Isleño American
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 3,065 (Canarian ancestry, 2000 US Census) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Louisiana (mainly St. Bernard Parish and Galveztown), San Antonio, Miami | |
| Languages | |
| American English • Spanish • French • Nahuatl | |
| Religion | |
| predominantly Roman Catholic. | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Spanish Americans, Canarians, Californios, Tejanos, Louisiana Creoles,Nuevomexicanos |
Canarian Americans are Americans with ancestry that can be traced back to settlers from the Canary Islands of Spain who have emigrated since the 16th century to the present-day United States. Most of them are descendants of settlers who emigrated to Spanish colonies in the Americas during the 18th century. The Canarians were among the first settlers of the modern United States; the first Canarians migrated to modern Florida in 1569, and were followed by others coming to La Florida.
Canarian Americans today consist of several communities, formed by thousands of people. Those in San Antonio and in Louisiana are mostly of Canarian settler descent. Their ancestors arrived in what is now the United States in the 18th century, while the Canarian community in Miami is made up of recent emigrants and their children. These communities are culturally distinct within the American population, having preserved much of the culture of their ancestors to present times.
Most Canarian Americans now speak only English, although some Canarian communities that speak different dialects of the Spanish language are still extant in Louisiana. These include the Isleños of Saint Bernard Parish who have managed to preserve their culture as well as their dialect of Canarian Spanish, although none of the younger generation speak more than a few words; the Brulis, who live in scattered households in southern Louisiana and speak a dialect with French loan words; and the Adaeseños in the Natchatoches and Sabine parishes who speak a very similar dialect with loan words from the Nahuatl language of Mexico. 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 the United States and the Canary Islands.
Canarian emigration to North America started in the 16th century, when Spain had several colonies stretching around the Gulf of Mexico. The first Canarians arrived in the region as early as 1539, when the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto recruited Canary Islanders to join his expeditions to explore the wilderness of La Florida. The Canarian scholar Javier González Antón says some Canary Islanders went to Florida with Pedro Menéndez, who founded St. Augustine, the first permanent European settlement in what is now the United States, in 1565.
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