There is a neighborhood in Manhattan that some of its old timers call “España Chica” – Little Spain. From the late 19th century to the present time it served as the social and cultural nerve center of Spanish immigrants who settled in New York City.
Little Spain sits just above the West Village, mostly along West 14th Street, but the casual non-Spanish pedestrian would hardly know they were in a Spanish ethnic enclave. If this stroller were a vexillologist (or a fan of the Real Madrid Soccer team) she would no doubt know that the flag hanging in front of the nondescript brownstone at 239 West 14th Street, home of the Spanish Benevolent Society, was that of Spain.
The Spanish language signs in businesses along West 14th Street are not unusual, given that the City is home to hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Cubans and other Spanish speakers from the Americas. However, as far New Yorkers are concerned, European Spaniards are an unheard ethnic group in the city. In comparison to other white ethnic groups that immigrated here, they are less than a drop in the proverbial bucket; perhaps 30,000 at most during the peak of late 19th and early 20th century immigration.
Unfair Historical Accounts
Nonetheless, Spain and its people who immigrated here have had an outsized but little appreciated impact on the United States. Only a few sparse histories treat the Spanish exploration and settlement of the United States with the seriousness they deserve. The majority of U.S. history books are dismissive, uninformed, and even hostile about the Iberian presence in the United States. According to their authors, the fabled Spanish thirst for gold far exceeded that of the Anglo-Americans who poured into California, other western states, and Alaska in search of this precious metal.
The Spaniards are also seen as the worst when it comes to the treatment of the American Indians but, with the exception of historian Jill Lapore who documented the horrific near annihilation of those living in New England by the English, scant attention is given to that virtual holocaust. In most historical accounts, the Spanish are cast as being mostly unattached men who raped Indian women while the English are depicted as devoutly religious men with wives and children at their sides. Spanish ship passenger records, as well marriage and baptismal records in Spanish territories in America, say otherwise.
Additionally, the histories of the American Revolution by and large, barely mention Spain’s contribution to the independence of the US. It was far greater than that of France and the other European nations combined, even though Spain never formally allied herself with the U.S. The gold Spanish peso was the currency of America and considerable amounts of it and war materiel were funneled directly and indirectly to the American cause for independence. Spanish ports in Europe and in the Americas were made available to U.S. ships and Spanish forces under General Bernardo Gálvez defeated the British in several battles along the Gulf Coast and Mississippi Valley, closing-off the potential of British attacks on the Americans from their Western and Southern frontiers. Finally, the three-year-long Spanish siege of Gibraltar (24 June 1779 – 7 February 1783), though not successful, forced the British to divert troops and other resources that would have otherwise gone to the conflict in the U.S.
Spain was America’s faithful ally, but few American historians have availed themselves of the vast Spanish archives, preferring to steep themselves in those of England and France. Recently, a review of prisoners held by the British on prison ships in New York Harbor uncovered several dozen poorly spelled Spanish ones. The Spanish call the English defamation of their country la leyenda negra (the black legend). This calumny of the ancient hostility between the Spanish and the British was later adopted by Anglo-Americans when relations between the US and Spain soured after the American Revolution.
A New Documentary
The differing views of history aside, the Spanish contribution in New York City is now being shown in a new documentary, “Little Spain.” It is a homage to the Spanish immigration to the United States, showing an unheralded part of the history of New York City.
Relatively speaking, many people know of the Spanish speaking communities of Spanish Harlem, the South Bronx, and the Lower East Side. Even more have misimpressions of Spanish-speaking neighborhoods from the musical Westside Story. Few however, know that Little Spain, densely populated by Spaniards, Puerto Ricans, and other Hispanic immigrants, formed the nucleus of a culturally rich Spanish-speaking community. Almost everyone has heard about Little Italy or Chinatown, but Little Spain’s story remains unknown.
In the film, Spanish American director and journalist Artur Balder traces the journey of those who left Spain, the Caribbean, and Spanish America in search of a better life in the United States and New York City, forming the community of Little Spain. The focal point of the documentary is 14th Street in Manhattan, the former heart of one the city’s first Hispanic communities. Balder said he “learned a lot by sifting through the Spanish Benevolent Society’s fascinating archives and realized that what he found “was the bones of an enormous dinosaur,” and he subsequently “scraped around it” to gather more details.
The fruit of that effort is a feature length documentary that considers the founding of La Nacional in 1868 and the immigration of Spanish, Cuban, and Puerto Rican cigar makers to New York during the Ten Year’s War in Cuba. An uptick in migration from the Iberian nation, Cuba, and Puerto Rico also occurred following the Spanish-American War of 1898. Bernardo Vega, a Puerto Rican cigar maker who came to New York in 1917 relates in his diary that from the late 19th century through the end of World War One, there were thousands of cigar making shops in New York City and over 500 of these were owned by Spaniards and other Hispanics. Labor leader Samuel Gompers once said that New York City, not Tampa, was “the cigar capital of the United States”. Most of these went under when machine-made cigarettes supplanted hand-rolled cigars.
Another wavelet of immigration followed in the wake of Spain’s 1936-1939 Civil War and the Franco dictatorship. Finally, there was a sharp immigration decline in the 1970s and 80s when Spain prospered under democracy. Younger Spaniards stayed home and older Spanish immigrants living in the U.S. returned to their homeland. During its heyday famous expatriate artists, writers and intellectuals, such as Picasso, Dalí, Buñuel, and Federico García Lorca could be found taking meals at the Spanish Benevolent Society’s tables. Well into the 1960s, Castilian accented Spanish was spoken on West 14th Street.
From 1929 to 1988, Casa Moneo was a leader in Spanish and Latin American gastronomy in New York City. Located at 210 West 14th Street, Casa Moneo was owned by a Spaniard from the Basque region, Carmen Barañano, widow of Jesús Moneo, as a “tienda de ultramarinos” (the overseas store) where home-sick Spaniards bought packaged foods imported from Spain. They also sold cookware, dresses, shoes and perfumes. Some movie houses in Chelsea featured “all Spanish programs”, showing films with Spanish, Mexican, and other Latin American actors.
One of the highlights of the new documentary “Little Spain” is footage of what for years was the most popular celebration in the community, the Santiago Apostol (St. James Day), which died-out in the early 1990s following an exodus of the Hispanic community from that part of the city. Today Little Spain is even littler than it once was, but a recent influx of Spaniards fleeing their disastrous economy has helped reinvigorate the Spanish Benevolent Society.
Staten Island’s ‘Spanish Camp’
Another center of Spanish immigrant life in New York City has not fared well. This place was known as “Spanish Camp” It was a summer bungalow colony in Staten Island founded by the Spanish Naturopath Society in 1929 as a seaside summer retreat for Spanish speaking families from various New York City barrios.
Camp life included tan canvas tents on raised wooden platforms with open-air kitchens under canopies at the back; common showers, latrines and water pumps; plentiful clamming and fishing, seasonal performances by celebrated Flamenco dancers and musicians in the Salon – a lantern-strung hall.
In the late 1930s and early 1940s the tents were transformed to became small summer bungalows; later, many were winterized. It had its own streets and services, quite independent of the rest of Staten Island and New York City. The community also had small pond and wetlands, as well as a small beach on New York Harbor, and an adjacent picnic area and athletic field.
Faced with a dwindling membership and debts the Board of Directors sold the camp’s 18 acres to a developer in 2000.for $1.7 million He demolished its buildings but to date (2014) has not been able build a planned luxury condo on the spot.
More about the new documentary “Little Spain” can be found online here.
As a Spanish teacher in the Adirondacks, I try to familiarize myself and my students with the varied impacts and imprints of Spanish-speaking peoples and countries on the U.S. (and vice versa) but knew little of the fascinating history you present here. Having lived in NYC for a decade, The Spain Restaurant in the Village was a favorite haunt and I always wondered how “it got there”. I was pleased to see that its doors are still open and plan to take students there in the spring. Thanks to your blog, I can now put it–and Espana Chica–in its broader, proper context. I’ll be sure to check out the film, too. Mil gracias.
What an insight into a little known aspect of New York history. Great article. I am looking forward to seeing the documentary “Little Spain.” Thanks for this information.
Mary Schaefer
In general I have found that one of the major faults of foreign language courses is the over emphasis in teaching its grammatical rules and the near neglect of having students make connection with the people who actually use the language. I think your idea of taking your students to a Spanish restaurant o other institution like the Spanish Benevolent Society will in the long-run have a very positive language learning effect.
I think this is a remarkable example of how important is to make it well known the origin of the spanish immigration in the United States. I totally agree with your extended analysis, which I find a superb analysis, adding that, after purchasing the film, I can say that the content is extremely good, with touching moments such as when Sanfiz remembers the death of his uncle in the famous building at La Nacional. The old photographs showing the streets of Little Spain and is glory years are a treasure. Thank you!
Thank you for acknowledging immigration to the U.S. from Spain. My grandfather, his parents and grandparents, as well as his uncle, all immigrated from Spain to the U.S. in 1903-1904 , to work in the silk mills of Paterson, New Jersey. My mother (now 91) remembers being taken to see Spanish theater in NYC by her grandfather (where, to her recollection, half of the characters in the play were alive, and half were ghosts), and the family was able to purchase Torrones for Christmas in Spanish grocery stores in Manhattan. By the time I was growing up, they could only find Torrones from Italy, which my mother firmly believed were not the same.
When my son was working on a project on immigration and wrote about an immigrant from Spain, his teacher actually crossed out the word Spain and wrote “Italy” instead! No one — besides you — seems to know that there was a Spanish presence in NYC in the early 20th century.
Hi Miguel, You offer a great summary about the Spanish-American community. Unfortunately there is a dark cloud over the “documentary” you say you review. There a lot of historical inaccuracies in the film. For instance, there is no factual evidence that Lorca ever set foot in La Nacional. Also, the documentarian you speak of has used La Nacional to promote his own interests. He set up a website with La Nacional’s name in English (Spanish Benevolent Society) and has also set up a suspicious Spanish American award that he (and his friends) have self awarded to Balder. This article from a Spanish journalist talks about this highly unethical behavior: http://www.cronicasbarbaras.com/2012/10/espanoles-que-triunfan-en-nueva-york-y.html. The website with the Spanish Benevolent Society name is this one: http://www.spanishbenevolentsociety.com/. Until recently, the website had a lot of plagiarized content from known scholars. Can you look into this? The reputation of the Spanish American community should not be mistreated.
Answering “You should know”, and to whom it may concern publicly. Let’s shine a light on this spurious and sick “prosecution”.
Until a few weeks ago, the same elements that are posting -without identifying themselves, of course, basic point in online terrorism- against the documentary were spreading the reportedly false information that the documentary “does not exist”. That was the great point in order to build up a bad reputation about someone who already had a great reputation before doing that documentary, the director. Now that the documentary obviously exist and is for sale, and people is able to see it, they have to drum a different music in order to satisfy their real motivation: Envy.
The real reason why all this happens is because the director never wanted nor accepted pressures to interview people who from his point of view was not interesting for the documentary. On the other hand, it seems that other scholars are completely pissed off with the fact that the longest existing audiovisual documentation on the matter is already on the market and they are behind, with the bitter sensation that the most important pictures shown in the film cannot be found elsewhere. More ENVY.
In this country there is liberty for association and for expression. Associated people do have the right to honored someone with an award, and this is it. all the rest is again ENVY. In the case of the article at El País, the same history. They seem to be against new organizations and successful initiatives, such as the Spanish American Award.
Regarding reporter Barbara Celis, now in London, full of fun let’s analyze the price honored to her and SIMULTANEOUSLY to her brother, the architect. In her own website: http://www.cronicasbarbaras.com/2014/10/dedicado-los-medios-pequenos-e.html She shares two pictures, in one she receives from Ciudad de Alcalá el premio Ciudad de Alcalá de Periodismo, and her brother el Premio de Arquitectura. Well, two brothers awarded simultaneously by a city. This is exponentially typical in the corruption of the Spanish so called “official” institutions, and we find more truthful and logical statements in private institutions, as ours is, than in those so called “enchufados” from Spain, who use their position in big newspapers basically to promote themselves. Fortunately they are far from the US.
Regarding Mr Balder, he has Green Card E11 category, which means “self petition”, an honor granted by the United States Immigration Services based on the timeline of a great professional as you may be able to see in the link below, and he is now ready to demand whoever is interested in report lies about his name, career or deeds and take him/her to court asap. More information here: http://www.uscis.gov/green-card/green-card-through-job/green-card-through-self-petition /Individuals of extraordinary ability are considered to be the best of the best in their field and it is an eligibility category that applies to very few individuals. Examples of who may be considered an E11 immigrant include Nobel Prize winners, notable athletes, and others who have achieved great successes in their field.)
Regarding the website, http://www.spanishbenevolentsociey.com and http://www.spanishbenevolentsociety.org are property domains of SPANISH BENEVOLENT SOCIETY LLC, the organization that make it possible to create the documentaries, which is NOT La Nacional, being La Nacional a different society, a great place for watching soccer matches certainly. The film makes a great and good publicity and reputation of La Nacional.
Taking in consideration the good relationship with the actual director of La Nacional, Mr. Robert Sanfiz, who also is the main voice of the documentary of reference, we are in front of an spurious attempt to anonymously create bad feelings in a community, the Spanish American, that is already very narrow and thin in comparison with many others in the US. A pitty, but true. Because nothing in the websites that promote our projects, including the actual documentary, leads to get mistaken with La Nacional, and the fact that we use that name is obviously connected with honoring a past and a tradition, which has been promoted more than anyone thank to the film LITTLE SPAIN.
Beyond that, the rest is noise made by bad [redacted by the editor do to a personal attack] who cannot accept the actual circumstances, which are legal and real. The film is being now the favourite acquisition of many, many (many) libraries and university libraries across the country, and this is because of its quality, which is making a name on it.
Balder, in the seventh paragraph of your text you say the LLC made possible the creation of the documentaries. Then how is it ethical where an organization who sponsors the Spanish American award, while using La Nacional’s name without permission as the Spanish Benevolent Society, award it to you (Balder) for a film that was not finished until now? The award is now over two years old. The runner up was an academic who already had a body of work. So if, as you say, the LLC supported the creation of the work (do you mean financially?) then there is a clear conflict of interests.
Hi, as I read about that price, it seems that Mr. Balder was awarded “not only” for that project, LITTLE SPAIN film, but also for a literary body already published years before, and translated into several languages. Also, it seems obvious that those who make that decision -whoever may they be and with all the sympathies they had- could have seen the project of the film, although not yet released… What I find rather amusing is the fact that people is so centered in such things without taking note on the fundamentals: the Spaniards are divided. We see that on tv, Catalans, Basque, everyone wants his own country. Even here there is such a tremendous interest and even investment of energy in bringing up personal battles… Well, my point is that the price does not have much interest, the US is full of awards, if it did help Mr Balder or his friends, OK, also they had that idea while others just sit down and watch Real Madrid all day long. What I want to say is that honestly important is that there is a good film on the matter, a good archive, and a new step towards a unification of the Spanish American history. The rest I find rather too personal. Greetings.
We agree. There seems to be a pattern of creating awards for Mr. Balder. It is a bad habit that has been imported from Spain with this LLC. The Spanish immigrant community is happy with any serious documentary about La Nacional, the oldest Spanish immigrant club in NY in existence. Primarily because it is the story of our families. But, we resent that a group of unethical individuals usurp the name of the Spanish Benevolent Society for a fake LLC that doesn’t seem to be registered in NY (prove it, if it is). Also, as the families of immigrants, we find very offensive that someone like Balder, who was genuinely helped by staying in La Nacional for months, could create and participate a fake Spanish American Award to promote his film and career. The award, according to screen shots from the site, was given for the film specifically, not prior works. The award is supposedly given to people who defend and promote the legacy of immigrants. Balder did none of that till the film, which was completed two years after the award. And there are many bad habits by groups of business people creating fake awards in name of immigrant communities but neither respect not are supported by those immigrant communities. So summarizing, Balder, we are happy you want to tell the story of Spanish immigrants and hope many more people do the same. We are not happy that the LLC uses La Nacional’s English name without permission and asks for money using that name. It is even more humiliating for the community and all Spanish immigrants when that award was created to support the interests of Balder, the producers, any investors in the films and the fake LLC. This behavior divides the Spanish community because it is highly unethical. It also shames the community and the memory of our immigrant families. Take down the fake Spanish Benevolent Sites. And if you are going to create another fake immigrant award, do it with your own names.
It’s important to note that La Nacional has no official collaboration with the documentary and, or the producers of the documentary. Even when Mr. Balder claims that they do. Many people in the organization are asking that the name of the society in English, Spanish Benevolent Society, be respected. It is not an economic enterprise that a handful of people can market as an LLC over the memories of many immigrants. And it is patrimony of the society and the immigrant community. Not a brand name.
As far as the award, it is suspicious, since the same people giving the award seem to be involved in Balder’s films financially. Also, the second award winner, while a reputable restaurant owner, doesn’t have significant cultural contribution, compared with other candidates who were posted in the past, to justify the cultural authenticity of the award. Making it seem again, a self promotional tool for an organization that is using the English language name of La Nacional without permission.
Again, as it seems that the blog does not have a policy of identification in front of “online anonymous terrorism”, reminding that is ilegal to report false statements that can directly be intended with sole purpose of damage someone’s image falsely without proper identification of those who make those statements. Last remind publicly displayed.
The blog is letting anonymously publish completely false statements:
The interviews of LITTLE SPAIN were filmed at the salon of La Nacional as a result of a close collaboration with the at that time board of commissioners of La Nacional, no matter what you think now, just because the director rejected to interview some members of La Nacional who really YES were trying to abuse of the situation in order to promote themselves. Part of the archive displayed in the film comes from the archive of La Nacional. Definitively that was made with permission of La Nacional and that show how La Nacional collaborated with us. At the same time the film is a great publicity for La Nacional. So all what are you bringing up here is as ridiculous as your desire to appear on the film.
The same as you talk about ethics about a price, when the journalist you cite, Barbara celis, clearly uses influences to get awarded by the city of Alcalá at the same time and moment as her brother… This is ridiculous.
Hi, This text is for the SBS, LLC. I read another article that says your documentary will be screened at Lincoln Center by the Film Society in March. I called them on Friday to get ticket information, but they said your documentary is not scheduled for any screening there. The article said you don’t have dates for MOMA. Can you give more specific information?
An excellent article, but I need to correct one item. It’s fairly well known that Picasso never visited the U.S, so he could not have been one the prominent exiled artists eating at the Spanish Benevolent Society.
As a child growing up in New York in the late ’50s and early ’60s, my parents spent a lot of time on that block. We emigrated from Mexico 1n 1956, and our first church was the Virgin of Guadalupe on that block. Casa Moneo also carried a lot of Mexican products, like mole and dried chiles. I loved the turron from Spain and other delicacies. There was also a Spanish bookstore across the street that I loved to frequent as a child.
The articles fails to mention the importance of the other first Spanish neighborhoods of New York, those of Water Street and Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. The community on Water Street was destroyed wen they built housing just north of the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges. The Atlantic Avenue community was absorbed by the Arab community that still exists along that street.
Yes, You are correct. The thrust of the article was the Little Spain neighborhood in Manhattan. However there were other Hispanic enclaves in other boroughs and one of these was on and around the foot of Atlantic Ave, in Brooklyn. This was where the New York & Porto Rico Steamship company was based from the early 1900s to the late 1940s So people from the island tended to settle there. Some of my father’s cousins owned houses on nearby Columbia St. Montero’s bar and Grill at 73 Atlantic Ave catered to Hispanic longshoremen and sailors but it was also a community center of sorts.
Me ha encantado este artículo sobre España en NY. Yo soy español nacido en Madrid. Vivo en Wisconsin desde hace años y además de las porras, una de las cosas que más hecho de menos es el orujo gallego. Quién vende orujo en NY????
GRACIAS!!