Roca Barea’s Public Mythistory

Abstract

One of Spain’s best-known public historians is an academic outsider, María Elvira Roca Barea. This article contextualizes and briefly surveys her work, which defends empires in general and the Spanish Empire in particular. Rather than revisit the extensive historiographical debate, it focuses on the ‘public’ aspect of her public history. By examining her extensive digital media profile, it considers the ecology of the groups and media outlets that give her a platform, the social and political currents she endorses or which support her, and the social and political impact of her work. It finds that her imperial apologetics are selective, that Hispanophobia as embodied in the leyenda negra [Black Legend] is her real target, and that she offers a Spanish version of what William McNeill called ‘mythistory.’ It argues that while many of her values are right-wing populist, and while she positions herself as a centrist, she nevertheless appeals to some on the left by positioning Spain as an outsider in a world dominated by ‘Anglo-Saxon’ capitalism. Her call for greater unity within ‘Hispanidad’ [the Hispanic world] gestures towards a deeply contested but truly international public history in the service of geopolitical ends.