Yo,
I've been reading about 19th century peasant life in Spain recently and it seems, well, kinda terrible, filled with grinding poverty, unchecked violence from the powerful and the spectre of famine, so...
My question is: Why was there no wave of immigration from Spain to the US comparable in size to those from Ireland or Italy, whose peasentry were also putting up with all that?
Or was there? In which case where is the Deep Dish Chicago Style Pepperoni Paella?
Thanks in advance
Unlike Ireland (that never had colonies of their own) and Italy that only got ones much more recently), Spain had several colonies of their own, where poor immigrants could and did try to get a better life, instead of migrating to a completely foreign land with a different language and customs, they could migrate to any colony from Mexico to Argentina where there was plenty available land and where upon arrival they would immediately be considered higher in social scale than most of the native and mixed race inhabitants by virtue of being pure blood Europeans, it is the same reason why Portuguese also preferred migrating to Brazil.