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Paper short abstract:

Monuments are places of historical tension where memory and power are negotiated. Observing Spanish nationalist rallies and anticolonial demonstrations at the Columbus monument (Barcelona, 2019-2023), my aim is to explore the different uses of these two groups of the same monument on the same day.

Paper long abstract:

In recent years, antiracists and anticolonial movements have highlighted their pain and suffering caused by the existence of monuments and statues with imperial and slavery pasts and have called for their removal. Against these demands, far-right and nationalist groups have been defending these symbols as historical representations of their national heritage. Thus, attacks on these symbols of the national past have been framed by the far right as attacks on the nations of the present. This has served to activate nativist discourses and portray antiracists and anticolonial activists as violent illegal migrants. In Barcelona, the Christopher Columbus monument has been the epicenter of this historical and political tension.

Spain celebrates its national day on October 12 to commemorate the “arrival” of Christopher Columbus in America. In Barcelona, every October 12, far-right Vox activists and other Spanish ultranationalists gather in the morning at the Columbus monument to celebrate the imperial heritage of “Hispanidad”. In the afternoon, anticolonial groups walk through the streets of Barcelona and end their demonstration at the Columbus monument.

Monuments are places of historical tension where memory and power are negotiated. Through participant observation from 2019 to 2023 at Spanish nationalist rallies and anticolonial demonstrations at the Columbus monument (Barcelona), my aim is to explore the different uses that these two antagonistic political groups make of the same monument on the same day. The past and the present intertwine within the same object/monument to become a field of political struggle.