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Afro-Spaniards (Spanish: afroespañoles) are Spanish nationals of black African descent. Afro-Spaniards of today come from Angola, Brazil, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal and Venezuela. A notable Afro-Arab population from the Maghreb (Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco, Mauretania, Tunisia) also exists. In 2009, about 7,500 descendants of black Africans were born in Spain. As of the year 2011, there are 237,300 Black Africans residing legally in Spain with an unknown number of illegal immigrants.
Although most blacks in Spain today are recent arrivals, their earliest presence in the country dates back a few centuries. From the Arabic slave trade and the Castilian and Portuguese colonization of Africa, there were a number of black people (including slaves) in the Iberian Peninsula. When these black people were Christianized and spoke Spanish, they were known as Black ladinos. It was from this slave contingent that the first Africans were brought to the Americas. After the initial success, the triangular trade brought the African slaves directly to the Americas. Between the time of the Castilian Kingdom and mid-1700s, Spain had a sizeable black population of 100,000 people. In a few generations, the population intermarried into the general Spanish population. The only group that claim black descent in Spain, going back a century or more, can be found in Gibraleón and Niebla; towns founded by escaped slaves from southern Portugal in Alentejo.
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