Rediscovering Spain’s Past Critics in Madrid

A newcomer to Madrid, I currently teach Latin American history and literature to undergraduates from my university spending their academic year abroad. Even as the Trump administration deports undocumented and legal residents from Latin America in record numbers, Spain is witnessing a surge of arrivals from the region. In stark contrast to the United States, the Sánchez government has made Spain an alternative destination for migrants from Latin America and other regions. The Trump administration recently abducted and extradited the president of Venezuela, threatened to annex Greenland, cut off oil and energy supplies to Cuba and launched an unprovoked war against Iran. While I lie in bed awake at night thinking about these alarming developments from a city replete with nostalgic reminders of the Spanish empire, I struggle to reconcile Madrid’s imperial past with its multicultural present. What can the twilight of past empires and dictatorships teach us about their present juncture and future direction? How do their monuments at once reveal and conceal their violent histories? What can the struggles against empire and fascism of previous centuries teach us about their re-emergence in new forms today?