French Mexicans

French immigration to Mexico started only on a small scale before Mexico became an independent country in 1821, as foreign immigration was sometimes prohibited by Spanish authorities under the colonial regime.{{Citation needed|date=July 2016}} The first wave of French immigration to Mexico occurred in the 1830s, following the country's recognition by France, with the foundation of a French colony on the Coatzacoalcos River, in the state of Veracruz. In total, 668 settlers were brought from France to populate the colony.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZMowwMQsm4AC |title=La tentation mexicaine en France au XIXème siècle|isbn=9782296201606|quote=Les colons - 668 au total.|last1=Dugast|first1=Guy-Alain|date=September 2008}} Most of them went back to France as the project of colonization failed, but some permanently settled in Mexico. In 1833, another colony was founded in the state of Veracruz as well, under the name of Jicaltepec. A second wave of French immigration came to Mexico at the end of the 1840s, during the California Gold Rush (at the time gold was discovered, California was still part of the Mexican territory). As a consequence, in 1849 French represented the second foreign community in Mexico after Spaniards.{{cite web |url=http://www.univ-paris-diderot.fr/hsal/hsal981/sv98-1.pdf |title=Le moment mexicain dans l'histoire française de l'aventure |quote=La conséquence de cette émigration fut que, en 1849, les Français représentaient la deuxième nationalité étrangère au Mexique, derrière les Espagnols. |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141209232526/http://www.univ-paris-diderot.fr/hsal/hsal981/sv98-1.pdf |archivedate=9 December 2014 |df=dmy-all }} Between 1850 and 1914, Mexico received 11,000 French immigrants.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZtRZlzQlrQgC |title=México Francia |isbn=9789686029789 |quote=(p. 91) Para México, esta fuente indica que entre 1850 y 1914 llegaron más de 11 mil personas.|last1=Perez-Siller |first1=Javier |year=1998 }}

According to the 2010 Census, French people form the second largest European emigrant community in Mexico after Spaniards,{{cite web|url=http://www.inegi.gob.mx/inegi/contenidos/espanol/prensa/contenidos/Articulos/sociodemograficas/nacidosenotropais.pdf|title=Conociendo...nos todos: Censo de Población y Vivienda 2010|trans-title=Knowing ... us all: Population and Housing Census 2010|language=es|work=INEGI|volume=1|issue=2|date=May 2011|accessdate=5 January 2015|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130427100913/http://www.inegi.gob.mx/inegi/contenidos/espanol/prensa/contenidos/Articulos/sociodemograficas/nacidosenotropais.pdf|archivedate=27 April 2013}} and eleventh overall immigrant community. There are around 9,500 French nationals{{cite web |url=http://www.senat.fr/rap/r98-309/r98-30917.html |title=La communauté française du Mexique |quote= une communauté française relativement importante -la quatrième communauté étrangère du pays après les Américains, les Libanais et les Espagnols- comportant environ 9 500 immatriculés (9 321 en 1997) auxquels s'ajoutent 6 000 à 7 000 non-immatriculés.}} registered in Mexico and about 6,000 to 7,000 Frenchmen unregistered. Two thirds of them are Mexicans of French ancestry holding double nationality. Many Mexicans of French descent live in cities and states such as Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, Aguascalientes, Veracruz, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Puebla, Queretaro and Mexico City.

Most French Mexicans descend from immigrants and soldiers that settled in Mexico during the Second Mexican Empire, headed by Maximilian I of Mexico and masterminded by Emperor Napoleon III of France and the Mexican conservatives in the 1850’s to create a Latin empire in the New World (indeed responsible for coining the term of Amérique latine, or 'Latin America'). Emperor Maximilian's consort, Carlota of Mexico, a princess of Belgium, was a granddaughter of Louis-Philippe of France.

The largest wave of immigration from France to Mexico came from the city of Barcelonnette, in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. Between 1850 and 1950, 5,000 to 6,000 inhabitants{{cite web |url=http://pagnol83300.free.fr/barcelo02/Les%20Barcelonnettes%20au%20Mexique.htm |title=Les Barcelonnettes au Mexique |quote=Ainsi entre 1850 et 1950, 6000 à 7000 habitants de l'Ubaye ont quitté leur pays pour le Mexique. |access-date=21 January 2009 |archive-date=9 December 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071209103306/http://pagnol83300.free.fr/barcelo02/Les%20Barcelonnettes%20au%20Mexique.htm |url-status=dead }} of the Ubaye Valley immigrated to Mexico. Many established textile businesses between Mexico and France. While 90% stayed in Mexico, some returned to Barcelonette, and from 1880 to 1930, built grand mansions called Maisons Mexicaines and left a mark upon the city. Today, there are 60,000 descendants of the "Barcelonnettes".{{cite web |url=http://pagnol83300.free.fr/barcelo02/Les%20Barcelonnettes%20au%20Mexique.htm |title=Les Barcelonnettes au Mexique |quote=On estime à 60 000 les descendants des Barcelonnettes, dispersés sur tout le territoire mexicain. |access-date=21 January 2009 |archive-date=9 December 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071209103306/http://pagnol83300.free.fr/barcelo02/Les%20Barcelonnettes%20au%20Mexique.htm |url-status=dead }}

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In 1833, 98 persons[http://www.mexicoaccueil.com/decouverte/hier-aujourdhui/index.htm La colonisation française de Jicaltepec, Veracruz] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081225012903/http://www.mexicoaccueil.com/decouverte/hier-aujourdhui/index.htm |date=25 December 2008 }} coming from Haute-Saône, Haute-Marne, Côte-d'Or and Yonne settled in a colony called Jicaltepec, in the state of Veracruz. In 1874, the community resettled on the other bank of the river, in San Rafael. From 1880 to 1900 the population of the colony grew from 800 to 1,000 inhabitants. There are now around 10,000 French Mexicans in the state of Veracruz.

Jean René Champion, a Mexican of French ancestry, was the first Free French Forces (Forces Françaises Libres) officer to enter Paris on the day when the city was liberated from the Nazis on August 26, 1944.

The French introduced cultural traits adopted by the Mexican culture and may have helped coin the term “Mariachi”, though it is not certain. The word “Mariachi” may have originated during French Napoleonic rule in the 1860s since French settler families used the music during weddings (marriage). Clark attributes this to "phonetic coincidence" (Clark, 1996). An important culinary contribution was the bolillo, which is now widely used for the torta.{{Cite web |url=http://www.patismexicantable.com/2009/06/i_am_packing_my_own_torta/ |title=I am packing my own Torta… |access-date=28 July 2014 |archive-date=25 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140725101800/http://www.patismexicantable.com/2009/06/i_am_packing_my_own_torta/ |url-status=dead }} The French also heavily influenced Mexico's pan dulce.

There are two French international schools in Mexico:

• Lycée Franco-Mexicain (campuses in Mexico City and Cuernavaca)
• Lycée Français de Guadalajara

File:SanRafaelMuseum13.JPG

• Luis G. Abbadie, writer
• León Aillaud, governor of Veracruz
• Miirrha Alhambra, French-born Mexican pianist
• Pita Amor, poet, of French descent
• Ramón Arnaud, Mexican Army and the last Mexican governor of Clipperton Island; of French descent
• Aracely Arámbula, Mexican actress, model, and singer; of French and Basque descent
• Alberto Baillères, third-richest man in Mexico
• Alejandro Baillères, CEO of Grupo Nacional Provincial, son of Alberto Baillères
• Jean-Louis Berlandier, scientist
• Angelique Boyer, Mexican, French-born telenovela actress
• Linda Christian, movie actress, of French descent
• Manuel Clouthier, businessman and politician
• Tatiana Clouthier, politician, writer, and entrepreneur
• Carlos Loret de Mola, Mexican journalist of French descent
• Edgar de Evia, Mexican-born American photographer
• Eugenio Derbez, actor, comedian, and film director; of French descent on his great grandmother's side (Gilly)
• Consuelo Duval, Mexican actress of French descent
• Yolanda Vargas Dulché, writer, mother of French origin
• Roberto Heinze Flamand, sprint canoeist, of French descent
• Eugène Goupil, French-born Mexican philanthropist and collector
• Francisco Romano Guillemin, artist, of French descent
• Ralph Heinze, sprint canoeist, of French descent
• Claude Heller, ambassador, of German and French descent
• Saturnino Herrán, painter
• Lourdes Grobet, photographer
• José de la Borda, French-born Mexican philanthropist
• Gustavo Huet, Mexican-born American athlete, of French descent
• Emilio Azcárraga Jean, businessman, of French descent
• Frédéric-Yves Jeannet, French-born Mexican writer and professor
• Elizabeth Katz, actress and former model, of French descent
• Michelito Lagravere, child bullfighter, to French father
• Lou Lopez Sénéchal, basketball player, French mother and Mexican father
• Alberto Ruz Lhuillier, French-born Mexican archaeologist
• Ángel Navarro, French-born leading Spanish settler in New Spain
• Montserrat Olivier, actress, television presenter, and former fashion model
• Roberto Palazuelos, actor, mother of French origin
• André-Pierre Gignac, footballer, naturalized Mexican citizen
• Elena Poniatowska, French-born Mexican journalist and author; French and Mexican noble descent
• Antonio Enríquez Savignac, politician
• Laurette Séjourné, Italian-born Mexican archaeologist and ethnologist, of French descent
• Eugenio Toussaint, composer, arranger, and jazz musician
• Eduardo Troconis, race-car driver
• Adrián Woll, 19th-century Mexican general, born and died in France
• José Youshimatz, Mexican-born American, retired track cyclist and road bicycle racer; of French descent
• DJ Trevi, Mexican-American, DJ, producer, composer, and actor; of French descent

{{Portal|France|Mexico}}

• France–Mexico relations
• Mexicans in France
• White Mexicans

{{Reflist|2}}

• [https://youtube.com/watch?v=B89cOxbjGBM Los que llegaron - Franceses] from Canal Once

{{Ethnic groups in Mexico}}

{{French diaspora}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:French Immigration To Mexico}}

Category:French diaspora in Mexico