The publishing house Temas de hoy published, during 2020, Spain is this and quite the opposite. Eleven historical dates to understand how we got herea work in which, through eleven mythical dates in the history of Spain, reviews the historical construction of the country.
Data sheet
- Title: Spain is this and quite the opposite. Eleven historical dates to understand how we got here
- Author: Deborah Garcia Sanchez-Marin
- Genre: Essay
- Number of Pages: 224
- ISBN: 978 84 9998 823 8
- Year: 2020
- you can buy it here
- You can read a snippet here
What we think of Spain is this and the opposite
The construction of the Spanish nation is probably one of the historical processes whose echoes resonate most strongly today. Spain is this and the opposite focuses on that process from the point of view of an essay. In it, Déborah García has selected 11 outstanding dates in the history of what is now Spain between the year 133 a. C. and 1975.
start with the year 133 a. C., date of conquest a Numantia. The author takes advantage of this date to introduce the work. In this first chapter she goes through the prehistory and ancient history of present-day Spain. In the same way, she takes the opportunity to begin to connect certain reflections that will deepen throughout the work.
The second date it addresses is 1492, inevitable year for the conceptual construction of what Spain is. But, above all, a key moment in the debate about since when can we talk about Spain. The third chapter is 1519which under the title Spain is an alienated woman puts the focus on a character traditionally poorly drawn, that of Juana I de Castilla. She reflects on the way in which her figure has been portrayed in order to assemble the pieces of a national discourse.
The fourth date it addresses is 1609key date for the phenomenon of expulsion of the moriscos, which the author uses to reflect on how the idea of Spain has excluded from it the close relationship between present-day Spain and its Muslim past. Chapter 5 focuses on 1713date of the Treaty of Utrecht and, with it, of the end of the War of Succession. In this chapter, the author reflects on characters such as Carlos II and on the importance of the conflict or the Nueva Planta Rights for the construction of the Spain we know.
1749, the sixth chapter, goes through one of the most forgotten episodes in the modern history of the Hispanic monarchy: the big raid against the Roma population. It is time to talk about the history of the gypsy people in the Iberian Peninsula. And, above all, to explain the historical and current marginalization of the gypsy people.
The seventh chapter is occupied by what is probably one of the most relevant dates in the construction of the idea of Spain, 1808. The eighth is occupied by another one of those key dates: 1898. Both chapters are quite explanatory for the traditionally drawn as convulsed Spanish 19th century and also regarding the construction, during it, of a concept of Spain that weaves together all the dates previously discussed with the 20th century and today.
The following date, which occupies the ninth chapter, is 1936. A key date for the formulation and reformulation of the concept of Spain that brought with it the outbreak of the Civil War. However, the war wiped out all the changes in how the Spanish understood Spain that the Second Republic brought. The author addresses the chapter regarding what Spain was and could have been. But she also reflects on what the men and, above all, the women who populated the country were and could have been.
With the tenth chapter, dedicated to 1975the author carries out a revision of the myth of the Transition that links with the chapter dedicated to 2020. This serves as a representative year for the present. At the same time, it is focused on the pandemic context that we are still going through. The work closes with a codaa future projection of the year 2264 dedicated to history itself.
The essay is built from the deliberate subjectivity of the author, who addresses the reader in the first person. This does not imply that the work is not supported by solid and abundant bibliographical references, although sometimes there are referential errors in the footnotes.
The work revolves around all those dates mentioned and what they have done to Spain. Those dates are what Spain is, but also, as the author mentions, it is the opposite. The choice of dates, references and specific events to build what we have been considering the common thread of the history of Spain is not accidental. However, one of the ideas claimed by the author is that Spain is not only those dates or those referents that have constituted the most traditional or hegemonic discourse on what Spain is. It is also all the others, all on which a different historical discourse could have been built.
Although it is true that many of these visions have already been overcome academically, it is also true that they have remained rooted in mentalities. The author, following the common thread of those key dates with which to understand the construction of the idea of Spain, recovers everything that has not been told, quite the opposite. However, it is not casual or unimportant what dates have been chosen from history to start it. The dates chosen to begin the history of a country, in this case Spain, mark the type of story with which the existence of that nation is to be explained. The author explores, from certain key dates (some because they were chosen, others because perhaps they could have been), otherness, or everything that has been drawn as such when building the idea of Spain.
So do we recommend it?
From Archivos de la Historia we recommend Spain is this and the opposite. Being a work of marked and deliberate subjectivity (something typical of an essay) and that, in many cases, returns to the past from conceptions of the present, Déborah García contributes, in an essay that manages to be informative and that may please both specialized readers as well as amateurs, a series of interesting reflections on how did we get to here that help undo some topics strongly tied to our conception of Spain.