Indiano

Palace of the Marquis of Manzanedo, now the Town Hall of Santoña (Cantabria). Note the palm tree in front of the entrance.
Casa de los Ceas in Cordoba, known as Casa del Indiano because it was bought by the wealthy indiano Juan Cosme Paniagua.[1]
Pazo de Trasariz, in Vimianzo (A Coruña).

Indiano was the colloquial name for the Spanish emigrant in America who returned enriched, a social typology that had become a literary cliché since the Golden Age.[2] The name was extended to their descendants, with admiring or pejorative connotations depending on the case.[3]

The Indianos became local leaders in the era of caciquismo (late 19th and early 20th century), a period in which large contingents of young people, especially from regions with easy access to the sea, such as Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque Country, Catalonia and the Canary Islands, were forced at that time to do what was known as the Americas:[4][5] emigrate in search of a better fortune in Latin American countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Uruguay and Venezuela. In some cases, they came at the request of their relatives already established in those places, forming remarkably successful family businesses. Most were not so fortunate, and found no better fate in America than the poverty from which they were fleeing.

Those who managed to amass real fortunes and decided to return years later to their places of origin, sought prestige by acquiring some noble title, buying and restoring old casonas or pazos, or building new palaces, in a very colourful colonial or eclectic style, which came to be called "casonas", "casas de indianos" or "casas indianas" (in some areas, such as the Asturian town of Somao, they are particularly abundant).[6] They often incorporated palm trees in their gardens as a symbol of their adventure in tropical lands.[7] They also established their mecenazgo in charitable or cultural institutions, subsidising the construction of schools, churches and town halls, building and repairing roads, hospitals, asylums, water and electricity supplies, etc. Literature and art often made reference to the history of emigration to America and the return of the Indianos.[8]

The cleanliness of the origins of some of these fortunes was always in question, especially those of those who enriched themselves through the slave trade (such as Antonio López y López, ennobled with the title of Marquis of Comillas), and who, in collusion with the landowners established overseas, set up the slave-owning lobby to obstruct any kind of abolitionist legislation that might be developed in the metropolis, such as the reforms promoted by Julio Vizcarrondo (himself a descendant of slave-owning landowners). Prominent among the pro-slavery group were Antonio Cánovas del Castillo (brother of José Cánovas del Castillo, who had become wealthy in Cuba) and Francisco Romero Robledo.[9] Slavery was not definitively abolished in the Spanish colonies until October 7 of 1886.

  1. ^ Cordobapedia (in Spanish).
  2. ^ In Lope de Vega, the journey to the Indias in search of wealth and the wealthy indiano frequently appear with pejorative overtones (La noche de San Juan, El premio del bien hablar, La moza de cántaro; Amar, servir y esperar, El desprecio agradecido, etc.). In Calderón's work, the indiano also appears as a personification of wealth. This significant example from "Guárdate del agua mansa": Good they are but ten years / of Indias are much better / I thought that the adage / of having a father mayor / was a child compared / to the supreme dignity / of having an Indiano father. Pedraza Jiménez, Felipe B.; González Cañal, Rafael; Marcello, Elena (2001). Calderón: Sistema dramático y técnicas escénicas: actas de las XXIII Jornadas de Teatro Clásico: Almagro, 11, 12 y 13 de julio de 2000 (in Spanish). Universidad de Castilla La Mancha. ISBN 8484271382.
  3. ^ Indiano de hilo negro is defined in the DRAE as a greedy, miserly, mean man (Real Academia Española. "indiano". Diccionario de la lengua española (23rd edition).).
  4. ^ "Américas". RAE (in Spanish).
  5. ^ Bahamonde Magro, Ángel; Cayuela, José; Cayuela Fernández, José Gregorio (1992). Hacer las Américas: Las élites coloniales españolas en el siglo XIX. Alianza Editorial. ISBN 8420642312.
  6. ^ - Bores Gamundi. Casas de indianos (in Spanish). Junta de Galicia. ISBN 84-453-2803-4. - Alejandro Fernández Braña; Marta Llavona Campo (2008). Un viaje en el tiempo: Recorridos por las casas de indianos en Asturias (in Spanish). Nuevedoce. ISBN 978-8493106034. - Biblioteca indiana (in Spanish). - Somao, el pueblo indiano de Pravia (in Spanish). - Casas de Indianos en La Palma Archived 2010-01-29 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish). - Las Casas de Indianos (in Spanish). - Las Encartaciones (Vizcaya): legado indiano (in Spanish) - La ruta de los indianos en Cataluña (in Spanish). - Casonas de indianos (in Spanish). - Antiguas Casas de indianos en Asturias y Cantabria (in Spanish). - Por el occidente astur. Casas de indianos (in El Mundo, in Spanish). - La ruta de los indianos (in Spanish). - Video in YouTube (in Spanish).
  7. ^ - La palmera y la casa del indiano (in Spanish). - La palmera, símbolo de poderío... (in Spanish).
  8. ^ Guarda indiano tu riqueza (sings Alex Vicens), in the zarzuela Los Gavilanes: [1] (in Spanish).
  9. ^ - España y la esclavitud. Cánovas del Castillo y Romero Robledo (in Spanish). - Eloy Martín Corrales, La esclavitud en la Cataluña de fines del siglo XVIII y primera mitad del XIX. Los "amados" sirvientes de indianos y negreros, Historia moderna, historia en construcción (in Spanish) (by Pierre Vilar and Carlos Martínez Shaw), vol. 1, 1999, ISBN 84-89790-30-2, págs. 133-150.