Home Patriots: Spanish Nation-Building at a Local Level in the Primo de Rivera Dictatorship (1923–1930)

Abstract

The local arena provides an excellent framework for the study of practices linked to the reproduction of national identities. This article analyzes the different manners in which Spanish national identities were transmitted and assimilated at the local level during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera (1923–1930). The paper takes a micro-historical approach and examines the process of mass nationalization in the town of Alagón, an industrial locality 15 miles north of Saragossa. It focuses on the different manners in which the local population ‘experienced’ the nation in public, semi-public and private spheres of nationalization. The article shows the limits of government-controlled, top-down nationalizations and underlines the importance of material culture and daily consumption in the transmission and assimilation of national identity.