The paradox of Spanish Society: a Brief History

Spanish society is something of a paradox, a product of contrasting and sometimes conflicting tendencies and currents. Spain’s history, in the long term, is one of alternating religious toleration and confrontation between Christian and Moorish cultures. In the modern era, Spain’s history is usually described using words like “hierarchical,” “traditional,” “conservative,” and even “repressive.” And this, indeed, is the legacy of Spanish colonialism in Latin America, an era remembered for its political oppression, social hierarchy, labor exploitation, and indigenous subjugation. Most devotees of Latin American politics or history would begin –and end– any discussion of contemporary social or political issues by connecting the region’s cyclical history –of racial exclusion, social upheaval, political instability, and socioeconomic inequality– back to its roots in Spanish colonialism. And while Latin American society and politics today are acquiring an increasingly indigenous –or at least American (in the continental sense, not related to the good ole USofA)– identity, the themes of religious influence, social hierarchy, and political authoritarianism are still strongly rooted in the Spanish tradition.

Spain itself spent most of the 20th century under the authoritarian Franco regime, following the political polarization and subsequent civil war of the 1930s. Franquismo (Franco-ism), the social and political doctrine of the general and dictator, envisioned and enforced a Spanish society that was Catholic, socially conservative, culturally traditional, and politically hostile to the threats of modernity. That modernity, however, was inevitable for Spain, a country that has always been at the geographical crossroads and socio-political mainstream of contemporary Western history.

When Franco died in 1975, the current King Juan Carlos, Franco’s protégé at the time, came into power. In one of the most remarkable transformations of the modern political era, Juan Carlos chose a path of political openness and fully democratic elections were held within 3 years. Spain quickly joined the ranks of Western Europe’s capitalist democracies, though the scars of the Franco years are slow to heal. In large part due to Juan Carlos’ reconciliatory, forward-looking approach, the Spanish government has only recently sponsored historical truth commissions and opened investigations into human rights violations and political crimes committed under the Franco regime. Franco still represents, for much of Spain, the traditional nationalism and the conservative Catholic family values that have always been central to Spanish society and identity. In more ways than one, Spain’s history is still very much alive in its present, more so than in the rest of Western Europe (in my humble opinion).

So, while Spain’s historical character has often been dominated by its traditional conservatism, there has also emerged an increasingly prominent array of progressive social currents. Spain, like Latin America, has two diametrically opposed socio-political worldviews. One is the traditional –often reactionary- conservatism described above, which has long sustained the legitimacy of the monarchy and the influence of the Church, as well as the family-based social model, but which is also responsible for traditional social hierarchy and authoritarian political repression.

The other is a unique combination of emotive romanticism and leftist social theory, resulting in a sort of romantic socialism that seeks (among other things) equality between men, political betterment, and social harmony. This fundamentally optimistic worldview –a genuine and popularly held belief that individual actions can improve humanity (leaving for later a discussion of similar thinking in the US)– has spawned Latin America’s countless revolutionary movements, inspires several current regional leaders (see: Morales in Bolivia), and has always been the “push” to Latin traditionalism’s “pull”. In 1930s Spain, an elected government actually formed a legitimately democratic Communist republic, only to have the pendulum swing back right with the civil war and the Franco years.

In today’s Spain, progressive currents are again the mainstream, from government spending on education and social initiatives (to be discussed later) to a thoroughly modern youth culture and nightlife (definitely to be discussed). Please pardon the social science-y historical overview, I hope this entry will provide worthwhile background for a more personal discussion of life in Spain in future posts.