The Metamorphosis of Hispanity Under the Spanish Republican Exile of 1939

Abstract

In the framework of a general discussion about the uses and meanings of the concept of hispanity, and about the results that a hypothetic history of it could bring about, the article proposes an approach to its significance in a particular context. Specially, the context of the Spanish Republican exile of 1939, in which one has to distinguish between three meanings: the first one makes reference to a cultural community and liberal thinking in the broad sense of the term and to Latin American dimensions; the second one is based on multicultural roots and on the memory of them; and the third one – the most diffuse and also most criticized and paradoxical one – found in the condition of exile, diaspora and statelessness the profound calling of Hispanic identity, in turn related with a sort of radical otherness.