Hispanidad

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La Hispanidad
Flag
A cylindrical projection of the world, highlighting the member states of la Hispanidad (dark blue)
Official language Spanish
Membership
Population
 -  2013 estimate ~ 500 million

The Hispanidad (English: Hispanics) are the community formed by all the people and countries that share a common Hispanic heritage and cultural pattern. The 22 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.

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, la 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 [New] 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 organisations such as the Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española began. With the restoration of democracy in Spain, all the Hispanic nations began to converge with, for example, the creation of the Cumbre Iberoamericana in 1991. Since then, the number of Hispano-American, Ibero-American, Pan-Latin American and Filipino hispanism (Filhispanismo) organisations has increased.

Currently, Hispanicity 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 Latin Americans or Hispanic Americans choose to immigrate to Spain, because of its cultural, linguistic and ancestral affinity.

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.

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.[1] Mexico contains the largest number of Spanish speakers, with over 100 million.

Europe

In Europe, Hispanics reside primarily in Spain (alongside neighbouring Andorra) 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 or about 16% of its total population, 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. 43% of Belizeans commonly speak Spanish at home.[2]

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 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-Pacific

Some countries in the Asia-Pacific region received influence from the Hispanic world while they were governed by the Spanish Crown via Mexico City and Madrid. The Philippines, Guam, and the Caroline Islands are among those in this region that received some influence from Spain and Mexico.

In the Philippines, there is a significant Hispanic population.[citation needed] They are mostly concentrated in Cebu, Metro Manila, Zamboanga, Iloilo, and Davao. Spanish was one of the official languages of the Philippines until 1973 when president Ferdinand Marcos had it removed. The constitution of the Malolos government said that Spanish was to be official "por ahora" or "for the time being".[citation needed] However the language is considered as an optional language on the Philippine Constitution. Spanish in the Philippines is natively spoken by 5,000 people but around 500,000 to 2,500,000 speak it as their second or third language alongside English and Filipino. In addition, Chavacano, a Spanish-based creole language in the Philippines has approximately 600,000 native speakers. In contrast with people from the Hispanic world, the prevalence of Hispanic given names and surnames among the majority of Filipinos does not indicate Spanish ancestry. It was implemented due to a decree by the Spanish crown for the systematic distribution of family names and the imposition of the Spanish naming system on the inhabitants of the Philippines for proper recording and to help ease the collection of taxes (see Alphabetical Catalog of Surnames).

See also

References

  1. ↑ 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 María 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.
  2. ↑ "Belize 2000 Housing and Population Census". Belize Central Statistical Office. 2000. Retrieved 2008-09-09. 
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