Rejecting al-Andalus, exalting the Reconquista: historical memory in contemporary Spain

Abstract

This paper focuses on the survival of a form of historical memory in modern Spain that dates back to the nineteenth century. The prevailing form of Spanish national identity at that time was completely dependent on Catholicism; the medieval Iberian past was understood as a struggle of national liberation against invading Muslims, culminating in a final Christian victory in 1492. This approach generated an exclusionary vision of al-Andalus as alien to Spanish identity, expressed through the notion of “Reconquista,” which reached its peak during the Franco dictatorship, the heyday of National Catholic ideology. Although the idea of Reconquista lost its historiographical hegemony after the arrival of democracy in 1978, recent events show that, despite its strong ideological connotations, or perhaps because of them, it remains the key concept in defining the medieval period within the most conservative sectors of academia, politics, and the media.

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