Little Spain and La Nacional Social Club & Restaurant

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Spanish-speaking New Yorkers have long gathered here

Place Details

Place Matters Profile

La Nacional, located in "Little Spain," is the oldest Spanish restaurant in New York City, and according to its current owner, Jesus "Lolo" Manso, the 2nd oldest Spanish society still in operation in North America.

239 W.14th St. (bet. 7th and 8th Avenues), open daily from noon to 11pm, 212-243-9308.

Go through the nondescript downstairs door and you come upon the area where old timers drink a glass of wine or cup of coffee while watching soccer on TV. Or get a table in the restaurant proper and try the tapas or the paella for which the restaurant is famous. (Upstairs from La Nacional is a place rented out for music events (salsa, tango, flamenco), but it has no connection to La Nacional and does not serve its food.)

"The snow of Manhattan blows against billboards / And carries pure grace through the fake Gothic arches."

The famed Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca wrote these words during his stay in New York from 1929

La Nacional, located in "Little Spain," is the oldest Spanish restaurant in New York City, and according to its current owner, Jesus "Lolo" Manso, the 2nd oldest Spanish society still in operation in North America.

239 W.14th St. (bet. 7th and 8th Avenues), open daily from noon to 11pm, 212-243-9308.

Go through the nondescript downstairs door and you come upon the area where old timers drink a glass of wine or cup of coffee while watching soccer on TV. Or get a table in the restaurant proper and try the tapas or the paella for which the restaurant is famous. (Upstairs from La Nacional is a place rented out for music events (salsa, tango, flamenco), but it has no connection to La Nacional and does not serve its food.)

"The snow of Manhattan blows against billboards / And carries pure grace through the fake Gothic arches."

The famed Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca wrote these words during his stay in New York from 1929 to 1930. His poem, "The Birth of Christ," wasn't translated into English until a few years after his death in 1936 (he was a casualty of the Spanish Civil War). While living in New York City, Garcia Lorca spent a lot of time near Columbia University where he resided and took classes, but it is rumored that he also visited the Spanish social club, La Nacional, on 14th St. Along with Garcia Lorca, La Nacional is said to have also hosted such illustrious guests as Spanish director Luis Buñuel, who was in exile from his country during the 1940s, as well as the Spanish poet Antonio Machado.

It would not be surprising if Garcia Lorca and Buñuel spent time in and around La Nacional. The area of Manhattan where it is located was once called Little Spain and was the center of Spanish life in New York City. Immigration from Spain to the United States reached its peak between 1905 and 1920. Organizations and stores that provided services and goods to the Spanish immigrant community included the settlement house Casa Maria, St. Raphael’s Spanish Immigrant Society, and Our Lady of Guadalupe Church* (formed in 1902, it is now is consolidated with St. Bernard’s) which was the first Spanish-speaking Catholic parish in New York City. They all were located on the same block of 14th St. and constituted the heart of Little Spain. Nearby were the Spanish American Worker’s Alliance, the Hotel Espanyol, and other businesses serving the Spanish immigrants. As the Spanish community declined, and other Spanish-speaking communities moved in, such as Puerto Ricans and Mexicans, new institutions like the Spanish-language bookstore Macondo and the Asociacion Tepeyac de New York (named after the hill outside of Mexico City where the Virgin of Guadalupe was sighted) opened. What still remains after all these years is the social club and restaurant we know as "La Nacional."

Almost two-thirds of the immigrants from Spain in the early nineteenth century came from the north of the country; from the provinces of Leon, Asturias, Old Castile and Catalonia, and particularly from Galicia, north of Portugal, whose provinces Coruña, Lugo, Orense, and Pontevedra provided slightly over a third of the total. Once in New York, the immigrants created footholds in different parts of the city, largely in tenement areas. Galicians and Basques lived on the Lower East Side and Greenwich Village; Andalucians lived in Brooklyn. Like their counterparts among other immigrant groups, they created clubs and organizations that reflected the regions they came from, such as El Centro Asturiano, El Centro Andaluz and La Casa Galicia (in the building on E. 11th St. that we know as Webster Hall).

La Nacional is the twentieth-century survivor of a complicated legacy of clubs that intertwined and merged over the decades. The chronology begins with the establishment in 1868 of the Benevolent Spanish Society, or La Sociedad Benefica Española de Socorros Mutuos, at 151 Bowery. In 1929, clubs from different regions (Gallego, Coruña, Montanes, and Aragones), the Centro Hispano, and the Union Benefica Española fused to create Centro Español. In another merger, the Delegacion del Centro Asturiano de la Habana en Nueva York joined the Centro Asturiano and took its name. In 1929, this enlarged Centro Asturiano joined with the newly-formed Centro Español and another club called La Nacional to create the Sociedad Española de Socorros Mutuos, which called itself La Nacional and made its home at 239 West 14th St.

While the Society owns the building, Mr. Manso took over operations about five years ago. He says that in the 1960s and 1970s, the Society had close to 4,000 members because Spanish immigration had taken an upturn. The area from 7th Avenue to 8th Avenue was called Little Spain, Mr. Manso recalls, and "Fourteenth Street was full of Spanish restaurants. There were maybe 18 or 20 Spanish restaurants, and big buildings full of places that sold Spanish clothing, paella pans, Spanish magazines, and everything. So if anyone wanted to see something from Spain, they went to this street."

La Nacional's membership rolls are much lower than they were thirty years ago, but the downstairs area is still popular during the soccer season, especially during the World Cup, when tourists from all over the world drop by to catch a game on the televisions that are tuned in especially for them. But even in the absence of a large Spanish community, La Nacional retains its reputation from its time as the center of Little Spain. Mr. Manso comments,"There is no doubt about it, La Nacional feels like Spain and it is good because part of Spain is here. As long as you are with Spanish people, you feel like you are in Spain. And if you have the soccer on the TV--I mean football--and if there are lots of Spaniards here, it feels like Spain. But now, little by little, there are less people. Five years ago there was a very strong feeling of Spain here, but it is less and less."

[Posted by Place Matters, August 2007. We apologize for the lack of proper accents but the computer software doesn't permit it.]

* Note on the Virgin of Guadalupe:While we usually associate the Virgin of Guadalupe with the Mexican community, her history goes back further. The Virgin of Guadalupe in Spain is represented by one of the Black Madonnas found throughout southern Europe (France, Italy, Spain). Legend has it that the icon arrived in Spain in the 6th century and developed a reputation as a healing icon, until it disappeared during the Moorish invasions of Sevilla in 711 CE. In the 13th century the Virgin "appeared" to a peasant in the hills of Extremadura, a region in central Spain. The icon found there (though it does not seem to be dated to the 6th century) is enshrined in a nearby monastery in Guadalupe, Spain, called Santa Maria de Guadalupe. Hernan Cortes and his men were from Extremadura so it is not surprising that the version of Catholicism practiced in Mexico at the time was influenced by those beliefs. However when the vision of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego in Mexico in 1531, it is believed the Virgin referred to herself using an Aztec Nahuatl word pronounced, "quatlasupe" interpreted as "she who crushes the serpent"--referring to the Aztec serpent-god Quetzalcoatl. The Virgin’s appearance on Tepeyac was also at the spot the Aztecs had worshipped an Earth goddess called Tonantzin. Guadalupe was to become the patroness of Latin America and the first Native Americans converted to Christianity were brought to Santa Maria de Guadalupe in Spain to be baptized.

Sources

Interview with Jesus Manso by Elena Martinez, Place Matters, 2007

Statistics and graph from Ministerio de Trabajo y Asuntos Sociales: Secretaria de Estado de Inmigracion y Emigracion, www.ciudadaniaexterior.mtas.ed/estadisticas.htm

Consejo Superior de Emigracion (Spain), Emigracion transoceanica, 1911-1915.

Nominations

At the turn of the century, Spanish immigrants settled in the area around West 14th Street. The degree to which this was the center of Spanish life in the city is visible in the number of services that were offered within the area, and particularly on this block. In the first decades of the twentieth century, the Casa Maria, a Spanish settlement house protecting the temporal, social, mental, moral, and religious welfare of young women and Spanish speaking people, the Spanish Benevolent Society, and St. Raphaels Spanish Immigrant Society all located on this block, while still more, such as the Spanish American Workers Alliance, the Hotel Espanyol, and many other businesses serving Spanish and Spanish-speaking people located nearby. In 1902, the Augustinians of the Assumption established the Our Lady of Guadalupe Roman Catholic Church, the first Latino church in Manhattan, in order to do their work for the Spanish speaking people.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, at 229-231 W. 14th Street, possesses rich architectural and historical significance despite being a small parish church. Founded at the turn of the twentieth century by the Augustinians of the Assumption, Guadalupe became the first Spanish-speaking Catholic parish in New York City and for a time served as the national parish for Spanish-speaking Catholics. In 1939, the New York City Guide published by the WPA acknowledged that, while the Spanish Colony has declined, many remaining institutions still preserved the Iberian flavor. Continuing waves of Spanish-speaking immigrants, most noticeably those from Puerto Rico in the second half of the twentieth century, have also gathered in this area.

Today, the area serves the larger Hispanic community of New York with the Spanish Benevolent Society, the Asociacion Tepeyac de New York, the Centro Espanol La Nacional, Spanish-language bookstores, and the Lady of Guadalupe Church, albeit relocated and consolidated with the nearby St. Bernards. While there have been and continue to be many geographic centers for Spanish and Hispanic immigrants, 14th Street's Little Spain is significant as being the first major gathering place for generations of Spanish and Hispanic immigrants.

The building occupied by Guadalupe is a mid-nineteenth-century brownstone (interestingly, the former home of restauranteur Charles Delmonico) that has been masterfully converted from a posh rowhouse to a double-height sanctuary, complete with a monumental entrance, side chapel, tiny balcony, and clerestory. This transformation from residence to church, a form which makes Guadalupe extremely rare, if not unique in the city, spanned two decades and involved several notable architects, including George H. Streeton, Paul C. Hunter, and Gustave Steinback. Steinback, known for his work on religious projects, designed No. 229s classically proportioned Spanish Revival faade in 1921. The Spanish-like faade on No. 231 was added at a later date by a yet unknown architect. Although the church remained extremely popular, it was consolidated with nearby St. Bernards parish and closed in 2003. Today, Guadalupe is a rare architectural trace of Little Spain. (February 2007)