The Curiosity Of Hispanicity

Spain's National Day is a curious affair. Away from Madrid, it isn't a big deal. In Mallorca the Virgen del Pilar fiesta of the same date carries more weight, albeit that this is not as it was. 12 October has become a public holiday, a ritual one largely confined to rituals of military parading in Madrid, to some religious ritual and to a further one honouring the Guardia Civil, whose patron is Pilar, the saint on a pillar in Zaragoza and the image of the Virgin Mary. Otherwise, the ritual is like other public holidays: a day off and, if you're lucky with the weather, a day on the beach.

It is curious in another respect in that the adoption of 12 October first really came about in 1913 as a fiesta for celebrating common bonds of the Spanish people and the Spanish lands of South America. There had, by then, been commemorations of Columbus's discovery for some twenty years or so in Buenos Aires, and in 1913 a name was given to this day, the Fiesta de al Raza - the festival of the race, the Spanish race.

This was to morph into the Día de la Hispanidad, the day of Hispanicity, and the change was largely driven from Argentina. Among others, a one-time Spanish ambassador to Argentina, Ramiro de Maeztu, had proposed the adoption of this name in 1931. Three years later, the Archbishop of Toledo picked up on Maeztu's proposal and presented the discourse "Apologia de la Hispanidad" - the defence of the Hispanic peoples and heritage. A year later, in 1935 and in the time of the Second Republic, the first Día de la Hispanidad was celebrated. Maeztu spoke and referred to the whole of Spain and of Spain in the Americas being a part of it. One further year on, with Spain at war, he was executed by the Republicans.

In 1939, the Civil War over, the official celebration took place in Zaragoza. For the Nationalists and for Franco, it was a day that brought together all that it held dear and all that it wished to correct. Spain and Hispanicity had themselves been through the wars for decades. For example, there had been humiliation with the loss of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. The upheavals that had endured for so long were to be replaced by a reassertion of Spain the nation and Spain in the wider world. Allied to this was the fundamentalism of the Catholic conservatism that the regime espoused. The Virgen del Pilar was, therefore, definitively and symbolically linked to this day of nationalism - the mother of the Hispanic peoples.

It wasn't until 1958 that the day was officially declared as a public holiday and as the "fiesta nacional". Following the death of Franco and the establishment of democracy, there were to be two decrees. One of 1981 maintained the title Día de la Hispanidad; a second, in 1987, didn't. Though it was never formally abandoned - and it is still used - there appeared to be an attempt at creating a distance with the concept of Hispanicity.

Nowadays, it is a day that is rejected in certain quarters. The presidents of Catalonia and the Basque Country did not attend the Madrid military parade, and they never have. In Mallorca, there were protests of the what's-there-to-celebrate variety. The mayor and other councillors from Més and the Republican Left were among those who didn't have a day off. They worked instead. The day of Hispanicity, the national fiesta, the Guardia Civil celebration: none of these would close the town hall for the day, observed mayor Miquel Oliver.

There is something else that is curious about this day. National days are not uncommon. The French have one, Bastille Day. The Italians celebrate the post-Second World War referendum which definitively established the republic. The Dutch have King's Day. Germany has one of sorts - to mark reunification. The British don't have one. But Spain's day stands out for the fact that its roots lie with the notion of Hispanicity, of the Spanish peoples. The French don't promote global Frenchness as such. Neither the Italians nor the Dutch indulge in celebrating the reach of their nations to any extent.

Of one-time imperial powers, it is only the Spanish who, even if it is officially no longer recognised, have this universality. In certain respects, it is understandable. There are an awful lot of Hispanic people across the globe, while the impetus behind the day was as much one from a part of former empire as it was a domestic creation. But perhaps it is a reflection of a psyche, of the loss of the discovery by Columbus and of the creation of empire and of a people that was to disintegrate and unravel. And right now, the assertions of National Day are against the background of another possible unravelling - the nation itself.