Cuadernos de Historia Contemporánea

History Workshop

Cuadernos de Historia Contemporánea — 2025-09-15

From family to the people: Espartero as an archetype of progressive masculinity until the beginning of his regency (1793-1840)

Nacho Cavero Garcés — 2025-09-15

The image of Espartero became commonplace of many political cultures of 19th-century Spain, yet, it was the Progressivist who made more used of it due to his own personal affiliation. Among the uses of Espartero’s image, that of a role model is perhaps the most interesting and the least addressed. Thus, the present article seeks to explore how the different biographers of the Duke of la Victoria built the idea of Espartero as the ideal man, infusing him with an aura of charisma tailored for him. These biographies show how Progressivisim sought to legitimize, through Espartero, a flexible sense of masculinity, which could, at times, be excessively virile, setting it in contrast to the normative masculinity of posrevolutionary Europe.

They were all brave. The Africanist soldier in the fictional cinema of the 1940´s.

Daniel Macías Fernández — 2025-09-15

The Spanish-Moroccan Campaigns were the environment in which the Africanist military identity appeared and grew. Its imperialism, warmongering values and exclusionary nationalism, laid the foundations of a worldview that ended up justifying a coup d'état and the development of an atrocious civil war. This article studies, from a visual history perspective, exactly the legacy of this ideology and its imaginaries (from an updated historiographical viewpoint) as it was reflected in the films Harka! (1941) and Alhucemas (1948), which deal with the war experience in the Protectorate. Both productions are, without a doubt, an unavoidable reference point, as will be shown in their analysis, when it comes to understanding the self-perception that the Africanists held of themselves, after the end of the colonial wars, and the need to reaffirm their military values as an immaterial inheritance, from a medium as relevant as cinema, after the victory in the fratricidal conflict.

Making homeland between sabotage and applause. Radical Basque nationalism facing the Tour de France (1977-2007)

Erik Zubiaga Arana — 2025-09-15

Between 1977 and 2007 Iparretarrak, ETA and their political-social environments executed strategies, not always coincident, aimed at politically instrumentalizing the Tour de France as it passed through the Basque Country, Navarre and the French Basque Country. The cycling race, which has become the maximum French national symbol and one of the sporting spectacles of greatest repercussion, has attracted the interest of the radical Basque nationalist collective from 1977 onwards. The initiatives, identifiable as nationalizing campaigns, mainly aimed at spreading nationalist demands, have been resolved through a double intertwined path: an intense social mobilization and a calculated violent threat. The chronological structure is designed to provide a detailed account of the development and outcome of the different strategies, as well as the Tour's responses to the pressures and coercion to which it was subjected. The 1992 edition, with departure from San Sebastian, can be considered a turning point, as it implied a political victory for ETA, similar to those achieved in relation to the construction of the nuclear power plant in Lemóniz or the Leizarán highway, as the management of the event ended up giving in to the threat, accepting the majority of the demands made. In subsequent editions, with the terrorist threat active, the management of the event showed a greater predisposition to consider certain requests, especially with regard to the presence of the Basque language in the official acts.

Shining Path: Theory and practice in the exercise of political violence (1964-1992)

Jerónimo Ríos Sierra — 2025-09-15

The following paper aims to present the construction and application of the devices of violence developed by the Communist Party of Peru (PCP-SL), which was one of the most violent formations of the 20th century in Latin America and, of course, in the history of Peru. Responsible for more than half of the nearly 70,000 officially reported violent deaths between 1980 and 1992, the Shining Path always took into consideration the need to direct all efforts to deploy a revolutionary process that would put an end to the oppressive elements that supported the Peruvian State. Through a continuous evocation of violence, this appears in the whole process of ideological modulation of the formation, between 1964 and 1980, always inseparable from the figure of Abimael Guzmán, its maximum leader. On the other hand, it also adapts to the circumstances and coordinates of the armed confrontation (1980-1882), initially circumscribed around the province of Ayacucho and ending, not without contradictions, in the capital city of Lima. To illustrate the argument offered, documentary sources such as the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2003) and Guzmán's own writings are used, in addition to the use of some fifteen accounts obtained in interviews, so far unpublished, with former Shining Path militants. The above, thanks to fieldwork carried out in the cities of Ayacucho, Huancavelica, and Lima, and which took place between 2015 and 2018.

Introduction to the Dossier: The Return to Ithaca: European Exilic Imaginaries

Eugenia Helena Houvenaghel — 2025-09-15

“We Never Spoke About Cinema”: Rosa Chacel and Pere Gimferrer's Correspondence Prior to Her Return to Spain

Eugenia Helena Houvenaghel — 2025-09-15

Between 1962 and 1963, Rosa Chacel (1898-1994), exiled in Latin America, experienced a frustrated attempt to return to Spain. In 1971, she had a stay in Spain that was considerably more satisfactory than the previous one. Finally, in 1974, her definitive return materialized and was successful. This work aims to analyze the correspondence between Gimferrer and Chacel, carried out between the failed return and the definitive return, in order to examine how this correspondence helped overcome disappointment and transform the idea of return into a viable and attractive possibility. The analysis of dialogues about cinema, developed in the epistolary exchange between Chacel and Gimferrer, constitutes the central axis of this study. The analysis shows that two national cinematic worlds in their golden decade, those of France and Italy, were conducive to offering the correspondents a space of refuge entirely distinct from their real environment. Cinema's imagery plays a central role in this context prior to the return, acting simultaneously as an escape route toward international horizons and as a starting point for mutual understanding and self-discovery. The pre-return correspondence between Chacel and Gimferrer not only documents a historically significant intellectual exchange but also establishes a bridge between the "two Spains." The letters are an affirmation of art's transformative power as a means of forging connections and resisting alienation, both at a personal and collective level.

One exile and two endings. Emili Blanch and Jordi Tell, return or stay

Gemma Domènech Casadevall — 2025-09-15

The end of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) forced almost half a million people into exile, fleeing the repression and retribution wrought by the Fascist victors. Eager for immediate political refuge and hope for the future, men and women crossed borders, especially the border with France, leaving their homes behind and cutting ties with their habitual social and occupational circles. In some cases, exile buried a flourishing career; in others, it cut short careers that were just beginning to take flight. However, in many other cases, it enabled them to continue and consolidate. This paper proposes to analyse two parallel and, at the same time, diverging exiles when viewed through the lens of returning, specifically, two Republican architects: Emili Blanch Roig (1897-1996) and Jordi Tell Novellas (1907-1991). The same profession, but two different professional moments. The same political militancy, but a very different involvement. One exile, but two countries: Mexico and Norway. A geographical separation with two opposing endings: a possible return and an impossible return. Through their work (designed and/or actually built) and their words (memoirs and correspondence), they tell us about the experience of delocation, adapting to a new cultural environment, their ideas about what returning would be like, and the difficulties and distress experienced when actually attempting to return.

Juana Mordó’s return to Spain. Breaking with the past, reconfiguration and international artistic projection

Inmaculada Real López — 2025-09-15

This article analyses the figure of Juana Mordó through her return to Spain as a place of refuge during the Second World War. The renowned gallery owner of Sephardic origin admitted her identity problems due to the break with the past and its subsequent reconfiguration, linking herself to the Franco regime, which meant her consecration by the cultural and artistic elite. This political approach of Mordó is fundamental to understand how her figure evolved until reaching a great social impact at the time, so we analyses who her closest circle was. However, with the opening of her gallery in 1964, a progressive change in her ideological positioning occurred as the democratic transition arrived until she became known for her leftist ideas and admitted her Sephardic origins that she had kept hidden during the regime. The interviews she gave after the dictatorship are key to detecting unconnected data in her figure that she herself wanted to hide from her past. Therefore, her trip to Spain was fundamental for the reconfiguration of a new identity that has transcended to the present day.

A New Geography of Remembering: Unveiling the Harki Silences in Dalila Kerchouche’s Mon père, ce harki

Meritxell Joan-Rodríguez — 2025-09-15

This article analyses Mon père, ce harki (2003), by Dalila Kerchouche, to shed light on the exile experienced by those harkis who left Algeria for France in the aftermath of the Franco-Algerian war (1954-1962), locating this episode in the context of the complex postcolonial relationship between France and Algeria in recent decades. As it is used today, ‘harki’ refers to those Algerian subjects (and their families) who somehow found themselves on the French side during the conflict. In her book, a literary testimony, Kerchouche revisits the story of her father, a former harki, to conduct her own search for identity within the harki universe. She borrows from familial and collective memories and dialogues with an array of texts that have helped her make sense of and write over the historical silences, which the harkis – constructed as traitors – have had imposed on them by both the French and the Algerian administrations. Throughout her “harkeological quest”, Kerchouche retraces her father’s steps and visits first the camp where she was born and then Algeria itself, the homeland that her family abandoned and from which she was also symbolically exiled. This return draws an alternative map of her family history and, at the same time, equips her with the historical accounts and family memories that she uses to write a counter-narrative to the French hegemonic account of its relationship with Algeria. Read against the backdrop of the work of historians and literary critics, Mon père, ce harki allows for a nuanced understanding of the position of the harkis in post-imperial France.

Rifts: Homecoming Experiences in the artworks of Adrian Paci and Maja Bajević

Emilie Blanc — 2025-09-15

This article examines a body of artworks by Maja Bajević and Adrian Paci within their contexts of production in order to explore questions of exilic identities in relationship to homecoming. Both artists have lived the experience of exile. When war broke out in Yugoslavia in 1991, Maja Bajević was in Paris on a Beaux-Arts scholarship, and was unable to return to her homeland until the end of the 1990s. As for Adrian Paci, after graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Tirana, he left Albania in 1997, during the financial crisis, and took refuge in Italy. From analyses of artworks, artists’ statements, exhibition catalogues, historical research, and academic writings about the issue of return, I explore different relationships and temporalities of return: what does the permanent loss of exile mean in terms of homecoming?

De los Llanos Pérez Gómez, María y González Madrid, Damián A.: Las mil caras de la violencia contra las mujeres durante la guerra civil y la dictadura franquista, 1936-1966. Granada, Comares, 2025. 281 pp.

Fernando Jiménez Herrera — 2025-09-15

Delpu, Pierre M.: Les nouveaux martyrs. XVIII-XX siècle. París, Passés Composés, 2024. 335 pp.

Lara Campos Pérez — 2025-09-15

Garone Gravier, Marina (coordinación editorial): Las mujeres y los estudios del libro y la edición en Iberoamérica. México, UAM, Rectoría General-Universidad de los Andes-Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Colección La Biblioteca Editorial, 2023. 680 pp.

Margarita Merbilhaá — 2025-09-15

Gingeras, Ryan: Los últimos días del Imperio Otomano. Barcelona, Galaxia Gutenberg. 2023. 359 pp.

Carlos Ortega Sánchez — 2025-09-15

Kneper, Gennadi: El primer populista: Bakunin y la invención del pueblo. Valencia, Publicacions de la Universitat de València, 2024. 340 pp.

Edgar Straehle — 2025-09-15

Larrinaga, Carlos y Strangio, Donatella (eds.): The Development of the Hotel and Tourism Industry in the Twentieth Century Comparative Perspectives from Western Europe, 1900-1970. Londres, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2023. 222 pp.

Margarita Barral Martínez — 2025-09-15

Review of the booj Larrinaga, Carlos y Strangio, Donatella, (Eds.): The Development of the Hotel and Tourism Industry in the Twentieth Century Comparative Perspectives from Western Europe, 1900–1970. Londres, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2023. 222 pp

Pérez Gómez, María Llanos: “Mujeres de instintos perversos”. La justicia militar franquista contra las mujeres en Albacete (1939-1948). Madrid, Sílex Universidad Contemporánea, 2024. 415 pp.

Narcís Tena Sales — 2025-09-15

Puig-Samper, Miguel Ángel: Miradas coloniales. Fotografía antropológica y colonialismo visual. Madrid, Catarata, 2024. 208 pp.

Miguel García Murcia — 2025-09-15

Rodríguez, Marie-Soledad (ed.): Les réalisatrices espagnoles contemporaines. París, L’Harmattan, 2024. 210 pp.

Geoffroy Huard — 2025-09-15

Sánchez Romero, Margarita y Llona González, Miren (coords.). Tecnología, ciencia y naturaleza en la historia de las mujeres, Granada, Comares, 2023, 404 pp.

Uxía Otero González — 2025-09-15

Stefan, Adelina: Vacationing in Dictatorships. International Tourism in Socialist Romania and Franco’s Spain. Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2024. 279 pp.

Saida Palou Rubio — 2025-09-15

Digital Memory: The Archive of the Student Movement (1936-2000)

Enrique Maestu Fonseca — 2025-09-15