Top people of the Spanish, Italian, and English (5)
I believe the answer is:
elite
'top people' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'the spanish italian and english' is the wordplay.
'the spanish' becomes 'el' (**).
'italian' becomes 'it'.
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'el'+'it'+'e'='ELITE'
'of' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for elite that I've seen before include "A privileged or select group" , "Identified as the best" , "Creme de la creme" , "Exclusive set" , "A particular typesize" .)