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| Total population | |
|---|---|
| c. 15 million 8% of the population (2008)[1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| MainlySoutheastern Brazil (particularlySão Paulo andRio de Janeiro) | |
| Languages | |
| Iberian Spanish,Brazilian Portuguese,Other Spanish languages | |
| Religion | |
| Catholicism, someProtestantism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Part ofa series on the |
| Spanish people |
|---|
_alternate_colours.svg) Rojigualda (historical Spanish flag) |
| Regional groups |
Other groups |
| SignificantSpanish diaspora |
 Category •  Spain portal |
Spanish Brazilians areBrazilians of full or partialSpanish ancestry.
Spanish immigration was the third largest among immigrant groups in Brazil; about 750,000 immigrants entered Brazil from Spanish ports.[2] How many Spaniards came to Brazil before independence are unknown. Brazilian censuses do not research "ethnic origins" or ancestry, which makes it very difficult to give accurate numbers of Brazilians of Spanish descent. Brazilians of Spanish descent can be estimated as being 1.5 million people in the 6 main metropolitan areas (around 5% of their total population in 1998)[3] or 10 and 15 million in the whole country, according to Brazilian media and the Spanish government respectively.[4][1]
More than half of modernBrazil's territory was attributed to Spain by theTreaty of Tordesillas. However, Spain was unable to settle that region.
During thedynastic union between Portugal and Spain (1580–1640), many Spaniards settled in Brazil, particularly in São Paulo. As a consequence, there are a large number of Brazilian descendants of these early settlers, especially since the early inhabitants of São Paulo explored and settled in other parts of Brazil. The descendants of Bartolomeu Bueno de Ribeira, born in Seville around 1555, who settled in São Paulo around 1583, marrying Maria Pires, are an example of this.[5] Afonso Taunay, in his book dealing with early São Paulo,São Paulo in the XVI century, mentions also Baltazar de Godoy, Francisco de Saavedra, Jusepe de Camargo, Martin Fernandes Tenório de Aguilar, Bartolomeu de Quadros, among others. In his genealogical account of the settling ofSão Paulo, Pedro Taques de Almeida Paes Leme, also mentions the three Rendon brothers, Juan Matheus Rendon, Francisco Rendon de Quebedo and Pedro Matheus Rendon Cabeza de Vaca, as well as Diogo Lara, fromZamora. Spaniards fromGalicia also settled in Brazil during that time, likeJorge de Barros, for example.[6] The family names Bueno, Godoy, Lara, Saavedra, Camargo, etc., tracing back to these early settlers, are quite popular throughoutSoutheast Brazil,Southern Brazil and theCenter-West.Silva Leme, in his workGenealogia Paulistana ("Paulistana Genealogy"), addresses several of these families.[7]
The expansion of Portuguese-Brazilian settlements into Spanish-claimed territory was a long and gradual process, which took the form of Portuguese-Brazilian expeditions and settlements led by theBandeirantes. Except for theMissions, no Spanish settlements actually existed in the territory of future Brazil by the middle of the 18th century, when most of it was under Portuguese control. This de facto control was legally recognized in 1750 when sovereignty over the vast area – including the Missions – was transferred from Spain to Portugal by theTreaty of Madrid.[8][9]
While there is no historic evidence of Spanish settlements in the area that is now Rio Grande do Sul[8][9][10][11] (other thanSão Gabriel, founded in 1800 and stormed by the Brazilian/Portuguese in 1801), some genetic research conducted on southern Braziliangaúchos suggests that they may be mostly descended from mixedindigenous and Spanish ancestry rather than from Portuguese and indigenous ancestry.[12] The study itself cautions that there may be difficulties with its identification of the respective Iberian (Portuguese and Spanish) contributions to the gaúcho population of southern Brazil (some caution is warranted because differentiation between Iberian Peninsula populations, as well as between them and their derived Latin American populations, at the Y-chromosome level, was not observed in other investigations).[12]
Spanish emigration to South America peaked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and it was concentrated toArgentina andCuba. Between 1882 and 1930, 3,297,312 Spaniards emigrated, of whom 1,594,622 went to Argentina and 1,118,960 went to Cuba.[13] Brazil only started to be an important destination for immigrants from Spain in the 1880s, and the country received the third largest number of immigrants from that country, after Argentina and Cuba.[13]
It is estimated that approximately 750,000 Spaniards have immigrated to Brazil sinceBrazil's independence in 1822. This figure represents between 12.5% and 14% of all foreigners entering Brazil since its independence and puts the Spaniards in the third place among immigrant nationalities in Brazil, but it possibly includes Portuguese emigrating on false Spanish passports, orGalicians who, while Spanish citizens, spoke a language similar to Portuguese; in fact, Portuguese immigrants in Rio de Janeiro are popularly known asgalegos (Galicians).[14] Spanish immigrants were among those who had a higher rate of permanent residence in Brazil, overtaken by theJapanese but above nationalities such as Portuguese, Italian or German.[citation needed] This may be due to the large number of families traveling with passage paid by the Brazilian government that left their native Spain to work oncoffee plantations of the state of São Paulo.[citation needed] Most Spanish immigrants entered Brazil between 1880 and 1930, with the peak period between 1905 and 1919, when their annual entrances overcame those of Italians.[2]
In the state of São Paulo, the destination of the majority of Spanish immigrants (about 75% of the total), 60% were from Andalusia,[13] had their travel by ship paid by the Brazilian government, emigrated in families and were taken to the coffee farms to replace African slave manpower.
| Spanish Immigration to São Paulo - Percentage by Region[15] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Region | 1893-1902 | 1903-1912 | 1913-1922 |
| Andalusia | 43,6 | 53% | 50% |
| Aragon | 0,8% | 2,0% | 1,4% |
| Asturias | 1,1% | 0,4% | 0,7% |
| Balearic Islands | 0,2% | 0,4% | 0,3% |
| Basque Country | 2,9% | 1,0% | 1,0% |
| Canary Islands | 2,0% | 0,7% | 0,3% |
| Cantabria | 0,3% | 0,1% | 0,2% |
| Castille and León | 10,4% | 12% | 10,6% |
| Castile-La Mancha | 1,1% | 1,2% | 3,0% |
| Catalonia | 6,9% | 2,3% | 1,8% |
| Extremadura | 0,7% | 1,2% | 6,2% |
| Galicia | 22,6% | 14,5% | 10,3% |
| Madrid | 1,9% | 0,7% | 0,7% |
| Murcia | 0,7% | 5,2% | 8,5% |
| Navarra | 1,3% | 2,0% | 0,9% |
| Valencia | 2,1% | 1,9% | 1,8% |
| La Rioja | 0,7% | 0,6% | 0,9% |
| Others | 0,7% | 0,8% | 1,4% |
After São Paulo, the second largest contingent came toRio de Janeiro, while other states such asMinas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná,Mato Grosso,Pará andBahia received smaller groups. In all those states, immigrants fromGalicia were the vast majority, at about 80%, and those were predominantlymales who emigrated alone, settled in urban centers and paid for their travel by ship.[13] Galiciansmallholders settled mainly in urban areas of Brazil. Starting in the early 20th century, most Spanish immigrants wereAndalusian peasants who worked in thecoffee plantations, mainly in rural areas ofSão Paulo State.[16][17]
| Year | Percentage of the City |
|---|---|
| 1900 | 12%[18] |
| 1920 | 4,3%[15] |
The profile of the Spanish immigrants during the period 1908–26 shows that 82.7% immigrated in families, 81.4% were farmers, only 2.2% were artisans or skilled workers and 16.3% were in category of "others"[citation needed]. These data reflect that Spanish immigration was not very diversified and qualified and had a low mobility since it was subsidized by the Brazilian Government, so immigrants were not free to decide where to work. In this way, the vast majority of those who came to São Paulo were directly taken to the coffee farms without having the opportunity to settle rural communities as land owners, or work in urban jobs[citation needed].
In Northeastern Brazil, people with light or blue eyes or light colored hair are often calledgalegos (Galicians), even if not of Galician descent, probably explained due to the fact Galicians came to Brazil among Portuguese colonizers. InRio de Janeiro, theGalician immigrants were so present that Iberian and Portuguese immigrants were referred to asgalegos.[14][19]
| Period | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1884–1893 | 1894–1903 | 1904–1913 | 1914–1923 | 1924–1933 | 1945–1949 | 1950–1954 | 1955–1959 | ||
| 113,116 | 102,142 | 224,672 | 94,779 | 52,405 | 40,092 | 53,357 | 38,819 | ||
| Source: (IBGE)[20] | |||||||||
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(May 2016) |
There is one Spanish international school in Brazil,Colégio Miguel de Cervantes in São Paulo.
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