Selling the fatherland: Spanish nation branding and soft power in the twentieth century

Abstract

Foreign views – focusing on the exotic and the extraordinary – often clash with national self-perception. This became increasingly problematic in the 1980s when globalization forced countries to improve their images. As a result, consultant firms began to advise governments throughout the world to rebrand their national images. The gap between foreign stereotypes and national self-image was wide in the case of Spain, where visitors were primarily fascinated by the spectacular remains of Al-Andalus, typical villages and exotic traditions, such as flamenco and bullfighting, while politicians and intellectuals generally argued that their country should be seen as an integral part of Western modernity. Thus, already from the beginning of the twentieth century, authorities began to develop active cultural diplomacy activities to improve the image of Spain abroad. The aim of this special issue is to explore the interaction between foreign images and national self-identifications in Spanish cultural diplomacy efforts during the twentieth century. This introductory article provides a short literature review and a brief overview of propaganda tied to the Restoration regime (1875–23), the Dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera (1923–30), the Second Republic (1931–39) and the Francisco Franco regime (1936–75). The last part of the text introduces the special issue’s five chronologically ordered articles, which make clear that foreign views did have a huge impact on Spanish national identity.