Panhispanism orpan-Hispanism (Spanish:panhispanismo), sometimes just calledhispanism (Spanish:hispanismo), is anideology advocating for social, economic, and political cooperation, as well as often political unification, of theHispanic world.[1]
Panhispanism is notably characterized by its history of adaptation to all sides of the political spectrum while retaining its core tenet of Hispanic unity and itsanti-Americanism.[2][3] It has been present consistently in literature, revolutionary movements, and political institutions.
A variant of the ideology focuses specifically on projects ofHispanic American unity (thePatria Grande), to the exclusion of Hispanic areas outside the Americas.
TheSpanish colonization of America began in 1492 and ultimately was part of a larger historical process of worldcolonialism through which variousEuropean powers incorporated a considerable amount of territory and peoples in the Americas, in Asia, and in Africa between the 15th and the 20th centuries.Hispanic America became the main part of the vastSpanish Empire.
Due toNapoleon'sinvasion of Spain from 1808 to 1814 and the consequent chaos, the dismemberment of the Spanish Empire was initiated as American territories began tomove towards independence. The only remaining Spanish holdings in the Americas wereCuba andPuerto Rico by 1830[4] until the 1898Spanish–American War.
During theSpanish American wars of independence in the early 19th century,Simón Bolívar,Francisco de Miranda, and other rebel leaders aimed for the formation of a united Hispanic-American republic, which failed to materialize. The nascent revolutionary states with a less broader scope, namely theFederal Republic of Central America,Gran Colombia, and theUnited Provinces of the Río de la Plata, as well as thePeru–Bolivian Confederation later on, all ended up collapsing into the smaller modern countries which are still in existence today. TheCongress of Panama (1826) sought to organize a league of Hispanic-American republics primarily as defense against Spain; similarly, this project never materialized.
Panhispanism inclusive of Spain first surged during the 19th century as a reaction to the disintegration of the Spanish Empire,[5][6] but this trend lasted only a few decades.
By the mid-19th century, Spain and the Hispanic-American republics had largely stabilized their relations. The focus of panhispanists at this time was the promotion of a "spiritual and cultural" brotherhood between Spain and the republics, rather than a political reconquest of the old imperial territories.[7]
During this period, thegrowing expansionist ambitions of the United States, including its imperialistic attitude towardsLatin America, resulted in the development ofanti-American sentiment as a key part of panhispanism.[7][8] This was especially amplified followingMexico's defeat in theMexican–American War (1846-1848) and subsequent American expansionism inCentral America via the initiatives ofWilliam Walker (1856-1857). Spain sought to capitalize on these crises by encouraging Hispanic solidarity against the United States.[7]
The predominant panhispanist writers of this time were Francisco Muñoz del Monte, from theDominican Republic, andJosé María Samper, fromColombia.[7]
This brief surge of panhispanism was dealt a severe blow and largely discredited following the aggressive military interventions of the Spaniards themselves in Hispanic America, namely theoccupation of the Dominican Republic (1861-1865) and theChincha Islands War (1865-1879) againstPeru,Chile,Ecuador, andBolivia.[7]
Panhispanism was revived years after its first "death" in the early 20th century.[7] At this time, the Cuban writer and anthropologistFernando Ortiz characterized panhispanism as a Hispanic "integration movement" fundamentally opposed topan-Americanism, seen as a tool of United States hegemony.[5]
As had been done in the previous century, panhispanic intellectuals in both Spain and the Americas were making arguments that the movement should advocate for a "fraternal" union rather than Spanish hegemony over, or reconquest of, Hispanic America. This line of thought and its positive influence was compared to the ongoingrapprochement between Britain and the United States.[8]
From 1925 to 1938,Ramón Menéndez Pidal, director of theRoyal Spanish Academy (Real Academia Española) contributed to panhispanism by promoting the unity of theSpanish language while simultaneously recognizing the legitimacy of the Latin American dialects and arguing that they were not inferior to the Spanish spoken in Spain. He is seen as having helped prevent a potential fragmentation of the Spanish language.[5]
In 1932, theUruguayan poetJuana de Ibarbourou organized a contest for the creation of a flag to represent all Hispanics. Thewinning design was by Ángel Camblor, an Uruguayan army captain, and was raised in the capitalMontevideo. Ironically, it was also adopted the next year, 1933, as the "Flag of the Americas" by the Seventh Assembly of thePan-American Conference, a project of the United States.[9]
Between 1940 and 1960, new currents started to influenceChilean nationalism by the promotion offalangist andcorporatist concepts.Inspired by the Franco regime, there was a Hispanist shift. Traditionalist professorJaime Eyzaguirre published the magazineEstudios (1938–1954), of a corporativist, nationalist, and Catholic ideology, with collaboratorsMario Góngora and right-wing professorJulio Philippi Izquierdo. The theologician and philosopherOsvaldo Lira published his most important works during this period:Nostalgia de Vázquez de Mella (English: Nostalgia of Vasquez de Mella) (1942),La vida en torno (1948), andHispanidad y mestizaje, y otros ensayos (1952) (English:Hispanic and Mestizo, and other essays). The nationalist lawyerJorge Prat founded the magazineEstanquero in 1948, from a strong hispanist and corporatist point of view.
During theregime of Francisco Franco in Spain (1936-1975), panhispanism was integrated into the governingFalangist ideology, which aligned itself withfascism. Falangist panhispanism was a major departure from earlier, more liberal strains of the panhispanic movement, and instead emphasized anti-democratic ideals, traditional values, and the role ofRoman Catholicism. During this time, the prominent Falangist thinkerRamiro de Maeztu characterized Hispanics, as a cultural and spiritual body of people, as inherently incompatible with democracy and liberalism. Falangist panhispanism was influential in the media of Hispanic America but was also received with mixed attitudes.[2]
In 1940 Franco established theCouncil of the Hispanidad, a government agency which was in charge of relations with the Hispanic-American countries,[2] and was labelled as pro-fascist and anti-American.[10] This Council was dissolved in 1945, following the end of theSecond World War.
In theHispanic world today, panhispanism remains largelyanti-American[3][better source needed] and opposes "Anglo-Saxon" influence in general in Hispanic territories, viewing it as imperialist.[11]
Social media has also been identified as a catalyst for a resurgence in panhispanic sentiment.[12]YouTubers such as "Brigada Antifraude" and the communistSantiago Armesilla are popular proponents of panhispanism, having channels with thousands of views and subscribers, in which they defend the idea of a Hispanic union and attack theBlack Legend.[13]
InPuerto Rico, there exists a movement to reunify the island with Spain as its proposed 18th autonomous region,[14] and inPeru, right-wing protestors have been seen carryingthe old flag of the Spanish Empire.[15] A growing and controversial movement in thePhilippines, whose supporters are dubbed "theHispanistas", advocates the restoration ofSpanish as an official language of the country and in general a closer integration with the Hispanic world.[16][17]
In 2022, the organizationParlamento Global Hispano (English: Hispanic Global Parliament) was created as an international Hispanic provisional assembly aiming to move the Hispanic world towards economic and political integration; its first elections were held from September to October.[18][19]
This flag, with its three wine-colored crosses and its sun of the Incas, was hoisted on October 12, 1932 in the Plaza Independencia in Montevideo. It was officially recognized and dedicated by supreme decree by the governments of Honduras, Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Columbia and Peru. All of the nations of the Americas hoisted it shortly thereafter.
