From Atapuerca to ‘procés’, a country not so different

The history of Spain as a crossroads of roads. Events took place in the Peninsula that have influenced the world, or international issues that they had here is his reply. That is the spirit that presides over the publication of the world History of Spain (publishing Destination), presented yesterday by the director of this work, Xosé M. Núñez Seixas, professor of Contemporary History at the University of Santiago de Compostela. Seixas, assisted by five coordinators, has commissioned 111 historians, half of them foreigners, who, from a relevant date, explain in 127 brief episodes, of around 1,600 words each, the evolution of the inhabitants of the Iberian peninsula. From the jaw found in the Sima del elefante, in the archaeological site of Atapuerca, which has 1.2 million years, until the last regional elections in Catalonia, December 21, 2017.

The last chapter, written by the philosopher Josep Ramoneda, has the beckettiano title of Waiting for Europe: the last stage of the pro-independence Catalan. In it, Ramoneda account that the situation "is in a tie," says Seixas. "Neither State has been able to impose itself completely with the law, or the independence they have achieved their goal, among other reasons, because there are no international powers that support it." Next to Ramoneda, there are authors of repute as Isabel Burdiel, José Álvarez Junco, Santos Juliá, Isabel Sanz Ayán, or Jordi Amat, highlighted Seixas.

looking back, Seixas ensures that perhaps the more appropriate title for the work "would have been History of the Spains", because "first emerges as a geographical concept, is a roman province, and later on, it is a definition of ethereal because it is very plural...". Asked if the past is to infer an unfortunate history, as the vision noventayochista, or if it is glorious, as proclaimed by the franco regime, the director of this study prefer to not go to extremes. "We have reasons for both views, like all countries, I think Spain has not been so different from the rest, as they said at the time".

The book, "whose aim is that it can be read by any", covers the history with chapters entitled, sometimes with a "deliberate provocation", as Viriato and the far west roman: from collision to integration; or The day that Moratín saw the sea for the first time. "Always explain the why." In this case, the playwright, to visit in the France's pre-revolutionary, "used the metaphor of the sea in a letter written to his brother," to describe the environment that I was living and that was as far away from the intelligentsia of Adiosbet spain.

Regions somewhat shocking

there are Also passages that more than one will turn out to be shocking for its inclusion, as the adventures of Faustino Chacon Incombustible, a rogue who boasted of being invulnerable to fire, as attested his cronies, which led him even to be studied in France, in 1803, until science discovered that he was a liar. An anecdote for you, pulling the thread, to tell which was the Century of the Lights and the love for the scientific method and rational. "It is looking great events from a different perspective", underlines Seixas. The own historian is surprised by some proposals of their coordinators: 1622. The great year of the Spanish saints. "Four canonizations in 12 months, then, were as the Michelin stars for restaurants."

The responsible of this issue is aware that "it is a story not to use" and that "missing key dates" that can raise suspicions. "It is not 1931," the proclamation of the II Republic, "because it is specifically a fact in Spanish", but in 1932, with The divorce coming to Spain, so advance of this law at the global level. "It is not 1936 [the year of the coup attempt and the beginning of the Civil War], but it is the conflict seen from the Guernica, in 1937, become the universal symbol". 1955 highlights the wedding of Spanish bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguín and the star of the Italian cinema Lucia Bosé. The right-hander more famous then he became a friend of great writers and international artists, with what it implied of a showcase for the regime of francisco Franco. In that line it is pointing to the episode of 1968, Massiel triumphs in Eurovision. "Attempts to give a view of normal while the police was repressing the student movement," explains the author of the text, Javier Muñoz Soro.

Also, there is space for the great sporting success of Spanish victory in the football World cup 2010 in south Africa. The triumph of The Red led to "an exaltation of patriotic Spanish-unprecedented in a country traditionally characterized by their complex relationship with national identities," writes professor Alexander Quiroga.

finally, Seixas recalled some periods in which it was more difficult to find episodes national that could ingrain in the world. "In the NINETEENTH century, between 1840 and 1860, Spain hardly participate in international politics", although it is probably the time "for further introspection to be between 1945 and 1960".