Indiano

[3] The Indianos became local leaders in the era of caciquismo (late 19th and early 20th century), a period in which large contingents of young people, especially from regions with easy access to the sea, such as Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque Country, Catalonia and the Canary Islands, were forced at that time to do what was known as the Americas:[4][5] emigrate in search of a better fortune in Latin American countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Those who managed to amass real fortunes and decided to return years later to their places of origin, sought prestige by acquiring some noble title, buying and restoring old casonas or pazos, or building new palaces, in a very colourful colonial or eclectic style, which came to be called "casonas", "casas de indianos" or "casas indianas" (in some areas, such as the Asturian town of Somao, they are particularly abundant).

[7] They also established their mecenazgo in charitable or cultural institutions, subsidising the construction of schools, churches and town halls, building and repairing roads, hospitals, asylums, water and electricity supplies, etc.

[8] The cleanliness of the origins of some of these fortunes was always in question, especially those of those who enriched themselves through the slave trade (such as Antonio López y López, ennobled with the title of Marquis of Comillas), and who, in collusion with the landowners established overseas, set up the slave-owning lobby to obstruct any kind of abolitionist legislation that might be developed in the metropolis, such as the reforms promoted by Julio Vizcarrondo (himself a descendant of slave-owning landowners).

Among the most conspicuous Asturian Indianos were Ramón Argüelles Alonso, later Marquis of Argüelles, Manuel Ibáñez Posada (who acquired the title of Count of Ribadedeva), his brother Luis Ibáñez Posada (who founded the Banco Hispano Americano with the repatriation of capital after the disaster of 1898), Íñigo Noriega Mendoza, Ulpiano Cuervo, Íñigo Noriega Laso, Manuel Suárez y Suárez and others.

Such is the influence that emigration has had on Canarian society and culture that there are even several festivals in honour of the returned Indianos (Carnival of Santa Cruz de La Palma).