Books by "Alejandro de la Fuente"
5 books found
Unravelling the debate about the Spanish nation and its identity in the new democracy, this book looks at the issue as both a historical debate and a contemporary political problem, particularly complex due to the legacy of the Francoist Dictatorship which deeply eroded the legitimacy of Spanish nationalism. During and since the transition Spanish nationalist discourse has evolved to meet the challenge of new concepts of nation and identity. These formulations argue very different configurations of the relationship between nation and state. While the Constitution of 1978 defines Spain as a nation of nationalities, many politicians and intellectuals now claim that Spain is a nation of nations, others that it is a nation of nations and regions, or a post-traditional nation state, or post-national state. For the peripheral nationalists, it is merely a state of nations and regions. What is at issue is not whether Spain exists or not as a nation; rather, it is the traditional ways of seeing Spain from both the centre and the periphery that are being challenged. The Reinvention of Spain examines the ways in which Spanish and regional identities are projected and how influence the external actions of the Spanish state. It also analyses the dynamic of comparative grievance and competition between regions deriving from the peculiar architecture of the state in Spain, and their effect on social and political cohesion. Finally, it examines scenarios of change that might foster solutions but asserts that Spain will continue to reinvent itself.
Becoming Free, Becoming Black
by Alejandro de la Fuente, Ariela J. Gross
2020 · Cambridge University Press
How did Africans become 'blacks' in the Americas? Becoming Free, Becoming Black tells the story of enslaved and free people of color who used the law to claim freedom and citizenship for themselves and their loved ones. Their communities challenged slaveholders' efforts to make blackness synonymous with slavery. Looking closely at three slave societies - Cuba, Virginia, and Louisiana - Alejandro de la Fuente and Ariela J. Gross demonstrate that the law of freedom - not slavery - established the meaning of blackness in law. Contests over freedom determined whether and how it was possible to move from slave to free status, and whether claims to citizenship would be tied to racial identity. Laws regulating the lives and institutions of free people of color created the boundaries between black and white, the rights reserved to white people, and the degradations imposed only on black people.