- Nicaraguan
Infobox Ethnic group
group = Nicaraguan
caption = flagicon|NicaraguaNotable Nicaraguans:Rubén Dario •Daniel Ortega
poptime = 6,000,000 (est)
regions = flagcountry|Nicaraguaspaces|65.6 million
region1 = flagcountry|Costa Rica
pop1 = 600,000
region2 = flagcountry|USA
pop2 = 300,000-700,000
region3 = flagcountry|Spain
pop3 = 6,096
langs = Spanish, English, others
rels =Roman Catholicism
related =Nicaraguan American ,Chinese Nicaraguan , Afro-Nicaraguan,Jewish Nicaraguan ,Palestinian Nicaraguan Nicaraguans (Spanish: "Nicaragüense"; also "Nica","Nicoya" and
Pinolero ) are people inhabiting in, originating or having significant heritage fromNicaragua . Most Nicaraguans live in Nicaragua, although there is also a significant Nicaraguan diaspora, particularly inCosta Rica and theUnited States with smaller communities in other countries around the world. There are also people living in Nicaragua who are not Nicaraguans because they were not born or raised in Nicaragua nor have they gainedcitizenship .Demographics
Population
The most populous city in Nicaragua is the capital city,
Managua , with a population of 1.2 million (2005). As of 2005, over 4.4 million inhabitants live in the Pacific, Central and North regions, 2.7 in the Pacific region alone, while inhabitants in the Caribbean region only reached an estimated 700,000.cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=VIII Censo de Poblacion y IV de Vivienda | date=October 2005 | publisher= | url =http://www.inec.gob.ni/censos2005/ResumenCensal/RESUMENCENSAL.pdf | work =Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos | pages = | accessdate = 2007-07-07 | language = Spanish |format=PDF]According to the
CIA World Factbook , Nicaragua has a population of 5,675,356 (July 2007 est.) with apopulation growth rate of 1.855% and abirth rate of 24.12/1,000 population, third lowest in the region. Thelife expectancy for Nicaraguans at birth is 70.92 years; 68.82 for males and 73.13 for females.Ethnic groups
The majority of the Nicaraguan population is Mestizo and White. Exactly 69% are
Mestizo s (mixedAmerindian and White) and 17% are White with the majority being of Spanish, German, Italian, or French ancestry. Mestizos and Whites mainly reside in the western region of the country and combined make up 86% of the Nicaraguan population, approximately 4.8 million people.About 9% of Nicaragua's population is black, or Afro-Nicaragüense, and mainly reside on the country's sparsely populated Caribbean or Atlantic coast. The black population is mostly of West Indian (Antillean) origin, the descendants of indentured laborers brought mostly from
Jamaica when the region was a British protectorate. Nicaragua has the largestAfro Latin American population inCentral America with the second largest percentage. There is also a smaller number ofGarifuna , a people of mixedCarib ,Angolan ,Congolese andArawak descent.The remaining 5% are
Amerindian s, the unmixed descendants of the country's indigenous inhabitants. Nicaragua'spre-Colombian population consisted of many indigenous groups. In the western region theNicarao people, whom the country is named after, were present along with other groups related by culture and language to theMayans . The Caribbean coast of Nicaragua was inhabited by indigenous peoples who were mostlychibcha related groups that had migrated fromSouth America , primarily present dayColombia andVenezuela . These groups include theMiskito s, Ramas and Sumos. In the nineteenth century, there was a substantial indigenous minority, but this group was also largely assimilated culturally into themestizo majority. In the mid-1980s, the government divided the department of Zelaya into two autonomous regions and granted the black and indigenous people of this region limited self-rule.clearImmigration
Relative to its overall population, Nicaragua has never experienced any large scale wave of
immigrants . The total number of immigrants to Nicaragua, both originating from otherLatin America n countries and all other countries, never surpassed 1% of its total population prior to 1995. The 2005 census showed the foreign-born population at 1.2%, having risen a mere .06% in 10 years. This is not to say that immigrants were not important to the evolution of Nicaraguan society and the Nicaraguan nation.In the 1800s Nicaragua experienced a wave of immigration, primarily from
Europe . In particular, families fromGermany ,Italy ,Spain ,France andBelgium generally moved to Nicaragua to set up businesses with money they brought from Europe. They established many agricultural businesses such as coffee and sugar cane plantations, and also newspapers, hotels and banks.There is also a small
Middle East ern-Nicaraguan community of Syrian, Armenian,Palestinian Nicaraguan ,Jewish Nicaraguan , and Lebanese people in Nicaragua with a total population of about 30,000. There is also anEast Asia n community ofJapan ese,Taiwan ese and Chinese. TheChinese Nicaraguan population is estimated at around 12,000.fact|date=January 2008 The Chinese arrived in the late 19th century but were unsubstantiated until the second census (in 1920) revealed 400 people of the Chinese nationality.clearNicaraguans abroad
Nicaragua, as well as other
Latin America n countries, have a long history of migration to the United States. However, Nicaragua is the only countries in its region to haveCosta Rica as the primary destination. Estimates on the basis of the Nicaraguan Health Survey indicated that at least 11% of Nicaraguan households have at least 1 person residing abroad. [cite news | first=Juan Carlos | last=Vargas | coauthors= | title=Nicaraguans in Costa Rica and the United States: Data from Ethnic Surveys | date= | publisher= | url =http://repositories.cdlib.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1104&context=ccpr | work =California Center for Population Research | pages = | accessdate = 2007-10-02 | language = ]Smaller numbers of Nicaraguans live in many other countries around the world such as other countries in
Latin America ,Europe ,Canada , China andTaiwan among others.Nicaraguans in Costa Rica
Nicaraguan
migration toCosta Rica has occurred since the mid-19th century. Unlike other Latin American countries, Nicaraguan migrants primary destination is not the United States, it is Costa Rica. An estimated 10% (400,000 - 600,000) of the Costa Rican population is made up of Nicaraguans, [cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title= Background Note: Costa Rica; People | date= | publisher= | url =http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2019.htm | work =U.S. State Department | pages = | accessdate = 2007-10-02 | language = ] most of whom migrate for seasonal work opportunities and then return to their country. Costa Rica and Nicaragua signed an agreement regulating seasonal migration in 1998; it allows Nicaraguans with work permits to enter Costa Rica at the western border at Peñas Blancas on the Pan-American Highway. In the northern part of Costa Rica there are 200,000 Nicaraguans and theCatholic Church in this area has an active program to protect the rights of migrant workers. [cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=Best Practices Concerning Migrant Workers and their Families | date= | publisher= | url =http://www.unesco.org/most/migration/full_rep_santiago.pdf | work =UNESCO | pages = | accessdate = 2007-10-02 | language = |format=PDF]Nicaraguans in the U.S.
Abroad, the United States is home to the second largest number of Nicaraguans outside Nicaragua, particularly in the Miami area. The estimated number of Nicaraguan Americans in the U.S. was 281,167 in 2006, up from 177,684 in 2000. [cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=2005 American Community Survey | date= | publisher= | url =http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-ds_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_&-redoLog=false&-mt_name=ACS_2005_EST_G2000_B03001 | work =U.S. Census Bureau, 2006 | pages = | accessdate = 2007-10-02 | language = ]
The earliest documents of immigration from
Nicaragua to the United States was combined in total with those of otherCentral America n countries. However, according to theU.S. Census Bureau some 7,500 Nicaraguans legallyimmigrated from 1967 to 1976. An estimated 28,620 Nicaraguans were living in the U.S. in 1970, 90% of which self-reported as "white" on the 1970census . Most Nicaraguan immigrants during the late 1960s were women: there were only 60 male Nicaraguan immigrants for every 100 female immigrants during this period. [cite book | first=Ann | last=Orlov | coauthors= Reed Veda | title="Central and South Americans," Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups | year=1980 | publisher=Harvard University Press | url = | work = | pages =210-217 | accessdate = 2007-05-23 | language = ] In 1998 more than two million Nicaraguans were left homeless due tohurricane Mitch , as a result many Nicaraguans received permanent residence or temporary protected status (TPS) in the late 1990s.cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=Context for Nicaraguan Immigration | date= | publisher= | url =http://www.immigrantinfo.org/kin/nicaragua.htm | work = | pages = | accessdate = 2007-05-24 | language = ]According to the 1990 U.S. Census 168,659 of the total 202,658 documented Nicaraguans in the U.S. were born in Nicaragua. [cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=1990 U.S. Census | year=1990 | publisher=U.S. Census Bureau | url =http://www.census.gov/main/www/cen1990.html | work = | pages = | accessdate = 2007-05-24 | language = ] In 1992 approximately 10–12% of the Nicaraguan population had emigrated. These emigrants tended to be disproportionately of working age, better educated, and more often
white-collar workers than nonmigrants. In addition, emigrants were more likely to come from larger premigration households and higherincome households.cite book | first=Edward | last=Funkhouser | coauthors= | title=Migration from Nicaragua: Some Recent Evidence | year=1992 | publisher= | url = | work =World Development, Volume 20 | pages =1210 | accessdate = 2007-05-24 | language = ];Areas of greatest concentration in the U.S.The largest concentration of Nicaraguan Americans in the U.S., about 79,559, is in
Miami ,Florida , most notably around th areas of Sweetwater and "Little Managua". Sweetwater has the highest concentration of Nicaraguan American in the U.S., in 2000 16.63% of Sweetwater residents identified as being of Nicaraguan heritage. This was the highest percentage of Nicaraguan Americans of any place in the country. As a result, Sweetwater is locally known as "Little Managua" afterManagua , the Nicaraguan capital. However, the area of "Little Havana" in Miami is also colloquially called "Little Managua even though Sweetwater has a higher number of Nicaraguan Americans.California hosts the second largest concentration, most notably in the metropolitan areas of Los Angeles andSan Francisco . The number of Nicaraguan Americans living in California was 51,336 in 2000.cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=Census 2000 Demographic Profile Highlights: Nicaraguans | year=2000 | publisher=U.S. Census Bureau | url =http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFIteratedFacts?_event=&geo_id=01000US&_geoContext=01000US%7C04000US51&_street=&_county=&_cityTown=&_state=04000US51&_zip=&_lang=en&_sse=on&ActiveGeoDiv=geoSelect&_useEV=&pctxt=fph&pgsl=040&_submenuId=factsheet_2&ds_name=DEC_2000_SAFF&_ci_nbr=410&qr_name=DEC_2000_SAFF_R1010®=DEC_2000_SAFF_R1010%3A410&_keyword=&_industry= | work = | pages = | accessdate = 2007-05-24 | language = ]History
It is known that Nicaragua was inhabited by
Paleo-Indians as far back as 6000 years. Theancient footprints of Acahualinca confirms it along with other archaeological evidences, mainly ceramics and statues made of volcanic stone like the ones found on the island ofZapatera andpetroglyphs found inOmetepe island. At the end of the 15th century, western Nicaragua was inhabited by several indigenous peoples related by culture and language to theMayan s. However, within three decades an estimated Indian population of one million plummeted to a few tens of thousands, as approximately half of the indigenous people in western Nicaragua died ofdisease s brought by theSpaniard s. The Caribbean coast of Nicaragua was inhabited by indigenous peoples who were mostlychibcha related groups that had migrated fromSouth America , primarily present dayColombia andVenezuela . These groups include theMiskito s, Ramas and Sumos which lived a less sedentary life based on hunting and gathering. [cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=Nicaragua: VI History | date= | publisher= | url =http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761577584_8/Nicaragua.html | work =Encarta | pages = | accessdate = 2007-06-13 | language = ]During the 1979 uprising, many wealthy families left Nicaragua. The Sandinista revolution during the 1980s brought a wave of Nicaraguan
refugee s into the U.S., [cite book | first=Jennifer | last=H. Lundquist | coauthors= Douglas S. Massey | title=The Contra War and Nicaraguan Migration to the United States | year=2005 | publisher= | url =n | work =Journal of Latin American Studies | pages =29-53 | accessdate = 2007-05-24 | language = ] and the largest wave of documented immigrants. Many Nicaraguans also fled to nearby Costa Rica and other countries. Over 62 percent of the total documented immigration from 1979 to 1988 occurred after 1984.Many Nicaraguans who immigrated did so to escape poverty, in
Santa Clara County , California, the Nicaraguan public benefits recipients reported that in their families, 43% have oneself-employed person orbusiness owner , and 14% of the families have two such persons. However, nearly all of the estimated 200,000 Nicaraguans who fled to the U.S. (and other nearby Central American countries) between 1978–1979 returned after the victory of theSandinista s in 1979. [cite book | first=Darrell | last=Y. Hamamoto | coauthors= Rodolfo D. Torres | title=New American Destinies: A Reader in Contemporary Asian and Latino Immigration | year=1997 | publisher=Routledge | url = | work = | pages =108 | accessdate = 2007-05-24 | isbn = 0415917689 ]Culture and traditions
Nicaraguan culture has strong folklore, music and religious traditions, deeply influenced by
European culture but enriched with Amerindian sounds and flavors. Nicaraguan culture can further be defined in several distinct strands. The Pacific coast has strong folklore, music and religious traditions, deeply influenced by European. It was colonized bySpain and has a similar culture to other Spanish-speakingLatin America n countries. The Caribbean coast of the country, on the other hand, was once a Britishprotectorate . English is still predominant in this region and spoken domestically along with Spanish and indigenous languages. Its culture is similar to that ofCaribbean nations that were or are British possessions, such asJamaica ,Belize , TheCayman Islands , etc. The indigenous groups that were present in the Pacific coast have largely been assimilated into the mestizo culture, however, the indigenous people of the Caribbean coast have maintained a distinct identity.Nicaraguan music is a mixture of indigenous and European, especially Spanish, influences. Musical instruments include the
marimba and others common across Central America. The marimba of Nicaragua is uniquely played by a sitting performer holding the instrument on his knees. He is usually accompanied by a bassfiddle ,guitar and guitarrilla (a small guitar like amandolin ). This music is played at social functions as a sort of background music. The marimba is made with hardwood plates, placed over bamboo or metal tubes of varying lengths. It is played with two or fourhammer s. TheCaribbean coast of Nicaragua is known for a lively, sensual form ofdance music calledPalo de Mayo which is very much alive all throughout the country. It is especially loud and celebrated during the Palo de Mayo festival in May. TheGarifuna community exists in Nicaragua and is known for its popular music calledPunta .Literature of Nicaragua can be traced topre-Columbian times with the myths andoral literature that formed the cosmogonic view of the world that indigenous people had. Some of these stories are still know in Nicaragua. Like manyLatin America n countries, the Spanish conquerors have had the most effect on both the culture and the literature. Nicaraguan literature has historically been an important source ofpoetry in the Spanish-speaking world, with internationally renowned contributors such asRubén Darío who is regarded as the most important literary figure in Nicaragua, referred to as the "Father of Modernism" for leading themodernismo literary movement at the end of the 19th century.cite news | title=Showcasing Nicaragua's Folkloric Masterpiece - El Gueguense - and Other Performing and Visual Arts | url =http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-150984344.html | work =Encyclopedia.com | accessdate = 2007-08-03] Other literary figures includeErnesto Cardenal ,Gioconda Belli ,Claribel Alegría andJose Coronel Urtecho , among others.El Güegüense is asatirical drama and was the first literary work of pre-Columbian Nicaragua. It is regarded as one of Latin America's most distinctive colonial-era expressions and as Nicaragua's signature folkloric masterpiece combining music, dance and theater.cite news | title=Showcasing Nicaragua's Folkloric Masterpiece - El Gueguense - and Other Performing and Visual Arts | url =http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-150984344.html | work =Encyclopedia.com | accessdate = 2007-08-03] Thetheatrical play was written by an anonymous author in the 16th century, making it one of the oldest indigenous theatrical/dance works of theWestern Hemisphere . [cite news | title=Native Theatre: El Gueguense | date= | publisher=Smithsonian Institution | url =http://www.nmai.si.edu/calendar/index.asp?month=10&year=2006&day=22 | accessdate = 2007-08-03] The story was published in a book in 1942 after many centuries. [cite news | title=El Güegüense o Macho Ratón | url =http://www.vianica.com/go/specials/21-el-gueguense-macho-raton.html | work =ViaNica | accessdate = 2007-08-03]Language
Spanish is spoken by about 90% of the country's population. In Nicaragua the
Voseo form is common, just as in other countries in Central and South America likeHonduras ,Argentina ,Uruguay or coastalColombia . Spanish has many different dialects spoken throughout Latin America,Central American Spanish is the dialect spoken in Nicaragua. In the Caribbean coast many afro-Nicaraguans and creoles speak English andcreole English as their first language. Also in the Caribbean coast, many Indigenous people speak their native languages, such as the Miskito, Sumo, Rama andGarifuna language . [cite news | title=Languages of Nicaragua | url =http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=NI | work =Ethnologue | accessdate = 2007-05-09] In addition, manyethnic group s in Nicaragua, such as theChinese Nicaraguan s andPalestinian Nicaraguan s, have maintained their ancestral languages, which are minority languages, while also speaking Spanish and/or English. These minority languages include Chinese, Arabic, German, and Italian, among others.Nicaragua has a total of 3
extinct language s, one of which was never classified.Nicaraguan Sign Language is also of particular interest tolinguists .ymbols
The
flag of Nicaragua was adopted on August 27, 1971. It is based on the flag of the United States of Central America. The two blue stripes represented the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea; while white symbolizes peace. A modern interpretation indicates that the color blue symbolizes justice and loyalty; while the color white represents virtue and purity. The coat of arms features an equilateral triangle which represents equality. Inside the triangle are fivevolcano es, which represent the five members of the federation. The triangle also contains symbols of liberty and peace which is represented by a red Phrygian cap, white rays and arainbow .See also
*
Demographics of Nicaragua
**List of Nicaraguans
*Nicaraguan American
**List of Nicaraguan Americans
*Asian Latin American
*Afro Latin American References
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