Where are the Spanish speakers?

20 Oct 200810 comments

Hi, I'm Nicolas, I work at my MyHeritage as a Community Manager for the Spanish speaking countries. I am based in London but I come from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Mine is a tough task, if you consider that the combined total of native and non-native Spanish speakers is estimated to be around 500 million people. After English and Chinese, Spanish is the third most spoken language in the world. It's therefore not surprising, that more than a million MyHeritage members come from Spanish speaking countries. Have a look at the cool MyHeritage Member Map.

Apart from Spain, a total of twenty countries in Latin America have Spanish as their first language, and a significant number of the population of four other countries also use it, including the United States, where it is the second most spoken language. The main non Spanish-speaking country in Latin America is Brazil, where they speak Portuguese.

We can track the origin of this fact back to

..the Spanish colonization of the Americas, beginning with the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492. Since then, most parts of Latin America have received strong flows of immigration from all around the world. Immigrants and their descendants had an important impact on the ethnic composition of the majority of the present countries.

A good example is Argentina, which is considered a country of immigrants and a melting pot of different peoples. Most Argentines descend from colonial-era settlers and from 19th and 20th century European immigrants. Around 90% of Argentina's population is of European descent, with the majority tracing back their ancestry to Italy and Spain.

I cannot escape this fact myself, as I can trace my family roots back to Italy. My surname is Pergola, and I know that one of my ancestors migrated to Buenos Aires in the early 20th century from Potenza, the capital of a province of the same name in the Basilicata region.

I hope someone with this surname reads this post, so we might be able to find common ancestors. I'm sure my Spanish won't be a problem, as there's a great chance that he or she will speak it too!

Posted by Nicolas on October 20th, 2008 - 14:52

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Miriam Acedo Canton
October 22nd, 2008 - 05:29
Hola! Gracias por su ayuda si le es posible o no ayudarme. Soy de Costa Rica vivendo en Estados Unidos. Estoy tratando de encontrar descendientes de mis padres pero no tengo mayor infornacion. El apellido Acedo parece ser de Navarra, Espana (1749). El Abuelo de mi padre se llamaba Valentin Acedo y su esposa puede haber sido Josefa Masis, pero de eso no estoy completamente segura. El Papa de mi Papa se llamaba Valentin Acedo y parece que su segundo appellido era Masis. Uno de estos Valentines fue el fundador de el appellido Acedo en Costa Rica. My Papa nacio en Bolivia (1918) donde vivieron por unos cinco anos y de ahi se fueron a Costa Rica donde mi padre crecio, se caso, formo su familia y murio.

El apellido Canton es el de mi madre. De este tengo aun menos informacion porque segun lo que recuerda mi madre. su padre Fernando Canton Blandon, salio una manana a trabajar y nunca volvio (1926). Hay quien dice que el era de Nicaragua, pero tambien hay quien dice que puede haber sido de descendientes Occidentales. En fin no hay nadie seguro.

Es posible buscar deecendientes de estas ramas despues de tantos anos y con tan poca informacion.

Otra vez muchisismas gracias por su trabajo en MyHeritage.

Miriam Acedo Canton
Pat Hoffman
October 25th, 2008 - 13:10
I have been trying to find out information in Mexico without a command of the Spanish language. My grandfather came to the US from Zacatecas Mexico around 1912 as a young married man. I have discovered that RAMOS is a very popular name in Mexico. If there is anyone who understands both Spanish and English and is willing to post for me on Spanish websites I can get it translated to English if I get a reply.
Pat
Ignacia Graciela G
October 26th, 2008 - 19:11
Mi abuela vino de España en 1912 tenia10 años se llamaba Ángela Rodriguez vino con su mama' Ignacia Blanco Rodriguez su hermana Cándida Rodriguez y su hermano Saturnino Rodriguez al rededor del año 1918 callo de una escalera en la cual falleció y salio en todos los periódicos de Buenos Aires.
desde ese tiempo mi abuela Ángela no volvió a ver a sus hermana porque la culpo de la muerte de su madre y creo que su hermano regreso a España nunca supe quien fue mi bisabuelo , la abuela no quería hablar de ellos.
En cambio mi abuelo esposo de la abuela Ángela Rodriguez nació en Uruguay calculo que por casualidad poque mi bisabuelo y bisabuela, por parte de mi padre vinieron de Italia cuidad de Larvona mi abuelo Luis G. su hermano Yiussepe G. murió en el ejercito de pneumonia a los 20 años y sus hermanas una Antonia murió en un accidente (quemada) su otra hermana Dominga G murió de vieja y soltera.El papa' de mi abuelo Luis se llamaba José G , izo el ejercito en larvona y la mama' del abuelo también nació en Italia se llamaba Teresa V, quisiera saber quienes son mis antepasados para saber de donde vengo
carioca
October 27th, 2008 - 04:42
Aunque sea brasile
Nicolas
November 6th, 2008 - 16:56
Hello, thank you all for your nice comments!

Those who are interested in finding your ancestors, we recommend you to try the MyHeritage Geneology Center.

Good luck!

///

Hola, gracias a todos por sus comentarios!

Para aquellos interesados en la b
Mario Alvarez Collette
November 8th, 2008 - 20:42
Hola,
Alguien me puede ayudar?La familia de la parte de mi padre Emilio Alvarez Alvarez (ferroes) es de Aviles en Asturias (Espana) me gusteria saber mas de mi famikia.
Mi padre se fui por belgica en el ano 1964, se caso con mi madre Irene henriette Collette..
Ojala que alguien me puede ayudar? gracias atodos.
Rudy Saenz
November 11th, 2008 - 05:25
I have worked with geneology for several years, I was born in Panama, I grew up in Costa Rica, my parents move to San Francisco, California but because of the Somosa regime my parents never return to their country of birth, we became LDS members and I work in their genealogical department for a few years they have a lot info free too, this side is very good a relative invited me, with the different lenguistical resources it makes things very simple and accomodating for a person like me, with famely in the Americas if I can be of any help, plase send me a note. Rudy
Eliana
November 14th, 2008 - 14:34
Hola, me encanta esta web... llevo creando mi arbol genealogico ya casi 1 a
Mary Garcia
November 16th, 2008 - 23:20
I am responding to Pat Hoffman. I am bilingual in English and Spanish. Let me know how I may assist you.
Nguyen Van Minh
August 28th, 2011 - 22:12
If one of the owners of this site reads this,

You fogor Equatorial-Guinea (Between Cameroon & (the) gabon and (the) Congo('s)) in western-central Africa, who also speak Castillian (or Spanish) as their main language.