Restoring the Kingdom of Christ: the appropriation of religious and cultural festivals and the construction of the nation under Franco (1936–45)

ABSTRACT

In the analysis of the consolidation of the dictatorships that emerged in interwar Europe, religious and cultural festivals have received less attention than the political holidays created from scratch to reinforce their symbolic legitimacy. However, popular celebrations served as an effective tool for the transmission of ideology and the creation of spaces of interaction between the state and the people. This article analyses the different ways in which the Franco dictatorship instrumentalized religiosity and religious and cultural festivals during the years that the regime was under construction (1936–45). The study evaluates the extent to which the appropriation and resignification of popular culture and festive rites helped to consolidate the dictatorship and shape the Franco nation, while examining their impact on daily life and highlighting the subjects’ capacity for agency in the redefinition of celebrations. Drawing on a perspective that combines social and cultural history and anthropology, the article focuses on the complex relationship between religion and nationalism during the Franco period, observing the materialization of specific policies and discourses in people’s lives.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Ian Kershaw, The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation (New York: Bloomsbury, 2000); Paul Corner (ed.), Popular Opinion in Totalitarian Regimes: Fascism, Nazism, Communism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009); Yong Woo Kim, ‘From “Consensus Studies” to History of Subjectivity: Some Considerations on Recent Historiography on Italian Fascism’, Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions, 10:3–4 (2010), pp. 327−337.

2 A. Lüdtke, ‘Ordinary People, Self–Energising, and Room for Manoeuvering: Examples from 20th Century Europe’ in Alf Lüdtke (ed), Everyday Life in Mass Dictatorships. Collusion and Evasion (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), pp. 13−34.

3 M. Sabrow, ‘Time and Legitimacy: Comparative Reflections on the Sense of Time in the Two German Dictatorships’, Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions, 6:3 (2005), pp. 351–369.

4 A. Rabinbach, Stefanos Geroulanos and Dagmar Herzog, ‘Nazi culture: The sacred, the aesthetic, and the popular’ in Staging the Third Reich. Essays in cultural and intellectual history (London: Routledge, 2020), pp. 108−137; M. Bezerin, Making the Fascist Self. The Political Culture of Interwar Italy (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997); Z. Box, ‘El calendario festivo franquista tensiones y equilibrios en la configuración inicial de la identidad nacional del régimen’ in J. Moreno Luzón (coord) Construir España: nacionalismo español y procesos de nacionalización (Madrid: CEPC, 2007), pp. 263−288); James von Geldern, Bolshevik Festivals, 1917–1929 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1993).

5 For example, in Stalinist Russia: K. Petrone, Life has become more joyous, comrades. Celebrations in Time of Stalin (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2000), pp. 16–17.

6 See M. Conway and P. Romijn (eds.), The War for Legitimacy in Politics and Culture 1936–1946 (Bloomsbury, 2008); and Vincent, Mary, Spain, 1833–2002, People and State (Oxford: OUP, 2008), chap. 4.

7 G. Corni, ‘La politica agraria del fascismo: Un confronto fra Italia e Germania’, Studi Storici, 28:2 (1989), pp. 385–421. For a comparative perspective, see G. Alares López, ‘Ruralismo, fascismo y regeneración. Italia y España en perspectiva comparada’, Ayer, 83:3 (2011), pp. 127–147. For the Salazar dictatorship in Portugal, see D. Melo, Salazarismo e Cultura Popular (1933-1958), (Lisbon: ICS, 2001).

8 S. Cavazza, Piccole patrie. Feste popolari tra regione e nazione durante il fascismo (Bologne: Il Mulino, 1997); Xosé M. Núñez Seixas, Imperios y danzas. Nacionalismo y pluralidad territorial en el fascismo español (1930–1975) (Madrid: Marcial Pons, 2023).

9 R.W. Lo, ‘Celebrating the Festa dell' Uva: Invented Traditions, Popular Culture and Urban Spectacle in Fascist Rome’ in Samantha L. Martin–McAuliffe (ed.) Food and Architecture at the Table (London: Bloomsbury, 2016); J. Perry, ‘Nazifying Christmas: Political Culture and Popular Celebration in the Third Reich’, Central European History, 38:4 (2005), pp. 572−605; Petrone, op. cit., pp. 45−46.

10 Amongst these exceptions: E. Antuña, ‘La intervención del primer franquismo sobre la fiesta popular’, Hispania Nova, 14 (2016), pp. 192−212; C. Hernández Burgos and C. Rina Simón (eds) El franquismo se fue de fiesta. Ritos festivos y cultura popular durante la dictadura (Valencia: PUV, 2022). J. C. Mancha Castro, ‘El Rocío. Un espacio socio–simbólico para la (re)producción de los imaginarios franquistas’, Hispania Nova, 20 (2021), pp. 411−435.

11 Z. Box and I. Saz, ‘Spanish Fascism as a Political Religion (1931-1941)’, Politics, Religion and Ideology, 12:4 (2011), pp. 371−89, esp. 387−88.

12 On the defascistization process: J. M. Thomàs, Los fascismos españoles (Barcelona: Ariel, 2019), pp. 241 and ff. A different perspective in: F. Gallego, El evangelio fascista. La formación de la cultura política del franquismo (1930–1950) (Barcelona: Crítica, 2014).

13 On the relationship between nationalism and religion, see R. Brubaker, ‘Religion and nationalism: four approaches’, Nations and Nationalism, 18:1 (2011), pp. 2−20. On Catholicism and Fascism, see the special issue: ‘Clerical Fascism in Interwar Europe’, Totalitarian Movements and Political Religion, 8:2 (2007); R. Mallet, ‘The Sacralisation of Politics: Definitions, Interpretations and Reflections on the Question of Secular Religion and Totalitarianism’, Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions, 1:1 (2000), pp. 18−55; M. C. Romeo, P. Salomón y N. Tabanera (eds.), Católicos, reaccionarios y nacionalistas: política e identidad nacional en Europa y América Latina (Granada: Comares, 2021).

14 See M. Richards, A time of silence. Civil War and the Culture of Repression in Franco's Spain, 1936–1945 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998).

15 Boletín Oficial Eclesiástico del Arzobispado de Zaragoza, ‘Circular n.° 16 sobre rogativas para el feliz término de la guerra’ 29 August 1936; Boletín Oficial Eclesiástico Santiago de Compostela ‘Circular del arzobispo de Santiago de Compostela’, 31 August 1936.

16 H. Raguer, Gunpowder and Incense. The Catholic Church and the Spanish Civil War (London: Routledge, 2007), pp. 50−59; J. Rodrigo, Cruzada, paz y memoria: la Guerra civil en sus relatos (Granada: Comares, 2013).

17 View expressed by E. Pla y Deniel, Bishop of Salamanca, in his pastoral letter, Las dos ciudades, published in September 1936. Vid. A. Álvarez Bolado: Para ganar la guerra. Para ganar la paz. Iglesia y Guerra civil, 1936–1939 (Madrid: Universidad Pontificia de Comillas, 1995).

18 On palingenesis: R. Griffin, The Nature of Fascism (New York, Routledge, 1991); On the Catholic restoration: C. Rina, ‘Fascismo, nacionalcatolicismo y religiosidad Popular. Combates por la significación de la dictadura (1936-1940)’, Historia y Política, 37 (2017), pp. 241−266; J. Pollard, ‘Clerical Fascism’: Context, Overview and Conclusion’, Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions, 8:2 (2007), pp. 433−446, p. 443.

19 Some examples in: J. Cervera Gil, Ya sabes mi paradero. La guerra civil a través de las cartas de las que la vivieron (Barcelona: Planeta, 2005), p. 163; and Xosé M. Núñez Seixas, ¡Fuera el invasor! Nacionalismos y movilización bélica durante la guerra civil española (1936–1939) (Madrid: Marcial Pons, 2006).

20 B.A.J. Rieffer, ‘Religion and Nationalism. Understanding the Consequences of a Complex Relationship’, Ethnicities, 3:2 (2003), pp. 215−242; For a comparison with the Spanish case: M. Alonso Ibarra, ‘Guerra Civil española y contrarevolución. El fascismo europeo bajo el signo de la santa cruz’, Ayer, 109 (2018), pp. 269−295.

21 For one example: General Military Archive of Ávila (AGMAV), Zona Republicana, armario 66, legajo 803, carpeta 2. Fichas de censura del Ejército de Andalucía, 1938. F.J. Caspistegui, ‘Spain’s Vendée’: Carlist Identity in Navarre as a Mobilising Model’ in Chris Ealham and Michael Richards (eds), The Splintering of Spain: Cultural History and the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939 (New York: Cambridge, 2005), p. 180.

22 Evidence of this can be found in the 1945 documentary film: La Virgen capitana de nuestra historia [The Virgin: Captain of our History], declared to be of national interest on 6 June 1945, giving it official status in the regime’s propaganda. Script and reports in the General Archive of the Administration (AGA), [phone]. 36/03235 and 36/04675.

23 M. Siurot, ‘Guerra y fe’, ABC de Sevilla, 27 October 1937, p. 4. C. Langa Nuño, ‘De Sevilla la Roja a la Tierra de María Santísima: la recatolización de Sevilla’ in J. L. Ruiz Sánchez (coord), La Iglesia en Andalucía durante la Guerra Civil y el primer franquismo (Seville: Universidad de Sevilla, 2014), pp. 15−47.

24 This description comes from AGMAV, Zona Nacional, armario 37, legajo 1, carpeta 16, ‘Funciones de los capellanes’, 1937? On military chaplains: James Matthews: ‘Comisarios y capellanes en la Guerra Civil española, 1936-1939. Una mirada comparativa’, Ayer, 94 (2014), pp. 175–199.

25 This was the case in Aracena, in the province of Huelva, where an altar covered with the red–yellow flag and a crucifix was installed for the celebration of the mass for the liberation of the people, ABC de Sevilla, 25 August 1936, p. 6. For other examples, see M.A. del Arco Blanco, ‘Before the Altar of the Fatherland: Catholicism, Politics of Modernization, and Nationalism during the Spanish Civil War’, European History Quarterly, 48 (2018), pp. 232−255, esp. pp. 234−235.

26 AGMAV, Zona Roja, caja 227, carpeta 1−2 ‘Informe de una visita a zona nacional’, undated.

27 See C. Hernández Burgos, ‘La forja de la “nación de Franco”: nacionalismo, catolicismo y violencia en la zona rebelde durante la Guerra Civil española (1936–1939)’, Rubrica Contemporánea, 9:17 (2020), pp. 79−97.

28 General Archive of the Spanish Civil War (AGGCE), caja 738, ‘Informe sobre diferentes provincias’, 1938.

29 Cit. in Feliciano Blázquez, La traición de los clérigos en la España de Franco (Madrid: Trotta, 1991), p. 59.

30 A. Quiroga, ‘The Three Spheres. A Theoretical Model of Mass Nationalisation: The Case of Spain’, Nations and Nationalism, 20:4 (2014), pp. 683–700.

31 On these ‘national habits’, see Tim Edensor, National Identity, Popular Culture and Everyday Life, (New York: Routledge, 2002), pp. 89 and ff.

32 J. Hearn and M. Antonsich, ‘Theoretical and methodological considerations for the study of banal and everyday nationalism’, Nations and Nationalism, 24:3 (2018), pp. 594−605; for the Spanish case: C. Hernández Burgos, ‘Nationalisation, Banal Nationalism and Everyday Nationhood in a Dictatorship: The Franco Regime in Spain’, Nations and Nationalism, 27:3 (2021), pp. 690−704.

33 Official State Bulletin (BOE), Government of the State Decree No. 253, 12 April 1937, cancelling the Republican holidays and declaring a national holiday on 2 May.

34 See the works by G.L. Mosse, ‘Fascist Aesthetics and Society: Some Considerations’, Journal of Contemporary History, 31:2 (1996), pp. 245−252; E. Gentile, Il culto del littorio. La sacralizzazione della politica nell'Italia fascista (Roma–Bari: Laterza, 2001).

35 A. Cenarro, ‘Los días de la nueva España: entre la “revolución nacional” y el peso de la tradición’, Ayer, 51 (2003), pp. 115–134.

36 General Archive of the Archdiocese of Seville (AGAS), Justicia, caja 10.027. Letter dated 19 May 1939.

37 For other examples, see Diario Sur, 13 April 1945. For a more in–depth exploration of the counterhegemonic aspect of these celebrations, see D. E. Brisset, La rebeldía festiva. Historia de fiestas ibéricas, (Girona: Luces de Galibo, 2009); and for the specific case of Holy Week, see F. J. Escalera Reyes, ‘El franquismo y la fiesta: régimen político, transformaciones sociales y sociabilidad festiva en la España de Franco’ in J. Uría (ed.), La cultura popular en la España contemporánea, doce estudios (Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva, 2003), pp. 253–261.

38 AGAS, Justicia, caja 10.027 Directrices del cardenal a la Comisión de Hermandades del 18 de marzo de 1942. Ibid.

39 Reports and speeches in ABC de Sevilla, 16 August 1936, p. 3.

40 ‘La festividad de la Virgen del Rocío’, Diario de Huelva, 18 May 1937.

41 S. Moreno Tello, ‘El Carnaval Silenciado. Golpe de Estado, Guerra Civil, Dictadura y represión al febrero gaditano’, (Unpublished dissertation, Universidad de Cádiz, 2015). See also C. Rina Simón, ‘Cultura y ritos festivos. En torno a la legitimidad sacro–popular de la dictadura franquista’ in Zira Box and César Rina (eds) El franquismo en caleidoscopio. Perspectivas y estudios transdisciplinares sobre la dictadura (Granada: Comares, 2020), pp. 72−74.

42 One example is the photobook El Alcázar de Toledo (Bilbao: Editora Nacional, 1939).

43 F. Naldi, ‘Propaganda, religione, franchismo. Il culto della vergine del Pilar durante la Guerra Civile Spagnola (1936–1939)’, Spagna Contemporanea, 44 (2013), pp. 103–123; Francisco Javier Ramón Solans, Francisco Javier, La Virgen del Pilar dice … Usos políticos y nacionales de un culto mariano en la España contemporánea (Zaragoza: PUZ, 2014).

44 Capitán Reparaz and Tresgallo De Souza, Un relato en este sentido: Desde el Cuartel General de Miaja al Santuario de la Virgen de la Cabeza: 30 días con los rojo–separatistas, sirviendo a España, (Valladolid: Afrodisio Aguado, 1937). On the Virgen de la Cabeza: AGA [phone]. 44884, Informe ‘La Gloriosa Epopeya del Santuario’ and the proclamation of the pilgrimage of Blas Piñar in 1966. On the symbolism of ruins, see S. Michonneau, ‘Ruinas de guerra e imaginario nacional bajo el franquismo’ in Stéphane Michonneau and Xosé María Núñez Seixas (eds) Imaginarios y representaciones de España durante el franquismo (Madrid: Casa de Velázquez, 2014), pp. 25−47.

45 For Malaga, see M. Richards, ‘Presenting arms to the Blessed Sacrament: civil war and Semana Santa in the city of Málaga, 1936–1939’ in The Splintering of Spain, op. cit., pp. 196−222.

46 Cited in Alejandro Pérez–Olivares, Madrid cautivo. Ocupación y control de una ciudad (1936–1948) (Valencia: PUV, 2020), p. 182.

47 ABC de Sevilla, 19 April 1939.

48 J. Carrillo Caro ‘Pólvora, folclore y fascismo: la politización de las fiestas mayores en la Cataluña franquista’ in El franquismo se fue de fiesta, op.cit., p. 103.

49 W. Callahan, ‘The Evangelization of Franco's “New Spain”’, Church History, 56–4 (1987), pp. 491−503.

50 Cited in Mancha Castro, op. cit., p. 427.

51 On the ability of local identities to create national identities, see Claus–Christian W. Szejnmann and Maiken Umbach (eds) Heimat, Region and Empire: Spatial Identities under National Socialism (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012); A. Confino, ‘The Nation as a Local Metaphor: Heimat, National Memory and the German Empire, 1871–1918’, History and Memory, 5:1 (1993), pp. 42−86.

52 E. Antuña Gancedo, ‘Sabor netamente asturiano: el día de Asturias en Gijón como ejemplo del franquismo con las fiestas populares’ in El franquismo se fue de fiesta, op. cit., pp. 169–189.

53 Statements in Rumbos del Orden Nuevo. Las Fallas. Palabras epilogales del Alcalde de Valencia, Excmo. Sr. Barón de Cácer (Valencia: Tip. Artística, 1939), p. 9. For the process, see G.M. Hernàndez i Martí, Falles i Franquisme a València (Barcelona: Afers, 1996).

54 Explained in G.M. Hernàndez i Martí, ‘El triunfo de la tradición flexible. La celebración de la identidad fallera a través de la Ofrenda de Flores a la Virgen de los Desamparados de Valencia’, Zainak. Cuadernos de Antropología–Etnografía, 28 (2006), pp. 125−146.

55 Municipal Historical Archive of Cadiz (AHMC), Actas Capitulares, 23 February 1940, in which the city council agrees to subsidize Holy Week to establish it as the hegemonic holiday in the city.

56 F. Molina Aparicio, ‘La reconstrucción de la nación. Homogeneización cultural y nacionalización de masas en la España franquista (1936–1959)’, Historia y Política, 38 (2017), pp. 23−56.

57 For the Soviet Union, see M. Rolf, ‘Zwischen antikirchlichem Gegenfest und volksreligiöser Feiertradition. Festkultur, Religion und Stalinismus in Sowjetrußland vor dem Zweiten Weltkrieg’, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, 52:4 (2004), pp. 494−514; for Spain: Á. Cenarro, ‘Los días de la nueva España … ’..

58 Nadine Rosool, Performing the Nation in Interwar Germany: Sport, Spectacle and Political (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), pp. 139−157; E. Mascha, ‘Mocking Fascism. Popular Culture and Political Satire as counter–hegemony’ in Villy Tsakona and Diana E. Popa (eds), Studies in Political Humour (Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2011), pp. 191−213.

59 Ideal, 11 April 1939.

60 Vid. C. Rina Simón, Los imaginarios franquistas y la religiosidad popular (Badajoz: Diputación, 2015), p. 127.

61 G. M. Hernàndez Martí, La festa reinventada. Calendari, política i ideología en la València franquista (Valencia: PUV, 2002).

62 The same idea is found in Perry, op. cit., p. 574; and S. Kotkin, Magnetic Mountain. Stalinism as Civilization (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997), p. 236.

63 G. di Febo, (2002), Ritos de guerra y de victoria en la España franquista (Madrid: Desclee Brower y A. Morcillo), The Seduction of Modern Spain: The Female Body and the Francoist Body Politics, (Canbury: Rosemont Publishing, 2010). See also M. Vincent, ‘La Semana Santa en el nacionalcatolicismo: espacio urbano, arte e historia. El caso de Valladolid (1939–1949)’, Historia y Política 38 (2017), pp. 91−127.

64 C. Rina Simón, ‘La construcción de los imaginarios franquistas y la religiosidad popular, 1931–1945’, Pasado y memoria, 14 (2015), pp. 179−196.

65 M. Vincent, ‘Expiation as Performative Rhetoric in National–Catholicism: The Politics of Gesture in Post–Civil War Spain’, Past and Present 203–204 (2009), pp. 235−256; C. Hernández Burgos, ‘Making the “New Spain”: Violence, Nationalism and Religion in the Rebel Zone, 1936–1939’ in Claudio Hernández Burgos (ed) The Impact of Nationalism and Extremism on Daily Life in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2020), pp. 125−144; M. A. del Arco Blanco, op. cit., pp. 242−243.

66 José Pemartín, Qué es ‘lo nuevo’ … Consideraciones sobre el momento español presente (Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1940 [original 1937]), p. 43. These ideas had already been expressed during the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera. See Alejandro Quiroga, Los orígenes del nacionalcatolicismo. José Pemartín y la dictadura de Primo de Rivera (Granada: Comares, 2006).

67 Pemartín, p. 67.

68 For an example, see Patria, 29 October 1937. See also Z. Box, ‘Pasión, muerte y glorificación de José Antonio Primo de Rivera’, Historia del Presente, 6 (2005), pp. 191–218.

69 Domingo Arrese, ‘Dolorosa’, Faro de Vigo, 31 March 1939.

70 Ideal, 25 March 1937. Las comparaciones entre Cristo y la nación española se reprodujeron en la propaganda rebelde y en la prensa de manera recurrente como se sostiene en Z. Box, España, año cero: La construcción simbólica del franquismo (Madrid: Alianza, 2010).

71 ABC de Sevilla, 30 June 1938, p. 11

72 J. M. Soler Díaz–Guijarro, Pregón de la Semana Santa Madrileña (Madrid: Artes Gráficas Municipales, 1956), p. 8.

73 Odiel, 27 March 1937.

74 Sur, 8 April 1939.

75 J. de la Cueva Merino, ‘El asalto de los cielos: una perspectiva comparada para la violencia anticlerical española de 1936’, Ayer, 88 (2012), pp. 51−74.

76 S. Navarro de la Fuente, ‘La religiosidad popular como elemento de adhesión al primer franquismo. Una aproximación al caso de Sevilla’ in J. L. Ruiz Sánchez (coord.) La Iglesia en Andalucía durante la Guerra Civil y el primer franquismo, (Seville: Universidad de Sevilla, 2014), pp. 109−126.

77 The example of Valladolid in M. Vincent, ‘La Semana Santa en el nacionalcatolicismo, op. cit.’.

78 U. Otero, ‘Catholic Dressing in the Spanish Franco Dictatorship (1939–1975): Normative Femininity and Its Sartorial Embodiment’, Journal of Religious History, 15:4 (2021), pp. 582−602.

79 M. Richards, ‘Presenting arms to the Blessed Sacrament … ’, op. cit., pp. 200−201.

80 General Archive of the Archdiocese of Seville (AGAS), Justicia, caja 10.027 ‘Las ordenanzas para las cofradías de la Archidiócesis que hagan Estación de Penitencia en Semana Santa’, Boletín Oficial del Arzobispado de Seville (BOEAS), March1943.

81 For some examples related to Carnival, see Gloria Román Ruiz, Franquismo de carne y hueso. Entre el consentimiento y las resistencias cotidianas (1939-1975) (Valencia: PUZ, 2021), Part IV.

82 Although the debate over the disputes and convergences between the fascist and National Catholic political cultures is broad, two texts provide reference points for the two main interpretive currents: Ismael Saz, España contra España. Los nacionalismos franquistas (Madrid: Marcial Pons, 2003) and F. Gallego, op. cit.

83 BOEAS, 15 March 1940.

84 For the rejection of enrolment ballots by the vicar general: AGAS, Gobierno, Asuntos Despachados, signatura 5122, 17 May 1938, signatura 5122.

85 M. Vincent, ‘La Semana Santa', op. cit., p. 103.

86 J. Caro Baroja, ‘Semana Santa en Puente Genil (1950)’ Revista de Dialectología y Tradiciones Populares, 13, pp. 22−94.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Project: ‘Pensar Andalucía hoy. Sobre la identidad andaluza: un desafío en un mundo global y en una España cuestionada como nación0 (Reference: A-HUM-178 UGR20) funded by the 2020 FEDER programme.

Notes on contributors

Claudio Hernández Burgos

Claudio Hernández Burgos is an Associate Professor at the University of Granada (Spain). He holds a PhD from the University of Granada (2012). He has been a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Leeds and visiting fellow at the Università della Sapienza (Rome), the London School of Economics and the Universidad Autónoma (Madrid). His research interests centre around the Spanish Civil War, the political construction of Franco’s regime, the study of social attitudes towards the dictatorship, the history of everyday life and nationalism and nationalization in modern Spain. He has authored several articles in international journals and two books: Granada azul. La construcción de la Cultura de la Victoria durante el primer franquismo (2011) and Franquismo a ras de suelo. Zonas grises, apoyos sociales y actitudes durante la dictadura (2013). He also edited No solo miedo. Opinión popular y actitudes sociales bajo el franquismo (2013), Esta es la España de Franco. Los años cincuenta del franquismo (2020) Ruptura: The Impact of Nationalism and Extremism on Daily Life in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) (Cañada Blanch/Sussex Academic Press, 2020) and Divertirse en dictadura (2023).

César Rina Simón

César Rina is an Associate Professor at the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED, Spain). He holds a PhD in History from the University of Navarra and is a member of the Use of the Past research group at the University of Lisbon. He has been awarded a number of national research prizes, including the Arturo Barea, Enrique Fuentes Quintana and Miguel Artola awards. He has served as a visiting professor at UNAM (Mexico), Nova University of Lisbon (Portugal), University of Evora (Portugal) and Università Ca’Foscari in Venice (Italy). He specializes in the analysis of the mechanisms of the cultural and sacred legitimation of modern regimes, especially the Franco dictatorship. He is the author of Los imaginarios franquistas y la religiosidad popular (2015) and El mito de la tierra de María Santísima (2020) and the co-editor of Franquismo en caleidoscopio (2020) and El franquismo se fue de fiesta (2022).