Spanish Uruguayans

Spanish settlement in Uruguay, that is the arrival of Spanish emigrants in the country known today as Uruguay, took place firstly in the period before independence from Spain, and again in large numbers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

History

Between the 15th and early 19th centuries, the Spanish Empire was the sole colonial power in the Banda Oriental. Thus, before 1811, a great part of the European settlers in Uruguay were from Spain, and they carried the Spanish colonial administration, including religious affairs, government, and commercial business. A substantial Spanish-descended Criollo population gradually built up in the new cities, while some mixed with the indigenous populations (mestizos), with the Black slave population (mulattoes), or with other European immigrants.

The Spanish settlement, along with the Italians, formed the backbone of today's Uruguayan society. Like its neighbour country Argentina, the culture of Uruguay exhibits significant connections to Spanish culture; in terms of language, customs and traditions.

The concept Spanish Uruguayans may refer to Uruguayans of post-independence Spanish immigrant descent, as long as they have retained a Spanish cultural identity; typically there are thousands of Galician immigrants. During the Spanish Civil War, thousands of Spaniards fled from Spain to Uruguay.The Spanish republicans fled Franco's regime as well, seeking to escape retribution from the new government.

The 2011 Uruguayan census revealed 12,776 people who declared Spain as their country of birth.^[1] Thousands of Uruguayan nationals are holders of Spanish passports.^[2]

See also

• Uruguayan people
• Criollo people
• Catalan Uruguayan
• Spain-Uruguay relations
• White Latin Americans
• Spanish colonization of the Americas

Bibliography

• Goebel, Michael. "Gauchos, Gringos and Gallegos: The Assimilation of Italian and Spanish Immigrants in the Making of Modern Uruguay 1880–1930," Past and Present (August 2010) 208(1): 191-229 doi:10.1093/pastj/gtp037

References

External links

• Pi Hugarte, Renzo; Vidart, Daniel (1970). El legado de los inmigrantes (PDF). Montevideo: Nuestra Tierra.  (Spanish)

Ancestry and ethnicity in Uruguay
Indigenous	Arachanes Bohanes Chanáes Charrúas Guenoas Mbyá Minuanes Yaros
Non-Indigenous	Europe Basque Belgians Britons Bulgarians Croats French Germans Mennonites Greeks Hungarians Irish Italians Jews Lithuanians Poles Portuguese Romani Romanians Russians Slovaks Slovenes Spaniards Swiss Ukrainians Asia Arabs Egyptians Lebanese Palestinians Syrians Armenians Chinese Indians Japanese Koreans Americas Americans Argentines Bolivians Brazilians Chileans Colombians Cubans Dominicans Ecuadorians Mexicans Paraguayans Peruvians Venezuelans Africa Subsaharan Africans

Spanish diaspora
By Country	Africa Equatorial Guinea Asia Philippines Europe France Germany Sweden United Kingdom North America Belize Canada Costa Rica Cuba Guatemala Jamaica Mexico Trinidad and Tobago United States Asturian Basque Canarian (in Louisiana) Catalan Galician Hispano Puerto Rico Oceania Australia New Zealand South America Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Peru Uruguay Venezuela
See also	Conquest of the Canary Islands Isleño