The reshaping of Ibero-American cultural diplomacy in the beginning of the XXI century: the declining of the Spanish historical hegemony?

ABSTRACT

Francoist cultural policy in Latin America – itself based on Hispanist philosophy – and the Spanish activity in the Organization of Ibero-American States (1949) promoted the emergence of Ibero-American cultural diplomacy. The return of democracy to Spain in 1978 turned these projects into more horizontal instruments of cultural cooperation. After a process of institutionalization that led to the creation of SEGIB and the establishment of the Ibero-American Cultural Letter in 2006, this multilateral diplomatic system was called into question due to its economic asymmetries and its ideological basis. However, the relative influence of this process in reformulating the system and in creating a shared identitarian discourse within Ibero-America has never been properly weighted, nor has the importance of each actor within this process. This article analyses the multilateral Ibero-American cultural diplomacy in order to understand its recent transformations in terms of the importance of both national power and symbolic hegemony.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural diplomacy
• Ibero-America
• neocolonialism
• cultural cooperation
• hegemony

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The Latin-American countries from Mexico to Argentina plus Portugal, Spain and Andorra; which are integrated in the SEGIB organization.

2. The Instituto Camões, organically integrated in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is the institutional heir of the junta de Educação Nacional, founded in 1921. It later transformed into the Instituto para a Alta Cultura (1936–1952) and was afterwards renamed Instituto de Alta Cultura. After the transition to democracy, this organ was extinguished and substituted by the Instituto de Cultura e Língua Portuguesa (Guedes 1999).

3. Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas (ALBA) is an international organization created in 2004 by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Cuban President Fidel Castro to reinforce commercial and cultural ties within Caribbean nations. It is currently integrated by 12 Caribbean and South American countries.

4. Since 1998, a series of new left movement won the elections in many Latin-American countries, including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.

5. Not only at the intraregional level, but also in respect to other regions of the world, outlining in this regard the Brazilian action in the old Portuguese colonies in Africa.

6. See: http://thecommonwealth.org/our-charter.

7. Miguel Primo de Rivera between 1923 and 1930 and Francisco Franco between 1939 and 1975.

8. From the year 2007, Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development (AECID), by incorporating the word development in its name.

9. The Popular Party (PP) is biggest right-wing and conservative Spanish political party. It was founded in 1989, when it adopted its current name.

10. The State Society for Exhibitions (SEEI – 2000); the State Society for Foreign Cultural Action (SEACEX- 2001); and the State Society for Cultural Commemorations (SECC-2002).

11. The CIN is not an international organization but designates to a concept developed in the Salamanca Declaration of 2005 of the XV Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government.

12. The Organization of American States is a continental organization established in 1948 and with headquarters in Washington, D.C.

13. It is a federal action aimed at fostering and supporting a decentralized network of local projects and centres of culture production and diffusion.

14. It was integrated by Argentina, Brasil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, México, Panamá, Paraguay, Perú and Uruguay. See: http://segib.org/programa/ibermusicas/ and http://www.ibermusicas.org/.

15. This is the last year with available and quite complete data on budget distribution and participation (by countries).

16. Such as with the nationalization of the Santander Bank in Venezuela in 2009, the oil company YPF in Argentina or the main electric company of Bolivia in 2012.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mariano Martín Zamorano

Mariano Martín Zamorano holds a PhD (cum laude) in Cultural and Heritage Management from the University of Barcelona (UB). Dr. Zamorano is specialized in the sociological examination of cultural policies both at national and international levels. The author has been Associate Professor at the UB and Visiting Scholar at the Ohio State University. He has multiple scientific journal and book publications, has participated in more than 15 funded projects (7 of them for the European Commission), and has also gotten four individual academic grants. Since 2010 he is member of the Center for the Study of Culture, Politics and Society (CECUPS) at the UB.

Lluis Bonet

Lluis Bonet is director of the Cultural Management program at the University of Barcelona, and member of the research centers CRICC and Kunnskapsverket. Specialized in cultural economics, cultural policies and arts management, he has been research fellow at MIT and the University of Montpelier, and invited lecturer in over 40 different countries. Winner of the CAC Research Prize, Dr. Bonet has served as President of the Jury of the Cultural Policy Research Award. He has been president of ENCATC, board member of the Association of Cultural Economics International, and an active participant in many European research projects.