Do many Americans claim Spanish or Portuguese ancestry in the same way many identify as having Scottish, Italian, Irish, or German heritage?

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SarK-9@reddit

Yes, we have a large Portuguese community in my area. Mostly dairy farmers from the Azores.

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famousanonamos@reddit

That's funny. My grandma's family was from the Azores and she grew up in the bay area.

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My folks were from the Bay Area with a great-grandma who was Portuguese. Did some digging last year and found out her side was from the Azores. From the ship’s manifest you could see the final destination was central CA from the start. So this all tracks.

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SarK-9@reddit

Indeed.

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CaliforniaSun77@reddit

Grew up in Hanford, can confirm.

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Automatic-Plate-8966@reddit

Hey I grew up there too

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Automatic-Plate-8966@reddit

Gotta love the festas and linguica feeds

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WarrenMulaney@reddit

Filhó!

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Dangerous-Safe-4336@reddit

I grew up in a town with a bunch of families from the Azores. They were a coherent community when I was growing up. But they were starting to intermarry with the Mexican population, since they all went to the same church. So by now there may be a bit less Portuguese pride than there once was.

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Alarmed_Drop7162@reddit

Farmers ranchers in the Central Valley claim Portuguese. Almonds, dairy farmers.

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Gertrude_D@reddit

I know a family who's proudly Portuguese-American that moved here from New England. I'd imagine Spanish ancestry would be similar to English or maybe even French. They were the original colonizers, so their contribution to culture was so long ago it feels more like the general background rather than a pop of color like Portuguese or Italian.

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PairPrestigious7452@reddit

Where I live there are a ton of Portugese-Americans.

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prezzpac@reddit

Massachusetts or Rhode Island?

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PairPrestigious7452@reddit

Would you believe Monterey, Ca.?

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GeneralBlumpkin@reddit

My Portuguese great grandfather was a very prominent rancher and farmer in that area. His last name was Silvera and Lyons on my great grandmas side

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eyetracker@reddit

San Leandro, CA, lot of Azoreans. More historically Oakland too (Jingletown/Fruitvale). And Del Norte County is "Dell nort" probably from Portuguese pronunciation instead of Spanish.

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PabloPicasshooole@reddit

And Pismo Beach. They used to call it Portagee Palm Springs

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CaliforniaSun77@reddit

We called it the Portuguese Riviera

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prezzpac@reddit

Huh. You learn something every day. And my New England-centric worldview has been revealed.

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rckblykitn14@reddit

RI Portagee here!! 👋

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Cool-Bunch6645@reddit

Or Ironbound in Newark, NJ…

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Outlaw_Josie_Snails@reddit

First place I thought of. As well, another small town in south Jersey that has a growing Portuguese population is Riverside.

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TheDude-Esquire@reddit

New Bedford?

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fruitcup729again@reddit

Same here in Hawaii. They brought us the inspiration for the ukulele.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavaquinho

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Inside-Try-394@reddit

Portuguese by way of the Azores is just about the old sg ethnic aristocracy in California

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Sparklykazoo@reddit

And the bread.

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fruitcup729again@reddit

And malasadas and Portuguese bean soup and probably a million other things

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AliMcGraw@reddit

Rhode Island?

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CupBeEmpty@reddit

Yup. There’s a lot of Portuguese/Brazilian/Cape Verdean immigrants and their descendants.

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kritter4life@reddit

Central coast, Ca. ???

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BloodOfJupiter@reddit

Providence??

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Automatic-Plate-8966@reddit

The southern part of the Central Valley of California has a massive Portuguese-American population. They are mostly from the Azores

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ND7020@reddit

Portuguese, yes, in regions that saw large concentrated Portuguese immigration (e.g. Rhode Island).

Spanish less so just because so many original Spanish settlers in the U.S. came to what became the country before it even WAS the U.S., and/or their partial Spanish heritage is mitigated by closer links to Latin American countries their ancestors lived in for a long time AFTER Spain.

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pgm123@reddit

I know some Puerto Ricans from New York who talked about their Spanish heritage.

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boulevardofdef@reddit

I always think of New York Mets legend and longtime color commentator Keith Hernandez. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, during the heyday of his baseball career in the '80s before the Internet made it easy to look this stuff up, he was widely believed to be Hispanic because of his surname, even to the extent of earning the nickname "Mex." But Hernandez is just a run-of-the-mill white guy whose surname came from his father, who had Spanish ancestry.

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AlpsHelpful1292@reddit

Same thing with Jerry Garcia.

If we want to be technical though, Spaniards *are* Hispanic, but not Latino.

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LuckyStax@reddit

Compared to Ted Williams who wouldn't have been allowed to play baseball if he had his mother's last name

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ND7020@reddit

TIL

He leaned into it with the Pancho Villa mustache, TBF.

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linkxrust@reddit

From Santa Fe,NM and most the locals trace their ancestry directly to Spain. No stops in Mexico. Been in Santa Fe for generations. Since the 1600s.

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Excellent-Gold1905@reddit

This sort of thing mostly depends on two things.

1, You need a collective of people with similar backgrounds in a relative area.

2, Often you want a shared struggle/histroy of why they are X-Americans.

For example Irish-American and Italian-American communities both faces exclusion from other groups, banded together into communities, and formed a real situation/thing.
You could argue similar is happening with Somalians in Michigan right now, though if they will see themselves as Somlians or "Somali-Americans" remains to be seen.

Spanish-American don't really exist because where such communities did exist they were generally the defacto primary group. They were from former Spanish colonized areas. Portuguese-Americans are a bit more realistic but there is not as large or centralized groups of them as compared to Italian-American or Irish-American groups.

German-Americans do exist but more famously you have the "Pennsylvania Dutch" who are mostly (historically speaking) from the Palatinate region of Germany but also just a lot of germanic people/groups who settled in/around Pennsylvania over the course of centuries (the earlier centuries for American settlers). They also speak a form of German sort of unique to them/the area.
Which again this group followers those two basic ideas they have shared struggles and came together into a real community they just did it way earlier than most of these other ones.

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Constellation-88@reddit

Yes

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eyetracker@reddit

Basque flag bumper stickers aren't uncommon in the west. I recommend you try a Basque restaurant too.

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Agreeable-Sun368@reddit

Portuguese yes, but anyone claiming to be Spanish American has Spanish parents or grandparents. Latin people don't call themselves Spanish American lol.

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Sociolinguisticians@reddit

Pretty much everyone here claims heritage of some kind.

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AdelleDeWitt@reddit

Portuguese yes. I don't think I've met anyone who is Spanish. I think maybe just because they give up because if someone says they're Spanish everyone's going to assume they mean Mexican.

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yellowdaisycoffee@reddit

I am sure they do, but prevalence depends on your area.

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Responsible_Side8131@reddit

Where I grew up, there were tons of Portuguese (and Brazilian) people.

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Meilingcrusader@reddit

Rhode Island and Southern MA have a lot of Portuguese people

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mangobibi@reddit

Yes, specifically Spanish and mostly by those who consider themselves better than Mexicans and want to differentiate themselves as European vs Latino.

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Few-Wrongdoer-5296@reddit

In some parts of the country, yes. New England and the mid Atlantic have a large Portuguese diaspora, for example, and California has a smaller but still visible group of people whose ancestors come from Spain when California was their territory. Though I think most of the country’s identity with Spanish ancestry identity comes from Mexican Americans, who are pretty split on identifying with European or Indigenous heritage.

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Dangerous-Safe-4336@reddit

California also has significant populations from Portugal. I grew up in a town with a bunch of families from the Azores. They were a coherent community when I was growing up. But they were starting to intermarry with the Mexican population, since they all went to the same church. So by now there may be a bit less Portuguese pride than there once was.

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Few-Wrongdoer-5296@reddit

That is interesting! The area I grew up in only really had Portuguese Brazilians. But it makes sense people from the Azores would be here, too. I’m being stereotypical so forgive me, but are the communities mostly in coastal areas?

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Dangerous-Safe-4336@reddit

I think so. I also know of such communities in coastal New England. I was told by my friend's parents that they moved to our town because they liked the climate (cool and foggy.). Many Azoreans were fishermen, too

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Few-Wrongdoer-5296@reddit

Yeah, the history in New England is why I asked. In American History I was told that a lot of people from the Azores were already involved in the fishing and whaling industries so they naturally gravitated towards communities with those jobs in the US.

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HonestLemon25@reddit

Here’s a map of ancestry if you’re curious! Looks like there’s a lot of them in Stanislaus and Merced counties

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PsychologicalAir8643@reddit

Yes, in find this to be the case. I'm ethnically Spanish, but my mother and grandparents were born in Mexico, and I live in California. There is not a large expat Spanish community in the US, unlike Mexicans here (and Mexicans in Spain, too!) It gets complicated, choosing to identify with either culture or genetic heritage

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QueenBBs@reddit

This is me as well. Both of my maternal grandparents were born in Mexico but my grandfathers last name is native to Spain so I know we are Spanish and not just Mexican.

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Sirenista_D@reddit

My my ex/daughter's dad is from Peru. She and I were vacationing in Spain and found our last name on the map - it's a Basque town! It never occurred to us that there would be a Spain connection to us in this way, but... Wow!

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QueenBBs@reddit

My family is from the Basque region as well! If you do a DNA test that area of Spain has its own separate DNA.

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Few-Wrongdoer-5296@reddit

If y'all haven't been to Nevada you should visit! There's a decent amount of Basque culture there

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ratteb@reddit

Wonderful how old it is.

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beamer_boy2000@reddit

I’m in the same boat but apparently I’m Basque so it’s like being Spanish but niche, idk I feel Mexican but people tell me I look white/Spaniard/Italian/greek. I like identifying as Mexican just because racists always lose their shit over it

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Few-Wrongdoer-5296@reddit

I feel like we don’t hear about Mexicans and Central Americans in Europe very often, but there’s definitely a population there! I’m white, but being from California, I’ve been around the European vs Indigenous debate a lot. There seems to be generational and socioeconomic divides around it too

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Pkrudeboy@reddit

Most Cubans I’ve met go hard on the Spanish ancestry side.

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Few-Wrongdoer-5296@reddit

I don’t know very many Cubans, but from what I know of the country that does make sense.

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Darmok47@reddit

The SF Bay Area also has a large Portugeuse diaspora, mainly from the Azores. There's a "little Portugal" in San Jose.

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Few-Wrongdoer-5296@reddit

Thats interesting, I haven’t spent much time in the Bay Area. I’ll have to visit sometime.

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LettingHimLead@reddit

I have Portuguese ancestry, as my grandfather was a first Gen American with parents from the Azores. My mom grew up in a Portuguese-American neighborhood in CT.

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nowhereman136@reddit

One of my neighbors flies a Portuguese flag next to the American flag. Brazilian immigrants are much more common.

The US didn't have the same influx of Spanish and Portuguese immigrants like there were from the rest of Europe. Between 1850 and 1950, when the bulk of European immigrants came over, Latin America was better suited to attract those immigrants. There's no fluent German, Italian, or Russian governments in the new world, so they had to make do in the US. Spanish and Portuguese had other options.

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Aggressive-Emu5358@reddit

I do claim Spanish ancestry because we have very clear records of when our family came here from Spain, where they came from, who they were, and so on. And for the most part my family has not really married outside of that cultural group. We also maintain many traditions and foods that while clearly evolved originate in Spain and other Hispanic influenced parts of the Americas like the Southwestern US.

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lonelygayPhD@reddit

Come to Fall River, MA, and you'll be visiting little Portugal. My mom is from the Azores and was bilingual. My grandmother spoke only Portuguese.

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MarionberryPlus8474@reddit

There’s a significant Portuguese population scattered in packets around my state (some of them actually originating from Cape Verde, and interestingly very distinct from the Portuguese speaking Brazilian community) but I have never encountered a Spanish (as in, from Spain) community. We have tons of Spanish speakers, of course, from all over.

I wonder whether it’s because people leaving Spain generally went to Spanish colonies, and only later came to the US.

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breadlyplateau@reddit

Filipino-Americans love to claim Spanish/Portuguese ancestry.

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Ok-Flight-1504@reddit

Portuguese heritage is very common. I haven't seen a lot of Spanish (as in from Spain) people as most people who speak Spanish are from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, etc.

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TheDrAlbrhect@reddit

Yes. They do. Very vocally and visually. Here in Florida it's insanely common to see people with the flags of their ancestors' country on their car windows too.

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CaptainAwesome06@reddit

Regular white Americans? Not in my experience.

Plenty of Hispanic-Americans will talk about their Central/South American ancestry.

My SIL is half-Panamanian and she'll always talk about being "Spanish." She doesn't even speak Spanish.

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Proof-Republic-7587@reddit

“Has any American’s family ever come from Portugal?”

Asking the important questions here.

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LupusLycas@reddit

Most people of Spanish ancestry identify with their more recent Latin-American ancestry.

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itdoes_doesntit@reddit

If I had it, I’d claim it.

My mom’s dad was from Hungary. As a kid surrounded by mostly British or German descendants, I thought Hungarian was exotic. lol

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Excellent-Practice@reddit

If you go to New Mexico or Rhode Island, you will find lots of people who identify as Spanish or Portuguese respectively.

In New Mexico and the broader south west, the old Norteño families have been there since before Mexico was a modern nation. They aren't part of recent migratory trends and don't identify as mexican; their ancestors came from Spain and then the border moved around a bit before it settled where it is today.

The Portuguese in Rhode Island represent a recent and ongoing migration event. Portuguese fishermen found that Narragansett bay was a good place to make a living and they still have uncles and cousins coming over to join them

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ophaus@reddit

Absolutely. We're a nation of immigrants, and many of them care about arbitrary crap like this.

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winerdars@reddit

Our for of racism means that anyone with a Hispanic or Latin heritage is called a mexican

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Reasonable-Company71@reddit

In Hawai'i if you ask a person what ethnicities they are they will tell you ALL of them. Personally I am Hawaiian, Portuguese, Filipino, Norwegian

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unix_name@reddit

Americans claim any ancestry if they have it. We love to do it.

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94grampaw@reddit

I have never met one.

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glowybutterfly@reddit

Americans tend to be pretty excited about our ancestry in general. If we have it, odds are good we'll claim it.

I have both Spanish and Portuguese ancestry, dating back to the 1600s. I doubt it would even show up on a genetic test, but it's still part of my family's history.

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TheBimpo@reddit

Of course people claim their heritage, there's just far fewer Portuguese in the US than Irish or Italian so they're not as romanticized in media.

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tsukiii@reddit

There’s not as many, but yeah. A lot of the people with Spanish and Portuguese ancestry came through Latin America first and that’s how they identify.

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CupBeEmpty@reddit

I lived in Providence, RI and yes absolutely. People are very proud of their Portuguese/Brazilian/Cape Verdean cultural heritage.

The biggest difference is that nationwide there are a lot less people with those heritages than Irish or Italian.

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marshmallowserial@reddit

A Portuguese person born in the USA is Portuguese in the USA. But in Portugal now so much

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Happy_Confection90@reddit

Depends on where we're from. Americans of Portuguese decent are most common on both coasts. In my family the Portuguese members originated from Bermuda and the Azores, which is not uncommon for people from Massachusetts and Rhode Island (and California, Hawaii, and New Jersey).

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rawbface@reddit

Definitely. There are a ton of Portuguese-Americans in New Jersey.

Latin Americans will most often cite the country their family immigrated from. But my mom grew up in Puerto Rico, and for her having a recent ancestor from Spain was taken as a point of pride. However, that could just be internalized racism.

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AZJHawk@reddit

I stayed in the Ironbound area of Newark for a few days last year. There is a huge Portuguese influence there - it was great, and Newark was a very pleasant surprise.

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AZJHawk@reddit

My wife’s family is from Boston and her maternal grandfather was of Azorean descent. We definitely include it when we talk about her and our kids’ ancestry.

It’s just one of so many, though, that nothing stands out in particular. Our kids are a mix of: Portuguese, Irish, English, Scottish, Swedish, French, French Canadian, Polish, Ukrainian, and Russian, and those are just the ones we know of.

So, a mishmash of Northern and Eastern European, with a dash of Portuguese.

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famousanonamos@reddit

There are big Portuguese populations in some places and none in others. I regularly ship linguica to my mom from California because she hasn't been able to find any in Kansas. She's near Wichita, so if you know of a place, help a sister out lol.

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evergreengoth@reddit

It's more common for people with Spanish heritage to have Mexican or other Latino heritage and to therefore identify more with that. Most Americans with Portuguese heritage are either in the same boat or don't know about their Portuguese heritage because it's a small amount. But yes, I've met Americans who were proud of their Spanish heritage.

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OptatusCleary@reddit

Yes. I know lots of Portuguese-Americans, given that I’m married to one. It’s one of those communities that seems huge once you’re connected with it at all, but might be less visible to people who are less knowledgeable about it.

In general, people “claim” ancestry that they actually have. Most of the people I know who say they are Portuguese, Irish, or Italian have actual grandparents or great grandparents from those places, not distant unknown ancestors. Of course, there’s a difference between a “strong” claim and a “weak” claim: a person who suspects they have very distant German ancestry might say “I’m part German…” in certain contexts, but not have much of an identification with it. But a person who strongly identifies with it usually has a pretty well-established connection, in my experience, either to the home country or to multi-generational ethnic communities.

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Word2DWise@reddit

In America, anyone who speaks Spanish is assumed to be Mexican.

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TheRealThordic@reddit

Loads of Spaniards and Portuguese in NJ.

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queercactus505@reddit

In New Mexico they do. There are a lot of families that have been in the area since the 16th century, and see themselves as very distinct from Mexican Americans (who also have Spanish and indigenous ancestry). New Mexico Hispanos even have their own dialect of Spanish.

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datsyukianleeks@reddit

They certainly do in the northeast where they are present in large numbers.

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ScatterTheReeds@reddit

There are many Portuguese in my area. Some are from the Azores. Some are Cape Verdes.

I honestly don’t recall meeting a second or more generation Spaniard.

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DeMessenZijnGeslepen@reddit

Here in Idaho, we have people with Basque ancestry and many Hispanic people, but not many people of Spanish or Portuguese ancestry specifically.

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BoopleSnoot921@reddit

Yes.

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pmyourhotmom@reddit

Yes

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biggcb@reddit

Maybe, but not in my experience. Definitely not to the levels of Italian and Irish.

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SaintsFanPA@reddit

The longest bridge in the world is the Braga Bridge. It goes from Massachusetts to Portugal.

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HumbleLife69@reddit

Yes

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Any_Nectarine_7806@reddit

Well, only those that are Spanish or Portuguese ;)

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growing_fatties@reddit

I'm sure there are at least one or two with zero Spanish or Portuguese ancestry who claim it as well.

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Any_Nectarine_7806@reddit

Markets in everything.

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RioTheLeoo@reddit

The vast majority of our Latino population has Spanish ancestry, but almost none of us would say we’re Spanish

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VallettaR@reddit

My family immigrated from Spain in the early 20th Century, ship landed in Lahaina, Maui. They worked the land and finally came over to SF Bay Area after WWII. There were a few enclaves of Spaniards and Portuguese in the Bay Area, usually the sunny spots and not SF proper. Too much fog!

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Quirky-Invite7664@reddit

Google “Hilaria Baldwin Spanish”

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Perplexio76@reddit

I recall visiting Rhode Island on a genealogy trip with my parents back in the 90s and we asked this one gentleman if we could go on his property to see a family cemetery plot that some of our ancestors were buried in. He not only said yes but pointed us in the right direction. We had a brief discussion with him about genealogy and he mentioned his ancestors were Portuguese and that area of Rhode Island actually had a relatively decent sized Portuguese-American population.

I don't hear that quite as much Spanish-American pride as I do Portuguese-American Pride though. I think most Native Spanish Speakers in the US are from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and/or any number of countries from Central or South America. Granted if you go back far enough many of them likely have some Spanish ancestry, I just don't see/hear that acknowledged quite as much.

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SaltyEngineer45@reddit

Spanish ancestry (along with some others) yes, but not unless someone asks specifically about my family background. I see no real point in claiming to be anything other than American considering I was born and raised here.

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Odd-Bullfrog7763@reddit

My wife is from mexico she doesnt want to claim Spanish ancestry. But most Americans do claim whatever ancestry they have. One of my best friends has Portuguese ancestry.

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Fun-Talk-4847@reddit

Only the ones that have Portuguese and Spanish ancestry.

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tinaismediocre@reddit

I grew up in Fall River, MA. We are the most Portuguese city in America, per capita. Something like 75% of my city claim Azorean Portuguese heritage and every time we visit the islands we meet tons of people with ties to Fall River. So I'd say yes, but outside of a few states (MA, RI, CA, HI) Portuguese is not a common nationality to claim.

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pikkdogs@reddit

No, not where I have been anyway. Northern Europe is where most claim heritage, Poland, Germany, Norway, Finland, Sweden, those kind of places.

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ncconch@reddit

Si

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Certain_Departure716@reddit

My wife is ethnically Mexican-American and has traced her ancestry back to Briones, Spain (Briones being her surname as well). She is very proud of her Spanish and Mexican heritage.

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turdferguson3891@reddit

There's a few places in the US with many Portugeuse immigrants where people would claim it. With Spanish, it's mostly Latinos and they typically don't stongly identify with that part of their ancestry unless they are completely Spanish and consider themselves white (Cubans mainly).

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Pedadinga@reddit

I will say yes, but no. If someone asks, I will say I'm Portuguese, which is true, one of my biological parents was a Portuguese immigrant, and it's a pretty big community in my hometown. But I have never been in a Portuguese family's house and there's flags on the walls, or a wall of famous Portuguese people like I have literally seen in Italian/Irish-Americam homes. I've never thought "wow, does this guy EVER STOP talking about being Portuguese?"

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Madmagzz@reddit

My grandparents were from Spain, they immigrated to NYC in the 1920s. There used to be an area called Little Spain in NYC because of all the Spanish immigrants who settled there in the early 1900s. I haven't met many people with Spanish ancestry tho.

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tn00bz@reddit

Not to the same extent. Most of the spanish ancestry in the united states comes from Latin american immigrants whose countries have experienced ethnogenisis to a degree which white americans have not. So for instance my wife, who is the descendants of a Chilean and mexican immigrants claims to be Chilean and mexican. However, if she is probed further, she is aware of her indigenous, basque, and spanish mixture. We actually got to visit where her great granBasque, was from in Bilbao. Very cool place.

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Piney1943@reddit

I wish more Portuguese would move to Atlantic county in NJ. Opening restaurants would be my choice. I love the food.

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AncientFloor5924@reddit

New Mexico is full of proud descendants of conquistadors even though the Navajo still hold a grudge.

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deadlyhausfrau@reddit

Uhhh. I mean, most Americans know and claim their ethnic heritage even if only as a conversation topic. I know my breakdown in percentages even.

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BuffaloDivineEdenNo7@reddit

Amazing how many people are saying yes for portuguese. I've met one in my life, lol. More common in my experience are spanish from new mexico.

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john_hascall@reddit

Really rare out here in the Midwest where it's mostly German, Scandinavian, Brits and the odd Dutch.

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earthhominid@reddit

There's a prominent and proudly bosh Portuguese descended community in my area. I've heard of a similar situation with Spanish heritage in New Mexico

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UsedToBePOS@reddit

Not in Wisconsin

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Teahouse_Fox@reddit

According to one of those geneology tests, I'm 20% Spanish/Portuguese, and 20% four other things.

Ancestry is not the same as culture. But I generally culturally identify as American, by way of the West Indies.

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Doll_duchess@reddit

Where I live there is a large community of people from the Basque Country. We’ve got basque cultural centers, restaurants, dancers, sports, festivals, people visit from overseas for some. I have always been a bit disappointed my mom’s family wasn’t more involved in all that.

It feels weird to say ‘I’m basque’ as opposed to saying ‘my grandparents were basque’ or ‘I have basque heritage.’

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KindheartednessLast9@reddit

Yes, especially in New England

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Bob_12_Pack@reddit

My wife's grandmother is from the Azores. Every now and then someone meets my wife and calls her out for being Portuguese, it's kinda cool, except lately her skin tone means secondary screening at customs.

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pawsplay36@reddit

Sure. One of my ancestors used to own Texas, and one of the surnames in our family is Galician.

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ith228@reddit

Some, particularly in Newark, NJ and Massachusetts with heavy Portuguese-American communities. Spaniards didn’t immigrate to the US with the same volume as they did to the Spanish colonies. The only people I’ve met in the US who claimed Spanish ancestry were people who came from Spain.

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Bulky-Passenger8735@reddit

What do you mean by “claim”? Like displaying their mother country’s flag on their car? Yes!

I have European ancestry and it’s not something I care too much about. But I’m several generations removed.

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Sad-Log7644@reddit

I used to live in a city well-known for both Portuguese and Spanish immigrants and their descendants.

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Zealousideal_Draw_94@reddit

Not the same ways, as in “I am 100% Irish” boosting when their families left Ireland 120+ years ago.

But yes many claim and are proud of the multiple cultures that make them up.

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Phoenix_Court@reddit

It's common in some areas, but it's not as common overall. Mainly because Spanish and Portuguese colonists primarily settled in South America where British, German, Italian, and French mainly settled in North America.

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Sad_bippy@reddit

Yes, though not as overall common in my experience. My family is Portuguese on my mother’s side. It wouldn’t be weird for me to claim that ancestry, but broadly speaking you probably won’t hear people mention it as often as, say, Irish or Italian.

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SabresBills69@reddit

Spanish American means you come from Spain.

hispanic is revered broadly to South and Central American

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purritowraptor@reddit

I'm one of them, but was raised outside of the main communities.

I've been called out for my name and appearance though. It's definitely caused a bit of an identity crisis.

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madame_de_la_luna@reddit

We have a fairly large Portugese-American community in my part of California.

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Hurdlelocker@reddit

Absolutely. My dad’s side of the family claims it almost louder than our German heritage even though it’s just my dad’s mom’s dad’s family.

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lawyerjsd@reddit

There aren't that many Americans of Spanish or Portuguese heritage, but yes. There are even ethnic enclaves for Portuguese immigrants.

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AdmiralChancey@reddit

Yes, although typically the Spanish or over shadowed by Mexican/Meso American cultures as they are a large part of the ethnic make up of America. Most people I know who have Spanish heritage typically are also Mexican but there are communities in the states that are Spanish and proud of it.

In my local area in California there is a large Portuguese population and they hold a parade every year in the next town over and hold a bloodless bullfight. The Portuguese Americans here are very vocal about being Portuguese and it’s not uncommon to see their flag out front of their homes

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SincereLeo@reddit

Yes.

In the American Southwest, which was colonized by Spain, many people claim Spanish heritage dating back centuries.

More recently, in the Northeast, there have historically been a fair number of Portuguese immigrants through various boating industries. There are absolutely people who identify as Portuguese or Portuguese-American, and there are signs of Portuguese culture on restaurant menus, etc.

Those are just examples from places I have lived - I’m sure there are others.

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fembot1999@reddit

Yes. Why wouldn’t they?

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GoodTofuFriday@reddit

Depends what you mean by spanish. Im spanish but I infer my island heritage, not Spain.

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DarkLordJ14@reddit

I have ancestry from Spain (as in my great-grandfather was born there), but I’m the only non-Latino person I know who claims Spanish descent. It isn’t too common to see people with direct Iberian ancestry as opposed to people who have it through being Latino/Hispanic, if that makes sense.

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damutecebu@reddit

I worked with someone whose ancestors emmigrated to New Mexico from Spain when it was still part of Mexico. She made it clear that she was a "Spanish American" and not "Hispanic."

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CorsairExtraordinair@reddit

I think there are more Spanish and Portugeuse in Central and South America than in N America.

I do run into some, but not as many Irish, German, Scottish, Dutch, etc.

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Ok_Jackfruit2612@reddit

Why would they not?

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HarlequinKOTF@reddit

As Spanish-Americans? Yeah sure. They're just less common than Germans, Irish, or Italians.

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Lovebeingadad54321@reddit

Just the ones from Spain and Portugal…

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Vyckerz@reddit

Sim

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FiendishCurry@reddit

My paternal great-grandparents were both Portuguese from Madeira. I claim it as part of my ancestral mix.

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RespectableBloke69@reddit

I've met very few people who match this description. Just a few people I can think of who are from or their parents are from Spain or Portugal. Most people I know with Spanish or Portuguese heritage are from Mexico, Brazil, or another Latin American country and they identify first and foremost with that country. Not the same way that Americans will be like "I'm Irish" even if it was their great great great grandparents who were born in Ireland.

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Livid_Accountant1241@reddit

Yes. I would say it is more common with people with Portuguese heritage. I know some states have very proud communities that serve traditional Portuguese dishes and have cultural celebrations.

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ItsDiddyKong@reddit

Absolutely yes lol.

It's often regional how large any given community is, but it's extremely common.

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