Historias: The Spanish History Podcast

In this episode, Cacey Bowen Farnsworth, author of Atlantic Crossroads in Lisbon's New Golden Age, 1668-1750, gives us a tour of Lisbon's streets during Portugal's second golden age in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, when the city was flush with gold and other wealth from Brazil. From black brotherhoods to English merchants to the Inquisition, Farnsworth provides a portrait of the city as an Atlantic entrepôt before the Great Earthquake of 1755.

Spain was perhaps the world’s greatest imperial power in the early-modern period, but few know about the new imperial ventures it attempted in the 19th century. In this episode, Scott Eastman, author of A Missionary Nation: Race, Religion, and Spain’s Age of Liberal Imperialism, 1841-1881, crisscrosses the Atlantic world to tell of these ventures in Morocco, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and West Africa. Along the way, he unpacks Spanish liberals’ views on race and religion within the context of the second wave of European imperialism in the 19th century.

The dresses worn by members of Spain’s royal family are indelible features of Diego Velázquez’s famous paintings, but what is the story of the creation of these remarkable fashions? In this episode, Prof. Amanda Wunder, author of Spanish Fashion in the Age of Velázquez: A Tailor at the Court of Philip IV, tells us the story of Mateo Aguado, the tailor for the queens of King Philip IV’s court and the artisan behind many of the striking fashions of Spain’s Golden Age. We discuss many aspects of Aguado’s life and career, including the process of royal dressmaking and the evolving political implications of his creations.

Several thousand Spaniards were imprisoned in the notorious Nazi concentration camp of Mauthausen. While there are many memoirs from survivors of the camp, only one published his account just a year after liberation, Carlos Rodríguez del Risco. In this episode, Prof. Sara J. Brenneis, who has just released a critical edition of this forgotten account, returns to the podcast to share Rodríguez del Risco’s unique and incredible story of how he went from Civil War fighter to exile in France to concentration camp survivor to Francoist. She also discusses how she rediscovered this important memoir and dealt in the critical edition with its more problematic aspects.

El Camino de Santiago is a historic pilgrimage route, a long-distance hiking trek and one of Spain's most iconic tourist attractions all at the same time. In this episode, Beatriz Gomez Acuña, a professor at Elmhurst University and a veteran of the camino, discusses the history behind these routes to Santiago de Compostela as well as the challenges and rewards of walking the camino in the modern era of mass tourism.

Como parte de nuestra serie Historias para BSPHS, en este episodio hablamos con el prof. Javier Moreno Luzón sobre la vida política del rey Alfonso XIII, el último rey de la época de la Restauración. Moreno Luzón lo presenta desde la perspectiva de la historia cultural de la política y discutimos diferentes influencias en su visión política, como la Iglesia y el Ejército, así como su papel en el colapso del sistema de la Restauración y en la dictadura de Primo de Rivera. En todo esto, abordamos algunos de los temas más importantes de la época como el nacionalismo, el regeneracionismo y el papel del monarca europeo en el siglo XX.

In this episode, Patricia Schechter, a professor of history at Portland State University, joins the podcast to discuss the history of Pueblonuevo del Terrible, a rough-and-tumble mining town in Spain’s Córdoba Province. Starting with an overview of the landscape of the town and the story of its unusual name, Schechter then traces the history of its struggles to obtain recognition and build a sense of place from the 1880s through the end of the Spanish Civil War. Along the way, we touch on themes of the period as wide ranging as place, global capitalism, labor, religion and the state.

José Luis Rodríguez Jiménez, a Contemporary History Professor at Rey Juan Carlos University and author of "Bajo el manto del caudillo," sheds light on the intriguing post-WWII refuge of Nazis in Spain. He discusses how figures fleeing persecution found unexpected sanctuary under Franco's regime. The conversation dives into Léon Degrelle, a Belgian fascist collaborator, revealing his remarkable shift from a Catholic activist to a lifestyle of comfort in Spain. The episode captivatingly intertwines old ideologies and the political drama of that era.

Spanish football (soccer) teams like FC Barcelona and Real Madrid have become household names around the world. But how did Spanish sport become a global phenomenon? In this episode, Andrew McFarland, a professor of history at Indiana University Kokomo, explores the origins of sport as mass entertainment in Spain, from the influence of English footballers to the question of bullfighting as a modern sport. He also links these developments to political and intellectual trends of the time like regenerationism. Finally, we look at the origins of a few of Spain’s most popular football clubs, and even hear about a couple of McFarland’s own favorites.

Whether Rioja, Ribera del Duero or Albariño, Spanish wine has become a major component of the country's image internationally, but this wasn't always the case. In this episode, Karl Trybus, a professor of history at Limestone University, traces the history behind Spain's wines from the nineteenth century to the present day, including the the effects of the oidium and phylloxera epidemics in the country and Spain's efforts to promote its wines abroad, with a special emphasis on its unique sherry and cava wines. Trybus even treats us to a few recommendations of some of his personal favorites to try.