Author Archives: espanyu

4th of July/4 de julio

If your grandfather had been born just one village over to the east or west, he probably would have emigrated not to the US, but to Uruguay or Venezuela, Cuba or Mexico.  If your grandmother had been born a year … Continue reading

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Una España en miniatura en la despensa (2)

El 12 de octubre de 1931, La Prensa (de Nueva York) publica este panorámico reportaje especial sobre tiendas, mercados y bodegas españoles en Nueva York.  No tiene desperdicio.  La importancia de la comida para la colonia; el carácter emprendedor y … Continue reading

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Una pequeña España en la despensa

Sería difícil exagerar la importancia que tuvo la comida en las vidas de los emigrantes españoles en EEUU.  Y las recetas de la abuela han sobrevivido más tiempo que la lengua.  La exposición “Emigrantes invisibles” (Madrid: Centro Cultural Conde Duque, … Continue reading

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Cristina Pato, on the speeds of loss

This article originally appeared in gallego, in La Voz de Galicia, on April 19, 2019.  It was translated to English and Spanish by Mónica Álvarez Estévez. Photos by Alejandro J. Fernández.  [Scroll down for the Spanish and Galician versions. Thank … Continue reading

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Los sastres y sus letreros

Palabras de James D. Fernández, pronunciadas en el Instituto Cervantes de Nueva York, el 9 de febrero de 2019, en la presentación de actividades del Consello da Cultura Galega en torno a la muestra fotográfica “Os Adeuses” Para Dolores Sánchez, … Continue reading

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Nueva York, Nueva York, déjà vu de nuevo

por James D. Fernández La nueva novela de María Dueñas, Las hijas del capitán, ambientada entre los inmigrantes españoles que vivían en Nueva York en los años ‘30, se añade a un extenso y variopinto catálogo de libros escritos por españoles … Continue reading

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Spaniards and Soccer in St. Louis, MO

This gem of an article, from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (1934), reminds us of the importance of the Spanish colony of St. Louis and East St. Louis, and of the significant role played by Spaniards in the development of the … Continue reading

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Sav(or)ing the Traces of Spain in the US: Café Bustelo

So what’s left? is very often the question we get once we’ve described –to college classes, conference attendees or documentary audiences– the diaspora of tens of thousands of Spaniards who put down roots all over the US in the late nineteenth- … Continue reading

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More Paulino Ghost Sightings

Chatham Township, NJ, 27 October 2018 Basque heavyweight boxer Paulino Uzcudun (1899-1985) prepared for several of his New York bouts at a training camp here about 30 miles west of the city, run by a remarkable immigrant woman born in … Continue reading

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The Ghost of Paulino Uzcudun in Hoosick Falls, NY

Hoosick Falls, New York, 13 October 2018 We traveled today to this picturesque if rundown town some 200 miles north of New York City, with Paola Uzcudun, granddaughter of the Basque heavyweight boxer Paulino Uzcudun (1899-1985).  “The Basque Woodchopper” spent … Continue reading

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