Culture from below: Associative networks and images of the nation during the Franco Dictatorship in San Sebastián

Abstract

The following pages describe the evolution of a series of associations devoted to the promotion of culture in San Sebastian during the Franco regime. I have tried to reconstruct the evolution of the associative network that was maintained in the city during the decades of dictatorship, focusing on the kind of culture they promoted and the image of Spain that their cultural activity reflected. One of the questions these pages try to answer is the role played by regional identities in this context. The hypothesis put forward here is that through the study of cultural practices we can shed light on the processes of acquisition of identities —national or regional—, which developed in the associative networks of Carlism, Regional Associations and the Guipuscoan Cultural Circle. The outcome of this research shows to what extent these were three different associative models, which promoted diverse identifications and images of the nation, although the regional ingredient was present in all of them.