This is a list of notable Americans who self-identify themselves as Americans of Spanish descent, including both original immigrants who obtained American citizenship and their American descendants.
There are also many people in the United States of various Latin American "national" origin, (e.g. Mexican Americans, Cuban Americans, Venezuelan American etc.) or other Latin Americans, who self-identify their heritage or origins as being Spaniard in census data.
To be included in this list, the person must have a Wikipedia article showing they are Spanish American or must have references showing they are Spanish American and are notable.
Each section of this list is ordered by surname.
List
Artists and designers
Adela Akers (born February 7, 1933) – Spanish-born American textile artist
Mabel Alvarez (1891–1985) – prominent American artist
Javier Cabada (born October 25, 1931) – Spanish-born American artist who paints colorful, abstract works
Eva Camacho-Sánchez – Spanish raised American fashion designer and maker focused on felted decorations, jewelry, housewares, and accessories at her company Lana Handmade
Beatriz Colomina (born 1952) – Spanish-born architecture historian
Julio de Diego (1900–1979) – Spanish-born American visual artist
Anh Duong (born October 25, 1960) – French-American artist, actress, model, and daughter of a Spanish mother and Vietnamese father.
John A. Garcia (born 1949) – Spanish-born entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is best known as a pioneer of the modern American computer game industry.
Frank Garcia (1927–1993) – American son of Spanish immigrants[1]
Adele Morales (1925–2015) – American painter and memoirist of Spanish and Peruvian descent
Wenceslao Moreno (1896–1999) – Known to his American fans as "Señor Wences", Moreno was for decades a top ventriloquist in Spain and elsewhere in Europe, as well as in Latin America and the United States. In the US, he was a favorite in vaudeville and, later, television, especially on The Ed Sullivan Show. He was born in Salamanca, Spain, and died at the age of 103 in New York City.[3]
Stephen Mopope (1898–1974) – Kiowa painter, dancer, and flute player of Spanish descent.
Victor Moscoso (born 1936) – Psychedelic underground comix cartoonist, born in Galicia and raised in the US.
Esteban Munras (1798–1850) – 19th-century Spanish artist, probably best known for the vibrantly colored frescoes that adorn the chapel interior at Mission San Miguel Arcángel in California.
Antonio Prieto (1912–1967) – Spanish-born American ceramic artist and art professor at Mills College in Oakland, California. He was instrumental in developing an important ceramics collection for the Mills College Art Museum.
Faye Resnick (born July 3, 1957) – American television personality, author, and interior designer. She is of Spanish, Italian and English descent.[4][5]
Kat Von D (born March 8, 1982) – tattoo artist of European descent; Spanish ancestry from mother[8]
Business
Micaela Almonester, Baroness de Pontalba (1795–1874) – Wealthy New Orleans-born aristocrat, businesswoman and real estate developer, and one of the most dynamic personalities of that city's history.
John Casablancas (1942–2013) – American modeling agent and scout. He is credited for developing the concept of supermodel. His parents were Spanish, having escaped Spain during the Spanish Civil War[9]
Manuel Lisa (1772–1820) – Spanish fur trader, explorer, and United States Indian agent. He was among the founders in St. Louis of the Missouri Fur Company, an early fur trading company, and he was also the first settlers of Nebraska[10]
Juan de Miralles (1713–1780) – Spanish-born arms dealer and messenger to the American Continental Congress.
Edward L. Romero (born January 2, 1934) – entrepreneur and American diplomat who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Spain and Andorra from 1998 to 2001. His family was descended in part from the Spanish settlers who arrived in New Mexico in 1598[12]
Frank Stephenson (born October 3, 1959) – American automobile designer. He is son of a Norwegian father and a Spanish mother[13]
Andy Unanue (born July 3, 1967) – former vice president of Goya Foods
Joseph A. Unanue (1925–2013) – served 27-year tenure as president of Goya Foods, the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the United States
Rodolfo Valentin (born June 22, 1944) – New York City hairdresser and entrepreneur, to Italian and Spanish parents.
Benito Vázquez (1738–1810) – Spanish-born soldier, fur trader, merchant and explorer. He emigrated to Missouri when it was part of Louisiana and lived there until the end of his life.
Louis Vasquez (1798–1868) – American Mountain man and trader. Born in Missouri, he was the son of Benito Vázquez
Ariana Barouk – TV host, actress, model, and singer, who represented Cuba in the seventh edition of the environmentally oriented Miss Earth, International Beauty Pageant. His parents are Cubans of partially Spanish descent (her grandmother maternal was Spanish)
Joan Bennett (1910–1990) – American stage, film and television actress. Her mother was actress Adrienne Morrison, daughter of actor Lewis Morrison, who was of English, Spanish, Jewish, and African ancestry[21][22]
Constance Bennett (1904–1965) – American actress sister of Joan Bennett
Barbara Bennett (1906–1958) – actress/dancer sister of Joan and Constance Bennett
Maria Canals-Barrera (born September 28, 1966) – American actress, voice actress and singer of Catalan descent.[23]
Ouida Bergère (1886–1974) – Spanish father and English/French mother[24]
Alexis Knapp (born in Avonmore, Pennsylvania) – American actress. Her mother is Cuban of Spanish descent.
Paloma Bloyd (born in Chicago, Illinois) – American actress. Her mother is from Spain.
Fortunio Bonanova (1895–1969) – Spanish born baritone singer and a film, theater, and television actor.
Diego Boneta – American actor and singer. His father is Mexican, while his mother was born in the United States, to a Puerto Rican father and Spanish mother[26]
Richard Cansino – American voice actor and nephew of Rita Hayworth.
Renée Estévez – American actress, daughter of Martin Sheen
Mel Ferrer (1917–2008) – American actor, director of stage and screen and film producer. Cuban father of Spanish descent[34][35]
Santino Fontana – American actor, director, and composer, widely known for playing Greg on the television show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. He is one quarter Spanish descent[36]
Trixie Friganza (1870–1955) – American actress of Spanish and Irish parents
Martin Garralaga (1894–1981) – Spanish-born film and television actor who portrayed more than 200 roles in film and television
Anya Taylor-Joy – American-born Argentine and English actress and model. Her English-born mother is of South African and Spanish descent.
Lainie Kazan (born May 15, 1940) – American actress and singer of half Spanish Sephardic ancestry
Dorothy Lamour (1914–1996) – actress of French, Irish and Spanish descent[54]
Jeanie MacPherson (1886–1946) – American actress, writer, and director from 1908 until the late 1940s. She was of Spanish, Scottish, and French descent[55]
Roma Maffia American actress of German, Spanish,[56] English, and Afro-Caribbean descent
Adele Mara (1923–2010) – American actress of Spanish parents, active in the mid 20th-century
Velia Martinez (1920–1993) – actress, singer and former nightclub dancer.
Patricia Medina (1919–2012) – English-born American actress. His father was a Spanish immigrant of Canary Island and his mother was English.
Beryl Mercer (1882–1939) – Spanish born American actress of stage and screen who was based in the United States
Lea Michele – actress and singer; has a Sephardi Jewish father (from a family from Spain and Turkey) and an Italian-American Catholic mother; Michele was raised Catholic[58]
Nathalia Ramos – actress and singer. Spanish father, Sephardi Jewish mother. Played a leading role, Yasmin, in Bratz: The Movie.
Monica Rial – American voice actress, script writer, and ADR director affiliated with Funimation and Seraphim Digital/Sentai Filmworks. His father is from Galicia, Spain.
Génesis Rodríguez – American actress. She is the daughter of Venezuelan singer and actor José Luis Rodríguez. Her grandfather is from Canary Islands.
Cesar Romero (1907–1994) – American actor of Spanish father and Cuban mother
Ned Romero – American actor and opera singer. His ancestry is He is of Chitimacha Native American, Spanish and French descent[68]
Michael Wayne (1934–2003) – American film producer and actor, and the eldest son of actor John Wayne and his first wife, Josephine Alicia Saenz, who was of Spanish descent.
Xavier Cugat (1900–1990) – conductor, American Catalan artist and entrepreneur. He was a key figure in the spread of Latin music in the United States popular music.[89]
Charo – Spanish-American actress, comedian and Flamenco guitarist. She is best known for her exuberant stage presence and provocative outfits.
Vernon Duke (1903–1969) – American composer/songwriter, born into a noble family of mixed Georgian-Austrian-Spanish-Russian descent, en Belarus.
Gloria Estefan – Mother's parents were born in Pola de Siero, Asturias and Logroño, La Rioja, Spain .[93][94]
Joe Falcón (1900–1965) – American accordionist descendant of Cajuns and Spanish settlers (Isleños) of Louisiana. He was the first person recording a song and a Cajun music album.
Lilian García – American singer and ring announcer born in Spain. Spanish descent via Puerto Rico.
Synyster Gates – American musician, best known for being the lead guitarist of the band Avenged Sevenfold. He is of Spanish and German descent.
Claudio S. Grafulla (1812–1880) – Spanish-born composer in the United States during the 19th century, most noted for martial music for regimental bands during the early days of the American Civil War
Emilio de Gogorza (1874–1949) – American-born baritone of Spanish parents.
Safeway Goya – singer of The Nobodys, who released an album on Capitol Records and EMI International August 8, 1984.
Franky Perez – American musician best known as a solo artist, singer of Finnish Cello-based rock band Apocalyptica. Son of Spanish and Cuban immigrants.
Andy Russell (September 16, 1919 – April 16, 1992) – American popular vocalist to Mexican parents of Spanish descent.
Paul Sanchez – American guitarist and a singer-songwriter. He was a founding member of the New Orleans band Cowboy Mouth, guitarist and one of the primary singers and songwriters for the band from 1990 to 2006. His father was an Isleño of Saint Bernard Parish, Louisiana.
Matthew Santos – rock and folk singer-songwriter, musician and painter, father of part-Spanish descent.[100]
Carly Simon – American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. Her mother is of Spanish and half Swiss descent.
Lucy Simon – American composer for the theatre and popular songs. Sister of Carly Simon.
Mariee Sioux – American folk singer-songwriter. Her father Gary Sobonya is a mandolin player of Polish and Hungarian descent, and her mother Felicia is of Spanish, Paiute, and Indigenous Mexican descent.
John Philip Sousa (1854–1932) – American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era, known primarily for American military and patriotic marches. His father was of Portuguese and Spanish ancestry.[101][102][103]
Malu Trevejo – Cuban-American singer of Cuban and Spanish descent.
Anton Torello – Catalan born American double bass player.
Jaci Velasquez – American singer. She descends from Spanish and Mexican settlers in Texas and French, Scottish, and Arabs immigrants.[105]
Camille Zamora – American soprano, Spanish ancestry on her father's side
Dancers
María Benítez – American dancer, choreographer and director in Spanish dance and flamenco
Carmencita – Spanish-born American-style dancer in American pre-vaudeville variety and music-hall ballet
Joaquín De Luz – Spanish ballet dancer. He was formerly with the American Ballet Theatre (ABT), and currently, a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet (NYCB).
Sports
Pete Alonso- Mets first baseman and 2019 Rookie of the Year. His grandfather was born in Spain and fought for the republicans during the Spanish Civil War. He came to America after Franco overthrew the republic.
Matt Diaz – American professional baseball outfielder for the Miami Marlins of Major League Baseball. His brother is Jonny Diaz. His grandfather who had emigrated from Barcelona.[92]
Luca de la Torre – professional soccer player. Father is from Spain.
Mary Joe Fernández – professional tennis player and two-time Olympic gold medal winner. Father from Spain.[109]
Santiago Formoso (1953-) – Spanish-born American soccer defender who spent five seasons in the North American Soccer League.
Lefty Gomez – born Vernon Louis Gomez, New York Yankees Hall of Fame pitcher. His grandfather was Spaniard.[110]
Keith Hernandez – MVP-winning baseball player, grandfather from Málaga, Spain.
David López-Zubero – former college and international swimmer who competed in three Summer Olympics and won an Olympic bronze medal.
Martin López-Zubero – American born, Spanish Olympian swimmer with dual-citizenship. His father is Spanish[112]
Saoul Mamby – former professional boxer of Spanish and Jamaican descent.[113]
Alec Martinez – American professional ice hockey player. His paternal grandfather is Spanish.[114]
Rachel McLish – American female bodybuilding champion, actress and author. Her father was of Spanish ancestry.[115]
Kimmie Meissner – former competitive figure skater. Her maternal great-grandparents were Spanish immigrants (great-grandfather was from Galicia).[116]
Midajah – American personal trainer, fitness model and former professional wrestling manager. He is the eldest of four children and is of Norwegian, Irish, Spanish, and French descent.
Lou Molinet (1904–1976) – first Hispanic-American professional football player to play in the National Football League.
Lou Piniella – baseball player and manager, Asturian grandparents[117]
Hernando Planells – assistant coach of the Maine Red Claws of the NBA Development League and former head coach of the Basketball Japan League (BJ) team Ryukyu Golden Kings.
Benny Urquidez – kickboxer, martial arts choreographer and actor. His father is descended from Basque Spaniards and Blackfoot Amerindians[121]
Alejandro Villanueva – offensive tackle, Pittsburgh Steeleers. Parents were born in Spain.
Minh Vu – American soccer player of Spanish and Vietnamese descent.
Ted Williams (1918–2002) – American professional baseball player, manager, and World War II and Korean War veteran. His mother was Mexican of Spanish (Basque), Russian, and American Indian descent.[122]
Military (excluding those who were also governors or politicians)
Terry de la Mesa Allen Jr. (1929–1967) – Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army. Killed in Vietnam War.
Pierre G. T. Beauregard (1818–1893) American military officer, politician, inventor, writer, civil servant, and the first prominent general of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He was born in a Creole family of French and Spanish descent.
Rudolph B. Davila (April 27, 1916 – January 26, 2002) – United States Army officer, of Spanish descent through his father, who received the Medal of Honor for his actions in Italy during World War II.[125]
Luis F. Emilio (December 22, 1844 – September 16, 1918) – captain in the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, an American Civil War Union regiment.
David Farragut (1801–1870) – first senior officer of the U.S. Navy during the Civil War. Coined phrase "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!". His father was the Spanish Navy officer Jorge Farragut[126]
John Horse (ca. 1812–1882) – African-American military adviser to the chief Osceola and a leader of Black Seminole units fighting against United States (US) troops during the Seminole Wars in Florida. He was a Seminole slave of Spanish, Seminole, and African American descent.
Baldomero Lopez (1925–1950) – first lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War; posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.[127]
John Ortega – first Hispanic sailor to be awarded the United States' highest military decoration for valor in combat – the Medal of Honor – for having distinguished himself during the South Atlantic Blockade by the Union Naval forces during the American Civil War.
Elwood Richard Quesada (1904–1993) – United States Air Force General, FAA administrator, and, later, a club owner in Major League Baseball. He was of Irish and Spanish descent.
Maritza Sáenz Ryan – United States Army officer, and the head of the Department of Law at the United States Military Academy. She is the first woman and first Hispanic West Point graduate to serve as an academic department head. She is daughter of a Puerto Rican father and Spanish mother.[128]
Manuel Antonio Santiago Tarín (1811–1849) – Tejano soldier and a recruiter and participant in the Texas Revolution on the Texian side. His father was a Spanish officer.
Governors and politicians
Julian A. Chavez (1808–1879) – rancher, landowner and elected official in early Los Angeles, California, who served multiple terms on the Los Angeles Common Council (the forerunner to the present-day City Council) and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
Rafael Anchia – Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives. His father is a Spanish Basque.
Jerry Apodaca – Democratic Governor of New Mexico (1974–78).
Polly Baca – American politician who served as Chair the Democratic Caucus of the Colorado House of Representatives (1976–1979), being the first woman to hold that office, and the first Hispanic woman elected to the Colorado State Senate. She is a descendant of Spanish and Mexican settlers of New Mexico and Colorado, arrived there in the colonial period.[129]
Dionisio Botiller (1842–1915) – elected a member of the Los Angeles, California, Common Council, the governing body of the city. Botiller's Spanish-heritage family settled in California in the 18th century, living near Santa Barbara.[131]
José Antonio Carrillo (1796–1862) – Californio ranchero, official and political. He was mayor of Los Angeles, California (1826, 1828, and 1833).
Juan José Carrillo (1842–1916) – first mayor of Santa Monica, California
Pedro Casanave (c.1766–1796) – Spanish merchant who became the Master Masonic and fifth mayor of Georgetown (modern Washington, D.C.). Casanave is particularly remembered for having buried the first stone in what later became the White House, on October 12, 1792.
Manuel Dominguez (1804–1882) – Mayor of Los Angeles (1832). He was of Spanish settlers descent.[134]
Albert Estopinal (1845–1919) – sugar cane planter from St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, who served as a Democrat in both houses of the Louisiana State Legislature between 1876 and 1900 and in the United States House of Representatives from Louisiana's 1st congressional district from 1908 until his death. Their ancestors came from the Canary Islands, Spain.[135]
José Joaquín Estudillo (1800–1852) – second alcalde of Yerba Buena, California (the precursor to San Francisco), and whose land holdings, known as Rancho San Leandro, formed the basis of the city of San Leandro.[136]
Joachim Octave Fernández (1896–1978) – member of the U. S. House of Representatives representing the state of Louisiana. He was a Democrat.
Fernando Ferrer – Borough President of The Bronx from 1987 to 2001, and was a candidate for Mayor of New York in 2001 and the Democratic Party nominee for Mayor in 2005
Bill Flores (1954–) – member of the U. S. House of Representatives representing the state of Texas. He is a Republican.
Bernardo de Gálvez (July 23, 1746 – November 30, 1786) – Spanish military leader and colonial administrator who served as colonial governor of Louisiana and Cuba, and later as Viceroy of New Spain. The US Senate passed, in December 2014, the granting of Honorary citizenship to Bernardo de Galvez, because he aided the American Thirteen Colonies in their quest for independence and led Spanish forces against Britain in the Revolutionary War.[137]
John Garamendi (born January 24, 1945) – Member of the U. S. House of Representatives representing the state of California. He was a Democrat.
Antonio Maria de la Guerra (1825–1881) – Mayor of Santa Barbara, California, several times a member of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, California State Senator and Captain of California Volunteers in the American Civil War. He was son of Spanish soldier José de la Guerra y Noriega.[138]
José Gonzáles – American politician who served as first Mayor of Gonzales, Louisiana, between 1922/28 and 1932, and is considered the best mayor of that village.[139]
Joseph Marion Hernández (1793–1857) – American politician, plantation owner, and soldier. He was the first Delegate from the Florida Territory, becoming the first Hispanic American to serve in the United States Congress. His parents were Spanish settlers of St. Augustine in what was then East Florida.[140]
Luis H. Marrero (1847–1921) – chief of police in Jefferson Parish in New Orleans, president of parish's government between 1884 and 1916 and senator from Louisiana from 1892 to 1896. He was descend of Spanish settlers from Canary Island.[139]
Antonio Menchaca (1800–1879) – Mayor of San Antonio, Texas (1838–1839) y military who fought in the Texas Revolution. He was a Tejano whose parents were of Spanish descent.[141][142] His great-great-grandfather was one of the founders and early settlers of Béxar.[143]
Joseph Montoya (1915–1978) – Democratic U.S. Senator from the State of New Mexico.
Francisco Portusach Martínez (1864–1919) – Spanish merchant and whaler who was briefly the Governor of Guam, before he was deposed.
Antonio Narbona (1773–1830) – Spanish soldier born in Mobile, now in Alabama, when this belonged to Spanish Louisiana. He was Governor of Santa Fe de Nuevo México between September 1825 and 1827 and he fought Native American people in the northern part of Mexico (now the southwestern United States) around the turn of the nineteenth century. He was of pure Spanish ancestry.[144]
Mariano S. Otero (1844–1904) – delegate from the Territory of New Mexico.
Leander Perez (1891–1969) – Louisiana judge and politician of Isleño descent.
Pío Pico (1801–1894) – last Governor of Alta California under Mexican rule. He was of Native American, Spanish and African mixed-race ancestry.
Andrés Pico (1810–1876) – Californio rancher, military commander and was elected to the state assembly and senate after California became a state. Andrés Pico was the younger brother of Pío Pico
Bill Richardson – American politician, who served as the 30th Governor of New Mexico from 2003 to 2011. His mother is the Mexican daughter of a Spanish father from Villaviciosa, Asturias (Spain) and a Mexican mother[146]
William E. Rodriguez (1879–1970) – American socialist politician and lawyer. he was the first Hispanic elected to the Chicago City Council. He was of Spaniard and German descent.
Juan Seguín (1806–1890) – Texas senator, mayor, judge, and justice of the peace and a prominent participant in the Texas Revolution. He was son of Erasmo Seguín.
Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (July 4, 1807 – January 18, 1890) – Californio military commander, politician, and rancher.
Juan Verde – political, business and social entrepreneur from the Canary Islands and adviser to President Obama and several Democratic political campaigns
Agustín V. Zamorano (1798–1842) – printer, soldier, and provisional Mexican colonial Governor of Alta California. He was born in Florida, by which him obtained the American citizenship when the territory be joined to United States
Sheriffs, police, Texas Rangers and lawyers
Eugene W. Biscailuz (1883–1969) – Sheriff of Los Angeles County. His mother was descended from old Spanish settlers of California.
Tony Bouza – 40-year veteran of municipal police, serving as Minneapolis police chief from 1980 to 1989. He was born in Spain[151]
Alex Ferrer – American television personality, lawyer, and retired judge who presides as the arbiter on Judge Alex.
Manuel T. Gonzaullas (July 4, 1891 – February 13, 1977) – Spanish born American Texas Rangers captain and a staff member of the Texas government.
Rafael Piñeiro – Spanish-born American who served as First Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Police Department (NYPD).
Manuel Real – judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.[152]
Tomas Avila Sanchez (1826–1882) – American soldier, sheriff and public official, was on the Los Angeles County, California, Board of Supervisors and was a member of the Los Angeles Common Council, the legislative branch of the city. He was descendant of Spanish settlers.
Michael G. Santos – American prison consultant, author of several books about prison, a professor of criminal justice, and an advocate for criminal justice reform. Santos is the son of a Cuban immigrant father and a mother of Spanish descent.[153]
Rosana Ubanell – Spanish-born American naturalized news journalist and the first Spanish language novelist to ever be published by Penguin Books
Novelists, poets and comic book cartoonists
Alberto Acereda (1965–) – writer, professor of Spanish language and literature in USA and Spanish author of numerous articles on politics and op-eds in several European and American newspapers.
Mercedes de Acosta (1893–1968) – poet and playwright, also known for her lesbian affairs with Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich.[158]
Felipe Alfau (1902–1999) – Catalan novelist and poet.
Jaime de Angulo (1887–1950) – linguist, novelist, and ethnomusicologist in the western United States. He was born in Paris of Spanish parents.
Estelle Anna Lewis (1824–1880) – United States poet and dramatist. She was of English and Spanish descent.
Sergio Aragonés – Spanish born-American cartoonist and writer known for his contributions to Mad Magazine and creator of the comic book Groo the Wanderer."[159]
José Argüelles (1939–2011) – American New Age author and artist. His father was Spanish.
Ivan Argüelles – American poet and brother of Jose Argüelles.
Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) – American author, poet, short story writer, and novelist.
Manuel Gonzales (1913–1993) – Spanish born-American Disney comics artist.
Amber L. Hollibaugh – American writer, film-maker and political activist. She is the daughter of a Romany father of Spanish descent and an Irish mother.[161]
Andrew Jolivétte – American author and lecturer of Spanish partially descent.
Carmen M. Pursifull – English-language free verse poet and former New York City Latin dance and Latin American music figure in the 1950s. She is of Puerto Rican and Spanish descent.[163]
Anaïs Nin – born Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell, was an American author born to Spanish-Cuban parents in France, where she was also raised.
Matthew Randazzo V – American true crime writer and historian. He is of Sicilian-American, Isleño, and Cajun descent.[164]
George Santayana (1863–1952) – Spanish-born philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist.
Jose Yglesias (1919–1995) – American novelist and journalist. Yglesias was born in the Ybor City section of Tampa, Florida, and was of Cuban and Spanish descent. His father was from Galicia.
Rafael Yglesias (1954–) – American novelist and screenwriter. His parents were the novelists Jose Yglesias and Helen Yglesias.
Eulogio F. de Celis (?–1903) – predominant landowner in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles, California, in the mid-19th century. He was son of Spanish settlers.
Bernardo Yorba (1800–1858) – one of the most successful ranchers in Alta California, having thousands of cattle and horses grazing on land grants totaling more than 35,000 acres. He was the son of a Spanish soldier, José Antonio Yorba.
Religious figures
Emilio S. Allué (1935–2020) – Spanish-born American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church.
Joseph Sadoc Alemany (1814–1888) – Catalan-American Roman Catholic archbishop and missionary. He was naturalized in the United States in 1840.
Thaddeus Amat y Brusi (1810–1878) – Roman Catholic Catalan cleric who eventually became Bishop of Los Angeles, California.
Henriette DeLille (1813–1862) – founded the Catholic order of the Sisters of the Holy Family in New Orleans, which was composed of free women of color. Her mother was a Creole of color of French, Spanish and African ancestry and was born in New Orleans.[168]
Robert Fortune Sanchez (1934–2012) – Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Some of his ancestors were Spanish settlers in New Mexico.
Josu Iriondo – Spanish born American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He currently serves as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York.
Gloria Anzaldúa (1942–2004) – scholar of Chicana cultural theory, feminist theory, and queer theory. She was a descendant of many of the prominent Basque and Spanish explorers and settlers who came to the Americas in the 16th and 17th centuries and also had indigenous ancestry.
Larrie Ferreiro (born June 11, 1958) – American historian to a Spanish great-grandfather.
Ernest Fenollosa (1853–1908) – American professor of philosophy and political economy at Tokyo Imperial University and art historian of Japanese art. His father is from Málaga, Spain
Karl Hess (1923–1994) – American speechwriter and author. He was of German and Spanish descent.
Juan José Linz (1926–2013) – Spanish sociologist and political scientist. He was of German father and Spanish mother.
Andrew Jolivétte – American author and lecturer who is employed at San Francisco State University as an associate professor in American Indian Studies and an instructor in Ethnic Studies, Educational Leadership, and Race and Resistance Studies.
Xavier Sala-i-Martin (born June 17, 1962) – Catalan-born American professor of economics at Columbia University.
Carlos Fernández-Pello – Spanish-born faculty member of the University of California, Berkeley, Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Juan Bautista Rael (1900–1993) – Nuevomexicano ethnographer, linguist, and folklorist who was a pioneer in the study of the Nuevomexicanos, his stories and his language, both from Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado.
Scientists, inventors and engineers
Luis F. Álvarez (1853–1937) – Spanish-born American doctor. He developed diagnosis for macular leprosy
Luis W. Alvarez (1911–1988) – American scientist. He was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and key participant in the Manhattan Project
Walter Alvarez (born October 3, 1940) – American geologist who first proposed the asteroid-impact theory to explain the extinction of the dinosaurs
Walter C. Alvarez (1884–1978) – American doctor of Spanish descent. He authored several dozen books on medicine, and wrote introductions and forewords for many others. Referred to as "America's Family Doctor" for his syndicated medical column in hundreds of newspapers.
Isador Coriat (1875–1943) – American psychiatrist and neurologist. He was one of the first American psychoanalysts. He was of Moroccan-Spanish descent on father's side and German on mother's side.[170]
Pedro Cuatrecasas (born 27 September 1936) – Spanish-born American biochemist and an adjunct professor of Pharmacology & Medicine at the University of California, San Diego
Valentín Fuster (born January 20, 1943) – Catalan-born American cardiologist
Rafael Guastavino (1842–1908) – Spanish-born building engineer and builder who lived in the United States since 1881 until his death; his career was based in New York City. The vaults of hundreds buildings in the eastern US were built based on his design.
Rodolfo Llinás (born December 16, 1934) – Professor of Neuroscience and Chairman of the department of Physiology & Neuroscience at the NYU School of Medicine. Born in Bogotá (Colombia), with Spanish grandfather.
Michael Lopez-Alegria (born May 30, 1958) – Spanish-born American astronaut. Holds American record for most EVA hours (spacewalks or moonwalks). Born in Madrid.[171]
Miguel A. Sanchez – Spanish-born American board-certified pathologist who specializes in anatomic pathology, clinical pathology and cytopathology.
Severo Ochoa (1905–1993) – Spanish-born Nobel Prize-winning biochemist who worked on the synthesis of RNA
Ramón Verea (1833–1899) – Spanish-born journalist, engineer and writer. Inventor of a calculator with an internal multiplication table
Concepción Picciotto (1936–2016) – also known as Conchita or Connie, Spanish-born American who had lived in Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C., on the 1600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue, in a peace camp across from the White House, since August 1, 1981, in protest of nuclear arms
Alberto Rivera (1935–1997) – Canarian-born American anti-Catholic religious activist who was the source of many of fundamentalist Christian author Jack Chick's conspiracy theories about The Vatican.
Tony Serra (1934–) – American civil rights lawyer, activist and tax resister from San Francisco.
Andrea Heinemann Simon (1909–1994) – community leader and the mother of award-winning singer, Carly Simon. She is of Spanish-Swiss descent.
Others
Aida de Acosta (1884–1962) – socialite and first woman to fly a plane solo motor.
José Andrés (1969–) – Spanish-born American naturalized chef.
Kika Perez, aka Ilva Margarita Perez – Colombian American actress/TV host of Spanish descent.
Augusto Perez (1972–) – retired Spanish-born American wheelchair curler.
Manuel Torres (1762–1822) – Spanish-born American publicist and diplomat. He was the first ambassador of Colombia between June 19, 1822, and July 15, 1822
JWoww – American television personality, of Spanish-Irish descent.[179]
^In an interview on "Inside the actors studio", Hayek mentioned that she was of paternal Lebanese descent and maternal Spanish descent, and is also deadly afraid of snakes.
^Note: Reliable sources state Silva is of Puerto Rican descent. But Silva states he is of Spanish-Sicilian heritage and specifically denies any Puerto Rican heritage in the DVD commentary for The Return of Mr. Moto.
^Memoir: Raquel Welch Beyond the Cleavage: Quote: "I WAS BORN in 1940 in the Windy City, Chicago. Not ideal for a new-born baby girl with thin Mediterranean blood, courtesy of my Spanish father."
^Warfield, Patrick. "John Philip Sousa." In Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present, vol. 4, edited by Jeffrey Fear. German Historical Institute. Last modified May 27, 2014.
^Bancud, Michaela (December 14, 2001). – "Esperanza in the Wings". – Portland Tribune.
^Martin, Fontaine (1990). A History of the Bouligny Family and Allied Families. Lafayette, Louisiana: The Center for Louisiana Studies, University of Southwestern Louisiana. ISBN0940984512.
^"Brothers, because we are descended from the same families who, having left the Canary Islands formed a new advancement for the Spanish crown in inhospitable land ..." ,speech to the isleño community than San Antonio, Texas in 1982. Paragraph taken from the book "La odisea de los canarios en Texas y Luisiana (The Odyssey of the Canaries in Texas and Louisiana)", chap. XV, San Fernando, El púlpito de América (The American Pulpit), pag, 99. Balbuema Castellano, José Manuel.
^John Steven McGroarty, 1921, 'Los Angeles from the Mountains to the Sea', pp699
^Johnson, Kirk (June 11, 2006). "At Fore on Immigration, Senator Has a Story to Tell". The New York Times. Retrieved February 4, 2011. "...I became the first Mexican-American in the history of our country to ever be elected outside the state of New Mexico."
^de la Teja, Jesús, "SEGUÍN, JUAN JOSÉ MARÍA ERASMO", Handbook of Texas, Texas State Historical Association, retrieved February 4, 2009
^Ronan Fanning (2016). A Will To Power: Eamon De Valera. Harvard University Press. p. 3. ISBN9780674970557. De Valera was born on 14 October 1882 in the Nursery and Child's Hospital, Lexington Avenue, Manhattan, New York; the only child of Juan Vivion de Valera and Catherine ('Kate') Coll [..] Vivion de Valera had been born in 1853 in Spain's Basque Country
^M. Boniface Adams, "The Gift of Religious Leadership: Henriette Delille and the Foundation of the Holy Family Sisters," in Glenn R. Conrad, ed., Cross, Crozier, and Crucible: A Volume Celebrating the Bicentennial of a Catholic Diocese in Louisiana (New Orleans: The Archdiocese in cooperation with the Center for Louisiana Studies, 1993), 360–74.
^Fenton, Jerry 1969. Understanding the religious background of the Puerto Rican, pp. 1–9
^Andrew R. Heinze: Jews and the American Soul: Human Nature in the Twentieth Century. Princeton University Press, 2004 ISBN0-691-11755-1 p.120-123