Commemorating or Mourning? Conflicting Rituals of Historical Memorialization of Spain’s Colonial and Imperial Past

• In Event: Collective Memory & Heritage

Abstract

In contemporary Spain, the memorialization of the colonial and imperial past has become an increasingly contested field of sociopolitical struggle. October 12—the official National Day (Fiesta Nacional, also referred to as Día de la Hispanidad)—constitutes a privileged site where competing interpretations of that past are publicly enacted. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Madrid during the 2022 celebrations—including participant observation, 23 semi-structured interviews with passersby and participants, and visual materials—this paper analyzes two contrasting ritual forms: the official state-organized military parade and alternative dance processions led primarily by migrant associations from Latin America.
While the official ceremony stages national unity and historical continuity through military symbolism and institutional presence in the city’s most emblematic spaces, the alternative processions mobilize pre-Hispanic cultural legacies and anticolonial narratives to reframe the day as one of mourning rather than celebration. By comparing these ritual performances, the paper examines how urban public space becomes a terrain for the symbolic articulation of opposing historical memory narratives regarding Spain’s colonial and imperial past, national belonging, social cohesion, and demands for recognition in an increasingly ethnically diverse society marked by the persistence of racism and xenophobia.
The analysis contributes to sociological debates on memory politics, ritual theory, nationalism, and urban space by demonstrating how conflicting commemorative practices materialize divergent collective sensibilities and competing claims to the nation-state.

Author

• José Juan Osés Bermejo, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid