Asturian-American Migration Forum

Hello everyone,

I am so excited to have found this site. I am writing in the hopes that someone reads this and can help me in anyway possible. I am a US citizen who's parents migrated from Cuba. My grandfather (Ulpiano Carvajal Gonzalez) was born in Asturias (Nava Castenera - from what I was told) and then later migrated to Cuba during the civil war. Unfortunately, my father later was forced to migrate from Cuba to the United States via Spain. I was born in Madrid, Spain but was not permitted Spanish citizenship , becaused both my parents were born in Cuba. My parents moved to the US when I was almost one years old and now after so long I have finally decided to move to Spain. I have been living in Madrid since last March. I visited the Registro Civil and was denied Residency again once they saw that my parents were not born in Spain. I was told I may be able to solicit my citizenship if I am able to provide them with my grandfather birth certificate, my father birth certificate and one year of legal residency. I regsitered myself in the City Hall last March , but am still not sure how to go about finding my grandfathers home town and getting a copy of his birth certificate, not to mention how am I ever going to get one year of legal residency. I am hoping someone who reads this can give some guidence on how to procede with my goal of obtaining Spanish reseidency.

Best wishes to all ,

Jissy Carbajal

Hi Jissy and welcome.
Being the granddaughter of a Spanish citizen already warrants you a residence permit of one year and makes you eligible for citizenship. As they told you, you need to provide proof.

You should have no problems getting your grandfather's birth certificate, as the county of Nava is not that heavily populated and the village of Castañeda is tiny. If you don't know your grandfather's birth date you might have to actually get in touch with the parish priest and see if he's kind enough to look it up in his church archives.
Since you are in Madrid, it might be worth the trip - 4 hours by car. You can also take the ALSA Bus or the train.

Below is the link to Telefónica's White Pages. I have found several Carvajales listed in Nava, they might be relatives.

http://blancas.paginasamarillas.es/jsp/home.jsp
http://www.facc.info/CONCEJOS/Nava.htm

Hi Terechu,

Thank you for replying. It's nice to hear some positive feedback on the matter regarding my grandfather. I called my father in the US and asked him to find my grandfathers birthdate. Unfortunately, he is not sure if he has any documentation that would give him that date. He's embarressed to say that he doesn't remember the date nor the year his father was born. My family history on my fathers side has been very complicated and so over the years there are very little documents or even pictures left to provide proof. My father told me that when his father migrated from Asturias to Cuba he had to enter Cuba by changing his last name to be spelled with a "b" rather then a "v" . He said that what was done in those days in order to be able to stay in the country legally. This means that my fathers birth certificate will show my grandfathers last name as Carbajal not Carvajal. I hope if I ever find a copy of my grandfathers certiificate and then provide my fathers certiificate the difference in last names will not be a problem. I am going to plan a trip the first week of December to go to the Village Nava Casteneda and hopefully be able to speak to someone that can help me find my roots. I really appreciate you taking the time to read this and also for taking the time to respond.

God Bless you!
Jissy Carbajal