Spanish Peruvian

Infobox Ethnic group
group = Spanish Peruvian
"Hispano Peruano"


caption = Notable Spanish Saint Rose of Lima Nicolas de Pierola Mario Vargas Llosa Claudio Pizarro Luis Castañeda Lossio Alan García
poptime = 5,400,000
popplace = Lima, Arequipa, La Libertad, among others.
langs = Peruvian Spanish, Andalusian
rels = Predominantly Roman Catholic
related = Spanish people, Extremadurans, Andalusians, Catalans, Valencians, Castilians, Asturians, Aragonese, Galicians, Cantabrians, Basques, Palestinian Peruvians

A Spanish Peruvian is a Peruvian citizen of Spanish descent. Among European Peruvians, the Spanish were the largest group of immigrants to settle in the country.

History

In 1532, the Spanish conquistadores arrived in Peru. As they began to conquer the country, there culture and influence spread throughout the nation. Not only did their ideology spread, their population did as well. Over the time period of the Peruvian colonial era, hundreds of thousands of Spanish immigrants flooded into Peruvian ports. These Spanish-born immigrants called "Peninsulares", caused much friction between themselves and the locally-born Spanish criollos or creoles. The peninsulares had a distinctly higher social rank than the criollos even though there only difference was their place of birth. The peninsulares were given the highest governing positions, while the criollos, although much more wealthy then the mestizos and amerindians, did not receive all of the privleges given to the Spain-born Spanish. This would eventually lead to the independence movement in the early 19th century. During the colonial period, the Spanish crown disallowed the immigration of other Europeans to Peru. For this reason, throughout the entire colonial period, up until independence, the European population in Peru was made up solely of Spaniards. Around the time of independence the rate of immigration was low and not many Europeans where entering the country. The nation was, in essence, in a state of chaos, for the reason that the government was still in the process of deciding on how it would rule the newly-independent country. At this time, many caudillos, or dictators, attempted to assume control of the nation. Some of these attempts, such as that of Simon Bolivar, where met with approval from the public, while others where not. Spanish immigration did not resume until the 1840s at the beginning of the Guano era, one of Peru's most prosperous time periods. During this era, immigration from Spain greatly increased and the economy was booming and standard of living was high. This era ended in 1866 with the Spanish-Peruvian War in which Peru emerged victorious. After the war, immigration decreased although the influx of immigrants remained steady until the 1930s. During the Spanish Civil War, thousands of Spaniards fled Spain to Peru. Over the course of General Francisco Franco's dictatorship many thousands more fled in fear of the regime. The Spanish republicans fled Franco's regime as well, seeking to escape retribution from the new government. World War II brought the end of Spanish immigration to Peru. Many Spanish Peruvians left the nation in 1960s and 1970s to flee from excessive poverty and dictatorship of Gen. Juan Velasco Alvarado and most of these moved to United States and Spain, while most of the rest to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and United Kingdom. The second wave of Spanish and other white Peruvians left during the Alan Garcia regime (a hispanic descendant) that led Peru to extreme poverty and hyperinflation.

Origins and passage

The regions from which most Spanish immigrants originated were those of Extremadura, Castile and Andalucía. Most of the colonial immigrants, however, originated from the regions of Castilla, Extremadura, Aragon, Valencia, La Mancha and Murcia among others.huh These immigrants generally departed from the ports of Cadiz or Sevilla and arrived in the ports of Callao, Mollendo and Pimentel. Many of these immigrants made a stopover in a Caribbean port before arriving in Peru. Before the development of the Panama Canal ships would forced to go around Cape Horn to reach Peruvian ports. Although not many, a few travelers made there way from Europe to Peru via the Amazon River. These immigrants would seek passage on the many commercial ships going to retrieve rubber in Peru to bring back to Europe. These immigrants would arrive at the river port of Iquitos. Almost all of them stayed there. These immigrants numbered no more than a few thousand.

panish Peruvian identity

Spain and Peru share similar cultural aspects: language and religion.

Most Peruvians are mestizos (people of mixed white and native Peruvian descent). This mix started during the invasion of the Spaniards since the Spaniards invasion was militarily in style, which brought only men, unlike the Anglo-Saxon invasion of the Americas that brought women and families as well. The Spaniards raped native women and intermarried voluntarily and involuntarily some of them, thus producing mestizo children. During the colonial period, the Spaniards started bringing some women, slowing down some of the mixing. Even though the mix started during the invasion, the mix between the races intensified heavily during and after the independence movements. This was due to the fact that lots of native people who fought for the war gained their freedom and married natives or mestizos or at lesser extent white woman. The free men changed their last names that they had been given from Spanish plantation owners (Hernandez, Perez, etc) to Quispe (also known as Xispe, Qispe) which means freedom in Quechua. Many Spanish Peruvians were against independence because they had lots to loose (land, servants, etc), but some were convinced to switch sides once the hispanic freedom fighters Bolivar and San Martin convinced that they were not going to loose a lot but did have to compromise. Thus the feudal/hacienda system still occurred until the 1960s. The interracial mix became heavier during the agrarian reforms of the 60s and 70s, where native and mestizo Peruvians had their own land, that was taken away from Hispanic and foreign owners (sadly at the cost of the landowner). The new mestizos that some hope would be proud of their native heritage instead clinged to their hispanic heritage, and discriminated people who clinged to native traditions, clothing or language, (even though almost all of Peru is mixed and they look the same racially, even if some are lighter than others).

Most white people in Peru descend from Spaniards, followed by other groups like Italians (second most common), German, British, French and Polish. Some white Peruvians (even though few) have tended to bring ideas of equality to Peru and help the native Peruvians and other native advocates in their struggle for cultural rights, human rights, cultural equality (i.e. teaching Quechua in classes), and ethnic identity pride, in the Peruvian Hispanic society, which Hispanics are the dominant group.

panish Peruvian institutions and associations

*Fondo de Cooperación Hispano Peruano
*Centro Hispano-Peruano
*Cooperacion Hispano Peruano
*Federación de Asociaciones de Peruanos en España
*Embajada De España en Peru
*Centro Cultural Hispano Americano
*Asociación Hispano-Peruano
*Asociación de Genealogía Hispana
*Enlace Hispano Americano de Salud
*Asociacion de medicos Hispano-Peruanos