Historic NYC nonprofit La Nacional offers community for Spaniards

NEW YORK — For Hispanic Heritage Month, CBS News New York's Lisa Rozner got a look inside a historic nonprofit in Chelsea that's been a welcome center for immigrants from Spain for more than a century.

La Nacional was founded in 1868 and is the oldest Spanish cultural center in the United States, according to the organization's director of institutional relations, Michelle Miron.

She says many people fled Spain for better opportunities.

"We actually started in Lower Manhattan. And then as the Spanish immigration group, most of them docking here in the piers, the society moved here [to 14th Street] in 1925," she said.

La Nacional helps Spanish immigrants in NYC find community

Miron says Spaniards like Rogelio Alvarez, 92, would walk to La Nacional for food, a place to stay, work, and even medical needs. Alvarez arrived in New York City in 1955, when he was in his early 20s.

"I bring them 40, 40 bucks ... When I come in over here to the La Nacional, asking for my food ... but [they] say, 'No, you don't have to pay now,'" Alvarez said. "Pero I can't do my job over here because I don't have English."

He learned English and met his wife here.

Nonprofit member Jose Fernandez's father and mother, immigrants from Spain, met at a picnic organized by La Nacional. Fernandez is now 95 years old.

"During the Spanish Civil War, they had a lot of fundraising events ... My father would come once a month, at least," he said.

La Nacional has a restaurant open to the public that serves food found all throughout Spain, and the chef behind it is from Valencia. It's food made with love to educate visitors and remind longtime members of where they came from.

La Nacional is also the organizer of the annual Hispanic Day Parade, which is being held Sunday along Fifth Avenue. It will feature cultural dances and floats from more than 20 Spanish-speaking countries. It was started decades ago to strengthen the bonds between Spain and other countries.

Local businesses, neighborhood helps support La Nacional

The block was once known as Little Spain, which La Nacional says was home to about 30,000-40,000 Spaniards. Many commemorated life events at La Guadalupe Church next door.

"The first church to have Spanish mass in all of New York state, and it was because the locals went to the archdiocese and asked for mass, because there was no place for them to go to worship," Miron said.

One wall covered in newspaper clippings shows how local businesses helped support the society.

"Like here, Don Quijote, Unanue – that family has gone on to open up the Goya Goods, which is the biggest Hispanic-owned business in the United States. And Angel Cansino opened up a dance school in which his daughter was their best dancer, and that's Rita Heyworth," said Robert Sanfiz, La Nacional's executive director.

Another wall has copies of old membership cards.

"During the Cuban Revolution, a lot of people came over. A lot of especially Spanish Cubans came over ... And we also have a lot of membership cards with people from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Argentina," Sanfiz said.