Hidden Out in the Open: Spanish Migration to the United States (1875–1930) ed. by Phylis Cancilla Martinelli and Ana Varela-Lago

Abstract

Reviewed by: Hidden Out in the Open: Spanish Migration to the United States (1875–1930) ed. by Phylis Cancilla Martinelli and Ana Varela-Lago Beth Ann Green-Nagle Cancilla Martinelli, Phylis, and Ana Varela-Lago, editors. Hidden Out in the Open: Spanish Migration to the United States (1875–1930). UP of Colorado, 2018. Pp. 349. ISBN 978-1-60732-798-1. In this important contribution to the history of immigration to the United States, Hidden Out in the Open: Spanish Migration to the United States (1875–1930), editors Phylis Cancilla Martinelli and Ana Varela-Lago present a fascinating and accessible collection of essays accompanied by informative graphics and engaging photos. Hidden Out in the Open is not exhaustive, but it provides a significant addition to the field by focusing primarily on working-class migration to [End Page 276] the United States and building upon the work of Germán Rueda and Felipe Fernández-Armesto, and regional scholarship like that published by the Center of Basque Studies at the University of Nevada-Reno. The chapters examine the history of Spanish immigrants and their contributions during the period of mass migration from Spain between 1880 and 1930. This collection examines the transnational aspect of Spanish migration to the United States, and highlights the movement between Spain, Cuba, the United States, and the US territories of Hawai‘i and Panama. Immigrants left regions such as Galicia, Asturias, Cataluña, and Andalucía motivated primarily by economic need. Needing a stable workforce, US companies recruited Spanish workers for specific industries. The chapters describe these diverse industries: Panama Canal construction, agricultural work on sugar cane plantations in Hawai‘i and Cuba, the cigar industry in Tampa and Brooklyn, and mining in West Virginia and Arizona. Following the introduction, Varela-Lago’s essay explores the transnational networks created by Spanish immigrants and how their Spanish identity adapted to the changing times between the 1870s and 1936. The immigrants created and maintained connections to the Spanish homeland via travel, Spanish-language publications, organizations like social clubs and mutual aid societies, the promotion of Spanish history and culture in the United States, as well as community establishments. Varela-Lago delves into the influence of Spanish anarchists and the connections that they created across immigrant communities. The collection republishes two articles from the 1980s which are fundamental resources for researchers who study migration from Spain to the United States. In “The Andalucía-Hawai‘i-California Migration: A Study in Macrostructure and Microhistory” (1984), Beverly Lozano explains the Hawaiian sugar cane industry’s motivations to recruit Spanish field workers and their families, the socio-economic reasons to leave their homeland for Hawai‘i, and the move to California. In “Spanish Anarchism in Tampa, Florida, 1886–1931” (1986), Gary R. Mormino and George E. Pozzetta detail how Spanish anarchism developed and was organized in Tampa, Florida among immigrants mainly from Galicia and Asturias. Mormino and Pozzetta emphasize the importance of the mutual aid societies and anarchist groups to the Latin community in Tampa. Christopher J. Castañeda contributes a history of Brooklyn’s Spanish colony from 1878 to 1925, their development of a cigar industry, and the rise of a local anarchist movement. Castañeda describes interaction between Spaniards and Cubans in the cigar industry, and a dynamic and sometimes tense interplay between the Cuban separatists, the Spanish anarchists, and labor activists. Brian Bunk studies the cultivation of Spanish identity in New York in the 1920’s through the experiences of young Spanish women and their participation in local pageants and popularity contests. Bunk provides a detailed description of how Spanish and regional organizations promoted a Spanish identity through social activities. He astutely analyzes how the community constructed and controlled the gender identities of young Spanish women. In her essay on Spaniards working in the Arizona copper mines from 1880 to 1930, Cancilla Martinelli expands our understanding of Spaniards’ contribution to the history of the Western US. She scrutinizes the racial classification of Spaniards as part of the “Latin Race,” an “in-between” racial status (214–15). Then she examines the situation of the Spanish population in the Arizona towns of Jerome, Ray, and the Clifton-Morenci-Metcalf District...