Spanish Peruvian - Origins and Passage

Origins and Passage

The regions from which most Spanish immigrants originated were those of Extremadura, Castile, Galicia, and Andalucía. Most of the colonial immigrants, in consequence, went from the southern regions of Spain to what now is considered the coastal Peruvian region. These immigrants generally departed from the ports of Cadiz or Sevilla and arrived in the ports of Callao, Mollendo and Pimentel. Many of these immigrants made a stopover in a Caribbean port before arriving in Peru. Before the development of the Panama Canal ships would forced to go around Cape Horn to reach Peruvian ports. Although not many, a few travelers made their way from Europe to Peru via the Amazon River. These immigrants would seek passage on the many commercial ships going to retrieve rubber in Peru to bring back to Europe. These immigrants would arrive at the river port of Iquitos. Almost all of them stayed there. These immigrants numbered no more than a few thousand.

There are also a group of Hebrew origin (Sephardim), though most emigrated in the Colonial era. The Sephardim who emigrated to different countries in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries were predominantly from North Africa, Anatolia and the Balkans, and not from Spain or Portugal. As a result of Alhambra Decree and the conversions because of the Inquisition in Spain, Portugal and its respective colonies in the late fifteenth century, mostly emigrated to North Africa, regions of the Ottoman Empire and to a lesser extent Italy, although also to the Netherlands, England and its colonies. Many of the descendants who migrated to the Spanish and/or Portuguese colonies in the Americas in Colonial times are mixed people with local population and profess Christianity, especially Catholicism.