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Spanish Brazilians

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Spain Spanish Brazilian Brazil
Hispano brasileño · Hispano-brasileiro
File:Spaniards in Brazil.jpg
Spanish immigrants in São Paulo

This file may be deleted at any time.
Regions with significant populations
Brazil: Mainly Southeastern Brazil
Languages
Portuguese Language, Spanish
Religion
Predominantly
Roman Catholic · Protestant · Jewish minority
Related ethnic groups
White Brazilian, Spanish people

Spanish-Brazilian (Spanish: hispanobrasileño, Portuguese: hispano-brasileiro) is a Brazilian person of full, partial, or predominantly Spanish ancestry, or a Spanish-born person residing in Brazil.

Brazil was a colony of Portugal. Although some Galicians and other Spaniards had followed the Portuguese settlers to Brazil since the 16th century, Spanish immigration began, officially, in the 1880s with Galician smallholders who settled mainly in urban areas of Brazil. Starting in the early 20th century, most Spanish immigrants were Andalusian peasants who worked in the coffee plantations, mainly in rural areas of São Paulo State.

Like other immigrants, they brought their entire families, including children. After working in coffee farms, they became permanent residents and worked as scrap metal merchants or restaurant employees. They eventually diversified into other professions. Spanish immigrants numbered approximately 14% of the foreign settlers in Brazil — 700,000 Spaniards immigrated to Brazil between 1880 and 1950, especially the time of Spanish Civil war — being the third largest immigrant group, after the Portuguese and Italians, and 78% of them settled in São Paulo State. The movement of Spanish Brazilians to cities and towns continues. Brazilians with Spanish ancestry from neighboring and other Ibero-American nations live in border areas or main Brazilian urban places.

Although the vast majority of the Spanish immigrants initially established themselves in rural areas, where they set up on small or medium-sized farms, they also made their presence felt in urban areas. At the outset, the Spaniards were mostly scrap-metal merchants or else employed in restaurants. They then gradually diversified their activities.

There are an estimated 15 million Brazilians of Spanish descent.[1] They are totally integrated into Brazilian society and nowadays most of them only speak Portuguese. Nonetheless, Spanish is the second most important foreign language taught in Brazilian schools, after English. Spanish and Portuguese are the main languages of Ibero-America. A mixed language based on Portuguese and Spanish called Portuñol, is used on the Brazilian borders with Spanish-speaking countries.

Most Spanish Brazilians are Roman Catholic, with some communities adhering to Protestantism and Judaism.[citation needed]

Numbers of immigrants

Spanish settlement in Brazil
Source: (IBGE)[2]
 
Period
Ethnic group 1884-1893 1894-1903 1904-1913 1914-1923 1924-1933 1945-1949 1950-1954 1955-1959
Spaniards 113,116 102,142 224,672 94,779 52,405 40,092 53,357 38,819

Notable Spanish-Brazilians

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See also

References