Total population | |
---|---|
c. 15-20million | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Mainly Southeastern Brazil (particularly São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro) |
|
Languages | |
Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish | |
Religion | |
Roman Catholicism, some Protestantism. | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Other Brazilians and Spaniards (mainly Galicians and Andalusians, also Basques, Catalans, Castilians, Asturians, Canarians, Leonese, etc.) |
Other Brazilians and Spaniards (mainly Galicians and Andalusians, also Basques, Catalans, Castilians, Asturians, Canarians, Leonese, etc.)
Spanish Brazilians are Brazilians of full or partial Spanish ancestry.
Spanish immigration was the third largest among immigrant groups in Brazil; about 750,000 immigrants entered Brazil from Spanish ports. How many Spaniards came to Brazil before independence are unknown. Brazilian censuses do not research "ethnic origins" or ancestry, which makes it very difficult to give accurate numbers of Brazilians of Spanish descent. Brazilians of Spanish descent can be estimated as being 15 million people or 20 million according to the Spanish government.
More than half of modern Brazil's territory was attributed to Spain by the Treaty of Tordesillas. However, Spain was unable to settle that region.
During the dynastic union between Portugal and Spain (1580–1640), many Spaniards settled in Brazil, particularly in São Paulo. As a consequence, there are a large number of Brazilian descendants of these early settlers, especially since the early inhabitants of São Paulo explored and settled in other parts of Brazil. The descendants of Bartolomeu Bueno de Ribeira, born in Seville around 1555, who settled in São Paulo around 1583, marrying Maria Pires, are an example of this. Afonso Taunay, in his book dealing with early São Paulo, São Paulo in the XVI century, mentions also Baltazar de Godoy, Francisco de Saavedra, Jusepe de Camargo, Martin Fernandes Tenório de Aguilar, Bartolomeu de Quadros, among others. In his genealogical account of the settling of São Paulo, Pedro Taques de Almeida Paes Leme, also mentions the three Rendon brothers, Juan Matheus Rendon, Francisco Rendon de Quebedo and Pedro Matheus Rendon Cabeza de Vaca, as well as Diogo Lara, form Zamora. Spaniards from Galicia also settled in Brazil during that time, like Jorge de Barros, for example. The family names Bueno, Godody, Lara, Saavedra, Camargo, etc., tracing back to these early settlers, are quite popular throughout Southeast Brazil, Southern Brazil and the Center-West. Silva Leme, in his work Genealogia Paulistana ("Paulistana Genealogy"), addresses several of these families.