Spanish bravery at New Orleans:

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Manuell Alvarez
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Spanish bravery at New Orleans:

Post by Manuell Alvarez »

Hola Amigos,

I was very proud to learn that there among the defenders at the Battle of New Orleans, were approximately 300 Spanish citizens who help to win that battle. Armed with only their shotguns, they manned the barricades along with former Haitian slaves, frontiermens from Kentucky and Tennessee, French citizens, and Jean Lafitte's pirates. Four thousand stood against a well trained and disciplined British Army and Navy.

New Orleans had been a former Spanish possession for approximately 38 years. It probably has been lost to history where in Spain that these men originated from. I suspect that some were probably from the province of Asturias. Many Spanish names are still prevalent today among the inhabitants of Lousianna.

Manny
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Art
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Post by Art »

What Spanish names occur in Louisiana? Some last names are clearly Asturian.

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¿Cuales apellidos espanoles aparecen en Louisiana? Algunos apellidos son obviamente asturianos.
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Manuell Alvarez
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Asturian Apellidos

Post by Manuell Alvarez »

I think that the appellido of Perez is one of the names and Rodriguez is another from that time period. It appears that from the University of Virginia census browser, that there were approximately 3,672 people registered in the 1900 to 1940 census were born in Spain, and the reason for their migration may have been that they had family ties in the state of Louisiana dating from the early 1800's.

The percentage of their being of Asturian heritage is probably very good since I believe that the above mentioned dates of the census appears to correspond with the great Asturian migration.

Prior to the battle of New Orleans, I have no other statistical data or names and I admit that I have not done any indepth research. The number of 300 Spanish defenders comes from the exhibits and displays that the former Librarian and EEOC Officer at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Martinsburg, WV, would place in the patients' library honoring veterans of all wars.

I am hoping that this information will inspire additional research into this contribution to our country's freedom and independence by the Spanish peoples and response from the Asturian descendants in Louisiana. Some of the Spanish settlements were named Galveztown, Valenzuela, Baratarian, and La Concepcion. It is reported that today they have an archaic Spanish dialect.

Tu amigo, Manny
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Manuell Alvarez
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Corrigenda (correction)

Post by Manuell Alvarez »

The number of 3,672 is incorrect. From 1900 to 1940, there was a decrease in people born in Spain, and as of 1940, there were only 443 registered in Louisiana. I added all the census numbers together and that was a terrible mistake on my part. For your reference:

1900----583 total
1910----712 total
1920----1,268 total
1930----666 total
1940----443 total

I am assuming that the decreases were due to population shifts due to economic reasons. In the 1930 Census, my Dad shows up in the total for Ohio.

Manny
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Art
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Post by Art »

Another reason for the decline would be changes in the immigration laws. The Emergency Quota Act (or Emergency Immigration Act) of 1921 and the Immigration Act of 1924 severely restricted immigration from southern and eastern Europe. (Asians were also affected by these and earlier laws.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Quota_Act
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Act_of_1924
Wikipedia, quoting Steven G. Koven, Frank Götzke, American Immigration Policy: Confronting the Nation's Challenges (Springer, 2010), 133 wrote:So restrictive were the new quotas for immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe, that in 1924 more Italians, Czechs, Yugoslavs, Greeks, Lithuanians, Hungarians, Poles, Portuguese, Rumanians, Spaniards, Chinese, and Japanese left the U.S. than arrived as immigrants.
The Act "set the annual quota of any nationality at 2% of the number of foreign-born persons of such nationality resident in the United States in 1890." In 1927 the quotas were changed so that "total immigration would be limited to 150,000, with the proportion of the total admitted from any country based on that country's representation in the U.S. population according to the 1920 Census."

After the passage of the Act, about 86% of those who were permitted to enter the US were from the favored Northern European countries, especially Germany, Britain, and Ireland.
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Post by Manuell Alvarez »

Interesting data and information that I have never considered. Equally as baffling is a discovery that I made after posting the information about the University of Virginia Historical Census Browser, where the total persons registered in the 1930 Census for Connecticut shown as being born in Spain is 13,604. In 1920, the total was only 1,233. Then in the 1940 Census the number has diwindled down to 722.

It makes one wonder what happened to approximately 12,000 Spanish people in the ten year span between census. That number is quite a large population shift and where did they go? Especially, if we can trust the number of 13,604 counted for 1930. Apparently, when one compares the totals for the other states having people who were born in Spain, there are no radical increases in the totals for 1940. It does appear that there may have been some moving to other states that previously had listed for 1930, a N/A and some show a decrease when one compares 1930 totals to 1940.

Further, the year 1930 was during the depression ,and I am wondering what economic stimulus prompted 13,604 Spanish people to migrate or move to Connecticut.

Lastly, did approx. 12,000 move back to Spain? I had two uncles, one aunt, and three cousins in West Virginia who did just that.

Manny
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Post by Art »

That could be.

I've heard stories of people (usually working men) who came here to work in industry and later went home to visit or get married. Then, after the 1921 law changed, they couldn't get back into the country because of the change in immigration laws.
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Post by Manuell Alvarez »

I quess that they were classified as foreign nationals living here, and once they left the country, their status changed back to immigrant having to face a tough quota system again.

After sending the posting about the 13,604 Sapnish registered in the 1930 Connecticut Census, I found a site that mentions that by 1932, approximately 42,000 workers in Connecticut were out of work, and it is likely that they were mostly the Spanish immigrants without any options but to return to Spain. Some may have moved to other states where work could be found. In the 1930 census, I found that Dad was working as a painter in Ohio and I quess that his work dried up in New Jersey and so he moved. Further, he was living close to his brother who had a steady job in a steel mill which he kept until his retirement in the early 1960's. Dad was luckier than most who had no one to help them. They were not only faced with economic problems during that time period, but racial discrimination too.

It must have been a hard life for many immigrants during the depression trying to make a home in a new country. Certainly, there were no agencies then that would help them. I am grateful to my father and maternal grandparents who were able to hold on in the difficult times.

So far in my research, I have not found any Spanish immigrant who was on death row of either West Virginia or Connecticut found guilty of a capital offense or crime.

Manny
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