Latinism and Hispanism in the Hispano-American Right in Interwar Spain and Argentina

Abstract

During the first decades of the twentieth century conceptions about Latinism and Hispanism were fundamental to constructing transnational discourses at the service of national causes in Europe and Latin America. In this framework, both in Argentina and Spain the new Right emerged in the heat of the fin-de-siècle carrying new visions on Latinism and Hispanism. During the First World War Latinism and Hispanism were harshly confronted. After the conflict, a process of ‘cross-fertilization’ took place in both countries. In the interwar period, authoritarian movements and right-wing regimes shared a series of political objectives, a common vision, and the feeling of being part of a historical mission against communism in the name of a ‘Catholic civilization’. In the context of the Spanish Civil War a ‘Catholic renaissance’ unfolded: a Hispanism that included a Latinist dimension was projected both in Francisco Franco’s Spain and unstable pre-Perón’s Argentina.