Hispanophone
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It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Hispanicity. (Discuss) |
The term Hispanophone (or hispanophone; hispanohablante or hispanófono, in Spanish) denotes Spanish-speakers and relation to the Spanish-speaking world. The word originates with the Roman name of the Iberian Peninsula, Hispania, which comprised the territory of the modern states of Spain, Portugal, Andorra and the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar as well as a small southern part of France.
In a cultural, rather than merely linguistic sense, the notion of "Hispanophone" goes further than the above definition. The term specifically refers to people whose cultural background is primarily associated with Spain, regardless of ethnic and geographical differences. The Hispanophone culture is the legacy of the Spanish colonial empire.
There are an estimated 417 million Hispanophones globally, making Spanish one of the most widely spoken languages in the world today. Hispanophone areas include Spain (where the language originated) and Hispanic America. There is a sizable Hispanophone minority in the United States. In the 2000 census, it comprised 10.7% of the population over the age of five - over 28 million people.[2] There are also smaller Hispanophone groups in Canada, northern Morocco, Equatorial Guinea, the Philippines (the latter three being former colonies of Spain) and in many other places, particularly large cities.
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[edit] Terminology
[edit] Hispanosphere
- See also: Hispanicity and Spanish Empire
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| Spanish identified as the sole Official language Spanish identified as a Co-Official language | ||||
| The Countries of the Hispanic-influenced World | ||||
During the Spanish colonial period between 1492 to 1898, many people from Spain migrated to new lands they had conquered. The Spaniards brought with them their language and culture, and integrated with the society they had settled, creating a large empire that stretched all over the world and producing several multiracial populations. Their descendance are found in the following continents and countries that were originally colonized by the Spanish people.
[edit] List of Spanish-speaking countries by population
| Rank | World Rank | Country/territory/entity | Population | Source |
| 1 | 11 |  Mexico |
106,535,000 | UN estimate |
| 2 | 28 |  Spain |
45,200,737 | Official INE estimate |
| 3 | 29 |  Colombia |
44,090,118 | Official Colombian Population clock |
| 4 | 30 |  Argentina |
41,000,000 | Official INDEC estimate |
| 5 | 40 |  Peru |
28,750,770 | Official INEI estimate |
| 6 | (3) |  United States |
28,100,000 | 2000 U.S. Census [3] |
| 7 | 42 |  Venezuela |
27,877,000 | Official Venezuelan Population clock |
| 8 | 60 |  Chile |
16,598,074 | Official INE projection |
| 9 | 67 |  Guatemala |
13,354,000 | UN estimate |
| 10 | 69 |  Ecuador |
13,341,000 | UN estimate |
| 11 | 73 |  Cuba |
11,268,000 | UN estimate |
| 12 | 82 |  Dominican Republic |
9,760,000 | UN estimate |
| 13 | 86 |  Bolivia |
9,525,000 | UN estimate |
| 14 | 97 |  Honduras |
7,106,000 | UN estimate |
| 15 | 98 |  El Salvador |
6,857,000 | UN estimate |
| 16 | 103 |  Paraguay |
6,127,000 | UN estimate |
| 17 | 107 |  Nicaragua |
5,603,000 | UN estimate |
| 18 | 117 |  Costa Rica |
4,468,000 | UN estimate |
| 19 | 125 |  Puerto Rico |
3,991,000 | UN estimate |
| 20 | 131 |  Panama |
3,343,000 | UN estimate |
| 21 | 132 |  Uruguay |
3,340,000 | UN estimate |
| 22 | 164 |  Equatorial Guinea |
507,000 | UN estimate |
| 23 | 175 |  Belize |
288,000 | UN estimate |
| 24 | 193 |  Andorra |
81,200 | Andorra Servei d’Estudis |
[edit] Europe
[edit] Spain
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It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Nationalisms and regionalisms of Spain. (Discuss) |
| Spanish Catalan, co-official Basque, co-official Galician, co-official | Asturian, unofficial Aragonese, unofficial Aranese, co-official (dialect of Occitan) |
The modern day people that live in the region of ancient Hispania are the Portuguese, Spanish, Andorra and Gibraltar people. Historically, the modern country of Spain was formed by the accretion of several independent Iberian kingdoms through dynastic inheritance, conquest and the will of the local elites. These kingdoms had their own nationalistic loyalties and political borders.
Today, there is no single Castilian-Spanish identity for the whole country. Many Spanish citizens feel no conflict in recognizing their several Spanish identities at the same time. Spain is a culturally heterogeneous country, home to a wide range of subcultures, each one with its own customs and traditions. Some such subcultures have their own language. Since the beginning of the transition to democracy in Spain, after the Francisco Franco dictatorship, there have been many movements towards more autonomy in certain regions of the country, some with aims in achieving full independence and others with the goal of autonomous community.
Spain's various subcultures coexist in Spain's provinces, and each one has its own traditions and idiosyncracies. Some even have their own language, all of them along the dialectal continuum of Romance languages, with the exception of the Basque language. As it is used today, the term "Hispanic", however, often refers only to cultural or ancestral background related to Castilian-speaking Spain. This resulted from the former dictator, Francisco Franco's attempts to remove any signs of the sub-nations that today comprise Spain. The existence of multiple distinct cultures in Spain allows an analogy to be drawn to the United Kingdom. Using the term Hispanic for someone of Spanish descent would then be expected to be equivalent to using Briton to describe someone descending from some part of the United Kingdom. Cultures within the United Kingdom, such as Anglo, Scottish and Welsh, would then correspond in this analogy to cultures within Spain such as Castilian, Catalan and Basque among others. It is a subtle, yet important, distinction. In other countries, this distinction between the sub-nations that compose the country (for instance, English, Scottish, Welsh, Northern Irish, Cornish, etc.) and the supra-nation that includes them (the United Kingdom) has been clear. In Spain, however, the politically dominant territory (Castile) has often been taken to be equivalent to the supra-nation (Spain). This has the effect of subordinating the role of other cultures within Spain in constituting the national identity of Spain.
In the modern times, the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking peoples of the New World have adopted other cultural labels to identify themselves.[citation needed] The term Latino, which stems from a contraction of latinoamericano (Latin American)[4] is one example.{ This term, however, is defined in the Spanish language as Latin,[5] and it is used to refer to all the Latin peoples, both from Europe and the Americas. Therefore, using Latino as a contraction of latinoamericano results in a corruption of the Spanish word of the same name.
The corruption of the terms Hispanic and Latino has been especially apparent in the United States of America. In the latter parts of the 20th century, both terms went from being used as a cultural label of various cultures to being misused as a racial label that describe mixed-race people, further confusing the meanings of the terms. The corruption of these terms has the effect of racially grouping together the white population of Spain and Portugal with the large non white Castilian speaking populations of Latin America, which is predominantly Amerindian. In addition, cultural and linguistic issues related to Spaniards and Portuguese are often confused with those of Mexicans or other Latin American people. While some are conscious of this issue, many of the people to whom the labels Latino or Hispanic are applied are not aware of it. As such, they often help perpetuate further misuse of these terms as racial labels instead of cultural ones, to the point that today the term is excluding the Hispanics to whom the labels originally applied.
[edit] Andalusian
[edit] Aragonese
The Aragonese are a subculture or nation living in the historical region of Aragon, in northeastern Spain. The original language of the region is Aragonese, although now it is only natively spoken in the northern part of the province of Huesca, in the Pyrenees.
[edit] Aranese
The Aran Valley (Aranese: Val d'Aran, Catalan: Vall d'Aran) is a small shire (620.47 km²) in the northwestern part of Catalonia. It is the source of the Garonne, and one of the highest valleys of the Pyrenees. Most of the valley constitutes the only Catalan territory on the north face of the Pyrenees, hence the only part of Catalonia whose waters drain into the Atlantic Ocean. The region is characterized by an Oceanic climate, due to its peculiar orientation, which is different from other valleys in the area.
The Valley of Aran has 7,130 inhabitants (as of 1996), which constitute a separate group from the Catalans. About 5,000 of them speak the Aranese language (aranés in Occitan/Gascon/Aranese), a variety of the Pyrenean Gascon (a dialect of the Occitan language). The Aranese is one of the three co-official languages of the Valley of Aran, along with Catalan and Castilian.
[edit] Asturians
The Asturians are a subculture or nation living in the historical region of the Principality of Asturias, in the north of Spain. The original language of the region is Asturian, as well as Eonavian (transitional to Galician) in the border region with Galicia.
[edit] Canary Islanders
The Canarians are a subculture or nation living in the archipelago of the Canary Islands (an autonomous community of Spain), near the coast of Western Africa. The language of the region is the habla canaria (Castilian for Canary speech) or the dialecto canario (Castilian for Canarian dialect), a distinctive dialect of Castilian spoken in the islands.
The islands were conquered by Castilians at the beginnings of the 15th century, who subdued the original Guanche population. After subsequent settlement by Spaniards and other European peoples, mainly Portuguese, the remaining Guanches were gradually absorbed by the settlers and their culture almost totally disappeared.
Historically, large groups of Canary islanders have emigrated and settled all over the New World as early as the 15th century, mainly in Venezuela, Uruguay, Cuba and Puerto Rico, as well as parts of Texas when Texas was still a part of the Spanish Empire. For example, settlers from the Canary Islands founded San Antonio, Texas in 1731, when it was a Spanish colony (see Spanish Texas), one hundred years before the first Anglo-Saxon immigrants arrived to the region, fleeing the religious prosecution in Europe and looking for a better life. Louisiana was also settled by large groups of Canary Islanders, and today, their descendants still live in the region. They are called Isleños (Castilian for Islanders), and they have kept the traditional culture of the Canary Islands and still speak the Canarian dialect.[6]
[edit] Castilians
Castile is a historical region of Spain that comprises the territories of the former Crown of Castile (the conjunction of the Kingdom of Castile and the Kingdom of León) in the north, and the southern area reconquered from the Moors during the Reconquista. Castile's name is thought to mean land or region of castles, in reference to the castles built in the area.
Because the kingdom of Castile (later Crown of Castile) kept on expanding through most of its history, it's difficult to fix the exact boundaries of the historical region of Castile. For example, the provinces of León, Salamanca and Zamora, which correspond to the former Kingdom of León, may or may not be included (see the Leonese below).
The Castilian people are the inhabitants of the historical region of Castile. Through the Reconquista, their kingdom spread outside the historical region of Castile all over the Iberian Peninsula, reaching the southern Spanish regions of Extremadura, Andalusia, Murcia and the Canary Islands. After this, since the 15th century, through the Spanish colonization of the Americas, the kingdom and its people also spread over the New World, bringing with them not only their language but also traits of their culture, traditions and idiosyncracy.
The Spanish language, often called castellano (Castilian) in Spanish, is the native language of the Castilians. It originated in the Cordillera Cantábrica and the upper Ebro valley, in northern Spain, during the 8th and 9th centuries AD. After the Reconquista, the Castilian was brought to the south and almost entirely replaced the languages that were spoken. However, in this process the Castilian also acquired strong influences from these languages that it gradually absorbed. During the Spanish colonization of the Americas, the Castilian was the dominant language in Spain, and therefore was the language that was transmitted to the New World. Due to this gradual process, the Castilian-speaking world was created, and today the Castilian is spoken by about 44,000,000 people in Spain and 412,000,000 people in the rest of the World.[7]
[edit] Catalans, Valencians and Balearic Islanders
The homeland of the Catalans is Catalonia, or the Principality of Catalonia (Catalan: Catalunya, or Principat de Catalunya), which is a historical region in southern Europe, embracing a territory situated in the north-east of Spain and an adjoining portion of southern France. It is divided between the autonomous communities of Catalonia and Aragon (in a borderland called La Franja) in Spain, and Northern Catalonia in France (due to the Treaty of the Pyrenees of 1659). In addition, there are other adjacent and nearby Mediterranean areas whose inhabitants are sometimes considered Catalans. These areas include: Andorra, a small historical country in the Pyrenees, the Land of Valencia and the Balearic Islands in Spain and the city of L'Alguer in the Italian island of Sardinia due to the Catalan rule of the Mediterranean during the ages of the Crown of Aragon. All these territories make up what is known as the Catalan Countries.
The Catalans are nation native from the former Principality of Catalonia, but sometimes they are considered as being the inhabitants of all the Catalan Countries. An important part of the Catalans from Catalonia refuse to be identified as Hispanic, mainly because they have Catalan as mother tongue instead of Castilian]. However, like the rest of the country, they have also played a crucial role in the development of the History of Spain although they had a very limited role in the Spanish colonization of the Americas until the XVIII century due to the exclusivity given to Castile and Leon to exploit the newly discovered territories as documented in the Testament of Queen Isabella of Castile. Despite this fact, a few Catalans had prominent roles is some expeditions from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego (see, for example, important figures such as Gaspar de Portolà, or pioneer expeditions of Catalan volunteers to the Pacific coast of North America, [3]).
Catalan is a Romance language, the national language of Andorra, and a co-official language in the autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Land of Valencia (under the name of Valencian) and the Balearic Islands in Spain, and in the city of L'Alguer in the Italian island of Sardinia. It is also spoken, although with no official recognition, in the autonomous communities of Aragon (in La Franja) and Murcia (in El Carxe) in Spain, and in the Northern Catalonia, a historical region in the southern France, which is more or less equivalent to the French Région of the Pyrénées-Orientales. It is spoken by about 10 million people across the Catalan Countries.
[edit] Basques
The Territory of the Basque Country (Basque: Euskal Herria, Castilian: País Vasco or Vascongadas) is a cultural region in the western Pyrenees that spans the border between France and Spain, extending down to the coast of the Bay of Biscay. It corresponds more or less with the homeland of the Basque people and language. In Spain, the Basque Country is an autonomous community with the status of historical region, the capital of which is Vitoria-Gasteiz (Vitoria is the Castilian name, while Gasteiz is Basque). It is part of the larger Basque speaking lands mentioned above.
The Basques (Basque: Euskaldunak, Castilian: Vascos) are the people who inhabit the Basque Country. The name Basque derives from Medieval French and ultimately from the ancient tribe of the Vascones,[8] described by Strabo as living south of the western Pyrenees and north of the Ebro River, in modern day Navarre and northern Aragon. This name, of unknown etymology, was extended in late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages to cover all Basque-speaking people on either side of the Pyrenees.
The Basque language is spoken by about 1,000,000 people along the Territory of the Basque Country. It is an isolate language, which means that it is different to any other known language, and it has been spoken by the inhabitants of the region, in any of its present or early variants, for thousands of years.
[edit] Galicians
The Galicians are a subculture or nation living in the historical region of Galicia. The language of the region is the Galician language as well as the Eonavian (transitional to Asturian) in the border region with Asturias.
[edit] Leonese
In the western part of what today is the autonomous community of Castile and León (the provinces of León, Salamanca and Zamora), which corresponds to the historical land of the former Kingdom of Leon, there are still some people who refuse the annexation of the Leon province with the Castile and León autonomous community and defend the separation of both regions. The people in this area used to speak Leonese (today a minority), and some of them refuse to be identified with the Castilian people.
[edit] Americas
[edit] Hispanic America
- Further information: Spanish colonization of the Americas
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It has been suggested that this section be split into a new article entitled Hispanic America. (Discuss) |
Spanish is the official language in a great part of America.
[edit] United States
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It has been suggested that this section be split into a new article entitled Hispanics in the United States. (Discuss) |
[edit] Origins and demography
The Hispanics in the United States or Hispanic Americans are an ethnic group in the United States with Hispanic heritage. An Hispanic person may be of any race (White, Amerindian, Black, Asian or Pacific islander). An Hispanic person's status is independent from whether or not he speaks the Spanish language. Not all Hispanic Americans speak Spanish. As of July 1, 2004, Hispanics accounted for 14.1% of the population, around 41.3 million people. The Hispanic growth rate over the July 1, 2003 to July 1, 2004 period was 3.6% — higher than any other ethnic group in the United States — and more than three times the rate of the nation's total population (at 1.0%). The projected Hispanic population of the United States for July 1, 2050, is 105.6 million people. According to this projection, Hispanics will constitute 25% of the nation’s total population by the year 2050.[9]
Historically, a continuous Hispanic presence in the territory of the United States has existed since the 16th century, earlier than any other group after the Native Americans. Spaniards pioneered the present-day United States. The first confirmed European landing on the continent was that of Juan Ponce de León, who landed in 1513 at a lush shore he christened La Florida. Within three decades of Ponce de León's landing, the Spanish became the first Europeans to reach the Appalachian Mountains, the Mississippi River, the Grand Canyon, and the Great Plains. Spanish ships sailed along the East Coast, penetrating to present-day Bangor, Maine, and up the Pacific Coast as far as Oregon. From 1528 to 1536, four castaways from a Spanish expedition, including a "black Moor," journeyed all the way from Florida to the Gulf of California, 267 years before the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
In 1540 Hernando de Soto undertook an extensive exploration of the present US. In the same year Francisco Vázquez de Coronado led 2,000 Spaniards and Mexican Indians across today's Arizona-Mexico border and traveled as far as central Kansas, close to the exact geographic center of what is now the continental United States. Other Spanish explorers of the US make up a long list that includes, among others, Lucas Vásquez de Ayllón, Pánfilo de Narváez, Sebastián Vizcaíno, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, Gaspar de Portolà, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Tristán de Luna y Arellano, and Juan de Oñate. In all, Spaniards probed half of today's lower 48 states before the first English colonization attempt at Roanoke Island in 1585.
The Spanish created the first permanent European settlement in the continental United States, at St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565. Santa Fe, New Mexico also predates Jamestown, Virginia (founded in 1607) and Plymouth Colony (of Mayflower and Pilgrims fame, founded in 1620). Later came Spanish settlements in San Antonio, Tucson, San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, to name just a few. The Spanish even established a Jesuit mission in Virginia's Chesapeake Bay 37 years before the founding of Jamestown.
Two iconic American stories have Spanish antecedents, too. Almost 80 years before John Smith's alleged rescue by Pocahontas, a man by the name of Juan Ortiz told of his remarkably similar rescue from execution by an Indian girl. Spaniards also held a thanksgiving — 56 years before the famous Pilgrims festival — when they feasted near St. Augustine with Florida Indians, probably on stewed pork and garbanzo beans. As late as 1783, at the end of the American Revolutionary War, Spain held claim to roughly half of today's continental United States; in 1775, Spanish ships even reached Alaska. From 1819 to 1848, the United States and its army increased the nation's area by roughly a third at Spanish and Mexican expense, including three of today's four most populous states: California, Texas, and Florida. Hispanics became the first American citizens in the newly acquired Southwest territory and remained a majority in several states until the 20th century. (See also New Spain.)
Hispanic soldiers have fought in all the wars of the United States, and have earned the highest distinction of any US ethnic group ([4], [5], [6], [7], List of Hispanic Medal of Honor recipients). Historic figures in the United States have been Hispanic from early times. Some recent famous people include Rita Hayworth and baseball legends Lefty Gomez and Ted Williams whose mothers were Mexican.
[edit] National Hispanic Heritage Month
The National Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated in the USA from September 15 to October 15.[10]
[edit] Cuisine
"Hispanic cuisine" as the term is applied in the Western Hemisphere, is a misnomer. The vast majority of foods in "Latin America" are of Native American origins, and not of Spain.
The cuisine of Spain has many regional varieties, with Mediterranean flavors based on olive oil, garlic, and tomatoes, and a great selection of fish and seafood due to its long Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines, while in the castillian interior, there is a great culture of cured pork meats, as well as roasts and stews, based on beef, pork, lamb, and poultry. The European and Arab heritage of Spain is reflected in its food, along with cosmopolitan influences beginning in the many new ingredients brought in from the New World since the 16th century, eg tomatoes, potatoes, or chocolate, and the more modern tastes introduced from Europe since the 19th century, especially French and Italian dishes. It is only in the last ten years that Latin American dishes have been introduced in Spain. Whereas in the US, the number of "Spanish" restaurants is in a growing trend, following the "Tapas" fashion that spread in the 90's.
The cuisines of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and other Central American countries are still heavily dependent and greatly indebted to staples of the cuisine and diet of the Aztec and Maya, including maize, beans, chile peppers. After 1492 these tradition came to be melded with those from Spain to form the modern cuisines of that region. Among the more popular and well known dishes of this region are tacos, enchiladas, tamales, rice and beans, horchata, and pupusas.
Cuban and Puerto Rican cuisines, on the other hand, tend to use a lot of pork and can be heavily dependent on starchy root vegetables, plantain and rice, and the most prominent influences on their Spanish culinary traditions are those which were introduced by African slaves, and to a lesser degree, French influence from Haiti and later Chinese immigrants. Hot, spicy foods are practically unknown in traditional Spanish-Caribbean dishes. The cuisine of Haiti, a Latin American country (however not Hispanic majority), is very similar to its regional neighbors in terms of influences and ingredients used.
The Argentine diet is heavily influenced by Argentina's position as one of the world's largest beef and wine producers. Grilled meats are a staple of most meals as are pastas, potatoes, rice, and a variety of vegetables (Argentina is a huge exporter of agricultural products). As one of the world's largest producers, wine is as much a staple drink to Argentines as beer is to Germans.
In Ecuador and Peru, potato dishes are typical since the potato is originally from this region. Beef and chicken are common sources of meat as is the cuy, a South American relative of the guinea pig. Given the coastal location, both countries have extensive fishing fleets, which provide a wealth of seafood options, including the signature South American dish, ceviche. Rice also plays an important role in Peruvian cuisine.
This diversity in staples and cuisine is also evident in the differing regional cuisines within the national borders of the individual countries.
In the United States, with its growing Hispanic population, food staples from the Mexican cuisine and other Latin countries have become widely available and have taken a unique form such as the Tex-Mex. This so-called "Mexican food", which spread in the US from its southern border, is based on maize products, heavily spiced ground beefs, cheese and tomato sauces with chiles. This cuisine is widely available not just in the US but across other countries, where US exports are found. In Florida, Cuban food is widely available. All these "Hispanic" foods in the US have evolved their character as they are exploited commercially by large restaurant chains and food companies.
[edit] Racial diversity
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The racial diversity to be found among Hispanics stems from the fact that Hispanic America has always been, since 1492, an area of immigration until late in the 20th century, when the region has increasingly become an area of emigration. Even outside the broad US definition of Hispanic, the term encompasses a very racially diverse population. While in the United States, Hispanics are often treated as a group apart from whites, blacks or other races, they actually include people who may identify with any or all of those racial groups.
In the mass media as well as popular culture, "Hispanic" is often incorrectly used to describe a subject's race or physical appearance.[citation needed] In general, Hispanics are assumed to have traits such as dark hair and eyes, and tan or brown skin, similar to that of the Roma people. Many others are viewed as physically intermediate between whites, blacks and/or Amerindians.[citation needed]
Hispanics with mostly Caucasoid or Negroid features may not be recognized as such in spite of the ethnic and racial diversity of most Latin American populations. Hispanics who do not look like the stereotypical Hispanic may have their ethnic status questioned or even challenged by others. Actors Martin Sheen and Cameron Diaz for example, are Hispanic, even though they may be presumed not to be so because, being white, they not fit the stereotype.
A great proportion of Hispanics identify as mestizo (mixed European and Amerindian), regardless of national origin.[citation needed] This is largely because most Hispanics have their origins in majority mestizo Latin American countries. El Salvador and Paraguay are examples of mostly mestizo populations, with 90% of Salvadorans identified as mestizos and over 80% of Paraguayans.
Many individuals identified as "Hispanics" (based on the U.S. definition) are of unmixed Native American ancestry. For example, many of those from Bolivia, Guatemala, Peru—where they constitute a majority or plurality of the population—and a considerable proportion from Mexico.[citation needed]
Many Hispanics born in or with descent from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Cuba, Peru and other countries may be of African descent, be it mulatto (mixed European and black African), zambo (mixed Amerindian and black African), triracial (specifically European, black African, and Amerindian), Mestizo (mixed Amerindian and European) or unmixed black African.
Besides Spaniards of European stock, many people from the countries of Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Uruguay, and small regions of Mexico, are of unmixed European descent. Many of them, though labeled "Hispanic" by the U.S. definition, actually trace their ancestries to European countries other than Spain and even some Asian countries. Alternate European ancestries in these countries include Italian, German, Irish, French, Polish, Welsh, and many others. Some of the Asian ancestries include Chinese and Japanese. Nevertheless, in most cases, many do possess some Spanish ancestry, as the waves of European immigrants to these two countries tended to quickly assimilate, intermarrying with the country's local population, which initially was composed primarily of Spanish-descended people: criollos, mestizos, and mulattoes.
Likewise, a percentage of Hispanics as defined by the U.S. government trace their ancestries to the Middle East, for example Colombians, Ecuadorians, and Mexicans of Lebanese ancestry. Many Hispanics are of East Asian ancestry, as in the case of Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Argentines, Panamanians, and Peruvians. If they were to migrate to the United States, the definition most frequently advocated would consider them Hispanic. See also: Asian Latin American.
On occasion the demographics of certain nations may not mirror the demographics of their communities in the United States. This is the case with Cuban Americans. Most Cuban Americans are of relatively unmixed Spanish ancestry, despite Cuba being a mulatto/black majority country, according to most estimates. The racial disparity between Cubans on the U.S. mainland and those on the island is caused largely by the fact that most of the emigrants who fled in the early days of communist Cuba belong to the upper and middle classes, classes which have traditionally been predominantly white in that country as in other parts of Latin America and United States.
The presence of these mentioned races and race-mixes are not country-specific, since they can be found in every Latin American country, whether as larger of smaller proportions of their respective populations. Even in Spain, the European motherland of Hispanicity, there is a slowly growing population of mestizos and mulattos due to the reversal of the historic Old World-to-New World migration pattern.
Of the over 35 million Hispanics counted in the Federal 2000 Census, 47.9% identified as white (termed "white Hispanic" by the Census Bureau); 42.2% "Some other race"; 6.3% Two or more races; 2% Black or African American; 1.2% American Indian and Alaska Native; 0.3% Asian; and 0.1% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander.[11] Note that even among those Hispanics who reported one race only, most would also possess at least some ancestral lineage from one or more other races, despite the fact that only 6.3% reported as such. (This is also applicable to the Non-Hispanics counted in the U.S. Census, although maybe in less proportion.)
According to one study (Stephens et al. 2001), "From the genetic perspective, Hispanics generally represent a differential mixture of European, Native American, and African ancestry, with the proportionate mix typically depending on country of origin." [8]
A further contribution that contradicts the popular conception of Hispanic as a race, and especially as a race genetically different from white or at least Anglo-Saxons, lies in the recent discoveries by population genetics.
A research team at University of Oxford has found that the majority of Britons share a common genetic heritage with the Iberians who may have come to Britain largely during the Paleolithic and Mesolithic. The proportion of the native population that share Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups with Iberia is 73 percent in Scotland, 64 percent in England, 83 percent in Wales and 89-95 percent in Ireland.
In fact, Dr. Bryan Sykes has stated that the genetic fingerprint of the populations tested in the British Isles and Spain is almost identical and Stephen Oppenheimer comes to similar conclusions. Like most of their genetic relatives in Iberia the British adopted Celtic culture and language from south France during the Bronze age. Under the Roman Empire a Romano-British culture developed, which was in turn superseded by the Germanic Anglo-Saxon culture and language in what became England during the Migration Period. Iberia, though, maintained its Roman culture and language. However, because of their common genetic heritage, native Britons and their American descendants still share many of the same genetic markers with Spaniards and many Hispanics.[12][13][14][15]
Nevertheless, the recent development of methodologies for defining population structure using genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism markers has led a 2006 study of 681 individuals(North Americans and Europeans) including mainly Americans with southern European ancestry, western European , central European and eastern European ancestry and a sample of Europeans of Spanish,Swedish and Italian origin , conclude that there is a consistent and reproducible distinction between "northern" and "southern" European population groups, strongly suggesting the later Mediterranean (Neolithic) origin of Spaniards, Greeks, Portuguese and Italians. On the other hand, all European populations north of the Alps and the Pyrenees (except for Ashkenazi Jews) seem to fall squarely into the "Northern" population group. [9] Still, the findings of a similar 2007 study claims; "The Spanish and Basque groups are the furthest away from other continental groups, which is consistent with the suggestions that the Iberian peninsula holds the most ancient European genetic ancestry". The same study also found "several significant axes of stratification, most prominently in a North-Southeastern trend but also along an East-West axis." It also said: "there is low apparent diversity in Europe with the entire continent-wide samples only marginally more dispersed than single population samples elsewhere in the world."[16]
The Spanish, like all European populations, have received multiple other influences. The possibility of Neolithic population movements into Iberia from North Africa is also suggested by geneticist Arnaiz-Villena, using HLA and mtDNA markers together with archaeological and linguistic evidence. [10] This could explain the puzzling fact that out of the 19 lineages of mtDNA Haplogroup U6 found in Iberia, only 9 are currently found in North Africa, pointing to a prehistoric (as well as modern) northward expansion into Iberia, probably during the Capsian diffusion. [11]
There exists a number of studies which focus on the genetic impact of the eight centuries of Muslim rule in the Iberian peninsula on the genetic make up of the Iberian population. Recent studies agree that there is a genetic relationship between (particularly southern) Iberia and North Africa as a result of this period of history. Iberia is the only region in Europe with a significant presence of the typically North West African Y-chromosome haplotypes E-M81 [12] [13] and Haplotype V [14] as well as the mtDNA Haplotype U6. It is also the region in Europe with the highest frequency of Sub-Saharan mtDNA haplogroup L, probably as a result of Islamic colonisation as well as the slave trade which flourished in the 16th century. [15] Evidently, the North African element in modern day Iberians' ancestry is minor when compared to the pre-Islamic elements.
The inhabitants of the Canary Islands, hold a gene pool that is halfway between the Iberians and the ancient native population, the Guanches (a proto-Berber population), although with a major Iberian contribution. Guanche genetic markers have also been found, at low frequencies, in peninsular Spain, probably as a result of slavery and/or later immigration from the Canary Islands. [16]
The ancestry of Iberians has thus received influences from the many people which have settled on its territory throughout history including Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Punics, Celts, Vandals, Suebi, Buri, Visigoths, Alans, Byzantines, Slavs (saqaliba) ,Berbers, Arabs, Magyars, Jews and, particularly in Andalusia, the Roma.
[edit] Africa
[edit] Equatorial Guinea
In the former Spanish colony of Equatorial Guinea, there is a small minority of African people who possessed Spanish and other European ancestry. These individuals form less than 1% of the population.
[edit] Morocco
In the former Spanish protectorate of Morocco, Spanish speakers are present in small numbers, located in the northern coastal region of the country. However the majority of Moroccan people are predominantly muslims of Arab and African ancestry.
[edit] Plazas de Soberanía
Since the Reconquista, the Spanish have held numerous emplacements in North Africa. Many of them, such as Oran, have been lost, and nowadays, with an approximate population of 143,000 people, only the Autonomous Cities of Ceuta and Melilla, which constitute the two Plazas de Soberanía Mayores (or Large Places of Sovereignty), and the Islas Chafarinas, the Peñón de Alhucemas and the Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, which constitute the three Plazas de Soberanía Menores (or Lesser Sovereignty Places), still forming part of the Spain.
[edit] Western Sahara
In the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara, Spanish speakers are present in small numbers, however most people in the country speaks Arabic as their first language and also practise Arab culture.
[edit] Asia-Pacific
[edit] Philippines
In the former Spanish colony of the Philippines, there is a small minority of people who possess Spanish or Latin American ancestry, or both. The size of this population is unknown, due to emigration to Spain, Latin America, and the United States, following the US bombing[citation needed] of Intramuros, home to thousands of Spanish-speaking families. Many emigrated also during the Ferdinand Marcos régime.
[edit] Guam, Mariana Islands and Palau
In the former Spanish colonies of Guam, Mariana Islands and Palau there is a small minority of people who possess Spanish ancestry. However they have since integrated with the American way of life. The people living on these islands no longer speak Spanish or partake of Spanish culture.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ For detailed information about the sources taken to make the map, see its description page
- ^ Modern Language Association. [1] Most spoken languages in the entire US]. Retrieved on 2007-10-24.
- ^ Per the 2000 United States Census, most frequently, Spanish is spoken at home by about 28.1 million people aged 5 or older. 2000 Census, Language in the US. Retrieved on 2007-06-05.
- ^ Etymology of the term Latino in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary: 1
- ^ Latino in Wiktionary: 1. Latino in the DRAE: 2
- ^ Links to some Isleño online communities and history webpages: 1, 2, 3.
- ^ Numbers according to the Spanish Wikipedia article for the Spanish language: es:Idioma español
- ^ Definition of Basque (Merriam-Webster Online)
- ^ Census Bureau Projects Tripling of Hispanic and Asian Populations in 50 Years; Non-Hispanic Whites May Drop To Half of Total Population.
- ^ National Hispanic Heritage Month
- ^ Overview of Race and Hispanic Origin (2001-03). Retrieved on 2006-12-27.
- ^ We're nearly all Celts under the skin. Retrieved on 2006-12-27.
- ^ 2 Ancient Britons come mainly from Spain (2006-09-20). Retrieved on 2006-12-27.
- ^ What does being British mean? Ask the Spanish (2006-10-10). Retrieved on 2006-12-27.
- ^ Myths of British ancestry (2006-10). Retrieved on 2006-12-27.
- ^ Measuring European Population Stratification using Microarray Genotype Data [2]
