regions of [[Asturias]] and the surrounding communities, like [[Luanco]], [[Avilés]], and [[Castrillón]]. Most had ties to the zinc production in Arnao and the Royal Asturian Mining Company.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.turismoasturias.es/en/descubre/cultura/museos-y-espacios-culturales/otros-espacios/museo-de-la-mina-de-arnao | title=Arnao Mine Museum }}</ref> In the Asturian-American towns in West Virginia, the Spanish families retained their language and culture, making Spanish [[chorizo]] in backyards and speaking [[Asturian language|Bable]] and Spanish to each other.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41446913 | jstor=41446913 | last1=Gonzalez | first1=Suronda | title=Forging Their Place in Appalachia: Spanish Immigrants in Spelter, West Virginia | journal=Journal of Appalachian Studies | date=1999 | volume=5 | issue=2 | pages=197–206 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGTYYIsqaFs | title=The Asturians and Spelter, W.Va., part 1 | website=[[YouTube]] | date=December 20, 2006 }}</ref>

==Culture== {{See also|Hispanic Heritage Site}} [[File:Old Spanish Days Fiesta 2009 - Santa Barbara.jpg|thumb|right|260px|[[Santa Barbara, California]]’s annual ''Old Spanish Days'' fiesta celebration]]

Many Spanish Americans still retain aspects of their [[culture]]. This includes [[Spanish food]], drink, art, annual fiestas. Spaniards have contributed to a vast number of areas in the United States of America. [[Flamenco]] is popular in New Mexico.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newmexico.org/meet-la-emi/|title=The Artistry and Legacy of Flamenco|accessdate= March 26, 2026}}</ref> [[File:84_Jake_Ferguson_(cropped).jpg|right|thumb|Jake Ferguson with the Dallas Cowboys.]]

=== Sports ===

* Some Spanish-American athletes include: ** American football: [[Jake Ferguson]], tight end for the Dallas Cowboys in the National Football League (NFL), who has Spanish ancestry through his family from Asturias, Spain.<ref>...</ref> ** American football: [[Alejandro Villanueva (American football)|Alejandro Villanueva]], former offensive tackle in the NFL who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens, born in Mississippi to Spanish parents while his father, a Spanish Navy officer, was stationed there with NATO.<ref>...</ref> ** Baseball: [[Keith Hernandez]], former Major League Baseball first baseman and five-time All-Star, whose paternal family line traces back to Málaga, Spain through his Spanish grandfather.<ref>...</ref> ** Baseball: [[Pete Alonso]], first baseman for the New York Mets, whose paternal grandfather was a Spanish refugee from Barcelona who emigrated to New York City during the [[Spanish Civil War]].<ref>...</ref> ** Soccer: [[Luca de la Torre]], professional soccer player born in San Diego, California, to a Spanish father from Spain and an American mother, who has represented the United States men's national team.<ref>...</ref>

===Cuisine=== {{See also|Unanue family}} In the early 20th century, Prudencio Unanue Ortiz and his wife Carolina, both Puerto Ricans born in Spain,<ref>[https://emigracion.xunta.gal/es/actualidad/noticia/la-gallega-aplaco-la-morrina-la-emigracion La gallega que aplacó la "morriña" de la emigración] (in Spanish)</ref> established [[Goya Foods]], the largest [[Hispanic]]-owned food company in the United States.<ref name="forbes.com"/>

The colonial era left a lasting Spanish impact on California, Louisiana, Florida, and the Southwestern states, but modern immigration to the United States has been much more geographically varied. Large groups of Spaniards settled in New York, the busiest immigration port on the Atlantic Coast today, and this city remains the main hub for importing Spanish food products, largely due to the rising popularity of Spanish-themed restaurants and chefs incorporating ingredients like [[chorizo]], [[jamón]], [[olive]]s, marcona [[almond]]s, and [[anchovies]]. In the early 1900s, Andalusians from southern Spain moved to Hawaii to work on sugar and fruit plantations, but many later returned to mainland California, especially the San Francisco area, which already had a significant Spanish population from the Basque region.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DBzYCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA581|title=Ethnic American Food Today: A Cultural Encyclopedia: 2 Volumes}}</ref>

===Religion=== {{See also|Spanish missions in Arizona|Spanish missions in California|Spanish missions in the Carolinas|Spanish missions in Florida|Spanish missions in Georgia|Spanish missions in Louisiana|Spanish missions in New Mexico|Spanish missions in Texas|Ajacán Mission}} [[File:Pope Leo XIV 3 (3x4 cropped) (2).jpg|thumb|170px|[[Pope Leo XIV]] is of maternal Spanish descent.]]

Many Spanish Americans are more active in [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] church activities than was common in past generations in Spain; they rarely change their religious affiliation and participate frequently in family-centered ecclesiastical rituals. In both Spain and the United States, events such as first communions and baptisms are felt to be important social obligations that strengthen clan identity.

===Spanish language in the U.S.=== {{Main|Spanish language in the United States}}

Spanish was the second European language spoken in North America after [[Old Norse]], the language of the [[L'Anse aux Meadows|Viking]] settlers. It was brought to the territory of what is the contemporary United States of America in 1513 by [[Juan Ponce de León]]. In 1565, the Spaniards founded [[St. Augustine, Florida]], the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the modern U.S. territory.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/colonial/jb_colonial_augustin_1.html |title=A Spanish Expedition Established St. Augustine in Florida |publisher=Americaslibrary.gov |access-date=September 11, 2015}}</ref>

Like other descendants of European immigrants, [[Spaniard]]s have adopted English as their primary language.<ref>{{Cite news | first=Linda | last=Chavez | title=Hispanic population booms | url=http://townhall.com/columnists/lindachavez/2011/03/25/hispanic_boom| newspaper=[[Florida Today]] | location=Melbourne, Florida | pages= 9A | date=March 25, 2011 }}</ref><!---hard copy and soft copy sources are different. They are the same article, however--> {| class="sortable wikitable" |- ! colspan="2"| Language spoken at home and ability to speak English (2013 ACS)<ref name="census1">{{Cite web |url=https://www.census.gov |title=HISPANIC OR LATINO ORIGIN BY SPECIFIC ORIGIN Universe: Spaniard (Population). |access-date=July 3, 2015 }}</ref> |- ! style="text-align:center;"|Spaniard – Language spoken and ability ! style="text-align:center;"| Percent |- |Population 5 years and over |703,504 |- |[[English language|English]] only |68.5% |- |Language other than English |31.5% |- |Speak English less than "very well" |7.1% |}

===Socioeconomics=== Since Spanish American entrance into the middle class has been widespread, the employment patterns described above have largely disappeared. This social mobility has followed logically from the fact that throughout the history of Spanish immigration to the United States, the percentage of skilled workers remained uniformly high. In the first quarter of the twentieth century, for example, 85 percent of Spanish immigrants were literate, and 36 percent were either professionals or skilled craftsmen. A combination of aptitude, motivation, and high expectations led to successful entry into a variety of fields.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/fact-sheet/us-hispanics-facts-on-spanish-origin-latinos/|title=Facts on Hispanics with origins from Spain in the United States, 2021|website=Pewresearch|date=2021|accessdate= March 26, 2026}}</ref>

==Number of Spanish Americans==

===Census data=== ====1980==== [[File:Bob Martinez ordering hiring freeze of state jobs.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Bob Martinez]] was the first person of Spanish descent to be elected as [[Governor of Florida]].]]

In 1980, 62,747 Americans claimed only Spaniard ancestry and another 31,781 claimed Spaniard along with another ethnic ancestry.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/population/censusdata/pc80-s1-10/tab02.pdf|title=Census.gov Persons Who Reported at Least One Specific Ancestry Group for the United States: 1980|website=Census.gov|access-date=August 21, 2017}}</ref> 2.6 million or 1.43% of the total U.S. population chose to identify as "Spanish/Hispanic", however this represents a general type of response which will encompass a variety of ancestry groups.<ref>[https://www.census.gov/population/www/censusdata/files/pc80-s1-10/pc80-s1-10.pdf Ancestry of the Population by State: 1980] (Supplementary Report PC80-S1-10) Issued: April 1983</ref> Spanish Americans are found in relative numbers throughout United States, particularly in the [[Southwestern United States|Southwestern]] and [[Gulf Coast of the United States|Gulf Coast]]. According to the 1980 U.S. census 66.4% reported ''Spaniard'' as their main ancestry, while 62.7% reported ''Spanish/Hispanic'' as their main ancestry.<ref name="1980 Census of Total U.S Population"/><ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref>[https://www.census.gov/population/censusdata/pc80-s1-10/tab03.pdf 1980, U.S Census by State]</ref> The table showing those who self-identified as Spaniard are as follows: {|class="sort wikitable unsortable" style="font-size: 100%" |- ! colspan="2" style="text-align:left;"|Response||Number||Percent||[[Northeastern United States|Northeast]]||[[Midwestern United States|North<br /> Central]]||[[Southern United States|South]]||[[Western United States|West]] |- | colspan="2" style="text-align:left;"|Single ancestry||62,747||66.4%||24,048||3,011||23,123||12,565 |- | colspan="2" style="text-align:left;"|Multiple ancestry||31,781||33.6%||9,941||2,209||11,296||8,335 |- | colspan="2" style="text-align:left;"|Total reported||colspan=2 style="text-align:center;"|94,528||33,989||5,220||34,419||20,900 |- |}

{| class="unsortable wikitable" |- ! State ! Spaniard ! Spanish/Hispanic ! % |- |Florida||23,698||249,196||2.6 |- |New York||21,860||359,574||2.0 |- |California||14,357||539,285||2.3 |- |New Jersey||8,122||126,983||1.7 |- |Texas||6,883||221,568||1.6 |- |Colorado||1,985||154,396||5.3 |- |New Mexico||1,971||281,189||21.6 |- |Louisiana||616||79,847||1.9 |- ! United States||94,528||2,686,680||1.43% |}

====1990==== At a national level the ancestry response rate was high with 90.4% of the total United States population choosing at least one specific ancestry, 11.0% did not specify their ancestry, while 9.6% ignored the question completely. Of those who chose Spaniard, 312,865 or 86.7% of people chose it as their first and main ancestry response while 48,070 or 13.3% chose it as their second ancestry.<ref>{{cite web|title= 1990 Census of Population: Detailed Ancestry Groups for States|url= https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1993/dec/cp-s-1-2.html|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|access-date=November 22, 2023|date=September 18, 1992}}</ref> Totals for the 'Spaniard' showed a considerable increase from the previous census.<ref>{{cite web|title= 1990 Census of Population: Detailed Ancestry Groups for States|url= https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1993/dec/cp-s-1-2.html|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|access-date=November 22, 2023|date=September 18, 1992}}</ref> Table shows population by state of those self identifying as Spaniard.<ref name="books.google.co.uk"/><ref name="ReferenceA"/> {| class="unsortable wikitable" |- ! State ! Population ! % |- |Florida |78,656 |0.6 |- |California |74,787 | |- |New York |42,309 | |- |Texas |31,226 | |- |New Mexico |24,861 | |- |New Jersey |23,666 | |- | Colorado | 14,052 | |- | Arizona | 6,385 | |- ! United States !360,935 !0.1 |} As with the previous census 'Spanish' was considered a general response which may have encompassed a variety of ancestral groups. Over two million self-identified with this response.<ref>{{cite web|title= 1990 Census of Population: Detailed Ancestry Groups for States|url= https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1993/dec/cp-s-1-2.html|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|access-date=November 22, 2023|date=September 18, 1992}}</ref>

====2000==== [[File:John_Garamendi_official_photo.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[John Garamendi]], 46th Lieutenant Governor of California]]

In [[2000 United States census|2000]], 299,948 Americans specifically reported their ancestry as "Spaniard", which was a significant decrease over the [[1990 United States census|1990]] data, where in those who reported "Spaniard" numbered 360,858. Another 2,187,144 reported "Spanish"<ref name=ancestry2000>{{cite web|author1=Angela Brittingham|author2=G. Patricia de la Cruz|url=https://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/c2kbr-35.pdf|title=Ancestry: 2000; Census 2000 Brief|date=June 2004|access-date=February 27, 2016|publisher=U.S. Census Bureau|url-status=dead|archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20041204015245/http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/c2kbr-35.pdf|archive-date=December 4, 2004}}</ref> and 111,781 people, reported "Spanish American". To this figures we must adhere some groups of Spanish origin or descent that specified their origin, instead of in Spain, in some of the [[Autonomous communities of Spain]], specially [[Basque American|Spanish Basques]] (9,296 people), [[Castilians]] (4,744 people), [[Isleño American|Canarians]] (3,096 people), [[Balearics]] (2,554 people) and [[Catalan American|Catalans]] (1,738 people). Less of 300 people indicated be of [[Asturian Americans|Asturian]], [[Andalusians|Andalusian]], [[Galician Americans|Galician]], and [[Valencians|Valencian]] origin.<ref name=2000USCensus>{{cite web|format=XLS|url=https://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/ancestry/ancestry_q_by_DAC_2000.xls|title=Table 1. First, Second, and Total Responses to the Ancestry Question by Detailed Ancestry Code: 2000|access-date=October 28, 2013|publisher=U.S. Census Bureau}}</ref> * Spaniard – 299,948 * Spanish – 2,187,144 * Spanish American – 111,781

====2010==== The [[2010 United States census|2010]] census is the twenty-third [[United States]] [[United States Census|national census]].<ref name="timeline">{{cite web |title=Interactive Timeline |url=http://2010.census.gov/2010census/about/timeline-text.php |work=About the 2010 Census |publisher=U.S. Census Bureau |access-date=June 17, 2011 |year=2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101220032051/http://2010.census.gov/2010census/about/timeline-text.php |archive-date=December 20, 2010 }}</ref> * Spaniard – 635,253<ref name="census.gov"/>

Statistics for those who self-identify as ethnic Spaniard, Spanish, Spanish American in the 2010 [[American Community Survey]]. * Spaniard – 694,494<ref name="google1">[https://books.google.com/books?id=LV4WAAAAQBAJ&dq=694%2C494+spaniard+2010+american+community+survey&pg=PA356 An Historical Introduction to American Education: Third Edition By Gerald L. Gutek]</ref><ref name="ReferenceB">{{Cite web |url=https://www.census.gov |title=Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 American Community Survey |access-date=July 3, 2015 }}</ref> * Spanish – 482,072<ref name="google1"/><ref name="ReferenceB"/> * Spanish American – 48,810<ref name="google1"/><ref name="ReferenceB"/>

====2020 ==== [[File:Charlie_Sheen_March_2009.JPG|thumb|right|200px| [[Charlie Sheen]], an American actor with a Spanish paternal grandfather]] In the most-recent 2020 census 978,978 people reported "Spaniard".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/09/2020-census-dhc-a-hispanic-population.html|title=Eight Hispanic Groups Each Had a Million or More Population in 2020|date=September 26, 2023|access-date= November 22, 2023}}</ref>

The top 10 states with the largest population who identified their ethnic origins as "Spaniard" in the 2020 census.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/interactive/detailed-race-ethnicities-2020-census.html|title=Detailed Races and Ethnicities in the United States and Puerto Rico: 2020 Census|publisher=[[United States census]]|date= September 21, 2023|access-date=November 22, 2023}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:left" |- ! colspan="2"| [[U.S. state]] !! Population |- | style="text-align:center;"| {{flagicon|California}}||[[California]]||192,312 |- | style="text-align:center;"| {{flagicon|Texas}}||[[Texas]]||120,116 |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{flagicon|Florida}}||[[Florida]]||83,479 |- | style="text-align:center;"|{{flagicon|New Mexico}}||[[New Mexico]]||79,882 |- | style="text-align:center;"| {{flagicon|Colorado}}|| [[Colorado]]||58,290 |- | style="text-align:center;"| {{flagicon|New York}}|| [[New York (state)|New York]]||51,714 |- | style="text-align:center;"| {{flagicon|Arizona}}||[[Arizona]]||36,636 |- | style="text-align:center;"| {{flagicon|New Jersey}}||[[New Jersey]] ||31,471 |- | style="text-align:center;"| {{flagicon|Washington}}|| [[Washington (state)|Washington]]||26,478 |- | style="text-align:center;"| {{flagicon|Illinois}}|| [[Illinois]]||18,842 |- | colspan="2" style="text-align:left;"|U.S. born||TBA |- | colspan="2" style="text-align:left;"| Foreign-born||TBA |- ! {{flagicon|USA}}||Total ||978,978 |- |} In 2020, 866,356 people identified with "Spanish origin", making them the eleventh largest Hispanic group residing in the United States. This number includes people whose ancestors immigrated directly or indirectly from Spain.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2023/09/2020-census-dhc-a-hispanic-population.html|title=Eight Hispanic Groups Each Had a Million or More Population in 2020|date=September 26, 2023|access-date= November 22, 2023}}</ref>

[[File:Official_portrait_of_Secretary_Marco_Rubio.jpg|thumb|204px|Marco Rubio, U.S. senator from Florida, in a 2026 speech said he was of [[Spaniards|Spanish]] and Italian heritage & mentioned ancestors from Seville, Spain.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://no.usembassy.gov/secretary-of-state-marco-rubio-at-the-munich-security-conference/|title= SECRETARY OF STATE MARCO RUBIO AT THE MUNICH SECURITY CONFERENCE|date= February 14, 2026|website= U.S. embassy|accessdate= March 26, 2026}}</ref>]]

==Political participation== With the outbreak of the [[Spanish Civil War]] in 1936 a number of intellectual political [[refugees]] found [[Right of asylum|asylum]] in the United States. Supporters of the overthrown [[Second Spanish Republic|Spanish Republic]], which had received aid from the [[Soviet Union]] while under attack from Nationalist forces, were sometimes incorrectly identified with [[communism]], but their arrival in the United States well before the "red scare" of the early 1950s spared them the worst excesses of [[McCarthyism]]. Until the end of the dictatorship in Spain in 1975 political exiles in the United States actively campaigned against the abuses of the Franco regime.

==Place names of Spanish origin== {{Main|List of place names of Spanish origin in the United States}}

This is a partial list only. {{Bar chart | title = | label_type = Year | data_type = Population | bar_width = 16 | width_units = em | data_max = 1,000,000 | float = right | label1 = 1980<ref name="1980 Census of Total U.S Population">[https://www.census.gov/population/censusdata/pc80-s1-10/tab02.pdf 1980 Census of Total U.S Population]</ref> | data1 = 94,528 | label2 = 1990<ref name="ReferenceA">[https://www.census.gov/population/www/CPH-L-97.pdf 1990 & 1980 State population comparisons]</ref> | data2 = 360,935 | label3 = 2000<ref name="census.gov">[https://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-04.pdf Hispanic American population 2010 census] | www.census.gov</ref> | data3 = 299,948 | label4 = 2010<ref name="census.gov"/> | data4 = 635,253 | label5 = 2017<ref name="factfinder.census.gov">{{Cite web |url=http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_13_1YR_B03001&prodType=table |title=Hispanic or Latino Origin by Specific Origin – Universe: Total population more information 2013 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates |access-date=June 19, 2015 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20200212214432/http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_13_1YR_B03001&prodType=table |archive-date=February 12, 2020 |url-status=dead }}</ref> | data5 = 801,636 }}

{{multiple image | align = right | direction = vertical | header = | header_align = left/right/center | header_background = | footer = | footer_background = | image1 = Aviles St entrance, St. Augustine. FL.jpg | width1 = 270 | caption1 = Aviles Street in the [[St. Augustine Town Plan Historic District]], claims to be the oldest street in the nation.<ref>[http://www.staugustine.com/article/20100504/NEWS/305049960?template=ampart City archaeologist: Oldest street in US is here] - StAgustine</ref> | alt1 = | image2 = 6.18.08OldTownAlbuquerqueByLuigiNovi6.jpg | width2 = 270 | caption2 = [[Albuquerque, New Mexico|Albuquerque]] was founded by Don [[Francisco Cuervo y Valdez]]. | alt2 = Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States }}

Some Spanish place names in the U.S. include: * '''[[Arizona]]''' – possibly from a Spanish word of Basque origin meaning "The Good Oak". However, the toponym does not come from the term ''Zona Árida''.<ref name=AZC070211>{{cite web |url=https://azcentral.com/news/columns/articles/0211clay0211.html |title=No, 'arid zone' not the basis of state's name |work=[[The Arizona Republic]] |access-date=December 29, 2014 |author=Thompson, Clay |date=February 11, 2007 |archive-date=December 29, 2014 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20141229214323/http://www.azcentral.com/news/columns/articles/0211clay0211.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> ** [[Mesa, Arizona|Mesa]] – means "Table"; Spanish explorers used the word because the tops of mesas look like the tops of tables. ** [[Sierra Vista, Arizona|Sierra Vista]] – "Mountain View" * '''[[California]]''' – the state was named for a mythical land described in a popular Spanish novel from around 1500, ''[[Las sergas de Esplandián]]'' ("The exploits of Esplandián") by [[Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo]]. ** [[Alcatraz Island]] – "[[Gannet]] Island" ** [[Chula Vista]] – "Beautiful View" ** [[Los Angeles]] – "City of Angels" ** [[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]] – "City of the Sacrament" ** [[San Bernardino, California|San Bernardino]] – "Saint Bernard" ** [[Santa Cruz, CA|Santa Cruz]] – "City of the Holy Cross" ** [[San Diego, California|San Diego]] – "Saint Didacus" ** [[San Francisco, California|San Francisco]] – "Saint Francis" ** [[San Jose, California|San Jose]] – "Saint Joseph" ** [[Santa Barbara, California|Santa Barbara]] – "Saint Barbara" * '''[[Florida]]''' – "Flowery". ** [[Boca Raton]] – "Shallow inlet of sharp–pointed rocks that scrape a ship's cables" ** [[Key West]] – [[anglicization]] of ''Cayo Hueso'' ("Bone Island") ** [[St. Augustine, Florida]] – anglicization of'' San Agustín'', founded by [[Pedro Menéndez de Avilés]] ** [[Sarasota, Florida|Sarasota]] – "Sheep skin" ** [[Biscayne Bay]] – anglicization of ''Bayo Vizcayno'' ("[[Biscay]] Bay") ** [[Pensacola, Florida|Pensacola]] – [[Hispanicization]] of the indigenous name for the region ** [[Tampa, Florida|Tampa]] – Hispanicization of the indigenous name for the region ** [[Miami, Florida|Miami]] – Hispanicization of the indigenous name for the region * '''[[Colorado]]''' – "Reddish". ** [[Pueblo, Colorado|Pueblo]] – "Town" ** [[Alamosa]] – "Cottonwood" ** [[Antonito, Colorado|Antonito]] – "Little Anthony" * '''[[Montana]]''' – ''Montaña'', "Mountain". ** [[Lima, Montana|Lima]] – "Lime" * '''[[New Mexico]]''' ** [[Albuquerque, New Mexico]] – first called La Villa de San Francisco Xavier de Alburquerque, was founded as a Royal city by order of Don [[Francisco Cuervo y Valdés]], 34th [[Governor of New Mexico]], on February 7, 1706. ** [[Española, New Mexico]] – "Spanish Woman" ** [[Santa Fe, New Mexico|Santa Fe]] – "Holy Faith" **[[Las Cruces, New Mexico|Las Cruces]] – "The Crosses" **[[Madrid, New Mexico|Madrid]] – although pronounced "MAD–rid", the city was named for the capital of Spain. * '''[[Texas]]''' – ''Tejas'' in Spanish and "Slates" in English. ** [[El Paso]] – "The Pass" **[[Amarillo, Texas|Amarillo]] – "Yellow" **[[San Antonio]] – "[[Anthony of Padua|St. Anthony]]" * '''[[Nevada]]''' – the name comes from the Spanish ''Nevada'' ({{IPA|es|neˈβaða|lang}}), meaning "Snow-covered",<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wordreference.com/es/en/translation.asp?spen=nevada |title=Nevada |access-date=February 24, 2007 |publisher=Wordreference.com}}</ref> after the [[Sierra Nevada]] ("Snow-covered mountain range"). ** [[Las Vegas, Nevada|Las Vegas]] – "The Meadows" * '''[[Oregon]]''' – ''Orejón'', "big ear", or could come from ''[[Aragon|Aragón]]''. ** [[Moro, Oregon|Moro]] – "[[Moors|Moor]]" ** [[Bonanza, Oregon|Bonanza]] – "Prosperity" ** [[Estacada, Oregon|Estacada]] – "Staked" ** [[Manzanita, Oregon|Manzanita]] – "Little apple" ** [[Toledo, Oregon|Toledo]] – Spanish city of the same name

==People== {{Commons category|American people of Spanish descent}} {{Main list|List of Spanish Americans }}

==See also== {{Portal|United States|Spain|Hispanic and Latino Americans}}

===About Spanish Americans=== * [[Spain–United States relations|Spanish-American relations]] * [[Spanish immigration to Hawaii]] * [[Spanish cuisine]] * [[Asturian Americans]] * [[Canarian Americans]] * [[Isleño]] * [[Galician Americans]] * [[Basque Americans]] * [[Catalan Americans]] * [[Floridanos]] * [[Californio]] * [[Tejano]] * [[Nuevomexicano]] ([[New Mexican Spanish]]) * ''[[Origins of New Mexico Families|Origins of New Mexico Families: A Genealogy of the Spanish Colonial Period]]'' * [[El Centro Español de Tampa]] * [[Centro Asturiano de Tampa]] * [[History of Ybor City]]

===About Hispanic Americans and Spanish Canadians=== * [[White Americans]] ** [[White Hispanic and Latino Americans]] * [[Spanish Canadians]] * [[Criollo people]] * [[Hispanic Society of America]] * [[List of Hispanic and Latino Americans|Notable Hispanics]] * [[White Hispanic and Latino Americans|White Hispanic]] * [[White Latin Americans]] * [[Hispanic]] * [[Hispanic and Latino Americans]]

==References== {{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==Further reading== * Colahan, Clark. "Spanish Americans." ''Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America,'' edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 4, Gale, 2014), pp.&nbsp;271–281. [https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3273300169/GPS?u=wikipedia&sid=GPS&xid=bc52146e Online] * Martinelli, Phyllis Cancilla and Ana Varela-Lago (eds.), ''Hidden Out in the Open: Spanish Migration to the United States, 1875-1930.'' Louisville: University Press of Colorado, 2019. * Ramírez, Roberto R. (2004). [https://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/censr-18.pdf We the People: Hispanic Population in the United States]. Census 2000 Special Reports. U.S. Census Bureau.

==External links== {{Commons category|People of the United States of Spanish descent}} * [http://hispanicsociety.org/ Hispanic Society of America] Museum in New York City * Colahan, Clark (2008). [http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Pa-Sp/Spanish-Americans.html Spanish American Heritage]. Multicultural America. * Pérez, Juan M. (October 2005). [https://web.archive.org/web/20070329010853/http://coloquio.com/coloquioonline/2005/0510hispanicrole.htm The Hispanic Role in America]. Coloquio Revista Cultural. * [https://www.census.gov Survey: 2005 American Community Survey:Hispanic Origin]. U.S. Census Bureau. * [http://www.asturianus.org Asturian-American Migration Forum]. A [[Internet forum|discussion board]] for the descendants of Asturian-Americans.

{{Spanish diaspora}} {{European Americans}} {{Demographics of the United States}} {{Spanish Americans by location}} {{Hispanics}} {{Authority control}}

[[Category:American people of Spanish descent| ]] [[Category:European diaspora in the United States]] [[Category:Spanish diaspora by country|United States]] [[Category:Spain–United States relations]] [[Category:Spanish diaspora in the United States| ]]