Spanish Argentine in the context of Culture of Argentina


Spanish Argentine in the context of Culture of Argentina

⭐ Core Definition: Spanish Argentine

Spanish Argentines (Spanish: hispano-argentinos) are Argentine-born citizens who are predominantly or totally of Spanish descent. The arrival of Spanish emigrants in Argentina took place first in the period before Argentina's independence from Spain, and again in large numbers during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Between the 15th and 19th centuries, the Spanish Empire was the sole colonial power in the territories that became Argentina after the 1816 Argentine declaration of independence. Thus, before 1850, the vast majority of European settlers in Argentina 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 amerindians (Mestizos), with the slave population sub-saharan descended (Mulattoes) or with other European immigrants. Currently, a large part of Argentines can be considered Criollos or Castizos.

Since a great portion of the immigrants to Argentina before the mid-19th century were of Spanish descent, and a significant part of the late-19th century/early-20th century immigrants to Argentina were Spaniards, almost all Argentines are at least partly of Spanish ancestry. Indeed, the 20 most common surnames in Argentina are Spanish. The prevalence and the numerous shared cultural aspects between Argentina and Spain (the Spanish language, Roman Catholicism, Criollo/Hispanic traditions) has been mixed with other European and Latin Mediterranean cultures with the immigration to Argentina during the 20th century. This has led to a hybrid Argentine culture which is among the most distinct from traditional Spanish culture in Latin America. Furthermore, a large proportion of Spanish immigration to Argentina during the 20th century was from the North Western region of Galicia, which has a separate language and distinct culture from other parts of Spain.

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Spanish Argentine in the context of Immigration to Argentina

The history of immigration to Argentina can be divided into several major stages:

  • Spanish colonization between the 16th and 18th century, mostly male, largely assimilated with the natives through a process called miscegenation. Although, not all of the current territory was effectively colonized by the Spaniards. The Chaco region, Eastern Patagonia, the current province of La Pampa, the south zone of Córdoba, and the major part of the current provinces of Buenos Aires, San Luis, and Mendoza were maintained under indigenous dominance—Guaycurúes and Wichís from the Chaco region; Huarpes in the Cuyana and north Neuquino; Ranqueles in the east of Cuyo and north from the Pampean region; Tehuelches and Mapuches in the Pampean and Patagonian regions, and Selknam and Yámanas in de Tierra del Fuego archipelago—which were taken over by the Mapuches; first to the east of Cordillera de los Andes, mixing interracially with the Pehuenches in the middle of the 18th century and continuing until 1830 with the indigenous Pampas and north from Patagonia, which were conquered by the Argentine State after its independence.
  • The African population, forcibly introduced from sub-Saharan Africa (mainly of Bantu origin), taken to work as slaves in the colony between the 17th and 19th centuries in great numbers.
  • Immigration mostly European and to a lesser extent from Western Asia, including considerable Arab and Jewish currents, produced between the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century (particularly Italians and Spaniards in that quantitative order), promoted by the Constitution of 1852 that prohibited establishing limitations to enter the country to those "strangers that bring through the purpose of working the land, bettering the industries, and introducing and teaching the sciences and the arts"  and order the State to promote "European" immigration, even though after predomination of Mediterranean immigrants, from Eastern Europe and the western Asia. Added to this is the Alberdian precept of "to govern is to populate." These politics were destined to generate a rural social fabric and to finalize the occupation of the Pampean, Patagonian, and Chaco territories, that until the 1880s, were inhabited by diverse indigenous cultures.
  • European immigration in the 19th century and early 20th century (mainly Italian and Spanish), focused on colonization and sponsored by the government (sometimes on lands conquered from the native inhabitants by the Conquest of the Desert in the last quarter of the century).
  • The immigration from nearby countries (Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay) from the 19th to 21st century. These immigration streams date back to the first agro-pottery civilizations that appeared in Argentine territory.
  • From the 1980s and 1990s, the migration currents especially come from Chile, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Asia (particularly from Korea, China, and Japan in this period) and Eastern Europe.
  • During the 21st century, a part of Argentine migrants and their descendants returned from Europe and the United States. In addition, immigrants from Bolivia, Paraguay, and Peru; now there are also migratory streams from China, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Venezuela, Senegal, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, and Haiti.
  • Mostly urban immigration during the era of rapid growth in the late 19th century (from 1880 onwards) and the first half of the 20th century, before and after World War I and also after the Spanish Civil War.
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Spanish Argentine in the context of Polish Argentines

Polish Argentines (Spanish: polaco-argentinos; Polish: polscy argentyńczycy) are Argentine citizens of full or partial Polish ancestry or Poland-born people who reside in Argentina. Poland was the fourth largest net migrants contributor after Italy, Spain and Germany. It is hard to give an exact number of Polish immigrants to Argentina.

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