El Futuro del Pasado

From Loot to Story: When the Story Is Worth More Than Gold

Iván Pérez Miranda — 2025-03-17

Presentation. Museums: Objects, Communities and New Narratives

Alejandra Sánchez Polo — 2025-03-17

Contribution to the Transformation of Anthropology Museums from a Postcolonial Perspective: State of the Art and Preliminary Results Based on a Case Study

Eloisa Pérez Santos — 2025-03-17

This article aims to delve into the various changes that have occurred, both in their conceptualization and in decolonial practice, within anthropological museums. Based on the analysis of a significant sample of the world’s major anthropological museums and an extensive literature review on the current challenges of decolonization faced by these museums, this text reflects on the various ways in which these institutions attempt to provide solutions. These are mainly divided into the following practices: a) recognition of the colonial past and its implications; b) transformations in knowledge and discourses; and c) participation of the communities of origin or their most direct heirs. Finally, with the intention of providing a classic example, a summary of the experience carried out at the National Museum of Anthropology in Madrid, Spain, is presented. This is an ideal case for formulating proposals to improve the treatment of these aspects in museums, since it is a center that intends to transform its permanent exhibition through a participatory process. The authors work in this process through two projects led by the Cultural Heritage Management research group of the Complutense University of Madrid in collaboration with the museum’s management team for its change. In addition to the state of the art, the most relevant conclusion of this article for decolonial practice revolves around the importance of generating new dialogic and co-created spaces through participatory processes tailored with transformative objectives for museum management.

Postcoloniality, Sustainability, Museums, and Pottery Crafts: The case of Mapuche Pottery Women in Gulumapu (South-Central Chile)

Jaume Garcia Rosselló — 2025-03-17

This article examines, from a postcolonial perspective, the public policies promoting indigenous crafts implemented by museums in south-central Chile. The research incorporates the voices of various stakeholders involved in the valorization of indigenous pottery, including women potters, museum managers, outreach coordinators, academics, visual arts specialists and vendors. Through participant observation and semi-structured interviews, the study analyzes the heritage activation process of a deeply rooted practice within Mapuche culture. The findings reveal that, while museums have played a key role in promoting and preserving this craft, their approach often prioritizes its representation as a relic of the past, disconnecting it from its contemporary vitality. Additionally, there is a tendency to favour its economic sustainability over its social and cultural dimensions, resulting in the invisibilization and marginalization of rural potters in curatorial narratives and policies. Building on these insights, the article highlights the urgency of implementing sustainable and inclusive cultural policies that recognize Mapuche pottery as a living and dynamic practice, deeply connected to social dynamics, territory, and contemporary identities. It advocates for a collaborative, multivocal approach in museums, capable of transcending hegemonic narratives and fostering the active participation of local communities in constructing their own cultural heritage. This work aims to contribute to the design of more equitable and representative counter-hegemonic strategies, promoting cultural sustainability as a central axis in public policies.

Gender Narratives of Prehistory and their Transfer in Galician Heritage Spaces: Critical Analysis and Action Proposals

Andrea Mouriño Schick — 2025-03-17

In this paper, we propose to examine the discursive production of the prehistoric past in interpretative discourses of heritage from a critical, reflective, and feminist perspective, within the conceptual framework of Public Archaeology. Our aim is to identify the prevailing discursive patterns and trends, both textual and visual, with particular emphasis on the configuration of the image of women, as a diagnosis. To achieve this, we conducted an analysis of the prehistoric past as presented in Galician Heritage spaces, employing a systematic methodology based on the strategies and tools of Critical Discourse Studies. The results reveal how there exists a dichotomous vision in the narrative production, where sexism and stereotypes persist. Additionally, to conclude, we present a series of guidelines that will enable us to revise the discourses from a gender perspective and the generation of inclusive narratives.

Calling for Feminism: Feminist Anthropology and Museums

Fátima Braña Rey — 2025-03-17

This text is the result of a working group initially formed between the Museo Etnolóxico de Ribadavia and the area of Social Anthropology of the University of Vigo, with the aim of conducting a feminist revision of classic texts that are frequently used as a basis for ethnographic museographies in Galicia. This project allowed us to develop a personal and group learning process that we deemed worth continuing and voluntarily, as our interest exceeded the established programme. As a result of a bibliographical review and the authors’ professional and personal experience, and understanding feminism as a theory and as political practice, with this article our aim is to present some questions that we have learned throughout the process. On the one hand, it is essential to clear up any confusion that might limit the possibilities of realising critical representations in museums. For this reason, a large part of this text has been devoted to clarifying terminology. On the other hand, one of the main concerns was to establish a formula of practical intent. This line has been named «calling for feminism» and has the purpose of developing a way of working that remains attentive to categorisations, intersectionality, and intersubjectivity.

Towards Museums of Human Experiences. A Proposal from Public Archaeology and Social Anthropology

Tono Vizcaíno Estevan — 2025-03-17

One of the paradoxes of archaeology, history, anthropology, and ethnology museums is that, despite dealing with the human experience, they interpose a distance between the societies of the present and those of the past. Based on a critical review of the framework that generates this rupture, the text proposes a reflection on the potential of these museums to become places of reflection and action, in which the past serves as an experiment to address the realities of the present. To this end, the proposal makes use of the epistemological turns in the fields of Public Archaeology, Social Anthropology and Museology, as well as the ontological reconceptualization that the notions of heritage and museum have undergone in recent years; and illustrates it through the experience of various social projects in the museum and heritage fields developed in Spain. Ultimately, it advocates a model of situated museum that has been defined, in a generic way, as a «museum of human experiences», in which social justice and democratic values find support.

«Keep Talking»: Museo Viviente Otavalango and the Practices of Resignification of the Ruins of Modernity

María Elena Bedoya Hidalgo — 2025-03-17

In Ecuador, community museums, both those with an established trajectory and more recently created ones, have received limited scholarly attention despite their significance. These spaces stand out for the committed participation of the community in their conception, design, and management, making them essential vehicles for the communal appropriation and activation of cultural assets, traditions, and memories. This article examines the case of the Museo Viviente Otavalango, located in Imbabura, to explore how it functions as a space of self-representation and performative strategies that challenge nationalist and traditional museological models. Using a qualitative methodology that included semi-structured interviews and participatory workshops with members of the Kichwa-Otavalo community, this study analyzes the dynamics of the museum, founded in 2011 by approximately twenty families. Since its inception, the museum has focused on conserving and revitalising tangible and intangible cultural heritage, advocating for indigenous labor and denouncing the historical injustices associated with textile production and the obraje system. The findings highlight how the museum transcends its role as a preservation site to become a space of cultural resistance and identity affirmation. The conclusions underline that the dynamic and participatory nature of the Museo Viviente Otavalango not only revitalizes local cultural heritage but also proposes an alternative museological model that reconfigures dominant narratives about heritage and cultural representation.

To be Felt: Musealization as Decoloniality for the Amazon Region

Andrey Manoel Leão de Leão — 2025-03-17

The article aims to discuss the potential of musealizations in the Brazilian Amazon, a region that, as I address here, is seen as a subjugated space, both nationally and internationally. In this way, I seek to debate how the museological practices in the region can contribute to overcoming this subalternity, understood as the hierarchical perception of modernity. To this end, I draw on the work of philosopher Judith Butler on ontological framing and the work of philosopher Enrique Dussel on the Ethics of Liberation, a movement that seeks to combat the hierarchical logic of modernity. Through the analysis of the creation of private collections by families involved in the event known as the Chacina de Belém, which occurred in 2014 in the city of Belém (Pará, Brazil), and the creation of the collection of the Museu Memorial da Vila da Barca, a peripheral community in the same city, I demonstrate how musealization occurred through counter-discourses that aim to produce mourning. This is because the historical perspective of colonization, which is foundational to modern ideas, perpetuates hierarchy into the present day, not only through the production of inequality but also through the creation of violence. The groups analyzed in the case studies are victims of prejudiced perspectives that frame them as inferior. Thus, Amazonian musealizations are examples of decoloniality, as they seek mourning and the inclusion of these excluded, invisibilized, and inferiorized groups in social consciousness.

The Museo Universidad de Navarra and the Reinterpretation of Heritage. The Case of the Choreography for Museum Soliloquios, by Jon Maya

Nieves Acedo — 2025-03-17

This article addresses the reinterpretation and updating of cultural heritage through creative programmes in museum institutions. It focuses on the strategy developed by the Museo Universidad de Navarra and the link it has established between its conservation and creation policies. In particular, it analyses Soliloquios, a choreography for museum by Jon Maya, which resulted from his participation in the «Building Bridges» residency programme. Using the concepts of «intermedia translation» (Bal, Morra, 2007) and «cultural hybridity» (Burke, 2010), the article highlights the presence and updating in the resulting performance of dances catalogued as intangible heritage, works of movable visual art and the architecture of the museum itself, in a piece characterized by a close and movable relation with the audience.

Graffiti in the Museum: Multivocality and Inclusion through Art

Jimena Lobo Guerrero Arenas — 2025-03-17

The article focuses on the artistic creation project of a large-scale site-specific painting in the World Archaeology Gallery of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, initiated in 2023. The project aimed to revitalise the gallery and enrich the museum experience by interrogating the collections as outcomes of moments of encounter and divergence between various audiences and the museum, across time and different contexts. It sought to explore the complexity of relationships between the tangible and the imaginary, the present and the past, the institutional and the familial, the individual and the historical. The method involved active participation from various groups, including the Front-of-House team, museum staff, students, and coordinated groups who took part in workshops and special activities. Participants were encouraged to reflect on their relationships with specific objects in the gallery, storage, other museums, or personal and family collections. The project’s sources included the archaeological objects in the room, the experiences and memories of the participants, and associated collections, both institutional and personal. In conclusion, we argue that the artistic intervention of the large-scale site-specific painting facilitated a critical review of the inclusion of alternative practices and multivocal exercises in the creation of museum spaces. These approaches proved conducive to offering meaningful and relevant experiences for visitors, thus achieving a reinterpretation and re-signification of the exhibited objects. The paper discusses the achievements, challenges, and difficulties of the process, highlighting the importance of these alternative artistic practices in transforming the museum experience.

Antiques, Intellectuals and Region. The Archaeological Museum of Cusco and the Incasian Contraptions of a Literate City (1909-1930)

Santiago Loayza Velásquez — 2025-03-17

The collection of objects coming from ancient Peru represented, even from the early colonial establishment, prestige and enlightenment among their owners. These antiquities acquired an important symbolic value due to their link with the «glorious» empire of the Incas, which is why, in republican times, it was important to establish several museums that could house these pieces and link them to the historical foundations and official narratives of the nation. In this sense, this article reflects on the conformation and functioning of the Archaeological Museum of Cusco and the repercussions that originated after its foundation. To achieve this objective, we study the discourses and practices of Cusco’s political leaders and intellectuals, through extensive information gathered from the local press and press archive, as well as important documentation from historical archives in Cusco and Lima. Finally, our study proposes that the establishment of the museum materialized the first major capitalization of pre-Hispanic antiquities in Cusco under public (university) ownership, thus managing to promote the Incanist discourse as a necessary way to consolidate Cusco regionalism and affirm the city as a literate city, while its managers were legitimized and prestigious in the political and intellectual spheres, both within and outside the regional parameters

Anti-Toys or «Play Memories» behind a Glass: The Toy Museum of Catalonia in the Light of its European Precursors

Esther Alsina Galofré — 2025-03-17

The history of the Museu del Joguet de Catalunya, located in Figueres, is almost half a century old. It is the oldest museum in Spain dedicated to that elusive and polysemic kind of artifacts that we call «toys». In this paper, we will see that the museology of children’s material culture dates back to the dawn of the twentieth century, namely to paradigms such as the Sonneberg Museum in Thuringia (1901), the Victoria and Albert Childhood Museum in London (c. 1915) and the nomadic project of the Russian artist Nikolaĭ Bartram (1918). All of them wanted to capture their own «playful memories» in a showcase. Would the toys of previous generations thus become relics emptied of soul and movement, in other words, «anti-toys»? The founder of the Museu del Joguet, the Catalan artist Josep Maria Joan Rosa, never wanted such an insipid epithet for his collection. In the following pages, we will try to highlight its origins, back in 1960, and the main stages of its history. Joan Brossa and Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, the historians Aurora Díaz-Plaja, Joan Perucho, José Corredor-Matheos, Àngels Anglada and Daniel Giralt-Miracle, as well as the journalists Joan Guillamet and Núria Munárriz, among others, praised Joan Rosa’s collection and its visionary path of «return to childhood», inspired, in turn, by the Nurnberg Spielzeugmuseum, which opened in 1971.

About the Nature-Culture Reciprocity. 4E Cognition and its Archaeological Approach to the Landscape

Antonio Muñoz Herrera — 2024-12-04

In the archaeological field, one of the latest frontiers of knowledge has been located in the understanding of the ancient mind through its material remains. In recent decades, leveraging technical and epistemological innovations have opened up a new range of possibilities for such studies. Cognitive archaeology, aimed at resolving the paradigmatic problem between nature and culture, has emerged to study the cognitive processes of past societies in their cultural creation and development. This study aims to highlight this archaeological specialty by reviewing its historiography and emphasizing one of its fields of study, known as 4E cognition. Finally, we propose the inclusion of landscape as a fundamental element of study within this specialty, due to its influence and role in cultural development, as demonstrated by very recent studies. An approach where the barriers between exact and social sciences must be broken to achieve a better understanding of culture as a whole.

Divine Images and Human Challenge in the Odyssey: Odysseus in the Opposition between Athena and Posidon

Julio López Saco — 2024-06-13

The myth, as a special discursive form associated with narrative action, is inserted into the traditional frame with a panhellenic character in Homeric epic poetry. Among the heroic and divine personalities involved in the narrative of the Odyssey, two gods stand out, Posidon and Athena, whose antagonisms in their behaviour and positions condition the trajectory of Odysseus, the main protagonist of the poem. Protected and guided by the goddess, akin to his personality, and pursued in revenge by the god, his nemesis, the hero finally reaches his goal, the return to his house and kingdom, although not before suffering numerous misadventures and breakdowns, thus fulfilling the established plan. Different are the motives that drive the humanized actions of both gods, although the two end up fulfilling, in their own way, their expectations.

From Catí to Genoa: A Painting and a Graffiti of a Valencian Wool Trade Route Between 15th and 16th Centuries

Javier Hernández Ruano — 2024-05-09

The purpose of this paper is to show, through the information offered by a graffiti and a mural painting located in the City Council of Catí (Castellón), the link of this town with the wool trade established between the region of Morella and Maestrazgo and the north of the Italian peninsula, and more specifically with Genoa, between fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Different methodologies have been employed to investigate these plastic expressions and their historical contextualization. With regards to the former, a detailed analysis of the most significant graphic elements has been carried out. They have been identified, dated, and located, and a global interpretation of the scenes is offered. Historical contextualization is based on the most relevant published works on the socioeconomic history of the north of the kingdom of Valencia. The results link the scenes in the graffiti and the painting with the international trade that took place in the said area at the time, and a new interpretation of mural paintings is provided that testifies the importance of wool trade with Genoa for Catí residents at the beginning of sixteenth century.

The Biggest Festivities that Braga has Ever Seen in its Days: The Procession of Saint John (17th-18th Centuries)

Maria Marta Lobo de Araújo — 2024-09-23

Our study addresses the feasts of Saint John the Baptist in the city of Braga, with particular emphasis on the procession held on the 24th of June. The analysis focuses on the composition of the procession over time, highlighting the elements that constituted it, but also the conflicts and difficulties it faced. The payment of expenses was one of the problems, but also the various moments of conflict that arose between the board members and the archbishop, giving substance to a ceremony that was oscillating over the years. Despite this situation, the procession became a great religious and profane manifestation, aggregating many faithful, who lived the pomp and splendor offered by the Baroque festival. The approach taken is based on fraternal sources, with in particular the minutes, statutes and expense books.

Bourbon Rule, French Influence, and Indian Trade during the War of Succession. The fleet of New Spain that Arrived in Guipúzcoa in 1708

Rafael Guerrero Elecalde — 2024-04-30

The War of the Spanish Succession became a conflict of European dimension in which the most powerful Crowns found a possibility to access, legally and with privileges, the valuable commercial goods of the Indies. This paper investigates these matters through the consultation of the letters, and other documentation, preserved in the National Historical Archive, in Madrid, on the arrival in 1708 of the fleet from New Spain in Guipúzcoa. More specifically, several letters and papers exchanged between Pedro de Navarrete, captain general of this province, and José Grimaldo, recently appointed secretary of the War and Finance Office. Developing a microanalysis approach, the paper begins with the study of the protagonists’ initiatives, as one of the means through which a comprehensive understanding of History can be attained, aiming to reach in this manner the various sides of a very complex and multifaceted reality. This research considers the power exercised by the court of Versailles in the government of the Spanish Monarchy, and analyses how the Consulate of Seville and the Casa de Contratación, which where the bodies that had traditionally controlled Indian trade and transport, were marginalized in favour of other royal agents, chosen among close collaborators who were instrumental to make the wishes of Felipe V effective.

The Invader’s Memory. The Monument for the Prisoners of the Island of Cabrera and the Other Examples of Napoleonic Public Sculpture in Spain

Alberto Cañas de Pablos — 2024-11-04

Wars, like other traumatic events that affect societies, have been abundantly commemorated in public space. In the Spanish case, the memory of the Napoleonic invasion (1808-1814) constitutes one of the most significant examples, if not the major one, for all its associated monumentality. It is reckoned that there are more than 350 cases of public memory commemorating that period across the whole country, dedicated to events, but also to heroized individual figures. Most of them are stone-made representations with the aim of spreading the symbols of the fight against the invader from the Spanish side. However, there are around fifteen works which express the will of remembering the troops who were occupying the country. These will be the main topic of this article, which will pay special attention to the first and most important: the monolith erected in 1847 in memory of the war prisoners who were held in the Balearic island of Cabrera after their defeat in the battle of Bailen, in 1808. Research has been conducted using primary sources coming from different archives, together with press sources — both Spanish and French, historical and contemporary. Monographies and other secondary sources have been considered. They encompass local and global perspectives, and also art history. Despite the short number of existing monuments, the paper studies and analyses several representations and aims when these memory antennas were erected.

From the Royal Proclamation to the Constitutional Oaths in the City of Palma During the Time of Fernando VII

Eduardo Pascual Ramos — 2024-06-18

The purpose of this article is to analyze the public ceremonies practiced during the reign of Fernando VII, including the royal proclamation of 1808 and the constitutional oaths of 1812 and 1820 in the capital of the kingdom of Mallorca. Recent historiography has extensively addressed this type of celebrations, although there are few dedicated to the analysis of the entirety of these public festivities during Fernando VII’s reign. Only a few cities have similar works. This text is divided into different chapters to understand the transition from the ceremonial model of the eighteenth century to that of the first third of the nineteenth century and to learn how and by whom they were organized, as well as their main locations. Other objectives include analysing the key figures involved and the main events.

Student and Teacher Movements in Spain and Latin America (19th-20th Centuries). Content Analysis of the Evolution and Historiographic Production

Eric Jorge Fontoba Jordá — 2024-11-22

In this article we present a study focused on content analysis on the evolution and historiographic production of student and teacher social movements published in high-impact education history journals. To do this, a systematic review of the articles from the magazines that are integrated into the database specialized in the History of Education, hecumen, is used as a sample. Currently, hecumen hosts 6,000 articles from 11 specialized History of Education journals of international relevance indexed in Scopus. Through it, taking into account the articles on student and teacher social movements, whose object of study is between the 19th and 20th centuries, both in Spain and in a sample of Latin American countries, an analysis is carried out, in different levels of depth of scientific production, highlighting those topics and areas that have aroused greater interest in historical-educational research, as well as other less explored ones, trying to investigate possible explanations, motivations and causes. Among other conclusions, we have been able to observe, on the one hand, a great interest among researchers in the analysis of these movements in dictatorial periods, as well as in studies on university student movements or the analysis of the press as a historical-educational source. On the other hand, research related to the associations of early childhood education teachers or the role of teaching unions, among other issues, is surprising due to its absence or lack of relevance.

Max Weber and the Renewal of Political Leadership in Weimar Left-Liberalism 1919-1920

Carl Antonius Lemke Duque — 2024-10-23

This study sheds light on the German left-liberal political discourse during the early years of the Weimar Republic. It turns out that Max Weber (1864-1920) and his concept of political leadership are significant in this regard, precisely regarding the internal fragmentation of German liberalism between left and right. Originated in the nineteenth century, this fragmentation was persistent due to the profound skepticism among the liberal middle classes regarding the new plebiscitary element of the Weimar Constitution, which was rejected by conservatism. Given this context, the left-wing liberals sought to increase their political profile and renew their leaders.

The Arrival of the Diabolo Game in Spain: A Chronicle for Social History in Childhood Education and Sports

Jordi Brasó Rius — 2024-12-11

Since ancient times, the invention and the circulation of toys have been subject to the social and moral norms of each era. Childhood, play and toys have sustained the paradigms of socialization and have channeled the flow of the underlying moral codes of dominant societies. Starting from this consideration, the objective of this essay is to contribute to the social history of games and toys; in this case, linking the arrival of the game of diabolo in Spain with its socio-pedagogical historical context in the period between 1906 to 1910. Based on a methodology that addresses the heuristic issue, that is, access to newspaper through digital archives of the historical press and other biographical studies, a hermeneutic part or archaeo-genealogical discourse is constructed within the framework of Critical Theory. The arrival of the game of diabolo in Spain in 1907 provides a case-study to analyze the forms of knowledge and power of the dominant society on childhood education policies and, likewise, to illuminate the pedagogical counter-discourses of resistance or opposition to the social order. The presence of diabolo as an outdoor game caused a conflict of coexistence; it represented the banality of a fashion, but it also raised awareness of the idea of paying more attention to recreational needs and public spaces for play.

Popular Culture and Youth Sociability. Conflict and Social Control in Commercial Dance Halls. Asturias, 1914-1936

Pelayo Venta Ibaseta — 2024-07-29

Since the beginning of the 20th century, but especially from the Great War onwards, commercial dance halls evolved notably, becoming one of the most representative cultural industries of the century. The aim of this paper is to give a sample of the development of these shows in Asturias in the period from the First World War to the Spanish Civil War. In this sense, the study of the commercial dance halls from a historical and socio-cultural point of view allows for delving into the popular culture of the time, as well as its reciprocal relations and interactions with mass culture and hegemonic culture. The latter, which aimed to rationalise popular culture, developed different strategies for the social control of commercial dance halls. Moreover, by introducing analytical criteria that have been little explored by Spanish historiography but are well established in other social sciences and historiographies—such as age, especially youth—popular culture can be understood as a plural space where different manifestations that refer to specific social differentiations coexist. For this purpose, newspaper sources of various kinds have been used, which allow for the discovery of both the evolution of these shows and the practices developed within them, with emphasis on those linked to the consumption of alcohol, but also to the courtship rituals. Other resources have also been used, such as oral, literary, and iconic sources, which have enabled the analysis to be enriched and nuanced.

Primary Education Inspectorate in the Province of Badajoz (1920-1940). Educational Challenges and Advances in Turbulent Times

María Isabel Céspedes Sanabria — 2024-08-29

The First Education Inspectorate of Badajoz had a significant impact on education in the province between the 1920s and 1940s. The aim of this research is to investigate the work carried out by this professional body in the context of Badajoz and to study the trajectories of those who worked in it and experienced the political, social and cultural transformations of the most turbulent years of the twentieth century. The study is carried out through the educational historical method, analyzing various archival documents, statistical sources, pedagogical press and documents recovered from regional and national archives. The results show how the educational inspectorate had little involvement in the professional improvement and guidance of teachers in the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera, although its work was decisive for the educational improvement of the context in the period of the Second Republic. The involvement in school renovation by some inspectors in the 1930s had negative consequences on their personal and professional careers in the period of the Civil War. Separation from office, exile, and in the worst cases death were some of them. The decline of the professional inspection corps in the early years of Franco’s regime and the work carried out by the inspectors in this period, very much influenced by the guidelines of the New State, had a decisive influence on primary education in the province in the second half of the century.

Architecture and Education in the 1950s. The Labour Institute in Tarazona (Zaragoza), One of the First Industrial-Type Centres

Mónica Vázquez Astorga — 2024-09-05

The creation of Labour Institutes was a major milestone in the educational architecture under Franco’s regime. In the late 1940s, during the first post-war thaw, these centres were promoted to train new workers with special technical skills. Labour Institutes—whose construction started in the early 1950s, in accordance to the Act of 16 July 1949—gave access to culture to a considerable number of young people who had lacked the means and economic resources until then. Their training became an investment in the future of the country, a result of its socioeconomic needs. Vocational secondary education had a twofold function: on the one hand, it increased the knowledge acquired in primary education, and, on the other, it provided a practical training focused on the professional exercise. This work aims to document and analyse the history of the Jesús Rubio Labour Institute in Tarazona (Zaragoza), founded in 1950 and designed by architect Alejandro Allanegui Félez. Given that this is an early construction, it explores an intermediate path, between tradition and modernity, while also addressing formal criteria and functional guidelines that were later used by those who designed future Labour Institutes. It remains today as the Tubalcaín Secondary Education Institute.

Velikaya sila (1950) y lysenkoismo en biología animal

Moises Wagner Franciscon — 2024-05-23

Well known in botany, Lysenkoism also acted in animal biology. This less manifest facet was exhibited to millions of viewers in the Soviet Union and other Eastern bloc countries through the film Velikaya sila, 1950, by Friedrich Ermler. Marc Ferro’s cinematographic socio-history makes it possible to analyze the film as a transmitter of the regime’s concerns and self-legitimation, as well as the quackery ideas about science created by Lysenko. At the start of the Cold War, a seemingly insipid topic like animal biology became a focus of cultural struggle between Western colonialist empires and the Soviet empire.

Lights and Shadows. Bilateral Relations between Spain and the United States during the Kennedy Administration

Moises Rodriguez Escobar — 2024-09-17

The arrival of John F. Kennedy to the presidency of the United States sparked hope among Spanish anti-Francoists and some apprehension among the regime’s diplomats. These diplomats met with high-ranking figures to assess the new administration’s stance. Once it was confirmed that there was no risk to the status quo, Francoist diplomacy began negotiating the renewal of the 1953 agreements. Aware of their disadvantage in the original signing, Madrid sought to secure better terms in the renewal. In contrast, the White House aimed for an automatic renewal without negotiations. Antonio Garrigues, who replaced Mariano Yturralde at the Spanish embassy in Washington, conducted months of negotiations with numerous international complexities. This article is based on numerous hemerographic and documentary sources from both private and public archives. Thanks to these sources, it has been verified that Kennedy’s arrival posed no risk to the regime. Additionally, the dialogue between sources reveals new questions and historiographical gaps that will be addressed in future research.

The Articulation of Communist Utopia and Democratic Pluralism in the Communist Party of Spain (1988-2018): The Unstoppable Erosion of an Identity

Rosa María Almansa Pérez — 2024-04-05

The article analyzes the treatment that the Communist Party of Spain makes of the notion of democracy, and its relationship with those of socialism and communism, mainly through its congressional documentation from the three decades between the general secretariats of Julio Anguita and José Luis Centella; that is, between the XII Congress of 1988 and the second phase of the XX Congress in 2017. This reveals that, despite the formal abandonment of the previous Eurocommunist path, in the official discourse there survives an almost total identification between socialism or communism and democracy, the latter conceived above all in general terms as participation and acquisition of rights. Despite the apparent discursive radicalization at certain moments, with Anguita as general secretary and with the return to Leninism in 2017, this has as a paradoxical consequence the relativisation of the party’s own Marxist and communist ideology.

Textbook Use in Spain: An Exploratory Study With Geography, History, and Art History Teachers

José-Manuel González González — 2024-05-21

This article addresses the use of textbooks by Spanish Geography, History, and Art History teachers who work in secondary education. For this, we have analyzed the data obtained through an online survey sent at the end of 2021. The exploratory study with a mixed-methodology and cross-sectional nature evaluates the responses of 998 people, and establishes the correlation between the demographic data and the variables on the use of the school handbook, establishing that 78,2 % have a normal or good opinion about the textbook, and that utilization in the classroom, in the 2020-2021 academic year, is high in 30,9 % of respondents, and average in 27,4 %. According to multiple responses, the most used publishers are Vicens Vives, Santillana, and Anaya: 448, 332, and 225 teachers use them in at least one of their classes. The number of those who use their own notes or materials is also relevant, 321, while 105 teachers do not use a book. The use of books by several publishers is common. Six out of ten teachers consider the textbook illustrations and figures as positive aspects, five out of ten that it summarizes and explains the contents well, and 48,9 % that it facilitates a wide variety of activities. Some negative characteristics are also cited: that it is excessively expensive, 54,3 %, that it does not encourage a critical spirit, 48,1 %, and that it has few practical activities or that they are not very varied, 45,5 %. It is concluded that the use of the textbook continues to be predominant.

Teaching to Understand the Present: Teachers’ Beliefs about the Implementation of a New Subject on Recent History

Paula Soto Lillo — 2024-07-15

ct: In 2020, a new curriculum was implemented for the third and fourth year of secondary education in Chile. Three subjects were created in the area of History, Geography and Social Sciences, which may or may not be taught, depending on the criteria of each school. One is called Historical Understanding of the Present, and deals with recent history. This subject poses a challenge for teachers regarding its implementation since the topics addressed involve an open theoretical and methodological discussion. This paper investigates, through a survey, the beliefs of 112 history teachers about the programme, how prepared they feel about teaching it and what opportunities and difficulties they find. The results report that they view the inclusion of the subject positively, as it allows them to develop their students’ skills, although they are critical of the official programme. In addition, most of them feel prepared to teach the subject, even though the contents are difficult. Finally, it is pointed out that the themes are easy to teach as they are attractive to their students, but the abilities of the learners also pose a challenge for teaching.