Canarian Americans

Canarian Americans

Leander Perez Juan Verde Maria Montez Alcide Nunez Alberto Rivera Jeanette
Total population
3,065 (Canarian ancestry, 2000 US Census) 45,000 - 75,000 (estimations)
Regions with significant populations
Louisiana (mainly Saint Bernard Parish, Valenzuela and Galvestown), San Antonio (Texas), Miami
Languages
American English  • Spanish  • French  • Nahuatl
Religion
predominantly Roman Catholic.
Related ethnic groups
Spanish American, Canarians, Cajuns, Californios, Tejanos, Nuevomexicanos

Canarian Americans are Americans with ancestry that can be traced back to settlers and emigrants from the Canary Islands (Spain) arrived since the 16th century to the present to the modern United States. Most them are descendant of settlers who emigrated to the Spanish colonies of the Southern United States during the 18th century. The Canarians were between the first settlers of modern United States, when in 1569 embarked a group of Canarian farmers to Florida (a group of settlers who then were followed for others, both in Florida as in Louisiana and Texas).

The Canarian Americans make up several communities formed by thousands of people in San Antonio (Texas), Louisiana and Miami. The Canarian American communities in the two first places are basically of settler descent (arrived in what is now the United States in the 18th century), while the third is of more recent migration. These communities (particularly those of settler origin because of its isolation) constitute a distinct group within the American population, having preserved the culture of their ancestors through to the present date. Most Canarian Americans speak English, with smaller communities that are also fluent in French (in Valenzuela, Louisiana) and Nahuatl (in Galveztown, Louisiana). Some Canarian Americans speak also Spanish (mainy immigrants and some descendant of settlers in Louisiana). In particular, some members of the Canarian American community of Saint Bernard Parish, in Louisiana (known as Isleños), have not only managed to preserve their culture (as the Canarian Americans of San Antonio), but had also retained until recently the Canarian Spanish dialect used in the 18th century.

The success of Canarian Americans of settler origin in preserving their culture has led some historians and anthropologists such as Jose Manuel Balbuena Castellano to consider the Isleño American community a national heritage of both of the US and the Canary Islands.

History

Canarian emigration to the modern United States started in the 16th century, when Spain had several colonies in the southern portion of the country.

The first Canarians (or people resident there) arrived to South of modern United States came as early in 1539, when the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto recruited some expeditions in the Canary Islands to explore La Florida. Later, in 1569 other group of Canarians farmers embarked to Florida. Nevertheless, colonial Florida remained sparsely populated, with most of the population living at the port of Saint Augustine, which was protected by a military fortress.

However, along to Florida, others Spanish colonies in Americas also remained depopulated, due to the sparsely attention given by Spain since the point of view of the immigration, because these colonies were considered little rich as to metals and wealth refers. So, during the 18th century and basing in the so-called Tributo de Sangre ("Blood Tribute" (1678 - 1764), Spanish law that established that, per hundred tonnes of cargo that somewhere of the Spanish America sent to Spain, this, in turn, sent five Canarian families of five members each to Hispanic America, in order to populate regions having low peninsular populations there - although generally the cargo envoy from Hispanic America to Spain was higher-), the Spanish crown sent several groups of Canarians settlers to its colonies in the South of the modern United States (and in other parts of Americas) with the goal of repopulating these regions.

Thus, between 1731 and 1783 many Canarian families emigrated to southern U.S. for founded and populated places, establishing communities there. In 1731, 16 Canarian families were sent to San Antonio, Texas, most of which came directly from the Canary Islands (and some came from Havana), arriving to Veracruz (in the modern Mexico) and crossing the city (and, since here, some few cities more) on foot until up arrived to Texas and under the leadership of Canarian politician Juan Leal Goraz, who eventually would become in first mayor of San Antonio. This community had confrontation with the monks respect to property or consumptive use of some rivers there.

Between 1718 and 1734, Florida was governed by the Lieutenant General Antonio de Benavides, originating from Tenerife (Canary Islands), and Carlos Benites Franquis de Lugo and Simón de Herrera, both also from Tenerife, governed Texas between 1736 - 37 and in 1811 respectively.

Later, in 1749, La Real Compañía de Comercio de La Habana (The Royal Society of Commerce of Havana), a monopolistic corporation that tried to encourage commercial traffic between Cuba and the peninsula, was require by their statutes to provide annually two vessels bringing 500 Canarian families to Florida. So, between 1757 and 1759, 154 Canarian families were sent to Florida, (although most of settlers of Florida emigrated to Cuba when the then province was ceded to United Kingdom after of the 7 Year War), followed by others 700 Canarian emigrants (according authors such as Carlos Canales Torres and Fernando Martinez Láinez) in the years following to the loss of the province. Florida was reconquered by Spain in 1784. However, when Florida was ceded to United States in 1819, most of new settlers also emigrated to Cuba (as happened in 1763, when Florida was ceded to United Kingdom).

Anyway, still after of the elimination of the Tributo de Sangre law, between 1778 and 1783 were sent over 4,000 Canarians to Louisiana (with the half of them staying in Venezuela and Cuba, where the ship stopped over during his trip to Louisiana), when this place was Spanish, settling down, finally, some 2,100 Canarians in it place. In Louisiana, the settlers eventually would originated three communities: St. Bernard Parish, Valenzuela (where the Canarians were mixed with Cajuns, and his descendant speak French) and Barataria (abandoned shortly after because a hurricane in the place, from where the settlers were settled elsewhere in Louisiana and Florida). Also in 1779, other Canarians were established in Galveston, Texas, with Mexican militaries. However, in 1800, after of fast floods and prolonged droughts in this place, those settlers were resettled in Baton Rouge, where founded Galveztown.

Other places of South United States also had Canarian settlers during the Spanish period in these territories. So, some places in Southern California were founded by Canary Island colonists and there are also records of Canary Islanders colonists and their descendants living in New Mexico in the 19th century.

Since his arrived to modern United States in the 16th century, Isleños took part, as community, in many historic events: So, they participated in the American Revolutionary War (in 1782 - 83), fought in the War of 1812 (in 1814), defended the Alamo (in 1836), and after of the incorporation of Louisiana and Texas into the United States, they fought in U.S. wars such as the American Civil War (developed between 1861 and 1865), both World Wars and the Vietnam War. After this war, in the 50s, in Louisiana, the Government forced all students of the Saint Bernard Parish school to speak only English (Hispanics were even to forced not speak Spanish in public in this parish), so losing eventually the Spanish language in the Parish´s community.

Since the 20th century a new Canary emigration different from above was developed, since these migrant can not have the status of settlers - only of migrants -, and they are primarily aimed at Florida. Many of the Canarians living in United States only live there temporality and by labor issues.

Communities

Now, several Canarian American Communities remain in South United States: This communities are present in Louisiana (Saint Bernard Parish, Valenzuela and Galvestown), San Antonio (Texas) and in Miami (Florida) (where the Canarian community is of recent immigration). However, also there some Canarians living in places as Massachusetts (Boston), New York, New Jersey, Washington D.C. and California. Currently, according to data of the Padrón de Españoles Residentes en el Extranjero (PERE; Register of Spaniards Resident Abroad), released on March 20, 2014 by the National Statistics Institute (INE), in 2013, there were 5,127 Canarians living in United States.

Canarian culture in San Antonio and Louisiana has been preserved up to the present day, although not in Florida.

Louisiana communities of Isleños

Main article: Isleños in Louisiana

In 2000, between 40,000 and 70,000 people of Canarian origin (known in Louisiana as Isleños) lived in Louisiana, being in his majority, descendents of Canarian settlers arrived between 1778 and 1783. The Isleño in Louisiana make up four communities.

The main Isleño community in Louisiana is established in St. Bernard. Although most of his members speak only English, some of they continued to speak a rustic and antiquated Castilian well into the 20th century, as well as preserve traditions like roasting pig and canary hunting (because the community remained isolated from New Orleans). So, today, some Isleños still speak Spanish with a Canary Islander accent.

The other communities is in Valenzuela (where the Isleño speak French) and in Galveztown (where there two Isleño communities and they speak Nahuatl dialects due to the influence of the dominant languages in those places). However, recorded interviews have been conducted in the four communities (especially with the elderly, who still conserve the Spanish language) on video and DVD, now in the Museo Canario (Canarian Museum) in Saint Bernard, to prevent the language and culture from being lost.

The Louisiana Isleños still maintain contact with the Canary Islands, and have an annual Caldo festival, named for a native dish. Modern Canary Islanders travel to the United States to take part in the festivities; Canarian dancers, singers, and even the King and Queen of Spain have attended. After Hurricane Katrina, the Spanish government in the Canary Islands donated money to help repair the Canary Islander Museum and historical properties in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana.

Canary Islanders and the founding of San Antonio, Texas

Aerial view of the city, San Antonio, December 4, 1939

On February 14, 1719, the Texas governor, José de Azlor, made a report to the king of Spain proposing that 400 families be transported from the Canary Islands, Galicia, or Havana to populate the province of Texas. His plan was approved, and notice was given the Canary Islanders (Isleños) to furnish 200 families; the Council of the Indies suggested that 400 families should be sent from the Canaries to Texas by way of Havana and Veracruz.

So, highlight that, before of the arrived of the Canarian settlers, in 1730, was built the San Pedro channel for the exclusive use of the Canary Island colonists. It was called the "acequia madre" (mother ditch) that crossed the city and, later, the main canal. Its waters irrigated fields San Antonio from that time until 1906. The last channel was built in 1777 also bound to supply water to the citizens, the new settlers of Los Adaes-and its remains can be seen yet. American research points out that a coherent picture of the manners of irrigation in the San Antonio colonial period can only be understood in the context of irrigation practices Islands. And to understand the system that settlers implanted islanders must know the ideas about water use had when they came to Texas.

By June 1730, twenty-five families had reached Cuba and ten families had been sent on to Veracruz before orders from Spain arrived to stop the movement. Most of these Canarians were from Lanzarote, Tenerife and Gran Canaria. Under the leadership of Juan Leal Goraz, the group marched overland to the Presidio San Antonio de Bexar.

Presidio San Antonio de Bexar, San Antonio (Texas).

The party had increased by marriages on the way to fifteen families, a total of fifty-six persons. They joined a military community that had been in existence since 1718. At eleven o'clock on the morning of March 9, 1731, sixteen Spanish families (56 people), often referred to as the "Canary Islanders," also known as "Isleños", arrived at the Presidio of San Antonio de Bexar in the Province of Texas. These settlers formed the nucleus of the village of San Fernando de Béxar, and established the first regularly organized civil government in Texas.

Misión de San Antonio de Valero, San Antonio (Texas). The Mision was founded for the Canarian settlers.

Juan de Acuña, Viceroy of New Spain, bestowed titles of nobility on each Canary Island family. After arriving in San Antonio, the Isleños had some problems with the Texas government and the local bourgeoisie. The Franciscan friars were opposed to their founding a town near the area where they had influence. In addition, Canarians competed with them as to farming power and livestock, which dramatically increased due to Native American converts. The missionaries demanded that the settlers be distributed among all existing missions in the territory.

Only Juan Leal, the mayor of the city, refused to implement that idea in favor of founding a city locally, which is what they did. It was in 1736 when the first gland was applied to the distribution of the waters of the San Antonio River. In the development of that legislation in the irrigation system played a special role the settler Antonio Rodríguez Medero and Governor Carlos Benites Franquis de Lugo (also Canarian - he was the only Canarian governor of Texas, together to Simón de Herrera, ruling respectively, between 1736 and 1737 and between July and December, 1811).

In 1736, the Isleños were denied permission to travel to Saltillo, Mexico for medical attention. This was resolved by the Alguacil Major Vicente Álvarez Travieso: After repeated requests, in 1770 the validity of their demands was accepted and they were allowed to travel to Saltillo if they needed medical attention. In addition, the Isleños had no access to water from the San Antonio River, at least they could not use it to irrigate the land they farmed, as the water was reserved for the religious missionaries of San Antonio.

Alvarez Travieso, in his position as Alguacil Mayor, initiated several lawsuits from 1756 to 1771, until at last the Isleños were allowed to have land and water. They also developed irrigation according to the techniques of their homeland. These irrigation problems were resolved with the construction of the Acequia de San Pedro, which was completed in 1741.

The canarians had to compete not only with the missions, but also added new neighbors, Spanish and Mexicans, arriving in San Antonio in the second half of the 18th century, who felt marginalized because the Cabildo charges, created by the Isleños, were monopolized by them. So, fourteen years after the founding of San Antonio, these other neighbors complained that tightening continued domination of the Isleños to the point of depriving them of water for their homes.

The stream of San Pedro was the first who used Canarians since his arrival. But in 1732 the Cabildo of San Antonio wrote to the Viceroy stating that stream water was not enough to irrigate their fields and for this reason they were ruining their crops. In response, the Viceroy mentioned in his order that the waters of San Antonio to be divided proportionately between the missions and settlers. It was about an inspection and found that the flow of water was plentiful enough to supply the missions and the villa. For some time continued tension with the missions, but later it focused on the future grant of land to settlers and irrigation.

Memorial to the Alamo defenders

San Antonio grew to become the largest Spanish settlement in Texas, and for most of its history it was the capital of the Spanish and later Mexican province of Tejas. From San Antonio, the Camino Real (today Nacogdoches Road) in San Antonio ran to the American border at the small frontier town of Nacogdoches. In the Battle of the Alamo fought from February 23 to March 6, 1836, the outnumbered Texan forces were ultimately defeated, and all of Alamo defenders were killed. There were Canary Islanders and descendents among these men, who were seen as martyrs for the cause of Texas freedom, and "Remember the Alamo" became a rallying cry leading to Texas' eventual success in defeating Santa Anna's army.

However, there were also some descendants of Canary Islanders in San Antonio who joined the Mexican army in the war to try to prevent Texas' independence from Mexico, such as the soldier and landowner Juan Moya. Other Isleños supported the annexation of Texas to the United States, and in 1842 the state decided to join the union. The last people to speak Spanish in the San Antonio community died in the 1950s, though their culture is being kept alive.

Now, some 5,000 Isleños (in his majority descendant of the Canarian settlers) live in San Antonio, Texas. Several of the old families of San Antonio trace their descent from Canary Island colonists. María Rosa Padrón was the first baby born of Canary Islander descent in San Antonio. Currently, there are several Isleño associations in San Antonio, such as the Canary Islands Descendants Association and the Fundación Norteamericana Amigos de las Islas Canarias (American Foundation Friends of the Canary Islands), presided over by the Canarian cardiovascular medical specialist Alfonso Chiscano, whose aim is to strengthen the historical ties between Canarians and San Antonio.

In addition, the Oficina Comercial Canaria (Canarian Commercial Office), belonging to the company publishes Proexca and established in San Antonio, works to promote commercial cooperation between Spanish businessmen (Canarians) and Texas. The Oficina de Canarias in San Antonio is an initiative of Canarian universities, university foundations and the aforementioned foundation Friends of the Canary Islands

Canarians in Florida and other places of United States

St. Augustine in 1858

Already in 1539, Hernando de Soto, funded in part by the Count of La Gomera, recruited some expeditions in the Canary Islands to explore La Florida and, in 1565, the newly appointed Adelantado of Florida, Pedro Menendez de Aviles, after leaving Cádiz in 1563, came to Gran Canaria in 1565 and sailed from that port to Florida. According to Venezuelan writer D. Manuel María Marrero, in 1569 a group of 70 Canarian families of farmers embarked from the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (in the boats "Nuestra Señora de la Soledad" and "Santiago") with this destination. Nevertheless, colonial Florida remained sparsely populated, with most of the population living at the port of Saint Augustine, which was protected by a military fortress.

In 1718, was appointment governor of La Florida a Canarian military, the Lieutenant General Antonio de Benavides, originating of Tenerife (Canary Islands) and that ruled until 1734. He, in several occasions, defeated to the English who were trying to conquer Florida, on land and sea, and he repressed the piracy. He also managed to set a peace treaty and friendship between Appalachian American Indians, who were the worst enemies of the colony, and the Spanish, treaty and friendship which lasted without interruption while he was ruling the colony. Benavides also defended the rights of indigenous people, no distinction between classes or persons and was highly respected and admired by all Floridians. Benavides was a of the three Canarian governors of a place of modern United States (the others were Carlos Benites Franquis de Lugo and Simón de Herrera, in Texas).

More Later, in 1749, due to the depopulation of much of Florida, La Real Compañía de Comercio de La Habana (The Royal Society of Commerce of Havana), a monopolistic corporation that tried to encourage commercial traffic between Cuba and the peninsula, was require by their statutes to provide annually two vessels bringing 500 Canarian families to Florida to avoid the English influence. So, for a decade the Canarian families were sent to Florida at a rate of not more than fifty families per year. They were peasant families to which were provided seeds to one or two crops, animals, land and franchises for the export of agricultural products to ports north and south of Spanish America. Thus encouraged emigration to lands on which also reported on its great fertility.

Thus, between 1757 and 1759, 154 families were sent to Florida (42 in 1757, 76 families several months after, and anothers 36 the following year). However, in 1763, after the defeat of Spain by the United Kingdom in the Seven Years' War, Spain was forced to cede Florida, causing the repatriation of most of its inhabitants to Cuba, although a small Canarian community could be permanently established in the region, where they are considered the impellers of agriculture.

However, according to the Spanish journalists Fernando Martínez Laínez and Carlos Canales Torrres (who studied the Spanish History in United States to his book Banderas lejanas: La exploración, conquista y defensa por España del territorio de los actuales Estados Unidos), still after the addition of Florida to the United Kingdom many more Canarian families emigrated to Florida. So, in the 47 years of Canarian emigration to Florida, only 984 families migrated of the 2,350 who wanted the Spanish Crown retained there. It was because most of the Canarians who emigrated were heading to Venezuela and the Hispanic Antilles. In 1783, Spain recovered Florida and some of the Canarian settlers from Saint Bernard also emigrated to West Florida.

Between those years we must highlight the Canarian cartographer, engineer, military and Surveyor general of West Florida Vicente Sebastián Pintado, who developed the "Pintado plan", a street map of Pensacola drawn in 1812 and which included the position and sizes of the “solares” to build the church and other public buildings. So, he left a huge work consisting of maps and plans of streets, letters and documents vital to the complicated sale of land in Florida and Louisiana. In 1974 the Library of Congress in Washington, DC obtained the donation of the Pintado Collection work, a collection of about 1,500 documents stored in the Division Manuscript.

However, Florida was ceded to the United States in 1819, again causing the emigration of almost the entire population living in this state (then a province) to Cuba, although once again, some people remained in Florida.

Currently, there is a recent immigrant community of Canarian people and their descendants living in Miami, within a greater Spanish community established there. Many of these Canarians live there only temporarily and for reasons of employment. So, the vice president of the council of Tenerife, José Manuel Bermúdez, estimated that in Florida live more than 200,000 people from the Canary Islands. Howeverm according to data of the "Padrón de Españoles Residentes en el Extranjero" (PERE; Register of Spaniards Resident Abroad), released on March 20, 2014 by the National Statistics Institute (INE), in 2013, there were only 5,127 Canarians living in the whole United States. Currently, Florida has at least a Canarian association: Hogar canario de Florida (Canary Home of Florida), located in Coral Way, Miami.

Some places and peoples of Southern California were founded also by colonists Canary Islanders.Also were recorded Canary Island colonists and descendant of them in New Mexico in the Spanish era of state.

Culture

The Isleño communities in Louisiana and Texas of settler origin have kept alive the Spanish musical folklore and canary (romance, décima of a local issue, lyric songs) of his ancestors. So, they have also a wide variety of songs, nursery rhymes, riddles, proverbs, folk tales, folk medicine, prayers healing, witchcraft traditions and developed their own microtoponyms (containing Isleño names for numerous animals, such as birds, fish, reptiles, insects and trees, along with the common names of the local species to which they refer).

Songs and Popular Poems

Isleño traditional folklore in Louisiana is varied. There are Canarian Décimas and even Corridas Mexicanas, romances and ballads and pan-Hispanic songs, some of which date back many years, even to the Medieval Age. The Isleños are a people who loves to sing and they have adapted new Hispanic songs, almost any song that they heard regardless of origin, making it their own over time (such as, for example, the Mexican songs Cielito Lindo and La Paloma), especially Texan and Mexican songs (even in Saint Bernard Parish). Something to note is that the Isleños of Saint Bernard Parish have narrative songs in their repertoire that, according to the student of Isleño culture Samuel G. Armistead, were not described and recognized as a specific subtype of Hispanic ballad until their discovery in this Isleño community.

These songs are décimas, but, unlike the Spanish décima, consisting of ten verses and widespread throughout Hispanic America, the décima of the Isleños of Louisiana is made up of pareado. These are stanzas consisting of two verses that rhyme, maybe the same rhyme, a consonant or assonance. These pareado can be of high or low art and the two verses can have the same length, or not, of which four hemistiches, usually octosyllabic, are used. This form is influenced by the Mexican Calendar.

These songs feature events specific to local history (of the 1920, 1930 and 1940s), humorous and ironic comments on the rigors and dangers of the careers of fellow citizens (such as trappers or shrimp fishermen), satirical poems about the misadventures of members of the community, and exaggerated tales of fishing exploits with fabulous, giant crabs and huge schools of shrimp. The Isleños, at least those of Saint Bernard Parish, sang two types of décimas: traditional décimas and improvised décimas, which were composed while they were being sung. The Isleño singer Irvan Perez is one of the most famous singers of décimas. Almost all the Coplas have been transmitted, more or less unaltered from generation to generation, from the time of the original emigrants from Spain, mostly from the Canary Islands, in the 18th century. Canarian Coplas were reinforced, probably by the Spanish colonists who came from Andalusia to the island in the early 19th century.

Nursery rhymes and riddles

Some Isleño children's ballads are El Piojo y La Pulga (The Louse and the Flea), La Mosca (The Fly), and El Pretendiente Maldito (The Cursed Pretender). Riddles can be either descriptive, narrative, mathematical, question, or literature riddles. Descriptive riddles are defined as "descriptions of objects in a way that suggests something completely different". Some descriptive guessing also incorporates word games. The narrative usually involves a story of an "event known only by the person who poses the riddle." Having a cult origin, literary puzzles are often more complex, abstract and esoteric than their traditional counterparts. Proverbs and folk tales are also part of typical Isleño community traditions.

Legacy

Languages and culture

The Canarian dialects are being lost in Texas and Louisiana. By 2007, researchers of Isleño communities in the southern United States had recorded 82 hours of information shared about these communities (57 hours by Isleños, 10 hours by Brulis, 10 hours by speakers in Texas and 5 hours by Adaeseños). In the case of Brulis, Adaeseños and speakers in Texas, the material is, basically, linguistic. On the other hand, interviews with the Isleños bear witness to a rich diversity of language samples, folk and popular literature. These communities have a wide variety of songs, nursery rhymes, riddles, proverbs, folk tales, folk medicine, prayed healing, witchcraft traditions and many Isleño microtoponyms (containing Isleño names for birds, fish, reptiles, insects and trees, along with the common names of the local species to which they refer).

Books were also published containing information gathered from this recorded material, such as The Spanish Tradition in Louisiana, published by Samuel G. Armistead to ensure their preservation over time.

This Isleño material relates not only to the Canary Islands, but also to several other regions of Spain and perhaps Portugal, as immigrants from these places have been coming to Louisiana basically since the 19th century, mixing in the Isleño communities. However, the Isleño's repertoire is especially evidence for the constant and dynamic creativity of the singers, storytellers, entertainers, children's playground, proverbs and riddles.

Isleños travel to the Canary Islands every year, in order not to forget their roots and keep in touch with the land of their ancestors. In 1980, the Saint Bernard Isleño community built the Isleños Museum to preserve the Canarian culture there. It was badly damaged by the arrival of Hurricane Katrina, but since 2007, money sent by the government of the Canaries has been used for its restoration. Until its destruction, the museum possessed the treaty by which France ceded the West of Territory of Louisiana to Spain in 1763.

Others

People of Canarian origin have made a trail of traditions in San Antonio. One of their contributions was the irrigation system of the island of Gran Canaria, which they developed on the banks of the San Antonio River, as some American researchers have studied. In that region were substantial water resources that provided the San Antonio River and San Pedro sources. Along the river were established several missions: San Antonio de Valero (which were placed canaries), Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, San José, San Juan Capistrano and San Francisco de la Espada. The Isleños and missionaries built seven irrigation canals during the 18th century. Each of the missions of the Concepción, San Juan, San Jose, San Francisco de la Espada and San Antonio had an irrigation ditch. Until the secularization of the missions in 1794, the waters of the first four were for the exclusive use of Indian farmers welcomed in the fields of missions. The channel of San Antonio de Valero, called acequia madre ("mother channel"), was also used by American citizens.

• Today in La Villita, in downtown San Antonio, there is a plaque in memory of the Canarian founders in San Antonio: "This city of the State of Texas was founded in 1731 by Canary Islanders." And in the municipality of San Antonio a sign recalls the names of the fifteen families island. Also, next to The Alamo - Old Mission San Antonio de Valero - there is a great millstone that was brought to the town by other Canarians in the 18th century to the grinding of gofio
• Even in the 20th century in that area (San Antonio) shows the persistence of elements characteristic of irrigation practices in the Canary Islands: the "dula" ("gland") and "Secuestro" ("kidnapping").

Notable Canarian Americans

• Carlos Baena (animator) - Canarian born American animator
• Juanita Castro - Cuban activist and sister of former Cuban President Fidel Castro and current President Raúl Castro.
• Héctor Elizondo - Puerto Rican actor of Basque and Canarian descent
• Camille Guaty - American actress of Cuban and Puerto Rican parents of Canarian descent.
• Tom Hernández - Canarian born American actor
• Pepe Hern - American actor and brother of Tom Hernández
• Jeanette (singer) - British born - American raised singer of Maltese and Canarian descent
• Maria Montez - Dominican actress of Canarian and Dominican descent
• Alberto Rivera - Canarian anti-Catholic religious activist who was the source of many of the conspiracy theories about the Vatican espoused by fundamentalist Christian author Jack Chick
• Génesis Rodríguez - American actress and daughter of Venezuelan singer of Canarian descent Jose Luis Rodriguez, el "Puma"
• Narciso Rodriguez - American fashion designer of Cuban parents of Canarian descent
• Juan Verde - business and Spanish social entrepreneur

Isleños in Texas

• Gaspar Flores de Abrego
• Ignacio Lorenzo de Armas
• Simón de Arocha
• José María Jesús Carbajal
• Juan Curbelo (Tejano settler)
• Juan Leal
• Antonio Rodríguez Medero
• Juan Moya
• Salvador Rodríguez
• Vicente Álvarez Travieso

Isleños in Louisiana

• Page Cortez
• Albert Estopinal
• Albert Estopinal, Jr.
• Joe Falcon
• Joachim O. Fernández
• Joseph Gonzales (politician)
• Louis H. Marrero
• Alcide Nunez
• Robert Nunez
• Samuel B. Nunez, Jr.
• Irvan Perez
• Leander Perez
• Matthew Randazzo V
• Junior Rodriguez
• Paul Sanchez

See also

• Isleños
• Isleños Fiesta
• Criollo people
• Hispanos
• Canarian people
• Canarian dialect
• Spanish American
• Spanish in the United States
• History of San Antonio

External links

• Official Los Isleños Heritage and Cultural Society 1345 Bayou Road, St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana 70785.
• Canary Islanders Heritage Society