Spanish Americans

Españoles estadounidenses (Spanish)
Total population
Self-identified as "Spaniard" 978,978 (2020)[1] Self-identified as "Spanish American" 50,966 (2020)[2] Self-identified as "Spanish" 866,356 (2020)[3]
Regions with significant populations
California Louisiana Texas New Mexico Colorado Florida New York Montana Arizona Nevada Idaho Washington
Languages
English Spanish Languages of Spain (Catalan,Galician,Basque,Occitan,Aragonese andAsturian)
Religion
Christianity (PredominantlyRoman Catholicism, minorityProtestantism);non-religious
Related ethnic groups
Spaniards Hispanic and Latino Americans Portuguese Americans Hispanos Isleño otherEuropean Americans

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Spanish Americans (Spanish:españoles estadounidenses,hispanoestadounidenses, orhispanonorteamericanos) areAmericans whoseancestry originates wholly or partly fromSpain.^[4] They are the longest-establishedEuropean American group in the modernUnited States, with a very small group descending from those explorations leaving fromSpain and theViceroyalty of New Spain (modern Mexico), and starting in the early 1500s, of 42 of the future U.S. states fromCalifornia toFlorida; and beginning a continuous presence in Florida since 1565 andNew Mexico since 1598.^[5]In the2020 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".^[6][7]

ManyHispanic and Latino Americans (theHispanos of New Mexico being the oldest group) living in the United States have someSpanish 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 especiallywhite 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 oftenAmerindian orAfrican ancestry. A number of communities descended from European Spanish immigrants are elided by the “Hispanic and Latino” ethnic category;^{[citation needed]} these include the descendants ofBasques in the western states,Isleños in the gulf coast states, andAndalusians in states likeWest Virginia, among others.

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

Throughout the colonial times, there were a number of European settlements of Spanish populations in the present-dayUnited States of America with governments answerable to Madrid. The first settlement on modern-day U.S. soil wasSan Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1521, followed bySt. Augustine,Florida (the oldest in the continental United States), in 1565, followed by others inNew Mexico,California,Arizona, andTexas. In 1598,San Juan de los Caballeros was established, near present-daySanta Fe, New Mexico, byJuan de Oñate and about 1,000 other Spaniards from theViceroyalty of New Spain.Spanish immigrants also established settlements inSan Diego, California (1602),San Antonio, Texas (1691) andTucson, Arizona (1699). By the mid-1600s the Spanish in America numbered more than 400,000.^[8]

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 centralMexico. These Spanish settlers expanded European influence in theNew World. The Canary Islanders settled inbayou areas surroundingNew Orleans inLouisiana from 1778 to 1783 and in San Antonio de Bejar, San Antonio, Texas, in 1731.^[9]

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 theMayflower, most Spaniards came to the New World seeking land to farm, or occasionally, as historians have recently established, freedom from religious persecution.^{[citation needed]} A smaller percentage of new Spanish settlers were descendants ofSpanish Jewishconverts andSpanish Muslim converts.

Basques stood out in the exploration of the Americas, both as soldiers and members of the crews that sailed for the Spanish.^[10] 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 inSpanish colonial society.^{[citation needed]} Another reason for their emigration besides the restrictive inheritance laws in theBasque Country, was the devastation from theNapoleonic Wars in the first half of the nineteenth century, which was followed by defeats in the twoCarlist civil wars. (For more information about the Basque, and immigrants to the United States from this region, seeBasque Americans.)

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 theSecond Spanish Republic in 1936 and the devastatingcivil war that ensued, GeneralFrancisco Franco established adictatorship for 40 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 ofautarky, as Franco believed that post-World War II Spain could survive or continue its activities without any European assistance.^[13]

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, representing only four-tenths of a percent of the total populace.^{[clarification needed]} As from the rest of Europe, 21st century immigrants from Spain are few, only 10,000 per year at most.

Much as withFrench Americans, who are of French descent but mostly by way ofCanada, the majority of the 41 million massively strong Spanish-speaking population have come by way ofLatin America, especiallyMexico,^{[citation needed]} but alsoPuerto Rico, theDominican Republic, and other areas that the Spanish themselves colonized. Many of theHispanic and Latino Americans bring their Spanish-speaking culture into the country.^{[citation needed]}

Spanish Americans in theUnited 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 (primarilyNew York City), followed byCalifornia,Florida,New Jersey andPennsylvania. The1950 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).^[15] By 1990 and 2000, there was relatively little change except in the order of the states and the addition ofTexas. In 1990, Florida ranked first with 78,656 Spanish immigrants followed by:^[15] California 74,784, New York (42,309), Texas (32,226), New Jersey (28,666). The2000 U.S. census saw a significant decline in Spanish-origin immigrants.^[15] 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 forBasques,Galicians,Asturians,Andalusians, and other such communities.

These figures show that there was never the mass emigration fromIberia that there was fromLatin 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 toWest 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 nearAvilés.^[16]

It is likely that more Spaniards settled in Latin America than in the United States, due tocommon language,shared religion, andcultural ties.

Some of the first ancestors of Spanish Americans wereSpanish Jews^{[citation needed]} who spokeLadino, a language derived fromCastilian Spanish andHebrew.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Spanish immigration mostly consisted of refugees fleeing from the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) and from the Franco military regime in Spain, which lasted until his death in 1975.^{[citation needed]} The majority of these refugees were businessmen and intellectuals, as well as union activists, and held strong liberalanti-authoritarian feelings.

A Californio is a Spanish term for a descendant of a person ofSpanish andMexican ancestry who was born inAlta California. "Alta California" refers to the time of the firstSpanish presence established by thePortolá expedition in 1769 until the region's cession to theUnited 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 newlives in the province, regardless of where they were born. This group is distinct fromindigenous 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-populatedpresidios, missions, pueblos andranchos.^[17] Until they weresecularized in the 1830s, the twenty-oneSpanish missions of California, with their thousands of more-or-less captivenative converts, controlled the most (about 1,000,000 acres (4,000 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 ofLatin America (most notablyPeru andChile) also settled in California. However, only a few official colonization efforts (fromNew Spain) were ever undertaken—notably the second expeditions ofGaspar de Portolá (1770) and ofJuan 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.^[18]

Juan Ponce de León, a Spanishconquistador, named Florida in honor of his discovery of the land on April 2, 1513, duringPascua Florida, a Spanish term for theEaster season.Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded the city ofSt. Augustine in 1565; the first European-founded city in what is now the continental United States.

TheEl 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,^[19] a legacy that garnered the Centro Español building recognition as aU.S. National Historic Landmark (NHL) on June 3, 1988.^[20]

In the early 1880s,Tampa was an isolated village with a population of less than 1000 and a struggling economy.^[21] However, its combination of a good port,Henry Plant's new railroad line, and humid climate attracted the attention ofVicente Martinez Ybor, a prominent Spanish-borncigar manufacturer; the neighborhood ofYbor City was named after him.^[22]

Spanish immigration to Hawaii began when the Hawaiian government and theHawaiian 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 SSHeliopolis arrived in Honolulu Harbor with 2,246 immigrants from theMálaga province ofSpain.^[23] However, rumored poor accommodations and food on the voyage created political complications that delayed the next Spanish importation until 1911, when the SSOrteric arrived with a mixed contingent of 960 Spanish and 565 Portuguese immigrants, the Spanish having boarded atGibraltar, and the Portuguese atPorto andLisbon. Although Portuguese immigration to Hawaii effectively ended after the arrival of theOrteric, the importation of Spanish laborers and their families continued until 1913, ultimately bringing to Hawaii a total of 9,262 Spanish immigrants.^[23]

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 woodensailing ships of less than a thousandgross tonnage capacity, all of the ships involved in the Spanish immigration were large, steel-hulled, passengersteamships.

The majority of them descend fromCanarian settlers who arrived in Louisiana between 1778 and 1783. Its members are descendants of colonists from theCanary Islands, which is part of Spain off the coast of Africa. They settled inSpanish Louisiana between and intermarried with other communities such asFrench,Acadians,Creoles, and other groups, mainly through the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Isleños originally settled in four communities includingGalveztown,Valenzuela,Barataria, andSan Bernardo.^[24] 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 inWest Florida.^[25][26]

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Hispanos of New Mexico (less commonly referred to asNeomexicanos orNuevomexicanos) are descendants of Spanish and Mexican colonists who settled the area ofNew Mexico and Southern Colorado. Most made the journey fromNew Spain, now principally modern Mexico.^[27][28][29] The vast majority of these settlers married and mixed with the local indigenous people of New Mexico. Like theCalifornios andTejanos, 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 wasSanta 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 SouthernColorado, due to shared colonial history.Currently, the majority of the Nuevomexicano population is distributed between New Mexico and SouthernColorado. 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 folkloristJuan Bautista Rael andAurelio Espinosa.

"Little Spain" was a Spanish American neighborhood in theNew York Cityborough ofManhattan during the 20th century.^[31][32]

Little Spain was on14th Street, betweenSeventh andEighth Avenues.^[33] A very different section ofChelsea existed on a stretch of 14th Street often referred to by residents as "Calle Catorce," or "Little Spain".^[34] The Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe (No. 299) was founded in 1902, when Spaniards started to settle in the area.^[35] 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.^[36]

In 2010 the documentaryLittle Spain, directed and written byArtur 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.^[37] The archive contains more than 450 photographs and 150 documents that have never been publicly displayed.^{[38][39][40][41][42][43][44]}

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, orEl Faro Restaurant, established 1927, and still today open at 823 Greenwich St. The Iberia was a famous Spanish dress shop.

The heart of theSpanishAmerican community in that area were the two landmarks: theSpanish Benevolent Society and the Roman CatholicChurch of Our Lady of Guadalupe, founded at the turn of the 19th century, being the first parish inManhattan with mass in Latin andSpanish.

Another area of influence is theUnanue family ofGoya Foods. Its founder, Prudencio Unanue Ortiz, migrated fromSpain in the 20th century and established Goya Foods, the largestHispanic-owned food company in the United States.^[46] The family's members includeJoseph A. Unanue andAndy Unanue. Goya Foods is the 377th largest private American company.^[47]

In the early 1900s, thousands of Spaniards (mainly fromAsturias) 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) andMoundsville, WV.^[48] Asturians that immigrated to the state typically came from theGozón andPiedras Blancas regions ofAsturias and the surrounding communities, likeLuanco,Avilés, andCastrillón. Most had ties to the zinc production in Arnao and the Royal Asturian Mining Company.^[49] In the Asturian-American towns in West Virginia, the Spanish families retained their language and culture, making Spanishchorizo in backyards and speakingBable and Spanish to each other.^[50][51]

Many Spanish Americans still retain aspects of theirculture. This includesSpanish food, drink, art, annual fiestas. Spaniards have contributed to a vast number of areas in the United States of America. The influence ofSpanish cuisine is seen in the cuisine of the United States throughout the country.Flamenco is popular in New Mexico.^[52]

In the early 20th century, Prudencio Unanue Ortiz and his wife Carolina, both Puerto Ricans born in Spain,^[53] establishedGoya Foods, the largestHispanic-owned food company in the United States.^[46]

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 likechorizo,jamón,olives, marconaalmonds, andanchovies. 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.^[54]

Many Spanish Americans are more active inCatholic 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 was the second European language spoken in North America afterOld Norse, the language of theViking settlers. It was brought to the territory of what is the contemporary United States of America in 1513 byJuan Ponce de León. In 1565, the Spaniards foundedSt. Augustine, Florida, the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the modern U.S. territory.^[55]

Like other descendants of European immigrants,Spaniards have adopted English as their primary language.^[56]

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.^[58]

In 1980, 62,747 Americans claimed only Spaniard ancestry and another 31,781 claimed Spaniard along with another ethnic ancestry.^[59] 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.^[60] Spanish Americans are found in relative numbers throughout United States, particularly in theSouthwestern andGulf Coast. According to the 1980 U.S. census 66.4% reportedSpaniard as their main ancestry, while 62.7% reportedSpanish/Hispanic as their main ancestry.^[61][62][63]The table showing those who self-identified as Spaniard are as follows:

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.^[64] Totals for the 'Spaniard' showed a considerable increase from the previous census.^[65]Table shows population by state of those self identifying as Spaniard.^[15][62]

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.^[66]

In2000, 299,948 Americans specifically reported their ancestry as "Spaniard", which was a significant decrease over the1990 data, where in those who reported "Spaniard" numbered 360,858. Another 2,187,144 reported "Spanish"^[67]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 theAutonomous communities of Spain, speciallySpanish Basques (9,296 people),Castilians (4,744 people),Canarians (3,096 people),Balearics (2,554 people) andCatalans (1,738 people). Less of 300 people indicated be ofAsturian,Andalusian,Galician, andValencian origin.^[68]

• Spaniard – 299,948
• Spanish – 2,187,144
• Spanish American – 111,781

The2010 census is the twenty-thirdUnited Statesnational census.^[69]

• Spaniard – 635,253^[70]

Statistics for those who self-identify as ethnic Spaniard, Spanish, Spanish American in the 2010American Community Survey.

• Spaniard – 694,494^[71][72]
• Spanish – 482,072^[71][72]
• Spanish American – 48,810^[71][72]

In the most-recent 2020 census 978,978 people reported Spaniard, the tenth most common Hispanic group.^[73]

The top 10 states with the largest population who identified their ethnic origins as "Spaniard" in the 2020 census.^[74]

U.S. state		Population
	California	192,312
	Texas	120,116
	Florida	83,479
	New Mexico	79,882
	Colorado	58,290
	New York	51,714
	Arizona	36,636
	New Jersey	31,471
	Washington	26,478
	Illinois	18,842
U.S. born		TBA
Foreign-born		TBA
	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.^[75]

With the outbreak of theSpanish Civil War in 1936 a number of intellectual politicalrefugees foundasylum in the United States. Supporters of the overthrownSpanish Republic, which had received aid from theSoviet Union while under attack from Nationalist forces, were sometimes incorrectly identified withcommunism, but their arrival in the United States well before the "red scare" of the early 1950s spared them the worst excesses ofMcCarthyism. 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.

This is a partial list only.

Aviles Street in theSt. Augustine Town Plan Historic District, claims to be the oldest street in the nation.^[77]

Albuquerque was founded by DonFrancisco Cuervo y Valdez.

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 termZona Árida.^[78]
  • Mesa – means "Table"; Spanish explorers used the word because the tops of mesas look like the tops of tables.
  • 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") byGarci Rodríguez de Montalvo.
  • Alcatraz Island – "Gannet Island"
  • Chula Vista – "Beautiful View"
  • Los Angeles – "City of Angels"
  • Sacramento – "City of the Sacrament"
  • Santa Cruz – "City of the Holy Cross"
  • San Diego – "Saint Didacus"
  • San Francisco – "Saint Francis"
  • San Jose – "Saint Joseph"
  • Santa Barbara – "Saint Barbara"
• Florida – "Flowery".
  • Boca Raton – "Shallow inlet of sharp–pointed rocks that scrape a ship's cables"
  • Key West –anglicization ofCayo Hueso ("Bone Island")
  • St. Augustine, Florida – anglicization of San Agustín, founded byPedro Menéndez de Avilés
  • Sarasota – "Sheep skin"
  • Biscayne Bay – anglicization ofBayo Vizcayno ("Biscay Bay")
  • Pensacola –Hispanicization of the indigenous name for the region
  • Tampa – Hispanicization of the indigenous name for the region
  • Miami – Hispanicization of the indigenous name for the region
• Colorado – "Reddish".
  • Pueblo – "Town"
  • Alamosa – "Cottonwood"
  • Antonito – "Little Anthony"
• Montana –Montaña, "Mountain".
  • 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 DonFrancisco Cuervo y Valdés, 34thGovernor of New Mexico, on February 7, 1706.
  • Española, New Mexico – "Spanish Woman"
  • Santa Fe – "Holy Faith"
  • Las Cruces – "The Crosses"
  • 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 – "Yellow"
  • San Antonio – "St. Anthony"
• Nevada – the name comes from the SpanishNevada (Spanish:[neˈβaða]), meaning "Snow-covered",^[79] after theSierra Nevada ("Snow-covered mountain range").
  • Las Vegas – "The Meadows"
• Oregon –Orejón, "big ear", or could come fromAragón.
  • Moro – "Moor"
  • Bonanza – "Prosperity"
  • Estacada – "Staked"
  • Manzanita – "Little apple"
  • Toledo – Spanish city of the same name

Wikimedia Commons has media related toAmerican people of Spanish descent.

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• Origins of New Mexico Families: A Genealogy of the Spanish Colonial Period
• El Centro Español de Tampa
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• History of Ybor City

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• Colahan, Clark. "Spanish Americans."Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 4, Gale, 2014), pp. 271–281.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).We the People: Hispanic Population in the United States. Census 2000 Special Reports. U.S. Census Bureau.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toPeople of the United States of Spanish descent.

• Hispanic Society of America Museum in New York City
• Colahan, Clark (2008).Spanish American Heritage. Multicultural America.
• Pérez, Juan M. (October 2005).The Hispanic Role in America. Coloquio Revista Cultural.
• Survey: 2005 American Community Survey:Hispanic Origin. U.S. Census Bureau.
• Asturian-American Migration Forum. Adiscussion board for the descendants of Asturian-Americans.

• American people of Spanish descent
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