The concept and myth of a nation, the meaning of May 2
“The nation is the result of an imaginary construction, whose dynamic depends on internalization, to achieve it it is essential to establish rituals and ceremonies that glorify the nation in the present and in the past, commemorations in which memory and history feed the communionBetween the people and the nation."
The best example of these ceremonies are the national parties that mark the rhythm of life of the entire society of the same country. The national parties represent moments of the past in which the population has joined with a common purpose and that have been so significant that they have become a nationalist myth and a symbol of the nation that deserves to be extolled and remembered. Good sample of this is the national myth built around the so -called War of Independence in which the idea of union and brotherhood of the Spanish people has been created fighting for their freedom against Napoleonic France, seen as the greatest of evils.
Analyzing a myth, from the historical point of view, implies verifying how it evolves and becomes an instrument at the service of ideology. It is therefore essential. To analyze the trajectory and instrumentalization of May 2 we must go back to its beginnings. The construction of the myth of May 2 dates back to the 19th century, a time of a great political seizure something that, at first, complicated its conversion into a national identity element since there were several factors that played against them.
On the one hand, temporary closeness with the conflict. The majority of the population had lived the events that occurred during the war or its consequences, so they did not have a neutral vision, they knew the dimensions of the conflict, the division of the population and the foreign intervention, so try to convince them that theLifting against the French had been unanimous, it was useless. Because of this, many people did not feel identified with this national idea of union.
On the other hand, the use made by the different political factions of this myth. The first to use it were the liberals that saw on May 2 the fastest way to unite the population against the old regime, I defend the ideas of freedom and power of the people. However, with the arrival to the power of the moderates, on May 2, its popular dimension was reduced to be reduced to, later, during the democratic six -year term, recover it to the point of, far from joining the population, its interpretation divided itplus. The progressives saw him as a symbol of the struggle for the freedom of the people, the Carlists saw some monarchical character in the conflict, the Republicans celebrated the triumph of the people over a tyrant and the internationalists rejected that the conflict was something only only. All this division made the myth little by little losing strength.
Later, after a century after the conflict and during the reign of Alfonso XIII, Antonio Maura, president of the Government, in order to improve relations with France, decides to reduce the institutional and national importance of May 2 to relegate it to a partyPurely Madrid. However, as of 1923, with the military dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, the celebration of May 2 takes a military channel, reaching military parades in many cities in Spain, which caused a large part of the population to havea negative conception of myth since they identified it as a symbol of the dictatorship.
With the proclamation of the Second Republic, despite the fact that on May 2 it continued to be held with military parades against the commemorative monuments of the city, religious acts and Republican leaders were suppressed stopped attending these acts. In this way, they managed, not only to express their rejection towards a celebration linked to a conservative vision of Spanish society, but also underline the local dimension of this celebration, managing to isolate it only in the city of Madrid, since it was there where it occurredThe first lifting of the population.
This conception of myth changed again during the Civil War. The need to mobilize the population and to create an environment conducive to victory caused several secular myths to be reactivated, including May 2 with which the civil war was identified: «both in the movement of communitiesAs in the War of Independence and these Jomadas de Julio, there is a completely inocable anarchic essence. That anarchic essence is, in a way, the link that historically joins those three epic of the Spanish people. […] If the communities of Castile were defeated by the foreign force of Carlos V, and the liberalism in the Cortes of Cádiz was annihilated by the "one hundred thousand children of San Luis" and blessed in the burial by the Catholic Church, the triumphpopular that germinates in the Spanish land watered by proletarian blood, it cannot be destroyed or annihilated by anyone ».
The myth of May 2 acquired a greater importance at the time in which Madrid became one of the main stages of the contest "the people of Madrid raised again against the foreigner and the traitors". The use of May 2 to provide the civil warMilitary:
«In this fight to the death against the invaders Madrid lived on November 7 the epic of May 2. In the history of Spain the deed of Madrid was reproduced at the time. Once again, as on May 2, the invincible nature of our people was affirmed, which does not want to be colonized. Men and women, old and young, occupied their struggles. With enthusiasm, with decision, with courage […] they were destroyed, almost without weapons, international fascism shock units, with equal fortitude that fought before in the streets and in the city’s squares against the Napoleonic hosts, covered with gloryIn the battlefields of Europe ». The strategy followed by Napoleon was even resembled in 1808 with which Italy and Germany followed during the Civil War
For its part, the Francoist side also instrumentalized on May 2 by establishing similarities between it and the Civil War. They defended that it was a war of national liberation, as it had been the war of independence, in which the Spanish people fought to free themselves from international communism. Finally, with the end of war and Franco’s victory, this nationalist version of May 2 was the one that really prevailed for the dissemination of the values of the Francoist dictatorship.
Therefore, we see how, over the centuries, on May 2 it has been used and transforming its meaning depending on the political ideology that rewards at that time. Currently May 2 is considered the day of the Community of Madrid, so its scope of celebration is regional. During that day, every year, both the royal family and the community government team participate in the events organized during that day that consist of a floral offering to the heroes of May 2, a military parade at the Puerta del Solwhich ends with a tribute to the people who fought that day and, finally, a ceremony for the delivery of distinctions of the Order of May.
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