Since yesterday, the intersection of 14th Street and Eighth Avenue in New York City bears a name that recalls a deeply Spanish story: Little Spain–La Nacional Way.

In the heart of Manhattan, and around La Nacional–Sociedad de Beneficencia, thousands of Spaniards built their lives, families, and community. Tobacco workers, waiters, dockworkers, construction workers, nannies, and domestic workers who transformed this corner of New York into a true “Little Spain.”

Many of these stories are featured in our exhibition Invisible Immigrants. Spaniards in the U.S. (1868–1945). And it was precisely James D. Fernández, professor at New York University and co-curator of the exhibition, who delivered a moving speech as the new street sign was unveiled.

“If memorials were proportional to demographics, for every statue of a conquistador, we would have a thousand statues of nannies and maids; for every monument to an explorer, we would have a thousand tributes to cigar workers or coal miners; for every evocation of a friar, we would have a thousand effigies of waiters and dock workers and bricklayers, like the ones who built and strolled these very streets a hundred years ago”

During his remarks at the ceremony, Fernández focused precisely on them: on those “quiet and dignified” lives that have so often been left out of the great narratives of history and that lie at the heart of Invisible Immigrants.

Representatives of La Nacional, the Government of Spain, and members of the Spanish community took part in yesterday’s ceremony. Speaking to the EFE news agency, New York City Council Member Carl Wilson said: “We are elevating and celebrating the contributions of the Spanish community to the Chelsea neighborhood.”

The Fundación, which supported the initiative from the outset, is pleased to see it become a reality and to see this symbolic recovery of a part of the recent history between Spain and the United States that for many years remained at the margins of our shared memory.

Little Spain–La Nacional Way is now much more than a new street sign. It is a recognition of the memory and legacy that several generations of Spaniards left in New York. A legacy that continues to grow.