On December 3, Seville hosted three different events, promoted by different political groups to commemorate the same milestone: the massive demonstrations that on December 4, 1977 claimed the right of Andalusia to enjoy its own autonomy. 46 years later, the traditional demonstration organized by the 4D Platform ―supported by unions, groups and left-wing political forces―, the II December 4 Awards ―awarded by the foundation of the PSOE Andalusia, Socialism and Democracy― and a rally promoted by a unknown entity and supported by the Andalusian PP and the Junta de Andalucía, evidenced the division around the interpretations of Andalusianism and the potential for the parties to uphold that Andalusian ideal, which is currently orphan of a political identity that unites it, but that socioculturally has been consolidated in what has been called new Andalusism, a movement led by the generation that was born with consolidated autonomy and that proudly claims and has successfully reinterpreted Andalusian traditions inside and outside the community without no complex.
“The electoral utility that the adoption of Andalusism has for political parties is interesting, because it means that the Andalusian message is very attractive,” says José Luis Villar, doctor in History and professor of Constitutional Law at the Pablo de Olavide University. For the historian, the fact that, first the PSOE, and now the PP of Juan Manuel Moreno want to champion Andalusism, shows the transversality of this current “in the sense that everyone, from the right and the left, is interested in dressing in that clothing.” , which means that it connects with citizens.” “The political nature of Andalusianism itself is complex and since it is, since the time of Blas Infante, a social movement that has an ingredient of transversality, it lends itself to these spurious uses of the Andalusian project,” agrees Rubén Pérez Trujillano, professor of History of Law from the University of Granada.
This political Andalusianism was always accompanied or accompanied by sociological Andalusianism, but that parallelism, so clear in the massive marches for autonomy on December 4, 1977 and February 28, 1980, does not exist today. The new Andalusianism, forged in the last decade, is driven by young people who assume and have redefined the Andalusian roots, expanding them through cinema, fashion, literature, art, music or social networks, regardless of ideologies. policies. “In recent years we can see not so much a reappearance as a reconfiguration of Andalusianism that responds to more cultural than political criteria and a generational renewal that has been educated, socialized and has had a civil and political life under the validity of autonomy. ”, defines Pérez Trujillano.
“I don’t know if we can refer to a new Andalusianism as a psychosocial concept, what is certain is that cultural and business proposals are being made from Andalusia… with creativity, solvency, solidity and talent,” says Trinidad Núñez, professor of Social Psychology. from the University of Seville. Films as The world is Oursseries like Living poorlymagazines like The Powerthe literary saga of Scold Killerphenomena in social networks such as @Bad face either The Palermasso, the humor of Martita de Graná or Feminista Ilustrada, the music of Califato ¾ or María Peláe, even fashion with brands like Pintarraheo, are examples of that current that appeals, plays and redefines topics and traditions in an unprejudiced way. “Doing it from Andalusia means putting your own narrative into play and there is idiosyncrasy present, a way of seeing life, of telling it or speaking about it as an act of vindication or empowerment over social identity,” continues Núñez.
Against andaluphobia
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The sociologist links the development of this new Andalusianism as a reaction to “Andaluphobia and self-hatred.” “The perceptions that unite us or separate us help build and perpetuate stereotypes and prejudices,” she notes. Villar considers that the fact that Andalusianism is “absolutely integrated into the collective consciousness” is due to the fact that past generations, although they failed to create an eminently Andalusian political alternative, did manage to “create the consciousness of the people.” “Yes, there is an Andalusian sociology that identifies us with our way of speaking, with our identity symbols, with our way of being, that is not a coincidence, that is a consequence of the work generated by those two Andalusian generations,” Villar maintains.
What these two generations – that of the Second Republic and the Civil War of Blas Infante and that of the Transition that achieved the Statute of Autonomy – failed was, Villar emphasizes, in configuring their own political agenda led by an eminently Andalusian party. But this depoliticization, which also defines the new Andalusianism, does not come so much from the absence of a formation that politically transforms its concerns, but from the realization that, 40 years after its achievement, the autonomy that was going to lift Andalusia out of backwardness economic and social has not allowed it to climb positions. “Having enjoyed a regime of autonomy that has not kept its promises, that has neglected the commitment to social justice that is inherent to the idea of autonomy generates a situation of disaffection and disillusionment,” says Pérez Trujillano.
“Deep down, it is still political to embrace an identity and revalue it in the face of questions, mockery or caricatures that may exist, but perhaps you do not find that other political capitalization, more electoral, more about setting goals and horizons.” specific,” he continues. This political orphanhood of this new Andalusianism means that its symbols and what identifying link they have for this new generation – which connects with the previous ones and which is also understood beyond Despeñaperros – run the risk of being appropriated or used by the political parties. traditional politicians. “It is a risk, but we are used to it, because with this instrumentalization that Juan Manuel Moreno’s PP is making of the collective memory of 4-D or 28-F, what it is doing is emulating what the PSOE did, and Moreno now “It can do it quite comfortably because the PSOE deserted that task in the last years of the Susana Díaz Government, where the history of autonomy was reviewed in terms of Spanishization,” says Pérez Trujillano. “But Juanma Moreno’s Andalusianism is the institutionalized Andalusianism of the Junta,” he points out.
“It is still not accurate to talk about institutional appropriation because it can be understood as something pejorative, but institutions have the obligation to understand social changes and respond to them in a functional way, helping to dismantle prejudices. Reversing discriminatory social learning to deactivate resistance and negative evaluations of specific social groups is a challenge that institutions must continue to face. Some advertising companies are doing it very well,” says Núñez.
In the social strength that emanates from this new generation can be found the germ that revitalizes the political aspect of Andalusianism. “The pains of Andalusia, its problems, are so strong that they will always be there, they are different in the 21st century, but that will always cause Andalusianism to re-emerge in new forms, new trends, new generations. Right now we are at that moment,” says Villar.
