The Question of Hispanidad: History, Culture, and Politics

Due to its origins and progeny, Hispanidad has often been presented as alien to the political world. In this sense, it is a “substitute concept” for the Spanish monarchy, which was indeed fully political. The reason lies in the collapse of the latter with the secession processes that coincided with the emergence of the liberal revolution in the first third of the 19th century. From then on, and after almost a century of mutual isolation, a slow cultural recovery began, which could pave the way for a properly political reflection in the near future.

Because, contrary to what certain pompier Catholicism would have us believe, Hispanidad is not merely a cultural and spiritual concept. As Ayuso teaches us in this insightful work, it is also a political concept—alive today as a mustard seed in the hearts of patriots, ready to become a leafy tree tomorrow—that confronts the rationalist and Europeanising mentality that created modern states and also, of course, a new order that seeks to subsume them into monstrosities such as the European Union.
—Juan Manuel de Prada, writer, journalist, and literary critic