Asturians in America. Photography, Identity and Traditional Costume in Emigration (1880-1900)

Abstract

In the mid-nineteenth century, a sector of Asturian society related to the intellectual elites that espoused romantic regionalism, established clothing stereotypes of that would become known as regional or Asturian costume. These would later be identified with folklore and popular traditions, conveying a territorial and identity unity inherited from a heroic past. Emigrants to Latin America reformulated the aesthetic expression of these outfits in line with local customs, creating a hybrid costume which combined customs remembered from distant Asturias and the cultural expressions of the host countries. Thus clad, Asturian emigrants posed for the picture, leaving graphic testimony of the new mixed identities that emerged in the aftermath of Spanish colonialism overseas.