Masculinity and nation in Spain in the 1920s and 1930s

Nerea ARESTI Masculinity and nation in Spain in the 1920s and 1930s This article explores the dialectical relationship between the concepts of masculinity and Spanish nation in the formation of identitary models during the 1920s and 1930s. It examines the vicissitudes of the ideal of Spanish man in what were especially dynamic decades, with the emphasis on two movements tending to reconstruct the ideal of masculinity for the Spanish nation: on the one hand, for the more conservative stream the Primo de Rivera dictatorship provided a particularly propitious context in which to pursue a regenerational project, which however came to naught despite its ambitious goals. On the other hand, a republican movement to renew and modernise ideals of masculinity received the support of the institutions responsible for drafting social policy. The onset of the Civil War derailed these two movements, ushering in a new period in which patriotism came to occupy the heart of standard notions of masculinity.