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Portugal e Espanha. Entre Discursos de Centro e Prácticas de Fronteira a
Bruno Dupeyron a
Associate Professor and Graduate Chair, Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Regina Campus, Canada | Published online: 28 Feb 2014.
Click for updates To cite this article: Bruno Dupeyron (2014) Portugal e Espanha. Entre Discursos de Centro e Prácticas de Fronteira, Journal of Borderlands Studies, 29:1, 111-112, DOI: 10.1080/08865655.2014.891420 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08865655.2014.891420
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Journal of Borderlands Studies | 29.1 - 2014
Portugal e Espanha. Entre Discursos de Centro e Prácticas de Fronteira Heriberto Cairo Carou, Paula Godinho, and Xerardo Pereiro (eds.), Lisbon, Portugal, Colibri, 2009, 299 pages. ∗
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Reviewed by Bruno Dupeyron
This edited book examines the Portuguese–Spanish border in the 19th and 20th centuries. The perspective proposed is pluridisciplinary, as Iberian scholars in anthropology, history, sociology and political science have offered valuable contributions to this volume. Although this book has been coordinated by three Portuguese researchers and published by a Lisboan editor, it is blissfully bilingual, with six chapters written in Portuguese and seven in Spanish. This linguistic duality should not be an obstacle for students who are interested in this topic and only know one of these languages, as the editors and contributors have consistently written clearly and concisely. The objectives of the editors are twofold and structure the book in two main parts: the first part presents an analysis of successive geopolitical discourses—emanating not only from historical “centers of power” such as Lisbon and Madrid, but also more recently from Brussels—that have shaped the Iberian border; the second part examines daily practices in several border areas, as well as narratives and representations associated with border spaces. The first group of texts starts with Heriberto Cairo, who analyzes the complex historical construction (13th–20th c.) of two opposing border areas, the Portuguese–Spanish one and the Southern one (shared with the Moors/Muslims/Morocco). He shows critically that the first one—la frontera— joins civilized neighbors, whereas the second one–la extrema– reflects the “abyss” (48) between two continents. Ceuta and Melilla mirror this colonial and imperial legacy that is palpable in current European public policies toward African states and migrants. António Monteiro Cardoso suggests that the apparent long-standing relationship between Portugal and Spain is peppered with periods of tensions and crisis. One of them is the object of his research and related to the navigation of the Douro, in the middle of the 19th century, which almost brings both countries to war. Monteiro Cardoso argues that the construction of the nationstates, along with divisions among the Liberals in Portugal, were the main factors that led to such bilateral strains. He adds that England contributed to the de-escalation of the crisis (68–69). Paula Godinho is focusing on the preparation of the Treaty of Lisbon, signed in 1864 to clarify the border segment between the North of Portugal and Galicia. Godinho shows that this political and administrative work, prior to the signature, allows the questioning of several gaps between the discourses of central powers and local resistances to this treaty in the border area (73–74). Javier Franzé examines the image of Portugal in the Revista de Estudios Políticos from its creation, in 1941, to 1950. This publication should be considered as a propagandistic tool of Franco’s regime, with an academic glossy. According to Franzé, three concepts are successively used in this journal to frame the evolution of the relations between both countries: “brotherhood” (hermandad), “harmonism” (armonicismo) and “politics and nation” (política y nación) (99–106). Rosa de la Fuenta examines how the border has been reinterpreted—materially and symbolically— in the context of the European construction. Brussels, nation-states and cross-border regions are key actors in this competitive redefinition that contributes to create “new and heterogeneous European transnational spaces” (125) in Portuguese–Spanish border areas. The second category of contributions is related to the “practices and memories of the border.” Humberto Martins makes several critical observations regarding an anthropological perspective of borders: first, individuals should be considered as actors of social change in international relations; secondly, Martins ∗
Associate Professor and Graduate Chair, Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Regina Campus, Canada |
[email protected]
© 2014 Bruno Dupeyron http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08865655.2014.891420
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Journal of Borderlands Studies | 29.1 - 2014
claims that the narrative construction of the border is crucial to understand what is recalled, told and meant by border populations (134–135); finally, he argues that ethnographic studies of history are necessary to make sense of interactions between protagonists. William Kavanagh stresses that the ethnographic method contributes to make sense of the social fabric in borderlands. Supported by direct ethnographic accounts in three villages, in the North of the Portuguese–Spanish border, Kavanagh argues that border areas, where meanings are at the same time shaped and eradicated, are in a constant re-building process (166–169). Xerardo Pereiro offers a cross-cultural anthropological perspective of images and narratives in the official touristic promotion of Portugal and Galicia. Pereiro shows that this field is useful to analyze the European socio-cultural diversity. In a “Europe without borders,” the symbolic function of tourism consists in preserving stereotypical boundaries that structure an increasingly complex continent. Maria Dulce Simões focuses on the social representations and memory of the Spanish Civil War (1936– 1939) in Barrancos, in the Southern part of the Portuguese–Spanish border. In 2009, the Junta de Extremadura expressed its gratitude to the border municipality of Barrancos for the solidarity expressed during the civil war, by granting the Medal of Extremadura. Simões shows that, through the support of the population towards refugees, power relations between the Nation-state and border areas became more noticeable—namely, Barrancos constructed its “difference” against Lisbon (229–230). José María Valcuende del Rio is interested in understanding the impact of borders in human experiences, and more exactly what type of sensations and emotions they yield, for instance curiosity, hope, fear, humiliation, or courage. Valcuende del Rio considers that a research on border experiences should include the context in which an individual crosses a border (253–254). Finally, Eusébio Medina examines how the institutional cross-border cooperation, between border areas of Extremadura (Spain) and Beira Interior (Portugal), was constructed and unfolded. Medina offers an exhaustive analysis, illustrated with multiple interview quotes, in which he does not forget what he calls the “cooperation with a human face” (287–288). This edited book is pleasing, due to the diversity of perspectives and fields of research on the Portugal– Spanish border. The contributors of this volume broadly use ethnographic methods, which offer critical and colorful pictures of these border spaces and their inhabitants. Also, it provides a worthwhile look at the Portuguese–Spanish borderland, one that seems to remain a marginal object of research in European border studies. One difficulty is to hold all these contributions together. Thus, the editors have organized the contributions in two parts—discursos de centro and práticas de fronteira. Nevertheless, the reviewer feels that the most stimulating contributions are those that have been able to analyze the links between both issues. The general public and scholars interested in border studies will be pleased to find in this book an abundance of texts on a “rarely studied borderland” (Journal of Borderlands Studies, Vol. 23, No. 3, 2008). More particularly, European border scholars and comparative border scholars will discover, in this single case study, a valuable source of information and questionings. Moreover, the pluridisciplinary approach of this volume is another asset that makes it usable by students in different disciplines. Eventually, we hope that the editors and contributors will cross the linguistic borders in order to make their research available to an English-speaking audience.
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