Indiano Colombres Archive. Emigration Museum

Indianos Archive on the map

Latitude: 43.3743591 Length: -4.5396600
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Where do you locate the Indianos Archive?

The house where the archive-museum is located was built by Iñigo Noriega Laso , who emigrated to Mexico and returned to his homeland loaded with money and with the intention of building a stately enclosure that would record his fortune.

The building dates from 1906 and is named Quinta Guadalupe in honor of the founder's wife. This small palace, a clear example of Indiano architecture, served several purposes before its current use . It was a rest home and field hospital after its first owner died in Mexico. Later, it was acquired by the Spanish state and converted into a social welfare center until 1986. The following year, through an initiative of the Principality of Asturias, Caja de Asturias (a savings bank), and the University of Oviedo, it became the headquarters of the Indianos Archive Foundation.

What does the Archivo de Indianos treasure?

Its interior is absolutely eloquent , speaking volumes about its unique aesthetic, the "Indiano" style, which enhances the senses with the solidity provided by the finest and most exotic building materials. The "Indianos" were remarkably persistent in this pursuit, even going so far as to send ships loaded with timber across the Atlantic on commission to build a house in Asturias using the youngest wood from the tropics . Some rooms in the museum have been reconstructed with period furniture. The rest of the building houses a permanent exhibition on various aspects of emigration: from banknotes detailing the departure of emigrants and their ports of destination, to the vibrant social centers of the Spanish diaspora that continue to thrive today. In this way, the memories and objects from that era carry as much weight as the sense of homesickness that marked the Asturian emigrant for decades in exile.

The foundation maintains a specialized library and a significant documentary archive on Asturian centers in Mexico, Buenos Aires, Cuba , and other Asturian and Spanish centers and societies in the Americas. In its research and documentation work, it strives to accurately reflect the reasons and circumstances that shaped the journey, the stay, and the return, and aims to create a comprehensive database capable of generating diverse research related to emigration to the Americas during the 19th and 20th centuries.

The Asturian emigration

It is known, for example, that Asturian emigration was later than that of the rest of Europe . Significant emigration began at the start of the 20th century , while migratory flows from Europe had already been occurring throughout the 19th century and earlier. Another characteristic is the preference of Asturians, like Spaniards in general, for American countries, with the exception of the United States. The US was chosen primarily by Italians, English, and Germans, but never by Spaniards as their first destination, as they faced enormous legal obstacles to settling there. A whole body of legislation marginalized them and discouraged travel to those lands. It is important to remember, of course, that Spain had just emerged from a war with the United States.

The majority of those who left were young and single . Also, as was the case throughout the country, this emigration involved a higher proportion of people who paid for their passage more or less voluntarily, either with their own money or through contributions from companies or family members in their destination countries. Emigrants always had the support of family or relatives who invited them and provided financial assistance. In other countries, on the contrary, recruitment agents were more common, enlisting people with limited resources and practically forcing them to emigrate.

It is also known that the expression "to make one's fortune in the Americas" reflects the impression, on the part of those who remain, that those who left have improved their economic standing, that they have taken full advantage of the opportunities in those countries. It is also true that we must combat the idea that they all succeeded in their voyage. Not all of them did, but a majority did , and this is evident in the regions of origin where the prestige of those who returned, the "Indianos," was very high.

This circumstance can be observed without going any further in the town of Colombres , where the Archive is located, as there is even a Latin American atmosphere, with a town hall and a circular square that could well be a replica of a Mexican public space, and in which the populous Indianos Fair is celebrated every year.