Abstract
The commonly heard statement "Spain is different" contains a series of contradictions, paradoxes, and questions concerning Iberia's place within the global community, a community that is itself deeply contradictory—more and more the same and yet more and more fragmented. Immigration highlights the sameness/otherness dichotomy in Spanish culture, and the situation of African immigrants has especially caused the Spanish national consciousness an ethical quandary. Here I examine four recent cultural representations of African immigration in Spain—two journalistic works: Mikel Azurmendi's Estampas del Ejido and Antonio Elorza's articles in El País; and two documentary films: Básel Ramsis's El otro lado: un acercamiento a Lavapiés and José Luis Guerín's En construcción in order to assess the ways in which Spaniards are projecting their sense of national identity in the face of large-scale immigration, a most revealing mirror.
Keywords:
- Keyword: Iberia
- Keyword: global community
- Keyword: Spain
- Keyword: Latin America
- Keyword: fragmentation
- Keyword: immigration
- Keyword: sameness
- Keyword: otherness
- Keyword: Spanish culture
- Keyword: African immigrants
- Keyword: ethics
- Keyword: Mikel Azurmendi
- Keyword: Estampas del Ejido
- Keyword: Antonio Elorza
- Keyword: El País
- Keyword: Básel Ramsis
- Keyword: El otro lado: un acercamiento a Lavapiés
- Keyword: JoséLuis Guerín
- Keyword: En construcción
- Keyword: national identity
How to Cite:
Ugarte, M., (2006) “"Soy tú. Soy él": African Immigration and Otherness in the Spanish Collective Conscience”, Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature 30(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.4148/2334-4415.1620
Downloads
Downloads are not available for this article.