Photographic Exhibition shows importance of Spanish Immigration to the US

From 1880 to 1930, around 4 million Spaniards immigrated to the America, however, in many cases “these Spaniards have become invisible immigrants” (James D. Fernandez, “The discovery of Spain in New York, circa 1930”)

Spaniards to the US are thought to have assimilated fully into American society, but closely guarded their Spanish culture and traditions. In the 20th century the majority settled in New York, Florida and California before eventually spreading out to other states.

Although many do not know it, from 1880-1889, New York experienced an important influx of Spanish immigrants who went on to establish a well known community of commercial, professional and academic elite. They would create what was known as “Little Spain” in New York, and some traces can still be found today of its existence. In fact, just this year a documentary titled “Little Spain” by Artur reveals the story of the strong Spanish-American presence in Manhattan during the time. It is said that by the 1930s, Little Spain had 30,000 members.

Several waves of Spanish immigration to the US occurred in the first half of the 20th century. There were those who came due to economic woes, thousands of Basques were hired to work as shepherds in the developing western states, thousands of Asturianos moved to Pennsylvania and W. Virginia to mine while thousands of Cantabrians were employed by quarries in northern Vermont. The Spanish Civil War would produce an influx of educated professional Spaniards into the US.

Today, there are over 80 associations in the US dedicated to Spanish immigrants and descendents.  Curiously enough, in 2010 the American government conducted a census in which 635,000 people responded that they identified themselves with the term “Spaniards”.  This is a stark difference to the 82,858 who had indicated themselves as Spanish in the 2000 census.

In order to highlight the impact of the Spanish immigration in the US, a photographic exhibition, sponsored by the Spanish government, is currently on display in Miami until November 4th, when it will move to a new city. The exhibition titled:  “Spaniards in the United States and Puerto Rico from 1880 until today” features 69 photos that were selected from the 600 that were received from the many individual owners and immigrant associations who provided them. The exhibition is on display in central Miami at 1400 Biscayne Center.

The goal of the photographs is to show Americans the many different regions, professions and cultures that the Spaniards came from and for them to see that not only Galicians and Cantabrians immigrated into the US, but rather from the all regions of Spain.