I know that is an awkward phrase, but I mean people whose families came here directly from Spain, not Hispanics from Latin America or from early colonization, but direct immigration from Spain to the United States itself.
Millions of Italian, Greek, Irish, Polish, German, Dutch, Lebanese, Jewish, and Lithuanian people came to America on boats to Ellis Island (this is the image we have anyway). Many cities still have a Little Italy, or a Polish neighborhood - even if its now mostly restaurants and landmarks and not a real ethnic enclave. But I cant think of an American city with a “Little Madrid”. I know there are quite a few Portuguese-Americans in parts of New England, but I don’t know of any concentrations of Spaniards in the United States, aside from those established in colonial times.
I’m partly interested in this because I am “Spanish-American”, according to family history at least. Two of my grandparents came from families that lived in New Mexico and Northern Mexico for many generations, from the 1700s and before. They were quite proud of being Spanish, and were quick to point out that they were not like those “Mexicans”, even though they lived and worked among them (unfortuneately they were influenced by the racism of their day).
In truth their culture and way of life was far more Mexican than European Spanish, as no one came there from Spain after 1800 or so. We ate tamales and enchiladas, not paella and gazpacho. They were ‘Spanish’ in that instead of being more Indian than European, they were more European than Indian, but they still had some Indian blood - and their dialect was somewhat different from “Mexican”…but it certainly wasn’t Real Academia Castillian either.
This makes me wonder, are there Spanish-American communities outside of the Southwest? If not, why didn’t Spaniards come to the United States in numbers like nearly every other European and near European group in the late 19th early 20th century? Is the Spanish-American War the reason?
Most Spaniards who left Spain with the hope of making a better life somewhere else, quite logically choose latin american countries, like Argentina, for instance…
Just to add that I didn’t mention Argentina rather than say, Peru at random. This country was considered at these times as having a bright future lying ahead. It was still a rather affluent country during the first half of the 20th century. Things went downhill later…
Here’s an article about the Spanish community in Buffalo, New York, dating from the 1800s.
I think that the idea that emigrants from Spain tended to go to Latin America in preference to the U.S. is correct. I believe there was significant immigration here in Panama from Spain during the Canal-building era.
In some areas of the western United States there are some numbers of Spanish Basques, some of whom came directly from Spain and others from Latin America. Many originally worked as herders.
Nothing to add to the answers other Dopers have given, but my great-grandmother was also from an old New Mexico family of Spanish immigrants. My uncle says that she always insisted she was “Spanish”, not “Mexican”, and she really didn’t like those Indians.
According to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (PDF document), between fiscal years 1820 and 2002 there were a total of 305,797 immigrants whose country of last residence was Spain. For fiscal year 2002, there were 1,376 immigrants admitted whose country of birth was Spain.
I just realized, if many of those immigrants were Basques or Catalans, they may not have seen themselves as “Spaniards” to begin with. They also might not have “Spanish” surnames or any other markers of Spanish ethnicity, so they may not be identifiable as Spanish.
Don’t forget the Isleños, Louisiana’s lesser-known Spanish version of the Cajuns (more or less). Quite a few interesting sites for this interesting ethnic group. Check out “Our History” at the bottom of that link,