On 20 April 2025, the Rafael del Pino Foundation, Lopez-li Films and the Asociación Unidos por la Historia organised the dialogue "Estados Unidos, nación hispanoamericana" with the participation of Manuel Lucena, Gonzalo Quintero and Maite Rico.
Manuel Lucena Giraldo is a researcher at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), director of the Chair of Spanish and Hispanic Studies at the universities of the Community of Madrid and adjunct professor at the University Instituto de Empresa and ESCP Business School Europe. He has been visiting professor at Harvard University, Tufts University (Boston), University of Gothenburg (Sweden), Universidad de los Andes (Chile and Colombia) and St. Antony's College, Oxford University. He has been education attaché at the Spanish Embassy in Colombia and has held higher education management positions. He is an external contributor to National Geographic-Historia and a member of the advisory board of Revista de Occidente. He is a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of History, the Colombian Academy of History and the section committee of the European Academy. He is a member of the board of directors of Hispania Nostra. His publications have dealt with travellers, scientific expeditions, cities, national images, empires and globalisation. He teaches non-fiction, negotiation and business at Cursiva, the Penguin Random House writing school.
Gonzalo M. Quintero SaraviaD. in History from the Complutense University of Madrid and in Public Law from the UNED, is a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of History and the Colombian Academy of History. He has been a fellow of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. His book Bernardo de Gálvez: Spanish Hero of the American Revolution was awarded the Society for Military History's Distinguished Book Award for the best biography published in 2018 (published by Alianza Editorial with the title Bernardo de Gálvez: A Spanish Hero in the American War of Independence). Recent publications include: with Professor Gabriel Paquette Spain and the American Revolution: New Approaches and Perspectives (New York: Routledge, 2019 and Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2022); "The Participation of France and Spain", in Wim Klooster ed. The Age of Atlantic Revolutions. Vol. 1. The Enlightenment and the British Colonies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023: 269-295) and with Professor Kathleen DuVal, "Bernardo de Gálvez: Friend of the American Revolution, Friend of Empire", in Andrew N. O'Shaughnessy, John A. Ragosta and Marie-Jeanne Rossignol eds. European Friends of the American Revolution (Charlottesville & London: University of Virginia Press, 2023, 147-174).
Maite RicoColumnist for EL MUNDO, she has been deputy editor and founder of LA LECTURA, the newspaper's cultural magazine. She is also an analyst at Onda Cero and EsRadio. Until 2018 she was at EL PAÍS, where she was deputy editor after developing her career in the International and Opinion sections. She was a war reporterin Bosnia, Somalia and Libya, Latin America correspondent and editorialist. He then directed El País Weekly and launched the supplement Ideas. She is co-author, with Bertrand de la Grange, of the books Marcos, the brilliant imposture (Aguilar, Mexico and Madrid, 1998; and Plon, Paris, 1998), on the Zapatista uprising in the Mexican state of Chiapas, and Who killed the bishop? Autopsy of a political crime (Planeta, Mexico, 2003, and Martínez Roca, Madrid, 2005), on the assassination of the Guatemalan bishop Juan Gerardi.
Summary:
On 20 March 2025, the Rafael del Pino Foundation hosted the dialogue "The United States, a Spanish-American nation".in collaboration with López-Li Films and the United for History Associationwithin the framework of the 2nd Conference on Hispanic America, a shared future.
The event brought together three renowned specialists: the historian and CSIC researcher Manuel Lucenadiplomat and historian Gonzalo Quinteroand the journalist Maite Ricowho moderated the meeting. The conversation offered a rigorous and enlightening review of the Hispanic legacy in the United States and the profound mark left by the Spanish monarchy in shaping the country.
A structural legacy: from territory to institutions
One of the central points of the dialogue was the extent of the North American territory that belonged to the Hispanic monarchy. In the words of Manuel Lucena, "56% of the current territory of the United States was part of the Spanish Empire in 1800", from Florida to California, passing through Louisiana and Texas.
Spanish influence was not limited to territorial presence. According to the speakers, it was also an institutional, cultural, linguistic and urban presence. The cities founded by Spain - St. Augustine, Los Angeles, San Antonio, among many others - introduced models of spatial organisation, law, commerce and community life that have endured to this day.
Spain's role in US independence.
Gonzalo Quintero stressed that Spain's support for the thirteen colonies during their war of independence against Britain was not an ideological question, but a strategic decision aimed at protecting the monarchy's interests in the Caribbean and recovering positions lost after the Seven Years' War.
Spanish aid - financial, diplomatic and military - was key to the outcome of the conflict. Bernardo de Gálvez, governor of Louisiana and general in the service of the Crown, was one of the most important figures of that period.
Shared history, common responsibility
The speakers agreed that the history of the United States cannot be understood without its Spanish-American dimension. However, they also pointed out that this legacy has been historically silenced or minimised, both in American school textbooks and in the Spanish collective memory.
In this sense, the importance of civil society, academia and cultural institutions taking an active role in the recovery of this history was highlighted. As Maite Rico pointed out, "history is not a thing of the past: it is a reputation, and therefore also a future".
Beyond stereotypes
The dialogue also addressed the contrast between the Anglo-Saxon and Hispanic colonial models. While the former was based on exclusion, the latter allowed for processes of miscegenation, integration and shared construction, the consequences of which are still present today in the cultural diversity of the Americas.
Lucena and Quintero agreed that the study of Hispano-American history offers fundamental keys to understanding the present of Spain, Hispano-America and the United States itself, as well as opportunities for the future in the educational, cultural and diplomatic spheres.
"History is a tool for knowledge, cohesion and projection. Recovering it with rigour is a pending task that challenges institutions, academics and citizens alike".
The dialogue highlighted the need to continue deepening a common history that, beyond borders, continues to offer keys to understanding the present and building stronger relations between the Hispanic world and the United States.
The Rafael del Pino Foundation is not responsible for the comments, opinions or statements made by the people who participate in its activities and which are expressed as a result of their inalienable right to freedom of expression and under their sole responsibility. The contents included in the summary of this conference are the result of the debates held at the meeting held for this purpose at the Foundation and are the responsibility of their authors.
The Rafael del Pino Foundation is not responsible for any comments, opinions or statements made by third parties. In this respect, the FRP is not obliged to monitor the views expressed by such third parties who participate in its activities and which are expressed as a result of their inalienable right to freedom of expression and under their own responsibility. The contents included in the summary of this conference are the result of the discussions that took place during the conference organised for this purpose at the Foundation and are the sole responsibility of its authors.
