[cll]

"Many Hispanics claim to be descendants of the Canary Islanders. I’m not sure why."

If I may answer this question, my grandfather came from Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The Canary Islands is a region (sort of like a U.S. state) of Spain. Before the advent of the airplane, the Canary Islands was a way station for shipping between the Americas and mainland Spain. Many Spanish people transited through the Canary Islands on their migration to the New World. Some waited there for years for their passage, and many thousands of children were born there while their parents waited to cross. That's how my grandfather was born. His parents were from Jaén in Andalucía and they were waiting for their passage to Puerto Rico in Tenerife.

In the late 1800s, Spain granted citizenship and land in the Americas to many non-Spanish Europeans in exchange for their loyalty to the Spanish Crown and the Catholic Church. This, added to a famine that was brewing in the Canary Islands, fueled a mass migration of Europeans and Canary Islanders to the Americas, especially to Puerto Rico, Cuba, Venezuela and the United States.

Most Puerto Ricans today are direct descendants of these late 1800s European emigrants.

Puerto Rico Ping! Please Freepmail me if you want on or off the list.

[JRios1968]

If I may add a little to what you correctly stated...

When I was in the Air Force, I deployed to Morón Air Base. Morón de la Frontera is less than 20 miles from Sevilla, which is smack-dab in Andalucia. Puerto Ricans (for one,) are mostly descendants of Andalucians.

PS: Andalucians do NOT consider themselves to be equivalent to Castillians, who are different from the Gallicians, who are very different from the Basques...the folks in Spain are very territorial about that.

[KGeorge]

Thanks so much, cll. Now, I know. It’s a beautiful place. Kinda scary, though, because of the seismicity there.

[Clemenza]

Not entirely true. Most Puerto Ricans have African ancestry as well as white ancestry. Most “whites” in Puerto Rico would not be considered white in Europe and the US. As is the case here in Brazil, “white” often means “racially mixed, but fair skinned” rather than based on genetics.