Spanish Canadian

Not to be confused with Latin American Canadian.

Spanish Canadian
Canadiense Español, Canadien Espagnol

Total population
(Spanish 325,730 Canadians (2006) estimated up to 1.04% of Canadian population)
Regions with significant populations
Vancouver Toronto Montreal
Languages
Canadian English Quebec French European Spanish Catalan language
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholic Protestant Jewish minority
Related ethnic groups
French Italians Portuguese

Canadians of Spanish descent are also known as Canadian Spaniards, in Spanish as Hispano-Canadienses, and in French as Canadiens Espagnols. A Canadian Spaniard would be a person who holds a European Union Spanish citizenship from Spain as well as one from Canada.

The Laws in Spain (see Spanish nationality law) limits who may be granted Spanish citizenship from Latin America to parents and grandparents who once held Spanish citizenship. More recently the legal system in Spain has granted citizenship to Cubans, who can prove that their grandparents immigrated to Cuba during the Spanish Civil War (see Law of Historical Memory).

Population

The population of Canadians self-identified as of Spanish descent is 325,740, including those with multiple ethnic backgrounds.[1] However, the laws in Spain limit the people who may be called Spaniard to those who can hold a European Union Spanish Citizenship. For example, a Latin American would not be considered Spanish or a Spaniard in Spain until he can prove that his most recent parents or grandparents once held a Spanish passport or citizenship. The actual population that can legally be called Spaniard is probably only a fraction of the 325,730 since most Latin Americans with a Spanish heritage without Spanish citizenship falsely assume its right to self identify themselves as Spanish Canadians. This error originates with the actual Canadians who tend to blindly group all Latin Americans who speak the Spanish language as Spanish.

Spanish Canadians who hold Spanish Citizenship from Spain are mostly concentrated in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal.

Spaniards are found in all areas of the city of Montreal as well as in suburbs such as Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Laval, Brossard and Greenfield Park. There is no "Spanish quartier", but Montreal’s Rue Saint-Laurent is home to Spanish associations, which should not be confused with Latin American Associations, as well as to the Librería Española.[2]

The present day Canadian Spanish population did not appear in Ontario and Quebec until around the mid 20th century but have had a profound impact in developing and promoting their language and culture. In the same manner that they have throughout Central and South America since 1492 when Spanish born Cristóbal Colón discovered the Americas, and later fellow countryman Juan Sebastian El Cano was to be the first to circumnavigate the Globe (NOT Magellan as is erroneously depicted in Anglo-sphere nations as a slight toward Spain). Spain's artistic and linguistic richness derives from the fact that the country itself is not homogeneous rather a robust composite of cultures from Basque, Galician, Catalan, Castillian & Leones and so forth. Spanish Canadians adhere to and promote their regionalism and have been doing so since their first generation right through to the present generations. This is also evident in their former colonies of the Filipine Islands, Spanish Guinea, Spanish Sahara as well as Spanish Morocco to name a few.

History

Spanish claims and presence in Canada

Spain both officially discovered Canada had land claims to all of Canada since Christopher Columbus claimed the New World for Spain on October 12, 1492. Through the Treaty of Tordesillas signed June 7, 1494 the Pope Alexander VI divided the New World between Spain and Portugal. Portugal received the eastern portion of Brazil and Spain received the rest, which included Canada.(see Treaty of Tordesillas)

Lines dividing the non-Christian world between Castille (modern Spain) and Portugal: the 1494 Tordesillas meridian (purple) and the 1529 Zaragoza antimeridian (green)

Later the Spanish conquistador and explorer Vasco Nuñez de Balboa became the first European to see and stand in the waters of the eastern shore of the Pacific Ocean. He accomplished this feat after an arduous trek through the jungles of what is now Panama. Once there Balboa with raised hands, his sword in one and a standard with the image of the Virgin Mary in the other, he walked knee-deep into Ocean, and claimed possession of the Pacific Ocean and all adjoining lands (which included British Columbia) for Spain in the name of his Spanish sovereigns on September 13, 1513.

Then a Spanish explorer Juan de Fuca in the service of the king of Spain, Philip II, explored the Strait of Anián in 1592, now known as the Strait of Juan de Fuca, between Vancouver Island, now part of British Columbia, Canada, and northwestern Washington State, United States.

Vasco Núñez de Balboa, was the first European to take possession of the Pacific Ocean and adjoining lands for Spain.

Spanish Presence in the Pacific Northwest

Main article: Spanish expeditions to the Pacific Northwest

Areas of Alaska and British Columbia explored by Spanish Explorers.

Starting in the mid-18th century, Spain's claim began to be challenged in the form of British and Russian fur trading and colonization. King Charles III of Spain and his successors sent a number of expeditions to present-day Canada and Alaska between 1774 and 1793, to counter the threat of Russian and British colonizers and to strengthen the Spanish claim. During this period of history it was important for a nation's claims to be backed up by exploration and the "first European discovery" of particular places.

Since Spain was busy colonizing Latin America, Canada was ignored until the 18th century when Spain made an effort to explore and set up forts in British Columbia. Indeed, it was Juan Pérez who completed the first documented voyage, which took place in 1774. Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra explored the coast in 1775. In doing so, Pérez and Quadra reasserted the Spanish claim for the Pacific coast, first made by Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513.

Spanish dispute with Britain

A major war between Spain and Britain over British Columbia could have begun via the Nootka Sound dispute in 1789. Spain at the time sent José Martínez to occupy Nootka Sound and establish exclusive Spanish sovereignty. During the summer of 1789 a number of fur trading vessels, British and American, arrived at Nootka. A conflict over sovereignty arose between the captain of the British Argonaut, James Colnett, and Martínez. By the end of the summer Martínez had arrested Colnett, seized several British ships, and arrested their crews. Colnett had come to Nootka Sound intending to build a permanent trading post and colony on land previously acquired by his business associate John Meares. At the end of the summer Martínez abandoned Nootka and took the captured ships and prisoners to San Blas, New Spain. The news about these events triggered a confrontation between Spain and Britain known as the Nootka Crisis which nearly led to war. A major war over British Columbia with the British was peacefully resolved via the Nootka Convention, with both parties retaining their claims until a future solution could be finalized. (see Nootka Convention)

The United States inherits Spains dispute with Great Britain

Further information: Spain in the American Revolutionary War

Map showing results of the Adams–Onís Treaty.

Map of the Oregon Country "jointly occupied" by the US and Britain. The Columbia Department at its greatest extent included areas far to the north and south.

In the early 19th century, Spain was weakened due to the Napoleonic Wars and the Spanish American Wars of Independence it had to fight in South America against Simon Bolivar and San Martin. Eventually, Spain felt that in its weakened state it might lose its North American territories to Britain. As a result of this, Spain decided to transfer its claims to parts of North America to its old ally United States during the American Revolution through the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819. In exchange, the U.S. promised to pay U.S. residents claims against the Spanish government totaling $5,000,000. Consequently, the United States of America has used its inherited Spanish rights to support its claims to the Oregon country which consisted of the Oregon Territory and British Columbia during the Oregon boundary dispute with Britain.

See also

• Spanish American
• Spanish Australian
• Spanish immigration to Brazil
• Spanish Briton
• Spanish Filipino
• Canada-Spain relations