Culture & History Digital Journal

Introduction: Political conflict and repression in 20th century Spain

José Buscaglia Salgado — 2025-02-07

A controversial legacy from the Romantic period. Al-Andalus echoes in films featuring tourists (1905-1975)

Alfonso Fernández-Tabales — 2025-02-07

The central theme of the article is the role of the image of Al-Andalus in shaping the archetypes of Spain and Andalusia, and more specifically in the tourist image of the latter. Thus, the main objective of this article is to show the historical process through which the idea of and the features associated with Al-Andalus have become one of the components of the tourist image of Spain and, fundamentally, of Andalusia throughout most of the 20^th century. Furthermore, the secondary objectives are to analyse the intense debate, running since the beginning of the 19^th century, about the image of Al-Andalus among Spanish intellectuals; and analyse the (re)production of “phantom image” linked to Al-Andalus in films with tourists, using a qualitative method of film image analysis that can be considered novel (Grounded Theory built through visual analysis with NVivo software).

Exploratory sequential design for creation of the Miao’s traditional patterns mobile application

Shubei Qiao — 2025-02-07

This study aimed to define a data set for the design of an app that would show Miao’s traditional patterns. At the preliminary stage, the study traced the socio-cultural transformation that the Miao people went through, and which was reflected in their traditional patterns. In the first stage of the study, an Internet survey was conducted on the international tourism platform among the population of all continents. The survey confirmed the existence of a public request for content related to Miao’s traditional patterns. The survey also determined the required information sources and approaches to training. Further, the desired content was prepared and coordinated with the help of experts in the field of Miao cultural heritage. At the final stage, usability, design, and content issues for the future mobile application were discussed during an interview with experts in the field of digital representation of artefacts.

‘Voices’ in the Courtroom. The role of notaries in the ‘Inquisitorial autobiography’

José Luis Loriente Torres — 2025-02-07

Little is known about the workings of Inquisitorial notaries during the early modern period, particularly regarding their documentation methods within the courtroom. This paper aims to analyze the procedures they employed in documenting proceedings. Questions arise regarding how they managed to transcribe what was happening in the courtroom, the accuracy of their records, and the mechanisms employed in carrying out this function. An analogy often invoked is whether these sources can convey the ‘voices’ of defendants. Here, it will be argued that the ‘voice’ modern readers ‘hear’ is that of the notary, who lends it to the defendant. Due to the absence of explicit information in any manual or instruction, we will directly examine the Inquisitorial proceedings. Specifically, we will focus on the first hearing, audience, or interrogation, known as ‘Primera Audiencia’, during which all defendants were obligated to declare their life stories or ‘discurso de su vida’ from 1561 onwards. Both the first interrogation and the life narrative were the most formulaic and fixed part of the trial, inviting comparation. Although we have focused on these specific elements, some of our conclusions may apply to the rest of the process. Our methodology will involve studying inks, handwritings, and micro-expressions.

Experts on the defensive: The Tsiganologue versus Romani activism (1959-1973)

Begoña Barrera López — 2024-12-30

This article discusses the figure of the Tsiganalogue, the expert on the “Tsigane question,” in post-World War II France. Specifically, it analyses the role played by one of these experts in the police persecution of Roma ethnic activism during the 1960s and early 1970s. Drawing on this case study, its objective is two-fold: firstly, to show the central role that Tsiganalogues played in the hounding of the Romani movement; secondly, to explain how the self-perceptions of these experts (of their authority and role) were decisive factor in their interventions with the public authorities. The article draws on a wide range of sources from the French Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Health and Population. It is structured in five parts: the first briefly defines and explains the concepts of expert, expert knowledge and ethnicity; the second describes the context and profile of the main agents studied (the Tsiganalogues, Romani activists and the French police); the third and fourth parts examine in extenso the primary documentation; and finally, the fifth part offers a reflective summary of the profile of the Tsiganalogue.

The cathedral of modern civilisation. The Teatro Real of Madrid and the definition of the respectable new elite, 1850-1895

David San Narciso — 2024-12-30

Opera was a spectacle reserved for the aristocratic elite during the Ancien Régime. However, the liberal revolution and the redefinition of the mechanisms of social class identity that brought with it significantly modified this space. As Théophile Gautier said, opera houses became in the nineteen century “a radiating centre, a sort of worldly cathedral of civilisation” from which to spread progress. At the same time, they constituted a privileged social space for interaction between the old nobility and the new liberal elites. This article studies the Teatro Real of Madrid as one of the most important spaces for the sociability of the Spanish nineteenth-century elites. I aim to show how it contributed to redefining the profiles of the elite, facilitating the encounter between old and new aristocracies. For this purpose, I analyse the confrontation between the different social strata attempting to impose an aesthetic attitude, respectable behaviour, and modern taste inside the opera house. I propose to study this space as a social element that helped to modulate the patterns of distinction of the elites and to disseminate codes of conduct linked to civility.

Ruling the streets: the policing of protest and political violence in Madrid during the Second Republic, 1931-1936

Sergio Vaquero Martínez — 2025-02-07

The state has occupied a privileged space in most of the explanations regarding the origins of the political violence that disrupted the course of the Spanish Second Republic. Nevertheless, the generalised notion that the majority of deaths were the outcome of the repression of popular mobilisation contrasts with the practical inexistence of studies devoted to the specific interactions between coercive forces and collective challengers. With the purpose of partially filling this gap, the following article analyses the policing of protest in the province of Madrid from 14 April 1931 to 17 July 1936. The research relies on a database of approximately 450 recorded events that has been constructed from a corpus of archival documentation from the Ministry of the Interior, contemporary newspapers and specialised monographs. This article argues that the mistakes, dysfunctions and collateral effects of the policing of social protests derived from the restoration of a lethal, military repertoire of coercion and, more indirectly, the invention of a civil, non-lethal style. The incoherent alternation of both repertoires followed politically motivated criteria and fostered an escalation of violence that increased the number of victims and obstructed the democratisation of the security apparatus.

Violence and the Displacement of Rail Workers of Altsasu-Alsasua in the Spanish Civil War and its Aftermath

Daniel Oviedo Silva — 2024-12-30

Forced displacements in the context of civil wars are intimately bound to the violent practices which accompany them. In the case of the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath, this relationship manifested itself in the massive flight of people who feared reprisals but also in displacements imposed by the authorities, or motivated by social exclusion. Studies relating to internal population movements within this context are rare, however. This work deals with the flight of the rail workers of Altsasu-Alsasua in the days following the coup of July 1936. After reviewing the literature on wartime displacements, both internationally and in Spain, the article uses 175 records created during the subsequent dismissal of rail workers in order to trace their wartime experiences. First, we examine the circumstances that produced early flights, which only make sense if we bear in mind the myriad experiences of socio-political conflict which preceded the war and heralded its beginning. Thereafter, the article maps the itineraries of those who abandoned the area. Finally, we examine the difficulties that marked the return home and the displacements many rail workers endured as part of the regime’s repressive policies.

Mothers and children without bread. Hunger in the Auxilio Social Cocinas de Hermandad and Comedores Infantiles during post-war Francoism (1939-1940)

Gloria Román Ruiz — 2025-02-07

This article analyses one of the main social policies in post-war Spain: the welfare policies of Auxilio Social. In particular, it explores the conditions and daily operation of the Comedores Infantiles and Cocinas de Hermandad run by that Falangist institution in Madrid in the immediate postwar period (1939 and 1940). This work sustaines that the rations served in these charitable-assistance institutions were fewer, smaller, and of worse quality than officially recognised. Therefore, the food given to the needy mothers and children at these Auxilio Social premises was insufficient to quell their hunger. Moreover, since the facilities did not meet the minimum conditions of size, cleanliness, ventilation, and kitchen utensils, the attendees were exposed to infectious diseases. It is also argued that, beyond the food supply problems of those famine years, the ineffectiveness of the Comedores and Cocinas was often due to the staff who worked in them, as they often used to steal food for their own consumption or to sell on the black market. Finally, it is argued that, given its failure to feed the needy, Auxilio Social’s aim of extending support to the dictatorship through the guise of charity was tarnished.

Spanish refugees in Portugal and the Portuguese solidarity (1936-1945)

Fábio A. Faria — 2024-12-30

This article aims to analyze the reception and route of refugees through Portugal in the context of the Spanish Civil War, a territory that, due to its geographical proximity, was especially sought as a place of refuge by countless Spaniards to protect themselves from war and persecutions. Due to its authoritarian nature, Salazar´s regime proved reluctant to receive them and developed a repression directed at these refugees, considered “undesirable,” visible in the increase of the number of border posts and their reinforcement and in the collaboration between different authorities, namely PVDE (State Surveillance and Defense Police), GNR (Republican National Guard), PSP (Public Security Police) and GF (Fiscal Guard), leading to their concentration in large national prisons. In the context of the phenomenon of the Spanish Republican refugees in Portugal, this article also discusses the role played by the Portuguese population and by some elements of the authorities in the assistance provided to Spanish refugees, as well as the repression that was driven by Salazar’s regime.

‘Trustworthy Allies’: International Organisations, Ernest Hemingway, Women Activists, and Spanish Republican Exiles in Cuba

Daniel Fernandez Guevara — 2025-02-07

A shortage of scholarship exists on US private chartable aid organisations and their efforts to help exiles of the Spanish Civil War. Notably, if the literature on US private aid groups is scant for the Spanish conflict, the research is simply non-existent for refugees who made their way to Cuba or the women in the United States who facilitated aid for these refugees. Thus, this essay addresses a crucial lacuna in the historiography by examining how US aid groups dealt with the crisis on the island. Buoyed by files in the American Friends Service Committee archive and my research in Cuba, I reveal that the confluence of Cuban state hostility against Spanish exile settlement, US private aid´s penchant for advancing a ‘national’ image abroad, and the author Ernest Hemingway´s close relationships to the ‘loyalist’ cause and its exiles, resulted in a selective distribution of aid by mostly women at ‘neutral’ private aid organisations.

Transitional justice and impunity for fascism in southern Europe: The case of Spain in a comparative perspective

Roque Moreno Fonseret — 2024-12-30

This article addresses four cases of transitional justice practised in southern Europe from 1945 to the present day: France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, to which special attention is paid. Representatives of what are considered the first and second wave of transitional justice, they have in common the fascist experience but the ways of facing the violent past are dissimilar due to its different national and international contexts. In France and Italy, the criminal justice, administrative purges, and economic sanctions that were applied were preceded by extra-legal repression exercised during the final phase of the war, the liberation, and the immediate postwar period in what was known as an épuration and in which the Resistance played a leading role. On the contrary, in the transitions of the late 1970s, criminal justice was applied minimally in Portugal, where administrative purges prevailed, and was non-existent in Spain, because of the Amnesty Law of 1977. Although impunity accompanied all the processes studied, the comparison reveals the singularity of the Spanish case, with a greater degree of consequence of a transition to a non-disruptive democracy with the Franco dictatorship. In the same way, in all cases, reconciliation with the past has extended into the 21st century and it has also been in Spain where it has presented the greatest difficulties.

How to resist fear. ETA terrorism and Basque Socialism, 1995-2011

Sara Hidalgo García de Orellán — 2024-12-30

The aim of this paper is to show the emotional impact of ETA terrorism on the PSE-EE militancy during the years of the socialisation of suffering, 1995-2011. To do so, we will use the theoretical-methodological tools provided by the history of emotions. It will be seen how emotional suffering greatly shaped the socialist experience in this period, whose experience has been codified with elements such as pressure and social isolation, threats and aggressions, or the lack of freedom of movement (due to the obligation to carry an escort). This emotional suffering was a constitutive part of the culture of resistance that Basque socialism redefined at this time -and linked to the resistance carried out by the socialists in the years of the Franco dictatorship-. In this redefinition, the strategies to overcome fear were the political commitment, anger, and courage, a feeling of pride for fighting against ETA, and strong group solidarity. These elements partly explain why the PSE-EE could survive and why its members continued to carry out their political work.