Phonemic awareness exists in Spanish ELL readers

There is a widely held belief that phonemes are not relevant to Spanish-speaking students; only syllables are. That view does not appear to be supported by the research:

…we can confirm in the study reported here the existence of intrasyllabic awareness among Spanish children, because they have more difficulty isolating the first consonant when it belongs to a cluster [e.g., preso] than when it does not [e.g., puro].

Jiménez González, J.E., Haro García, C.R. (1995). Effects of Word Linguistic Properties on Phonological Awareness in Spanish Children. Journal of Educational Psychology 87 (2), p. 193 -201.