Spanish settlement of Puerto Rico

The first wave of Canarian migration to Puerto Rico seems to be in 1695, followed by others in 1714, 1720, 1731, and 1797. The number of Canarians that immigrated to Puerto Rico in the first three centuries of Iberian rule is not known to any degree of precision. Still and all, Dr. Estela Cifre de Loubriel and other scholars of the Canarian migration to America, such as Dr. Manuel González Hernández of the University of La Laguna, Tenerife, agree that they formed the bulk of the Jíbaro, or white peasant stock, of the mountainous interior of the island.[10]

The Isleños increased their commercial traffic and immigration to the two remaining Spanish colonies in America, Puerto Rico and Cuba. Even after the Spanish–American War of 1898, Canarian immigration to the Americas continued. Successive waves of Canarian immigration continued to arrive in Puerto Rico, where entire villages were founded by relocated islanders.[11] In the 1860s, Canarian immigration to America took place at the rate of over 2,000 per year, at a time when the total island population was 237,036. In the two-year period 1885–1886, more than 4,500 Canarians emigrated to Spanish possessions, with only 150 to Puerto Rico. Between 1891 and 1895 Canarian immigrants to Puerto Rico numbered 600. These are official figures; when illegal or concealed emigration is taken into account, the numbers would be much larger.[12]

Immigration to the island caused the population to grow rapidly during the 19th century. In 1800, the population was 155,426 and the century ended with almost one million inhabitants (953,243), multiplying the population by about six times. The major impetus for the massive European immigration during the 1800s was the Spanish Crown's proclamation of the Royal Decree of Graces of 1815 (Real Cédula de Gracias), which led to the arrival of primarily Catholic immigrants from some seventy-four countries. Included were hundreds of Corsican, French, Irish, German, Scottish, Italian, Lebanese, Maltese, Dutch, English and Portuguese families moving to the island. Some countries were represented by only a few immigrants, e.g., fifty-one Chinese immigrants during this century. The country that still sent the most people was Spain.

From the start of colonization other groups from Andalusia, Catalonia, Asturias, Galicia, and Majorca had also immigrated, although the Canarian people formed the basis. Once the 19th century came, things changed drastically. According to Puerto Rican scholars such as Estela Cifre de Loubriel, who did extensive research on immigration patterns to the island, during the 19th century the greatest number of Spaniards that came to the island with large families were Catalans and Mallorcans.

Note: Data in table excludes those born in the United States.

The next regions with the largest number of immigrants were Galicia and Asturias, followed by the Canary Islands, the Basque Country and Andalusia. The Catalans, Galicians, Mallorcans, and Asturians typically arrived with large extended whole families. There were regions of the island that attracted some immigrants more than others which was mainly due to political or economic reasons.

Business ownership / late 19th Century[15]
City / Municipality San Juan
Asturians Basques Galicians Mallorcans Catalans	26% 24% 17% 12% 9/10%
Canary Islanders* (Isleños) Castilians* Valencians* Andalusians* Santanderinos*	*10%
Others Total	1% 100%
City / Municipality Mayagüez / Ponce
Catalans	Majority
French, Corsicans, Italians, Germans	Minority

Many Catalans, Mallorcans and Galicians joined the population of the interior, the west and the southern coast of the island (along with large numbers of Corsicans) because of their independent personalities and their desire to stay away from the San Juan area which was dominated by the Spanish. They felt more comfortable by maintaining some distance from San Juan. However, Asturians, Basques, Galicians and Castilians stayed in the capital and owned several businesses, such as banking, coffee and tobacco industry in the surrounding area. In the case of Ponce and Mayagüez the business ownership was dominated by Catalans, with other immigrant groups (see table) such as French, Italians and Germans being represented.[15][16][17][18]

1898 didn't see the end of Spanish immigrants in the island. Although many left, the majority decided to stay. While they continued to be an influence, their numbers however, continued to steadily decline under the occupation of the United States. In 1897 a year before the US invasion, there were 19,686 Spanish-born which fell to 7,690 in the census of 1899. This trend continued into the following decades of the early twentieth century but with less intensity. For example, in 1910 there were 6,630 Spaniards which dropped to 4,975 in the 1920 Census. Even with these numbers, they still formed a majority of the total immigrant population with 56.5% and 60.9%. Immigration flows slowed because of laws by the United States government but large flows continued to other countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Cuba and Mexico which offered more opportunities. The majority of Spaniards lived in San Juan.[13]

In 2009, there were 520 Galician-born people in Puerto Rico.[19]

Presently, Roman Catholics constitute 75% of the island's total population while adherents of Protestant, Pentecostal Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and animists make up the remaining 25%.

Francisco Oller.

Francisco Oller was a Puerto Rican visual artist. Oller is the only Latin American painter to have played a role in the development of Impressionism. He was the third of four children of aristocratic and wealthy Spanish parents.[21][22]

Bullfighting was performed although it never became popular on the island. It was mainly performed in larger cities such as San Juan and Ponce. Be that as it may, it did have a short-lived rebirth in the 1950s and 1960s with bullfighting events performed in the Estadio Francisco Montaner as late as 1967, with others held in the Hiram Bithorn Stadium and Estadio Sixto Escobar in San Juan.[23] The first Puerto Rican bullfighter was Ernesto Pastor, the other being Juan Ramón Fernandez.

Cockfighting club in Puerto Rico, 1937.

Cockfighting is a tradition dating back more than five centuries ago with it being legal in Spain’s Canary Islands, a major influence on Puerto Rico.[24] There is a cockfighting arena in every major town or city.[25][26] Cockfighting had been legal in Puerto Rico since 1933[27] but in 2019, cockfighting was made illegal by the United States administration.[28]

Arguably considered to be the Puerto Rican unofficial national dish, arroz con pollo, or "rice with chicken", is supposedly native to Puerto Rico. The dish has roots in the motherland of Spain. Arroz con pollo dates back to the eighth century when the Moors occupied Spain and influenced the way they imported and exported goods along with the way they ate. Among the other foodstuffs introduced by the Spaniards were beef, pork (chorizo), rice, wheat, and olive oil. Caldo gallego is a dish imported from Spain's northwestern province of Galicia.[29]

Manuel Fernández Juncos wrote the official lyrics in 1903.

La Borinqueña is the national anthem of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Two Spaniards, Félix Astol Artés and Manuel Fernández Juncos, wrote the official music (1867) and lyrics (1903) to the anthem. Astol Artés adapted the music of an earlier tune, "Bellísima Trigueña", while Fernández Juncos changed the lyrics to the piece in the early years of the 20th century, supposedly to suppress any zeal for political independence among the Puerto Rican people. This change in the anthem's lyrics was in reaction to the revolutionary lyrics penned by Lola Rodríguez de Tió, patriot and poet, at the time of El Grito de Lares in September 1868, the most important uprising against Spanish colonial rule in the history of Puerto Rico.

The world-famous piña colada is the official beverage of Puerto Rico since 1978. One claim to the creation of the piña colada was that in 1963 when Don Ramón Portas Mingot, a Spaniard, with a plaque in San Juan commemorating his creation of the beverage in La Barrachina, a restaurant bar.[30]

Sebastián Serrallés was a wealthy Spaniard from Girona, Catalonia, who settled in Ponce in the mid-1830s and bought a small plot of land known as Hacienda "La Teresa".[31] Eventually, Sebastián Serrallés left Puerto Rico for Barcelona and turned over the management of the growing estate to his Puerto Rico-born son Don Juan Serrallés Colón. In 1865, Juan Serrallés Colón (1845–1921) founded Destilería Serrallés, a rum producer located in Ponce, Puerto Rico, known for its Don Q (from Don Quixote) rum brand.[32] Don Q is one of several rums made in the island archipelago. Five-generations on, it is still run by the Serrallés family over a century after its founding.

• Rita Moreno - maternal Spanish grandmother[39]

Felipe VI of Spain and Fortuño with his wife.

Most of the Governors of Puerto Rico have had Spanish ancestry, although the extent of Spanish heritage varies. Later ancestry can often be traced to ancestors from other nations in Europe. They come from many regions within Spain, for example, at least three governors have origins in the Balearic Islands.[40] The first person Governor to officially occupy the position was Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León in 1508.

1898–1949

• José E. Benedicto, 1921-1921 (interim governor)
• José E. Colón, 1939-1939 (interim governor)
• José Miguel Gallardo, 1940–1941 and 1941-1941 (twice interim governor)
• Jesús T. Piñero, 1946–1949: (Canarian) descent.

Puig at the 2016 US Open.

1949 to present

• Luis Muñoz Marín: (Great-grandfather, Luis Muñoz Iglesias, (born 1797) in Palencia, Spain).[41][42]
• Roberto Sánchez Vilella
• Luis A. Ferré Aguayo: (French), Maria Aguayo Casals (mother), was a cousin of Pablo Casals, a Catalan.[43][44]
• Rafael Hernández Colón (first term)
• Carlos Romero Barceló: (Maternal Majorcan descent).[45][46]
• Rafael Hernández Colón (second term)
• Pedro Rosselló González: (Grandfather: Mallorca, Balearic Islands).[47]
• Sila María Calderón: (Maternal Balearic origin).[40]
• Aníbal Acevedo Vilá
• Luis Fortuño Burset: (Catalan) roots from Mataró, Barcelona and Girona via Marín, Pontevedra, Galicia.[48][49][50]
• Alejandro García Padilla: Paternal Asturian (grandfather) descent.[51]
• Ricardo Rosselló: Paternal (Mallorcan descent).

• Ángel Rivero Méndez

• Mariana Vicente

• Luis Lloréns Torres

• Kany García
• Ricky Martin

• Monica Puig of Catalan heritage.[lower-alpha 1][52][53][54]