Spaniards in Mexico

Spanish Mexicans are citizens or residents of Mexico who identify as Spanish as a result of nationality or ancestry. Spanish immigration to Mexico began in the early 1500s and spans to the present day. There are three recognized large-scale Spanish immigration waves to Mexico: the first arrived during the colonial period, the second during the Porfiriato, the third after the Spanish Civil War and the fourth (and current) after the 2008 financial crisis.

The first Spanish colonial settlement was established in February 1519 by Hernán Cortés in the Yucatan Peninsula, accompanied by about 11 ships, 500 men, 13 horses and a small number of cannons. In March 1519, Cortés formally claimed the land for the Spanish crown, and by 1521 had conquered the Aztec Empire.

Arrival of the Spanish


The social composition of late sixteenth century Spanish immigration included both common people, illiterates, and aristocrats with titles of counts and marquises, all of which quickly dispersed over the territory. The enslavement of native populations and Africans, along with the discovery of new deposits of various minerals in the central and northern areas (from Sonora to the southern provinces of Mexico) created enormous wealth for the metropole, especially in the extraction of silver. The theft of mining wealth from the indigenous populations through the mechanism of colonialism allowed the Spanish to develop manufacturing and agriculture that turned the Bajío regions and the valleys of Mexico and Puebla into prosperous agricultural areas with incipient industrial activity for the colonists, but indigenous populations were decimated by European diseases and mistreatment from the Spanish as a direct result of this.

In the 16th century, following the colonization of most of the new continents, perhaps 240,000 Spaniards entered ports in the Americas. They were joined by 450,000 in the next century. Since the conquest of Mexico, this region became the principal destination of Spanish colonial settlers in the 16th century. The first Spaniards who arrived in Mexico were soldiers and sailors from Extremadura, Andalucía and La Mancha after the conquest of the Americas. At the end of the 16th century both commoner and aristocrat from Spain were migrating to Mexico. Also, a few Canarian families colonized parts of Mexico in the 17th century (as in the case of the Azuaje families) and when the Spanish crown encouraged Canarian colonization of the Americas through the Tributo de sangre (Blood Tribute) in the 18th century, many of them settled in Yucatán, where by the 18th century they controlled the trade network that distributed goods throughout the peninsula; their descendants are still counted among the most influential families of direct Spanish descent in Mexico. During the 20th century, another group of Canarians settled in Mexico in the early 1930s, and as with Galician and other Spanish immigrants of the time, there were high rates of illiteracy and impoverishment among them, but they adapted relatively quickly.

History
After the independence of Mexico and centuries of brutal colonial rule, an animosity emerged against Spanish people in the new nation; in August 1827 to 1834, by the decree issued during the government of Lorenzo de Zavala, that expelled many Spaniards from the State of Mexico and killed Spanish families. The state government, influenced by English masons or Yorkers, based on the Plan of Iguala and Treaty of Córdoba, liberated the state by stripping Spaniards of their haciendas, farms, ranches and properties.

On December 20, 1827, state deputies repealed the Spanish expulsion law, and many Creole families returned to their farms and ranches protected by state congressional deputies. In the constitution of 1857, the ambiguities about Mexican citizens are removed, the Spaniards were recognized foreign people.



In the period 1850-1950, 3.5 million Spanish left for the Americas, and Mexico became one of the chief destinations, in 1876 Mexico establishes relationships with Spain; a second wave was particularly in the Northern region where president Porfirio Diaz started a campaign of European immigration to supply labor. In 1910, there were 30,000 Spaniards in Mexico, they participated in economic activities as agricultural labors and trade in urban areas, they could not influence the country's political life.

Most recent migrants came during the Spanish Civil War. More than 25,000 Spanish refugees settled in Mexico between 1939 and 1942, largely during the administration of President Lazaro Cardenas del Río. Some of the migrants returned to Spain after the civil war, but many more remained in Mexico.

The Children of Morelia was formed in 1937 by 456 Spanish children, Republican's sons, which were brought from Spain in the vapor ship with French flag named Mexique, at the request of the Mexican Assistance Committee by Pueblo Spanish, based in Barcelona city. This children were received by Mexican President Lázaro Cardenas del Río.

Of these refugees is named as soon as "intellectual immigration" or "elite" was made up of approximately 25% of the total. It also notes that also came in greater numbers "factory workers and peasants" as well as soldiers, sailors and pilots, statesmen, economists, and businessmen, all linked to the Republican government defeated in war.

Due to the 2008 Financial Crisis and the resulting economic decline and high unemployment in Spain, many Spaniards have been emigrating to Mexico to seek new opportunities. For example, during the last quarter of 2012, a number of 7,630 work permits were granted to Spaniards.

Economic and social issues
The actual Spanish community in Mexico is integrated principally by business men, business women, actors, actresses, academics, artists and professional students, Mexico is now an important country by inversions in Latin America, when last time was poor people named gachupines or refugiados (war refugees). Now many Spaniards are owners of restaurants, department stores, supermarkets, bank institutions, luxury hotels, motels, gourmet bakeries, stationeries, ultramarine stores, trip agencies, building companies, textile factories, gas stations, iron factories, fashion houses, architecture studios, engineer offices, transport services, also private schools and universities, and cultural institutes as Intituto Cervantes, Casa de España or Ateneo Español.

Discrimination and stereotypes


The word gachupín is used for Spaniards who live in Mexico and Guatemala as a slur, referring to conquistadors and people from Spain. Official history says Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla mentioned in the Grito de Dolores; Mueran los gachupines, (Death to the gachupines!).

Diego Rivera was a Mexican painter, who caused controversy with a mural named La leyenda negra de la Conquista (The black legend of Conquest), painted between 1929 and 1930, he was accused of Hispanophobia creating diplomatic conflicts between Mexican government with Spanish government.

The stereotypes about Spaniards in Mexico are men with barb and boina, people smoking habanos and drinking wine, many newspaper's cartoons describes this images for gachupines or Spanish people.

Education
Important Spanish schools remain in Mexico, such as Colegio Madrid of Mexico City, a scholarly institute founded in 1941 by Spanish immigrants and Mexican teachers. This is a private school for elementary education.

The Colegio de México (Colmex) was an organization of Spanish civil war exiles called firstly "Casa de España en México" (House of Spain in Mexico). In 1939, Alfonso Reyes would be president of the "Colegio" until his death. Historian Daniel Cosío Villegas played an important role in its institutionalization and the Colegio's library bears his name.

Languages
Spanish was brought to Mexico around 500 years ago. As a result of Mexico City's central role in the colonial administration of New Spain, the population of the city included relatively large numbers of speakers from Spain. Mexico City (Tenochtitlán) had also been the capital of the Aztec Empire, and many speakers of the Aztec language Nahuatl continued to live there and in the surrounding region, outnumbering the Spanish-speakers for several generations. Consequently, Mexico City tended historically to exercise a standardizing effect over the entire country, more or less, evolving into a distinctive dialect of Spanish which incorporated a significant number of Hispanicized Nahuatl words.

During the Spanish Exile, the Catalan language was expressed by writers and poets in Mexico, the Orfeó Català de Mèxic was a mecca for Catalan speakers and artists.

Charreria
Charreria, a word encompassing all aspects of the art, evolved from the traditions that came to Mexico from Salamanca, Spain in the 16th century. When the Spanish first settled in Colonial Mexico, they were under orders to raise horses named criollos (Spanish Creole people), but not to allow the indigenous people to ride. However, by 1528 the Spanish had very large cattle-raising estates and found it necessary to employ indigenous people as vaqueros or Criole herdsman, who soon became excellent horsemen. Smaller landholders, known as rancheros or ranchers, were the first genuine charros and they are credited as the inventors of the charreada.

Bullfighting
Bullfighting arrived in Mexico with the first Spaniards and the rest of Latin America in the 16th century. Records are found of the first bullfights debuted in Mexico on June 26, 1526, with a bullfight in Mexico City held in honor of explorer Hernán Cortés, who had just come back from Honduras (then known as Las Hibueras). From that point on, bullfights were staged all over Mexico as part of various civic, social and religious celebrations. Today, there are about 220 permanent bullrings throughout Mexico with the largest venue of its kind is the Plaza de toros México in central Mexico City which opened in 1946 and seats 48,000 people.

Holy week
Holy week is a Spanish tradition represented in many Mexican cities as San Luis Potosí City, Taxco de Alarcón or Morelia, this religious representation is very similar to Sevilla Holy week procession o Semana Mayor from other Spanish cities..

Spanish place names in Mexico
There are hundreds of places in Mexico named after places in Spain or have Spanish names due to the Spanish colonialism, Spanish settlers and explorers. These include:
 * Guadalajara, Jalisco, after Guadalajara, Spain,
 * Mérida, Yucatán after Mérida, Spain
 * Zamora, Michoacán after Zamora, Spain
 * León, Guanajuato after León, Spain
 * Valladolid, Yucatán after Valladolid, Spain and Morelia, Michoacán formerly named Valladolid de Michoacán
 * Nuevo León named after the former Kingdom of León in Spain
 * Monterrey city was named after the Countess of Monterrei (a city in Galicia, Spain), wife of the Viceroy of New Spain Gaspar de Zúñiga, 5th Count of Monterrey, Count of Monterrey, Spain.
 * Salamanca, Guanajuato named after Salamanca, Spain
 * Burgos, Tamaulipas named after Burgos, Spain
 * Linares, Nuevo León named after Linares, Spain
 * Durango, Durango named after Durango, Spain
 * Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas after Laredo, Cantabria, Spain
 * Córdoba, Veracruz after Córdoba, Spain
 * Zaragoza, Veracruz after Zaragoza, Spain
 * Zaragoza, Puebla after Zaragoza, Spain
 * Medellín, Veracruz after Medellín, Spain
 * Puebla de Zaragoza after Puebla de Sanabria
 * Compostela, Nayarit after Santiago de Compostela
 * Villahermosa, Tabasco after Villahermosa del Campo, Spain
 * Reynosa, Tamaulipas after Reinosa, Cantabria, Spain
 * Madrid, Colima after Madrid, Spain
 * Matamoros, Tamaulipas after Valle de Matamoros, Extremadura, Spain
 * Altamira, Tamaulipas after Altamira, Bilbao, Spain
 * Arandas, Jalisco after Aranda, Aragón, Spain
 * Arandas, Guanajuato after Aranda, Aragón, Spain
 * Guadalcázar, San Luis Potosí after Guadalcázar, Córdoba, Spain
 * Lerma, State of Mexico after Lerma, Castile and León, Spain
 * Lerma, Campeche after Lerma, Castile and León, Spain
 * Candelaria, Campeche after Candelaria, Tenerife Canary Islands, Spain
 * Granada, Yucatán after Granada, Andalusia, Spain

Principal areas of settlement
The Asturians are a very large community that has a long history in Mexico, dating from colonial times to the present. There are about 42,000 people of Asturian birth in Mexico. The Catalans are also very numerous in Mexico. According to sources from the Catalan community, there are approximately 12,000 Catalan-born around the country.. There are also as many as 8,500 Basques, 6,000 Galicians, and 1,600 Canary Islanders.

The largest population of Spanish descent are located in Mexico Valley, Puebla-Veracruz region, Bajío region, Guadalajara Valley, Altos de Jalisco, Northern region and Riviera Maya, where they make up the largest proportion of the Spanish population. Large populations are found in the states like Mexico City, Mexico State, Veracruz, Puebla, Jalisco, Nuevo León, Aguascalientes, Durango, Guanajuato, Querétaro, and Chihuahua. Also, Northern Mexico is inhabited by many millions of Spanish descendants. Some states like Zacatecas, Sinaloa, Baja California, Sonora, San Luis Potosí and Tamaulipas.

As the Spanish royal Government doted the New Spain from Kingdoms and Territories, a great part of them followed names. So we can find lots of Basque criollos in Durango and Southern Chihuahua as those territories were part of the Kingdom of New Vizcay, Galician descendants in Jalisco being part of the Kingdom of New Galicia.

Mexico City


Mexico City has the biggest Spanish population in the country, in this city are all the Spanish institutions as Embassy of Spain, cultural centers as soon as Centro Asturiano, Centro Gallego, Casa de Madrid, Casa de Andalucía, Centro Montañes, Orfeo Catalán de Mexico, Centro Vasco, Centro Canario, Centro Republicano Español, Ateneo Español, Casino Español, Asociación Valenciana, Centro Castellano, and health institutions as the Beneficiencia Española, Hospital Español and Hospital-ito.

Also in Mexico City stay important Spanish schools and universities as Colegio Madrid, Universidad Iberoamericana, Colegio de México and Universidad Anahuac.

Puebla City
Puebla City is the other biggest Spanish population in Mexico, here is Parque España, an interesting social community and school from Spaniards and Spanish Mexicans descendants.

The Centro Gallego de México makes a Beato Sebastián de Aparicio romería to Puebla City each year, this event is an interesting Galician community with Folk music and Galician dances outside the Old San Francisco convento to Downtown Puebla de Zaragoza, Puebla State.

Veracruz City
Veracruz City is the first biggest Spanish population in Mexico, interesting social community, and schools, universities, health institutes from Spaniards and Spanish Mexicans descendants. All times always, in Veracruz City there are Spanish communities in the commerce, factory, nave shipping companies, and education.

Numbers
Spanish descendants make up the largest group of Europeans in Mexico and a majority of Mexicans have some degree of Spanish descent. Most of their ancestors arrived during the colonial period but further hundreds of thousands have since then immigrated, especially during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. According to CIA World Factbook, whites make up 10% of Mexico's population. The Encyclopædia Britannica states those of predominantly European descent make up closer to one-sixth (≈17%) of the Mexican population.