Indiano
Indiano – a colloquial term in Asturias for people who went to the Spanish colonies or succeeding client states to make their fortune. Those who returned enriched built ostentatious houses. Many planted palm trees in the yard as a mark of their new status.
The Indianos were primarily young people from Asturias, Galicia, Cantabria, the Basque Country and the Canary Islands. They went mostly to the Spanish colonies in Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Uruguay, and Venezuela in search of personal fortune. Many had family members there already set up as local caciques. Caciques were at the time essentially feudal barons who ruled local villages on a patronage system.[1] This colonial system ensured that the barons were awarded primarily through personal connection. However, many Indianos who did not have such a connection tried to become caciques themselves.
Those who succeeded in amassing fortunes then returned home to the north of Spain to gain favor and social status in Spanish society. A common way to do this at the time was by buying a title of nobility. Another favored way to gain social status was to become a patron of a cultural institution. The building or renovating of palatial homes was another common pastime for those newly rich. What is the point of amassing a fortune if you can’t then lord it over the locals? These “casas de indianos” are today a tourist attraction of sorts. There is a museum housing the archives of the indianos and their colonial exploits.
Indianos & Asturian Gastronomy
The Indianos are responsible for two major changes in Asturian gastronomy. The first is that they helped to spur along the switch from consuming cider from barrels to consuming it from bottles.
The second is the addition to Asturian gastronomy of cooking styles more common to South America. In specific, cooking al espetu or a la estaca arrived in Asturias directly with one person - Antonio Viejo Menéndez (1879-1959) from the village of Los Pontones in Telledo parish of Lena conceyu. He was sometimes called Anton el americanu de los Pontones or Anton el Gaucho.[2][3] A cowboy on the Argentinian pampa, he learned the local style of cooking whole cows on spits in front of fires. Upon his return to Asturias, he adapted it to lamb, and in doing so created something of a sensation.
Indiano Controversy
Quite a bit of this ennobling and cultural work was undertaken to whitewash the fortunes of the indianos. In many cases their money came directly from the slave trade. A large number of indianos allied with the local ranchers in the Americas to form a political pressure group. That group successfully blocked all attempts at reforming or abolitionist legislation in Spain, and helped extend slavery for decades. A famous example of this type of Indiano was Antonio López y López, 1st Marquess of Comillas. Until 2018 had a statue to him in Barcelona.[4] He amassed a truly staggering fortune in the slave trade in Cuba. And of course was richly rewarded both by government and socially.
- ↑ Real Academia Española (2020) Diccionario de la lengua española Retrieved April 7, 2021. from https://dle.rae.es/cacique
- ↑ Ricardo Luis Arias. “«Antón y la fiesta del cordero» de Ricardo Luis Arias - Cartas de los lectores en La Nueva España - Diario de Asturias.” La Nueva España, 9 Sept. 2016, https://mas.lne.es/cartasdeloslectores/carta/24475/anton-fiesta-cordero.html.
- ↑ Méndez Riestra, Eduardo. Diccionario de cocina y gastronomía de Asturias. pp 251 1st ed., Trea, 2017.
- ↑ “Barcelona retira la estatua de Antonio López por “esclavista”” [Barcelona removes Antonio López monument under slavery allegations]. La Vanguardia (in Spanish). Barcelona, Spain. 2018-03-04. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
