Project Directors
James D. Fernández is Director of New York University, Madrid and Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at NYU. Luis Argeo is a journalist and documentary filmmaker based in Gijón, Asturias, Spain.-
Join 290 other subscribers
Pages
Spanish Immigrants in the United States 
My grandparents came from Macotera, Salamanca. Grandfather worked on Panama Canal, Argentina, and then Hawaii before going to Oakland/San Leandro, California where he married my grandmother, also from Macotera. I am my family’s genealogist and last generation to speak Spanish (TheWriteTranslator.com). I have lots of old pictures and family documents that I can share if I can be of specific help to your Project.
Daniel. We would love to see all these pictures and family documents and stories… Why don’t you take a look at https://www.facebook.com/tracesofspainintheus We have several followers sharing their pics there. Thanks a lot. Un abrazo.
Mi abuelo (Macario Broto Laplana) fundó el bar Aragón de Chicago. Me gustaría saber si todavía existe… Mi abuelo nació en una aldea llamada Bruello, perteneciente al núcleo de santa María de Buil, provincia de Huesca. Llegó a Ellis Islan en el barco Montserrat.
Hola Blas. Pues parece que hay un Aragon Ballroom situado al norte de la ciudad, a 8km, en lo que se conoce como Uptown. Se abrió en 1926, y parece que está lleno de historias (vinculadas a la Ley Seca, a Al Capone, a combates de boxeo… Green Day grabó un concierto para la MTV allí en 1994). Me limito a traducir a grandes rasgos lo que he encontrado en Internet… ¿Qué nos puedes decir tú de tu abuelo? ¿Conoces nuestro https://www.facebook.com/tracesofspainintheus? Un saludo. Gracias por compartir tu historia.
Hola: efectivamente mi abuelo tuvo algún tipo de vecindad con Al Capone (según un hijo se llegó a enfrentar a él (¡¡¡). Pero la apertura hubo de ser antes de 1926, porque él volvió a España, aproximadamente, en 1920.
Hi, Daniel. Thanks so much for the visit and the comment. We’d love to learn more about your family history. We’re trying to compile a vast archive of documents and images that will chronicle as fully as possible the history of this Spanish diaspora. To that end, we travel around the country conducting oral history interviews, scanning documents and family photo albums, etc. Would you be willing to help us out? Do you live in the Bay Area? I can be reached at jf2@nyu.edu.
ps We’ve documented a good number of cases of folks from Macotera, Salamanca ending up in Hawaii and California. We hope to conduct some fieldwork there as well.