Sardinero and Not a Can of Sardines: Soccer and Spanish Ethnic Identities in New York City during the 1920s

Spaniards in New York City during the 1920s used soccer to create and maintain multiple notions of identities centered on supra-national, national, and regional affiliations. Success on the field against other teams demonstrated the talent and strength of not just those from Spain but also immigrants from the rest of the Spanish-speaking world. The sport also generated networks that reinforced a Spanish national identity by connecting New Yorkers to similar communities both in the United States and overseas. The establishment of voluntary and sporting organizations based on region of origin within Spain weakened other broader notions of collective identification. The expression of these multiple identities through sport fuelled rivalries and subverted attempts to create a singular ethnic identity. By the end of the decade, the result within the Spanish colony was not unification, as many had hoped, but rather fragmentation into competing institutions.