Hispanidad facts for kids
Hispanidad (literally Hispanicness) is the community formed by all the people and nations that share Spanish language and culture. The 23 nations included are all Spanish-speaking except the Philippines, and can be classified in four geographic areas: Spain, Hispanoamerica, Hispanoafrica and the Hispanopacific. Every October 12 Hispanic Day is celebrated. Hispanidad or Spanish linguistic and cultural diffusion began when the 12 October 1492 Christopher Columbus sighted America and initiated the European colonization in the name of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. The kingdom of Castile (Castilla) built a global empire, spreading their culture and language in the Americas and biologically and culturally mixing with the indigenous peoples, altering the composition of the hemisphere. The penetration and reach of Spain at this time also extended into other European nations.
The Hispanics in the world
The Spanish is the mother tongue that spoken by more than 333 million people (in second place after Chinese). The total number of Spanish-speakers is more than 395 million people.
Europe
In Europe, Hispanics are mainly confined to Spain. There are more than 30 million of them.
America
Most Hispanics are in Hispanic America . There are more than 300 million. Countries like Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, United States, Uruguay and Venezuela .
Africa
Hispanics in the African continent are mostly in overseas territories of Spain (Canary Islands, Ceuta, Melilla and Plazas de Soberanía) and in the nation of Equatorial Guinea. In Morocco and Western Sahara some people maintain Hispanic characteristics. Altogether in Africa two million speak Spanish.
Asia-Pacific
The Philippines is the only Asian country that conserves some identifiably Hispanic influences in its culture and Spanish loanwords in the native languages. Other countries in the Asia-Pacific region that maintain a similar degree of Hispanic influence as the Philippines are:
- Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, where Chamorro, a Spanish-based créole language is spoken because they were Spanish colonies.
- Caroline Islands, which nowadays are divided between the Federated States of Micronesia in the eastern part, and Palau. Spanish-based créole language also are spoken there, and the local languages have got Spanish influence.
- Easter Island, nowadays an overseas territory of Chile. Spanish is the official language of the island.
Images for kids
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Ramiro de Maeztu, author of Defensa de la Hispanidad.
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The priest Zacarías de Vizcarra spread the term en 1926
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Cover of the first edition of Defensa de la Hispanidad (1934), by Ramiro de Maeztu.
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Primate Gomá defended the ideas of Vizcarra and Maeztu.
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See also
In Spanish: Hispanidad para niños
