Abstract:

Abstract Cienfuegos, founded in 1819 as a typical white population colony, increased its population at the expense of both internal and external migratory movements. In its genesis, the population of Spanish origin was scarce; as the nineteenth century passed by, the natives of Spain, and particularly the Asturians, were in continuous quantitative and qualitative rise, reaching their highest figures in 1920. The ethnic marital relationships of the Asturian immigrants were characterized by their heterogeneous nature. As the Asturian migration was that of males mostly, there were few Asturian women to marry with, contrary to what happened with Cuban women. The tendency then was to get married to Cuban women in the first place, Asturians or Spaniards as a second option, and to Europeans in rare occasions. Among the Asturian economic elite, the most used matrimonial strategies were to marry one of the daughters with the commercial partner and to marry the sons and daughters among the members of the aforementioned elite. Numerous are the examples found among the Asturians established in the Cienfuegos region who consolidated their fortunes through advantageous marriages.

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