Beyond Folklore? The Franco Regime and Ethnoterritorial Diversity in Spain, 1930–1975
Paper by Xosé M. Núñez Seixas, Professor of Modern History at the University of Santiago de Compostela.
Abstract
The paper gives insight into how the the Franco regime and Spanish fascism between 1930 and 1975 promoted subnational identities, as well as their patterns of survival, accommodation, and adaptation.
It examines the proactive attitudes of the various actors committed to the dictatorship – from Falangists to Francoist intellectuals to Catholic conservatives – alongside their repressive or annihilating approach to regional cultures and languages. As in most fascist regimes between 1922 and 1945, a narrative of the ethnocultural, ethnoterritorial, and historic diversity of the nation persisted, with differing degrees of intensity and different tendencies. These discourses and practices were not limited exclusively to the ideological and social sphere of anti-Francoism. The roots of the State of the Autonomous Communities, which gave rise to the extension of political autonomy to all Spanish regions from 1978 onwards, date back to the deep structure of the dictatorship, with foundations in demands put forward by the local, provincial, and regional elites within later Francoism.
Bio
Xosé M. Núñez Seixas obtained his PhD at EUI Florence and is Full Professor of Modern History at the University of Santiago de Compostela; between 2012 and 2017 he also taught at the Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich. He has published widely on the comparative history of national movements and national minorities, region-building and territorial identities, as well as on the cultural history of war and violence, and the memory of dictatorship and war. Among his latest books are: (ed.) The First World War and the Nationality Question in Europe (Leiden/Boston 2020); Sites of the Dictators. Memories of Authoritarian Europe, 1945-2020 (London, 2021); The Spanish Blue Division on the Eastern Front, 1941-1945 (Toronto, 2022), and Beyond Folklore? The Franco Regime and Ethnoterritorial Diversity in Spain, 1930-1975 (London 2024).
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