The Concept of Hispanidad and Spanish Regional Nationalism

Hispanidad is a multiethnic community of peoples and States in which the Spanish language and Catholicism played a major role. Today the concept of «Hispanidad» is at cross-roads because of the Northern Spanish regions. The concept of Hispanidad was formed by the participants of the movement Generation 1898 who considered history as the science of salvation of Spain. Castillia-La-Mancha the creadle of Spanish chivalry became on object of take cult. Castalia presided over the unifi cation of the Spanish kingdoms and the Castilian language from the language of international communication. The myth of the knight of Castilia-La-Mancha coexisted with the myth of the Heroic Basques created by Sabino Arana as well as with the Catalan Nacionalism. This was a kind of self-justifi cation of these regions. The development of regionalism gave birth to separatism with it’s extremes namely the aforementioned Sabino Arana defended the idea aforementioned of «national purely» of the Basques and called the Castillans «maquetos». On the nationalist
ideology of S. Arana the commitment to the Catholic religion playd on important role. Thus, despite the obvious fact of regional differences the concept of «Hispanidad» was shared by the majority of the Spanish population.