Hispanidad

Hispanidad


The Hispanic flag

Spanish-speaking nations
Europe
Americas
Africa
Asia

The Hispanidad (English: Hispanicity) is the community formed by the people and countries that share a common Hispanic heritage and cultural pattern. The at least 23 nations that are included are all Spanish-speaking countries.

The community can be classified into three geographic areas: Hispanic Europe (Spain), Hispanic America, and Hispanic Africa (Equatorial Guinea). A few countries in the Asia-Pacific region also have historical Spanish influence (notably the Philippines), although they no longer have Spanish as their official language since 1987.

Various countries celebrate 12 October as the Día de la Hispanidad ("Day of Hispanicity" or "Hispanic Day"). Since 1987 Spain has celebrated this holiday as its Fiesta Nacional de España. In the other nations of the community, the day is also celebrated as a commemoration of the date in 1492 when Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas, marking the beginning of the diffusion of Spanish language and culture as well as its lasting impact on the New World.

History

At the beginning of the 20th century, Hispanidad was moribund. Zacarías de Vizarra, Faustino Rodríguez-San Pedro and Ramiro de Maeztu revived interest in the concept in Spain and the Americas, changing its name to Día de la Raza or "Day of the Race". This was already a national celebration in many Hispanic countries, in honor of the meeting of Europeans and Amerindians, their mixing and the emergence of the mestizo race. Shortly thereafter, the first pan-Hispanic organizations such as the Association of Spanish Language Academies began. With the restoration of democracy in Spain, all the Hispanic nations began to converge with, for example, the creation of the Ibero-American Summit in 1991. Since then, the number of Hispanic American and Filipino hispanism (Filhispanismo) organizations has increased.

Currently, Hispanidad is a cooperative venture. Spain has created a base of support for Hispanic America and the Philippines due to heavy investments in these zones. Some Hispanic Americans choose to immigrate to Spain, because of its cultural, linguistic and ancestral affinity.

Demographics

Hispanic countries

Flag Arms Name Area
(km²)		 Population
 Population density
(per km²)		 Capital Name in Spanish
Argentina Argentina 2,780,400 43,024,374 14.4 Buenos Aires Argentina
Bolivia Bolivia 1,098,581 10,631,486 9 Sucre Bolivia
Chile Chile 756,102 17,363,894 23 Santiago Chile
Colombia Colombia 1,138,910 46,245,297 41.5 Bogotá Colombia
Costa Rica Costa Rica 51,100 4,755,234 91.3 San José Costa Rica
Cuba Cuba 110,860 11,047,251 100.6 Havana Cuba
Dominican Republic Dominican Republic 48,670 10,349,741 210.9 Santo Domingo República Dominicana
Ecuador Ecuador 283,561 15,654,411 54.4 Quito Ecuador
Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea 28,051 722,254 24.1 Malabo Guinea Ecuatorial
El Salvador El Salvador 21,041 6,125,512 290.3 San Salvador El Salvador
Guatemala Guatemala 108,889 14,647,083 129 Guatemala City Guatemala
Honduras Honduras 112,090 8,598,561 76 Tegucigalpa Honduras
Mexico Mexico 1,964,375 120,286,655 57 Mexico City México
Nicaragua Nicaragua 130,370 5,848,641 44.3 Managua Nicaragua
Panama Panama 75,420 3,608,431 54.2 Panama City Panamá
Paraguay Paraguay 406,752 6,703,860 14.2 Asunción Paraguay
Peru Peru 1,285,216 30,147,935 23 Lima Perú
Philippines Philippines 300,000 102,172,400 340.57 Manila Filipinas
Puerto Rico Puerto Ricoa 13,790 3,620,897 397 San Juan Puerto Rico
Spain Spain 505,370 47,737,941 92 Madrid España
Uruguay Uruguay 176,215 3,332,972 18.87 Montevideo Uruguay
Venezuela Venezuela 912,050 28,868,486 31.59 Caracas Venezuela
Total 541,493,316
(7.5% of the global population)

a Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the U.S. where Spanish and English are the official languages[1] and Spanish is the primary language.

In November 2008 a district court judge ruled that a sequence of Congressional actions have had the cumulative effect of changing Puerto Rico's status to incorporated.[2] However, by April 2011 the issue had not yet made its way through the courts,[3] and in January 2013 the U.S. government still referred to Puerto Rico as unincorporated.[4]

Largest Hispanic cities

The following is a list of the ten largest metropolitan areas in the Hispanic world.[5]

City Country Metropolitan population
(2012) 		Gross Domestic Product
(USD, 2012) 		GDP per capita
(USD, 2012) 		Global economic ranking by GDP
(2012)
1. Mexico City Mexico Mexico 20,631,353 $411.4 billion $19,940 15th
2. Buenos Aires Argentina Argentina 13,333,912 $348.4 billion $26,129 20th
3. Manila Philippines Philippines 12,856,400 $182.8 billion $14,222 N/A
4. Lima Peru Peru 10,231,678 $177.4 billion $17,340 62nd
5. Bogotá Colombia Colombia 8,868,395 $140.9 billion $15,891 86th
6. Santiago Chile Chile 7,023,767 $150.3 billion $21,393 79th
7. Madrid Spain Spain 6,598,395 $264.0 billion $40,007 37th
8. Caracas Venezuela Venezuela 5,297,026 $69 billion $24,000[6] N/A
9. Barcelona Spain Spain 4,712,749 $171.0 billion $36,280 65th
10. Guadalajara Mexico Mexico 4,593,444 $77.4 billion $16,855 142nd

Spanish language

Main article: Spanish language
The common shared Spanish language among the Hispanic nations of Hispanic America, the Philippines, and Spain, together with the growing Spanish-speaking population in the United States, form the modern Hispanic world.

Spanish in the Hispanic world

Most Spanish speakers are in Hispanic America; of all countries with a majority of Spanish speakers, only Spain, the Philippines, and Equatorial Guinea are outside the Americas. Spanish is the official national language of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

In Europe, Spanish is the official national language of Spain, the country after which it is named and from which it originated. It is also spoken in Andorra, and by a minority of the population in Portugal, France, and the United Kingdom.[7]

In Asia, the Philippines, a former Spanish overseas province, is the lone sovereign nation representative of the Spanish language. Spanish was lingua franca of the country from the beginning of Spanish rule in the late 1500s until the first half of the 20th century. It held official status for nearly half a millennium before being demoted as an optional language in 1987. However, Spanish still remained a very important language in the Philippines despite all the inauspicious circumstances that resulted to its gradual decline over the years.[8] Today, Spanish is being somewhat revived by groups rallying to make it a compulsory subject in schools, and eventually be redesignated as an official language on national level.[9]

Spanish elsewhere in the Americas

Spanish is spoken in other parts of the Americas as a co-official language, second language, or a minority language. The importance of the Spanish language throughout the Americas, has spread the use of Spanish beyond the borders of Hispanic countries.

Spanish has no official recognition in the former British colony of Belize; however, per the 2000 census, it is spoken by 46% of the population.[10] Due to their proximity to Spanish-speaking countries, Trinidad and Tobago and Brazil have implemented Spanish language teaching into their education systems. The Trinidad government launched the Spanish as a First Foreign Language (SAFFL) initiative in March 2005.[11] In 2005, the National Congress of Brazil approved a bill, signed into law by the President, making it mandatory for schools to offer Spanish as an alternative foreign language course in both public and private secondary schools in Brazil.[12] In many border towns and villages (especially in the Uruguayan-Brazilian and Paraguayan-Brazilian border areas), a mixed language known as Portuñol is spoken.[13]

Spanish in the United States

According to 2006 census data, 44.3 million people of the U.S. population were Hispanic or Hispanic American by origin;[14] 38.3 million people, 13 percent, of the population over five years old speak Spanish at home.[15] The Spanish language has a long history and presence in the United States due to historic Spanish and later, Mexican administration over territories now forming the southwestern states as well as Florida, which was Spanish territory until 1821.

Spanish is by far the most common second language spoken and taught in the country, and with over 50 million total speakers, the United States is now the second largest Spanish-speaking country in the world after Mexico.[16] Spanish is spoken by 10.7% of the population. While English is the de facto official language of the country, Spanish is often used in public services and notices at the federal and state levels. Spanish is also used in administration in the state of New Mexico.[17] The language also has a strong influence in major metropolitan areas such as those of Los Angeles, Miami, San Antonio, New York, San Francisco, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Phoenix; as well as more recently, Chicago, Las Vegas, Boston, Houston, and Baltimore-Washington, D.C. due to 20th and 21st century immigration.

Hispanics in the world

Plaza mayor, Segovia, Spain founded by Celtiberians about 700 BC, the Romans in 80 BC.
Street view in Guanajuato, Mexico, founded 1554.
Old San Juan, Puerto Rico founded 1521 .
San Salvador, El Salvador founded 1525.
Fort Santiago, Intramuros, Manila, Philippines founded 1571.

Major influence

Main article: Hispanic

Spanish, as a mother tongue, is spoken by more than 390 million people (second only to Chinese). The total number of Spanish speakers is more than 500 million people.[18] Mexico contains the largest number of Spanish speakers, with over 100 million.

Europe

In Europe, Hispanics reside primarily in Spain as it is the origin of Hispanicity, although there are small communities spread throughout Europe. The native-born population is more than 44 million, plus a large immigrant Hispanic community from Hispanic America and Equatorial Guinea.

Americas

The majority of Hispanics live in Hispanic America, coinciding with recognized international borders—the number surpasses 300 million. Countries with great majority Hispanic population include Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Uruguay and Venezuela.

The United States and Belize, while not officially counted as Hispanic nations, do each have a large Hispanic population. The United States has more than 50 million Hispanic residents. With 10.7% its total population speaking Spanish, Spanish-language TV networks and other media companies are located across the United States. Additionally, Puerto Rico is a commonwealth in free association with the United States and its residents are American citizens. 46% of Belizeans can speak Spanish.[19]

Africa

Hispanics in the African continent are concentrated in overseas territories of Spain, which are the Canary Islands, Ceuta, Melilla and largely unpopulated Plazas de soberanía. Moreover, Equatorial Guinea has Spanish as its official government language, although Portuguese and French are also official languages of this tiny nation, and the people speak their respective native languages. In Morocco and Western Sahara, some people maintain Hispanic characteristics, although these countries are more so influenced by Arab and Berber languages and cultures. In Angola and Nigeria there are small populations of Spanish speakers who descend from repatriated Afro-Cubans of the colonial era. Altogether in Africa, two million speak Spanish.

Asia

Some countries in the Asia-Pacific region collectively known as the Spanish East Indies received influence from the Hispanic world while they were governed by the Spanish Crown via Madrid, Mexico City and Manila, the Philippines. The Philippines, received influence from Spain and Mexico and was a Spanish stronghold for more than three centuries (333 years). Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia are regional polities that received influence from the Captaincy General of the Philippines in Manila.

In the Philippines, a Spanish Filipino is a Filipino who has Spanish or Hispanic lineage and descent, mostly born and raised in the Philippines. From 1565 to 1987 Spanish was an official language in the Philippines. The number of Spanish speakers among Filipinos is rapidly growing due to the huge demand for Spanish speakers within the Business Process Outsourcing and Call centre sectors. For now, Philippine Spanish is natively spoken by some 5,000 people, with around 500,000 to 1,000,000 second- or third-language speakers alongside English, Filipino, and/or any of the various Philippine languages. These primary and non-primary Spanish speakers are mostly concentrated in Metro Manila, Zamboanga, Cebú, Cavite, Iloílo, Bauang, and Dávao.

In addition, there are 600,000 native speakers of Chavacano, a Spanish-based creole centred on Zamboanga City.

Interestingly in 1973, President Ferdinand Marcos stripped Spanish of its official status and yet restored it immediately afterwards. Along with Arabic, Spanish is mentioned in the presently-enforced 1987 Constitution as a language "promoted on a voluntary and optional basis".

In contrast with the rest of the Hispanic world, the prevalence of Spanish given names and surnames among Filipinos does not necessarily reflect Spanish descent. This phenomenon stems from the 1849 decree of Governor-General Narciso Clavería y Zaldúa that mandated a unified naming standard based on Hispanic conventions. Aided by an official list of surnames, the systematic distribution of surnames was enforced in the Spanish East Indies to streamline data recording and government functions such as taxation.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Constitution of Puerto Rico, Art. 3, Section 5: It is mandatory to be able to read and write in either English or Spanish in order to be a member of the Legislative Assembly.
  2. ↑ Consejo de Salud Playa Ponce v. Johnny Rullan, p.28: "The Congressional incorporation of Puerto Rico throughout the past century has extended the entire Constitution to the island ...."
  3. ↑ Hon. Gustavo A. Gelpi, "The Insular Cases: A Comparative Historical Study of Puerto Rico, Hawai'i, and the Philippines", The Federal Lawyer, March/April 2011. http://www.aspira.org/files/legal_opinion_on_pr_insular_cases.pdf p. 25: "In light of the [Supreme Court] ruling in Boumediene, in the future the Supreme Court will be called upon to reexamine the Insular Cases doctrine as applied to Puerto Rico and other US territories."
  4. ↑ accessed 26 January 2013: "Puerto Rico is a self-governing, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the Caribbean".
  5. ↑ http://www.brookings.edu/research/interactives/global-metro-monitor-3
  6. ↑ http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/economic_studies/global_cities_of_the_future_an_interactive_map
  7. ↑ "CIA World Factbook — Gibraltar". Cia.gov. Retrieved 2011-02-05.
  8. ↑ The National Archives (archived from the original on 2007-09-27), Houses the Spanish Collection, which consists of around 13 million manuscripts from the Spanish colonial period.
  9. ↑ "Spanish is once again a compulsory subject in the Philippines". Archived from the original on July 14, 2010. Retrieved July 19, 2010.
  10. ↑ "Population Census, Major Findings" (PDF). Belize: Central Statistical Office, Ministry of Budget Management. 2000. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-06-21. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
  11. ↑ "FAQ". The Secretariat for The Implementation of Spanish. Trinidad and Tobago: Government of the Republic. Archived from the original on 2010-11-03. Retrieved 2012-01-10.
  12. ↑ "Brazilian Law 11.161". Presidência da República. 2005-08-05. Retrieved 2014-03-31.
  13. ↑ Lipski, John M (2006). Face, Timothy L; Klee, Carol A, eds. "Too close for comfort? the genesis of "portuñol/portunhol"" (PDF). Selected Proceedings of the 8th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium (Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project): 1–22. Retrieved 2008-12-29.
  14. ↑ U.S. Census Bureau Hispanic or Latino by specific origin.
  15. ↑ U.S. Census Bureau (2007). "United States. S1601. Language Spoken at Home". 2005-2007 American Community Survey 3-Year Estimates. Retrieved September 3, 2009.
  16. ↑ "Más 'speak spanish' que en España". Retrieved October 6, 2007. (in Spanish)
  17. ↑ Crawford, John (1992). Language loyalties: a source book on the official English controversy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 62.
  18. ↑ krysstal.com, 5th International Congress on Spanish Language (la-moncloa.es), uis.edu, Antonio Molina, director of the Instituto Cervantes in 2006 (terranoticias.es, elmundo.es, fundeu.es), Luis MarÃa Anson of the Real Academia Española (elcultural.es), International Congress about Spanish, 2008, Mario Melgar of the México University (lllf.uam.es), Feu Rosa – Spanish in Mercosur (congresosdelalengua.es), elpais.com, eumed.net, babel-linguistics.com.
  19. ↑ "Belize 2000 Housing and Population Census". Belize Central Statistical Office. 2000. Retrieved 2008-09-09.
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