Identity In Spain Research Articles

Identities in conflict

Abstract This paper explores the construction of Latino identity in Spain. The term Hispanic (Latino later became the label of choice) was added to the US census in the 1970s, initially as an ethnic category, but it has undergone a process of racialization, making Latinos a distinct racial group in the US. The concept of Latinidad has been extensively studied in the US context. This paper adopts a netnographic approach to examine how Latinidad is constructed in Spain. To conduct this qualitative research, NVivo was used to analyze a reference corpus of over 5,000 online comments triggered by a video discussing the situation of Latinos in Spain that had been posted on YouTube by El País. The study employs a multidisciplinary approach, drawing from fields like identity, impoliteness, and raciolinguistics. It particularly focuses on perceptions of visible minorities and attitudes towards language varieties different from European Spanish.

Spain's Rising Melanoma Threat: A Comprehensive 30-Year Analysis (1990-2019).

This study aims to elucidate the factors driving melanoma incidence trends in Spain by analyzing the GBD-2019 dataset (1990-2019) and investigating the age-specific, birth cohort, and period effects on incidence rates. This study analyzed melanoma incidence trends in Spain from 1990 to 2019 using an ecological design. Data were sourced from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 and Spain's National Statistics Institute. Age-standardized incidence rates (ASIRs) were calculated using joinpoint regression analysis, and age-period-cohort (A-P-C) modeling was employed to assess the effects of age, time period, and birth cohort on incidence rates. Between 1990 and 2019, an estimated 147,823 melanoma cases were diagnosed in Spain. The ASIRs showed a steady increase for both sexes, with slightly higher rates observed in men. Both men (average annual percentage change (AAPC): 2.8%) and women (AAPC: 2.4%) showed a steady increase in the ASIR over the period. Joinpoint analysis revealed distinct periods of incidence rate changes, with significant upward trends in earlier years followed by stabilization in recent years. Incidence rates increased steadily with age, with the highest rates in the 80-84 age group. Women tended to have slightly higher rates in younger age groups, while men had higher rates in older age groups. Both men and women experienced a steady increase in relative risk of melanoma throughout the 30-year study period, with significant upward trends across birth cohorts. Despite limitations, this study provides valuable insights into factors influencing melanoma incidence in Spain. By understanding age, period, and cohort effects, effective prevention strategies can be developed to reduce melanoma incidence.

Is Spain Different? The Tamed Memory of the Spanish Civil War and the Limits of Spain's National Self‐Image (2008–10)

This article focusses on ongoing discussions about the place of the Spanish Civil War (1936–39) and the Franco dictatorship (1939–75) in Spain's democracy. Following the suspension of Judge Baltasar Garzón by the Spanish Supreme Court in 2010, who had indicted General Francisco Franco (1892–1975) and thirty‐four accomplices under international law for committing crimes against humanity, a debate arose between leading intellectuals in Spain about the growing international influence on Spain's war past. This debate revealed that a group of influential left‐wing intellectuals attempted to curb the social and political influence of the citizens' memory movements. The author observes how this happened by applying three strategies: the foreign strategy, the nationalistic‐ethical strategy, and the saturation strategy. He concludes that the growing international pressure on Spain's handling of the Civil War and dictatorship led to a “Spanification” of the “culture of the transición” as a national memory, causing the memory movements to lose momentum and curbing the international influence on Spain's handling of its dictatorial past.

‘We are the women who clean and the structural base of the hotel’: Las Kellys, the collective agency and identity of Spain’s room attendants

ABSTRACT The Spanish room attendants’ movement, known as ‘Las Kellys’, has directly challenged hotel owners, unions and local governments. Its actions and results have generated a growing interest in the academic literature on labour and organizations, because it presents as a social phenomenon which seems to sidestep the usual key actions of similar movements. As this case is still very new, there are not yet any systematic academic studies explaining how the Kellys construct their identity as a group and coordinate their actions. Here we present the notion of collective agency as a tool for analysing and understanding these processes. Based on an empirical study conducted in the last three years, we argue that the Kellys constitute a movement which should be understood as a collective agency woven from relationships of solidarity and resistance, which can be summed up in two slogans: ‘We are the women who clean’ and ‘We are the structural base of the hotel’. Both slogans permit the emergence of a profile which gives a specific identity to the work of room attendants in Spain and makes them unique and sui generis among social movements.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on suicide mortality in Spain: Differences by sex and age

BackgroundVariations in suicide following the initial COVID-19 pandemic outbreak were heterogeneous across space, over time, and across population subgroup. Whether suicide has increased during the pandemic in Spain, a major initial COVID-19 hotspot, remains unclear, and no study has examined differences by sociodemographic group. MethodsWe used 2016–2020 data on monthly suicide deaths from Spain's National Institute of Statistics. We implemented Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) models to control seasonality, non-stationarity, and autocorrelation. Using January 2016–March 2020 data, we predicted monthly suicide counts (95 % prediction intervals) between April and December 2020, and then compared observed and predicted monthly suicide counts. All calculations were conducted for the overall study population and by sex and age group. ResultsBetween April and December 2020, the number of suicides in Spain was 11 % higher-than-predicted. Monthly suicide counts were lower-than-expected in April 2020 and peaked in August 2020 with 396 observed suicides. Excess suicide counts were particularly salient during the summer of 2020 – largely driven by over 50 % higher-than-expected suicide counts among males aged 65 years and older in June, July, and August 2020. DiscussionThe number of suicides increased in Spain during the months following the initial COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in Spain, largely driven by increases in suicides among older adults. Potential explanations underlying this phenomenon remain elusive. Important factors to understand these findings may include fear of contagion, isolation, and loss and bereavement – in the context of the particularly high mortality rates of older adults during the initial phases of the pandemic in Spain.

Shielding the Spanish Cyberspace: An Interview with Spain’s National Cryptologic Centre (CCN)

The interview with Spain's National Cryptologic Centre was conducted by Rubén Arcos through email on 24 October 2022

Educational reforms and teaching of history in contemporary Spain – nation, history and education as contested issue

This article analyses the changes in education legislation and the history curriculum in Spain over recent decades. To this end, the characteristics established for the teaching of history in the last two education laws, passed in 2013 and 2020 – the first by a conservative government and the second by a progressive one – are studied and compared. This study is carried out by situating the education debates presented in this research in the social and political context of Spain. The study of these legislative changes allows us to observe the different visions of national identity existing in Spain, which find a prominent area of confrontation in education and the teaching of history. The article also argues that the emergence of the ultra-right has led to a markedly nationalist vision of Spanish history that seeks to recover elements of national unity, and that has become one of the axes defended by conservative options for the teaching of history in Spanish schools. This view contrasts with the approaches advocated in the latest education legislation, which propose a more heterogeneous approach to the subject of identity in Spain.

Fungal diversity and community composition responses to the reintroduction of fire in a non-managed Mediterranean shrubland ecosystem

BackgroundMore than a decade of fire suppression has changed the structure of fire-adapted shrubland ecosystems in Spain's National Parks, which are now at extreme risk of uncontrolled wildfires. Prescribed burning can mitigate the risk of wildfires by reducing the fuel load but prescribed burning may also alter the soil properties and reduce microbial and fungal activity, causing changes in the availability of nutrients deep in the soil layer. Although fungal communities are a vital part of post-fire restoration, some fire effects remain unclear. To examine the short-term effects of prescribed burning on soil fungal communities in Doñana Biological Reserve (SW Spain), we collected soil samples pre-burn and 1 day, 6 and 12 months post-burn from burned plots to perform physicochemical and metabarcode DNA analyses. ResultsPrescribed burning had no significant effect on the total fungal operational taxonomic unit richness and abundance. However, changes in soil pH, nitrogen and potassium content post-burn affected fungal community composition. Small non-significant changes in pH and phosphorous affected the composition of ectomycorrhizal fungi. ConclusionsThe ectomycorrhizal fungal community appears to be resilient to the effects of low-to moderate-intensity fires and saprotrophic taxa may benefit from this kind of fire. This finding revealed that prescribed burning is a potentially valuable management tool for reducing fire hazards in shrublands that has little effect on the total richness and abundance of fungal communities.

Memory and History in Shaping National Identity in Spain

The main aim of this study is to highlight the decisive role that the management of history and memory, as well as forgetting, can play in the creation of a nation-state's national identity. From the time the nation-state emerged, the importance and definition of memory has been of utmost importance since it determined the very existence of the nation-state. In this study, the case of Spain is analyzed since it is a typical example of a country that based its existence as a unitary state on the development of a historiography that took the past of the entire Iberian Peninsula as a unified one. After presenting and analyzing the process of the creation of the Spanish collective identity from the 19th century, which was absolutely decisive for the creation of the Spanish national identity, the analysis continues in the more recent period. The way in which the Spanish regime managed historical memory is analyzed according to the objectives it pursued in each period of time, both after the victory of Franco and the implementation of his repressive regime, and after the end of the dictatorship and the advent of democracy in the country. It shows the different phases that Spanish society itself went through in difficult times, and how, through various sociopolitical upheavals, it managed to function smoothly in a climate of harmony, peace and democracy. Through this study, it also attempts to highlight the role of the historian, various other actors and ultimately the citizens of a nation state themselves in the formation of national identity. Furthermore, the aim of this study is to highlight Spain's attempt to balance between multiple and competing memories. Of particular interest is the fact that despite the organized effort made in Spain to silence the past, in recent years there has been an ongoing effort to recognize human rights violations and crimes committed during the Franco dictatorship. However, action to revive historical memory in Spain, despite coming from civil society, remains politically controversial. In this context, an analysis is presented on the management of memory and history in the case of Spain from the time of its emergence as a nation-state to the present day.

Universalism within: The tension between universalism and community in progressive ideology

AbstractSocial‐democratic parties face a dilemma between the universalist ethos of their socialist tradition and the nationalism that they share with the other political actors of the state where they act. In this paper, we examine comparatively the position of the Spanish party Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE) and the Catalan party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) on three political debates that pertains to the link between welfare and identity in Spain. We show how these parties experience opposite tensions between nationalism and the universalism of their left‐wing ideology. Whereas ERC calls for a withdrawal from the Spanish system of social security, the PSOE advocates imposing on Catalonia a symmetric form of solidarity with the rest of Spain, despite recognising the region's different identity. Above all, both parties take identity for granted as a pre‐political factor that ‘naturally’ justifies differential treatment, according to ERC, or equalising federalism, in the case of the PSOE.

Atlantic Transformations: Empire, Politics, and Slavery during the Nineteenth Century

Atlantic Transformations: Empire, Politics, and Slavery during the Nineteenth Century

Applying Smarta to the analysis of tourist networks

The framework of the present study was the destination life cycle model, a classical model that describes the development of tourist destinations. We examined mass tourism in Benidorm based on tourist accommodation supply and demand statistics over the January 2016 to October 2018 period, provided by Spain's National Institute for Statistics. The objective was to analyze the life cycle and competitiveness of Benidorm's tourism system and interpret whether the tourism product was sustainable and at what stage in the cycle Benidorm is currently in. To do this, we used Smarta software, which, based on network analysis, enables to interpret the system's virtuous cycles and analyze causality by observing relationship patterns in the system's attractors, thus complementing typical processing based on causal maps and the study of social networks. The results obtained by this application (which has been developed by our research team) show six sets of attractors that mark the trends of the tourist system. Finally, the analysis of the significant variables of these attractors has helped us to justify that the tourist system of Benidorm is in the rejuvenation phase.

There Are 33,784 Functioning Kidney Grafts in Spain: Who Monitors Them and How?

As of December 31, 2018, Spain's National Transplant Organization estimated that there were 61,764 people under renal replacement therapy across the country. Of this population, 33,784 (54.7%) had a functioning kidney graft. Through the use of a survey to all Spanish hospitals involved in kidney transplantations, we studied the distribution of these recipients nationally, along with who was monitoring them and how. Data collected include the ratio of recipients to transplant nephrologists, median number of recipients followed in each center, and median number of transplant nephrologists per hospital. Of the 806 centers in the Spanish hospital network, 43 (5.3%) were involved in kidney transplants, including 39 transplant hospitals and 4 associated hospitals. The median number of transplants per center was 800 (interquartile range [IQR]=510-1200). There were 3 nephrologists (IQR 2-5), and the ratio of recipients to transplant nephrologists was 270 (IQR=190-323). There were no significant differences in these data between autonomous communities, except in the case of the Canary Islands, which had a significantly lower ratio of recipients to transplant nephrologists (146; IQR=100-185) compared with the rest of the country (ratio 277; IQR=207-329; P < .001). Of the 39 hospitals, 29 (74.4%) referred patients to centers that did not perform transplants. All in all, few Spanish hospitals perform kidney transplants. The ratio of recipients to transplant nephrologists is very high, compelling most hospitals to refer patients to nontransplant hospitals for follow-up. There are important differences in the distribution of recipients in hospitals in the Canary Islands vs the rest of the country, a difference that is undoubtedly attributable to its geographic peculiarities.

Efecto en la vida real sobre el control de los factores de riesgo asociado al inicio con polipíldora cardiovascular a partir de fármacos equipotentes

ObjectiveThis work aims to analyze the impact of Spain's National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC-Ferrer)’s cardiovascular (CV)-polypill on blood pressure (BP) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (cLDL) levels in patients in our healthcare area who previously took equipotent doses of statins and antihypertensives. Material and methodsAll patients in our healthcare area (Santiago de Compostela, Spain) who, as of December 31, 2019, had an active prescription for the CV-polypill (CNIC-Ferrer) since January 16, 2015 were registered. The index date was the start date of the CV-polypill prescription. The drugs the patient had previously received for dyslipidemia and hypertension were analyzed, classifying them by their equivalent potency to atorvastatin and ramipril. Changes in cLDL and BP were analyzed by means of Student's t-test for paired samples. ResultsWe analyzed 547 patients with a mean age of 71.5±11.5 years. The majority were men (60.6%). We observed a decrease in cLDL (−10.6 [95% CI: −7.0, −14.3], p<.001) in patients who started taking the CV-polypill who had previously taken equally potent doses of atorvastatin (n=471). We documented a reduction in systolic BP (−3.7 [95% CI: −0.4, −6.9], p=.029) in patients who had previously taken equally potent doses of ramipril (n=360). In 88 patients, the CV-polypill was started via equally potent doses of atorvastatin and ramipril, with a decrease in cLDL (−8.7 [95% CI: −3.8, −13.6], p=.001) and systolic BP (−3.6 [95% CI: −7.8, 0.5], p=.085). ConclusionsThe initiation of treatment with the CV-polypill in patients who previously received equally potent treatment with atorvastatin and ramipril was associated with a greater reduction in cLDL and systolic BP.

The construction of contemporary nursing identity from narrative accounts of practice and professional life

ObjectiveTo explore the contemporary narrative of nursing identity in Spain. MethodThis qualitative study was conducted between 2018 and 2020. Eleven registered nurses were interviewed. The conversations were recorded in audio, were semistructured, and held in a mental health clinic affiliated with a Catholic institution. Narrative analysis of the data was carried out. FindingsTwo themes were identified: How do I construct my professional life?, with the subthemes ‘Training and initiation in care practice’, ‘Ways of living the professional care experience’, ‘The sculpting of care’ and ‘Self-image and future projection’; and What do I know about my practice?, with the subthemes ‘Nursing experience: shift, days, years’, ‘Strategy in the field of nursing care’, ‘Some foundations of caregiving practice’, ‘The specificity of the gesture of care’ and ‘Voice and recognition of nursing within the institution’. ConclusionContemporary nursing identity is built in reflections on the epistemology of care, confronting the weight of tradition and breaking into new modes of self-image where the profession is legitimized and projected from historical consciousness. This claim can be used to support reflective practice in academic and healthcare settings as well as to promote a paradigm shift.

Cambios en el examen clínico objetivo y estructurado (ECOE) de las facultades de Medicina durante la COVID-19. Experiencia de una ECOE de casos-clínicos computarizados simulados (ECOE-CCS) conjunta

Background and objectivesThe COVID-19 pandemic has forced universities to move the completion of university studies online. Spain's National Conference of Medical School Deans coordinates an objective, structured clinical competency assessment called the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), which consists of 20 face-to-face test sections for students in their sixth year of study. As a result of the pandemic, a computer-based case simulation OSCE (CCS-OSCE) has been designed. The objective of this article is to describe the creation, administration, and development of the test. Materials and methodsThis work is a descriptive study of the CCS-OSCE from its planning stages in April 2020 to its administration in June 2020. ResultsThe CCS-OSCE evaluated the competences of anamnesis, exploration, clinical judgment, ethical aspects, interprofessional relations, prevention, and health promotion. No technical or communication skills were evaluated. The CCS-OSCE consisted of ten test sections, each of which had a 12-minutes time limit and ranged from six to 21 questions (mean: 1.1 minutes/question). The CCS-OSCE used the virtual campus platform of each of the 16 participating medical schools, which had a total of 2,829 students in their sixth year of study. It was jointly held on two dates in June 2020. ConclusionsThe CCS-OSCE made it possible to bring together the various medical schools and carry out interdisciplinary work. The CCS-OSCE conducted may be similar to Step 3 of the United States Medical Licensing Examination.

Markiz de Villena – założyciel i pierwszy dyrektor Real Academia Española

Don Juan Manuel Fernández Pacheco, Marquis of Villena, came from one of the most distinguished families in Spain. His greatest life contribution, having a far-reaching impact on the consolidation of the cultural and social identity of Spain, was the initiative to establish the Real Academia Española (Royal Spanish Academy). He was aware that the language used by scholars and writers living on the Iberian Peninsula was not uniform, and that the invasion of French expressions was progressing. In 1711, he created a group of people willing to cooperate in the cultivation and preservation of "the words and phrases of the Castilian language". Each of the eight participants of the meetings had experience in the field of humanities. It should be noted that this group was the founding core of the later Real Academia Española, officially approved on October 3, 1714. Marquis of Villena has led the Academy in his twelve years as director with meticulous attention to almost all of its meetings. The research goal set at the beginning, which was the development of the Dictionary of the Castilian language (Diccionario de la lengua castellana), was carried out in the years 1726–1739. Unfortunately, the Marquis died without the completion and publication of the first volume of the work, which was being prepared for printing at the time of his death. This memorable work is known today as the Dictionary of Authorities (Diccionario de autoridades).

Teaching Representations of Resistance and Repression in Popular Spanish Film

This essay presents a brief analysis of three popular Spanish films released between 2001 and 2012 that are set in the immediate post Civil War period and first decades of the Franco dictatorship. Specifically, it considers three films which aim to reconstruct and represent the experience of the men, women, and children who fought Francoism or who endured repression after the end of the Spanish Civil War: Silencio roto (Armendáriz 2001), El laberinto del fauno (Del Toro 2004), and 30 años de oscuridad (Martín 2012). This essay explores the way in which tropes of politics, history, resistance, and repression are represented in each film, and how filmmakers using popular cinematic forms have appropriated the Spanish Civil War and Franco period settings to comment on contemporary political and social issues in Spain. Most of the recent Spanish cinematic productions (fictional and documentary) that depict the Spanish Civil War and Franco period have focused on the moral vindication of the vanquished. The three films considered here aim to reconstruct the particular experience or memories of the Spanish maquis and topos, and the civilians who supported them in their struggles. Each of the films discussed has sought to play a role in the recasting of collective identity in Spain, and affords important insights into the social processes and experiences of the time in which they were created. In a world where the visual immediacy of cinematic images increasingly works to displace traditional historiography, these representations have become ever more important and merit discussion. This essay takes into account that these cinematic representations are subjective and mediated depictions of events, participants, and circumstances of the Civil War and Franco period, and suggests pedagogical approaches to discussing each film in order to enable students (and other viewers) to grasp how to distinguish between history and the historicizing effect of its representations.

Television, Justice and National Identity in Spain

Television dramas have an enormous discursive power to shape national identity in the form of shared experience and collective belonging. Both law and visual culture are dominant discourses constituting an imagined community, which creates meaning through storytelling and performance. Spanish television is a particularly good case study, since the medium has been a vital tool of identity construction at individual, collective and national levels in a country that lived through almost 40 years of dictatorship (1939–1975). Television was thus used as a means of propaganda (1956–1975), as primary educator of democratic values (1975–1989) and as creator of a social debate (1990 onwards). This article examines law drama, law comedy and documentary/docu-drama over two periods of production/reception – the Transition from dictatorship to democracy in the 1980s and the first two decades of the new millennium – in order to compare changes in national culture and collective identity construction. What is most striking in all shows is the hybridisation of genres: to a greater or lesser extent all shows contain elements of workplace dramas and/or domestic sitcoms, making the private political.

Aflamencado practice in the contemporary piano perfoming

Aflamencado practice in the contemporary piano perfoming