TSN is a digital and printed biannual journal that promotes research or academic essays and articles, edited by the Centre for Ibero-American and Transatlantic Studies FGUMA-UMA and the research group E-COM: Group of Estudios sobre Comunicación y Sociedad de la Información (Studies on Communication and Information Society).
UMA Editorial, Centro de Estudios Iberoamericanos y Transatlánticos UMA y E-COM: Grupo de Estudios sobre Comunicación y Sociedad de la Información. UMA Editorial, Universidad de Málaga
Ibero-American and Transatlantic Studies in Times of Crisis
Copyright (c) 2026 TSN. Transatlantic Studies Network https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The Spanish Language and the Atlantic: Panhispanism before and after Trump
This article examines the role of the Spanish language as a central element of Spain's efforts to strenghten its international soft power after the Transition to democracy. More specifically, it follows the contemporary transformation of language academies from their historical role as custodians of the language's purity to stewards of a transatlantic pan Hispanic unity. The article unveils how this transformation was carried out in part through a narrative in which memory and forgetting render the Atlantic an idealized unifying trope that erases the conflictual elements of the post-colonial relationship between Spain and its former colonies in the Americas.
Literary journalism vs conventional journalism in coverage of the Syrian conflict in The Guardian and The New Yorker
The role of journalism gains relevance in society as a vehicle of influence, capable of shaping the public agenda, and its tradition is based on the adoption of linguistic practices such as objectivity and narrative and linguistic simplicity, which fulfill the informative mission. Literary journalism emerges as an alternative to this 'rigidity' by asserting itself through the use of a narrative and complex language that shares characteristics with fiction. This article explores the differentiating aspects of literary journalism and conventional journalism in covering the Syrian conflict. The British periodicals The Guardian and the American The New Yorker, specialized in conventional journalism and literary journalism respectively, were selected. The corpus of analysis consists of three articles from each journal focusing on the temporal space between the appearance of the first Syrian protests and the formation of the first armed movement. The linguistic techniques used in both types of journalism are compared, exploring the different positions of journalists in the newsmaking process of covering the Syrian conflict. The role of the characters in the stories as narrative subjects in both genres is also investigated.
The Other Voice: Morocco at the Core of Contemporary Latin American Literature
The current Latin American literary creation about Morocco is the result of an inspiration that links the self and the other in the identity of the writer. Latin American roots are found in Africa, especially Morocco, due to its historical, ethnic and geographic links with Spain. The South-South cooperation programs promoted recently between Morocco and Latin American countries contribute to the rise of interest in Moroccan literature on the part of Latin Americans armed with a creative focus of artistic modernity, the other voice and/or inspiration, capable of creating unity within the diversity of the countries of the South.
Cuba: The Origin of the Turn to the Atlantic and the Definition of Spanish Neoconservatism
The shift in stance toward the Cuban regime became a central pillar in José María Aznar's alignment strategy with the United States, marking a significant break from the traditionally pro-European orientation of his predecessors. This redefinition of Spain's foreign policy not only represented a strategic turn in its international relations but also highlighted a change in the government's diplomatic priorities. Although his approach was clearly influenced by the principles of liberal-conservative thought, it cannot be said that a neoconservative movement comparable to the one developed in the United States during the same period emerged in Spain. This suggests that his strategy was driven more by political pragmatism than by a profound doctrinal shift. In this context, his approach entailed a redefinition of priorities and a reorganization of alliances, with a clear focus on strengthening the transatlantic relationship. His diplomatic strategy was structured around projecting Spain as a more influential player on the global geopolitical stage, reinforcing its presence in the international order, and consolidating its role within the Western bloc, with the aim of securing greater influence in global strategic dynamics.
Do We Speak the Same Language? A Glottopolitical Reading of the Book Hablamos la misma lengua. Historia política del español en América, desde la Conquista a las independencias
In the scenario activated by the implementation of the “New Pan-Hispanic Language Policy” of the Academies, the programmatic document was published first, followed by the new versions of the linguistic instruments. Simultaneously, the life’s histories of the RAE and ASALE were released, along with the annual chronicles and the commemorative literary editions. Notably, historical works, outside the institutional context, are scarce. It is known that the historical dictionary is in progress, and the volumes by Ramón Menéndez Pidal and Rafael Lapesa are taken to be the classical manuals on the history of the language. In these narratives, the Spanish of America and its history are relegated: the diachronic and political components are blurred, and the differential linguistic features are emphasized at the diatopic level. In our opinion, Hablamos la misma lengua. Historia política del español en América, desde la Conquista hasta las independencias, by Santiago Muñoz Machado, although not an academic work, fills this gap. In this article, we present a reading of this book from the glottopolitical perspective. Specifically, we address 1) the segments in which the term «American language» appears and 2) the configuration of social imaginaries. Our thesis is that the book’s distinction lies in the expert knowledge underpinning the argumentation: the legal authority. Finally, we present the outlines of a work in progress on what we call «American language».
Linguistic Diversity in Official and Critical Discourses of Pan-Hispanism: The Case of Indigenous Languages
This study explores the place assigned to languages other than Spanish, particularly indigenous languages, in discourses related to and dissenting from contemporary pan-Hispanism from a glottopolitical perspective. The central problem raised is the development of a language policy of the Spanish-speaking world at the beginning of the 21st century, which postulates the joint management of Spanish as a common language in a vast and heterogeneous territory where, in addition to different varieties of Spanish, numerous languages are spoken, especially indigenous languages in the Americas and those of the autonomous communities in Spain. Specifically, we will analyse the meanings associated with the term “diversity” (and other related terms such as “mestizaje”) in official and critical discourses of pan-Hispanism at two points in time, 1992 and 2004, with the aim of identifying continuities and changes between them. The study will contrast the instrumentalisation of the concept of “diversity” promoted by pan-Hispanism with the perspectives of indigenous movements claiming their linguistic rights and questioning the historical imposition of Spanish in events of glottopolitical resistance.
Low dietary fibre intake: perspectives on a nutritional problem from Ecuador and Spain
Dietary fibre is a food component that plays a key role in reducing the risk of various chronic diseases that are highly prevalent in most countries around the world. This study reviewed the available data on dietary fibre intake in two countries from two continents, Spain and Ecuador. The results show that in both countries, current intake levels are far below nutritional recommendations, constituting a public health problem. Nevertheless, this problem seems to be overlooked by health authorities. In view of this situation, various actions are proposed to address it: on the one hand, those related to the promotion of research on dietary fibre (from its mechanisms of action, where there are still aspects to be elucidated, to much more detailed data on dietary fibre intake in both countries). On the other hand, different key aspects are described for designing public policies that lead to an effective increase in dietary fibre intake, based on a multidimensional approach to nutrition.
Literary Journalism in the Historical Intersection: the Case of the Book “Furriel não é Nome de Pai: Os filhos que os militares portugueses deixaram na Guerra Colonial”, by Catarina Gomes
In 2014, the Portuguese journalist Catarina Gomes published the book Dad, Were You Afraid?, in which she describes how the issue of the Portuguese colonial war reached the generation of Portuguese children of former soldiers. Gomes’ trips to Guinea-Bissau, Angola, and Mozambique resulted in several works of reportage about children born to Portuguese soldiers in Africa. She won the Gazeta Awards (multimedia), the AMI Award — Journalism Against Indifference and the King of Spain International Journalism Award. The author broke the silence and the taboo by reporting on the lives of children who were looking for their parents in a reportage work for the Público newspaper. In 2018, she published it in book format under the title Furriel is not a Father's Name: The Children that the Portuguese Military Left Behind in the Colonial War. A non-fiction book that brings together countless testimonies of men and women who were born from a relationship between a Portuguese soldier and an African woman, between 1961 and 1974, many of them abandoned by their father figure and rejected, in childhood, by the community. Through immersion, observation, and interviews, Catarina Gomes tells the stories of the “remains of tuga” or “children of the wind”, “incomplete” survivors, “half people”. The authorial voice and the desire to rescue the children of those who still mourn their paternal orphanhood from oblivion and ignorance give Catarina Gomes a place in Literary Journalism. The work highlights the need for policies of reparation, social support, inclusion, memory, gender equality, and access to information and justice to deal with the consequences of these historical situations.
Imagen de portada de TSN 19: Frond Spectrum, 22” x 21”, 2000. Acrílico/papel (Baruj Salinas)
Between Two Shores: Latin American Lives in Spain
Lucie Geffré: Winner of the 2024 Evaristo Guerra Painting Prize in Malaga
Ibero-American University Internationalization: A Vital Opportunity
Motril and the New World. Granada (Spain)
The Spanish Language Beyond its Economic Value: Introduction
About Living with the Shadow Cast in the Other Hemisphere
Copyright (c) 2025 TSN. Transatlantic Studies Network https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Europe: Dream and Reality in the Life and Works of Rosa Chacel
This paper traces a journey through the life and works of Rosa Chacel. Its focus is on her experiences in Europe, on the different circumstances in which they took place, and on the repercussions, they had on the writer's life and work. I will begin with Rosa Chacel's early reading of authors such as Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas and Jules Verne, then I will deal with her reception of the European avant-garde movement and on the influence of Proust and Joyce in the beginning of her career as a novel writer. The period from 1922-1927, when Chacel lived in Italy, includes her first trip to Paris in 1924, just when the first surrealist manifesto was being published. In 1933 she travelled in Berlin, in 1937 she was in Greece and finally, in 1962, on her return from exile to Europe for the first time, she stayed in Paris for a longer period of time. In dealing with all these experiences, I weave together the links between the writer's work and some of the outstanding landmarks of European culture.
Political and Democratic Control of Intelligence Services. United States, United Kingdom and Australia as Case Studies
One of the dimensions that define the democratic state has to do with the tension that is generated between the general rule of publicity of the actions of public powers and the need that the institutions themselves have to have structures whose functions require confidentiality to obtain, analyze and process certain information on which the integrity of states, democracy and their institutions depend. The article focuses on the democratic control carried out, by the powers of the state, of the intelligence services in three countries of great relevance in terms of democratic quality and intelligence structures: the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. The research analyzes the political direction of the intelligence communities, the parliamentary and jurisdictional control mechanisms, confirming a trend towards political presidentialization and a progressive specialization of oversight systems.
Las cumbres birregionales como plataforma para fortalecer la asociación estratégica entre la UE y América Latina y el Caribe en el siglo XXI
El artículo examina el diálogo político al más alto nivel entre la UE y América Latina y el Caribe (ALC) en el siglo XXI. El autor sostiene que la transformación global de las relaciones internacionales generó una base más sólida para reforzar la cooperación UE-ALC en los ámbitos político, económico, social, jurídico, cultural, científico y tecnológico, estimulando así la creciente cohesión e interdependencia de las dos regiones. El objetivo de la investigación es analizar la evolución de la relación de UE-ALC a través de las cumbres birregionales como principal foro para el avance de programas de cooperación en áreas como la paz y la seguridad, la democracia y los derechos humanos, comercio e inversión, innovación y educación, cambio climático y «economía verde». Para los países de ALC la UE representa hoy el centro de gravedad, una potencia global que ocupa posiciones de liderazgo en la protección de los derechos humanos, la erradicación de la pobreza y la desigualdad, la preservación del medio ambiente y un socio confiable con su importante capacidad tecnológica y de inversión. Se puede concluir que el diálogo político birregional, que las partes consideran una plataforma para establecer compromisos y desarrollar acuerdos mutuamente beneficiosos, seguirá avanzando en el futuro.
Republican Commitment and International Denunciation of Franco's Dictatorship. Luis Jiménez de Asúa and Argentina, between Restitution and Expatriation
Luis Jiménez de Asúa is a unique intellectual personality of exile in whom the ideas and qualities of the Spain that expelled him and the Argentina that took him in were fused. A leading protagonist of the Second Spanish Republic, the reflection of the American nation with Hispanic roots whose institutional system oscillated from democratic and liberal to authoritarian, he operated in a penetrating way in his own impulse to react against dictatorial forms and to political action, within socialism, as well as in a sustained feedback of that discourse in university circles and in exile. That connection between Spanish and Argentinean characteristics radiated and mutually fertilised each other from the 1920s until his death in 1970, Jiménez de Asúa being a persistent transmitter of republican values. The search for paths and affordable alternatives for Ibero-America was both a way of returning to identities that could be shared, and a delay of possibilities, which did not frustrate him, and to this he devoted his public life, largely through principles and political and social norms of Law, clinging to testimonial preaching.
Memory and Postmemory on the Republican Exile in 1939 of Gori Muñoz and Carmen Antón: «Pequeño itinerario negro del hambre» (2007), Visto al pasar (2002) y Crónicas de una infancia republicana en Buenos Aires (2021)
The exile of Republican Spaniards after the Civil War generated an important volume of works that we could classify within non-fiction literature. Namely: memoirs, testimonies, diaries, letters, chronicles, periodical press articles, ephemeral or miscellaneous documents in the archives, etc. This essay studies the legacy of the couple formed by the Valencian set designer Gregorio (Gori) Muñoz, a theatre and film worker, and the student of medicine and actress of the second stage of La Barraca company Carmen (García) Antón, in two different phases. First, «Pequeño itinerario negro del hambre» (Muñoz, 2007) and Visto al pasar. República, guerra y exilio (Antón, 2002) will be analysed; both them, literature of memory of the war and the first exile. Then, the «postmemory» of the second generation will be addressed from the Crónicas de una infancia republicana en Buenos Aires, written and published by the daughters, Carmen Muñoz-Bernard and Antonia Muñoz-Malajovich (2021).
Names/Characters of the Republican Exile in Chile: Winnipeg — Va al Paraíso? — Riñihue/Valdivia
From an interdisciplinary view, this work aims to give three perspectives to approach the migratory phenomenon of exile in Chile, as a product of the Spanish Civil War. The first, called “Winnipeg”, will refer mainly to the prowess between the Chilean and Republican exiles. Its main characters are the poet Pablo Neruda and the president Pedro Aguirre Cerda. The second, called “Va al paraíso?”, is inspired by the city of Valparaíso, the port where Winnipeg arrived. “Va al paraíso?” will have a sense of where we are going... and if the arrival to this city-port is landing in a hypothetical paradise. Can a new life on another continent be as in paradise? Thirdly, baptized as “Riñihue/Valdivia”, we will turn to a town and a lake of the same name in southern Chile: Riñihue. It is a community that is very close to the city of Valdivia, and that it is the pole where one of the most violent cataclysms, ever registered in the history of humanity. Leopoldo Castedo —who arrived in Valparaíso exiled in Winnipeg— made the only known documentary, linked to this powerful telluric movement: earthquake and tidal wave.
«Here we are»: Memory of the Spanish Republican Exile in Brittany
This article approaches the Spanish Republican Exile in Brittany, where about twenty two thousand exiles arrived —from the first exodus in 1937 to the second in 1939 with the so called La Retirada—, from an interdisciplinary, intercultural and transnational perspective. The integrated vision of the different literary and artistic manifestations such as testimonial texts, documents, images and places of memory, as well as bibliographic and iconographic sources, makes it possible to study the exile culture from several languages and historical-cultural memories. This approach contributes to reflect on the Hispanic being in the context of transterritoriality, and invites to rethink concepts such as territory, identity and memory.
Ismael Quiles S. J. interreligious and intercultural dialogue as an experience of love
According to Ismael Quiles, interreligious and intercultural dialogue itself must be based on the "dialogue of love". The "dialogue of love" is triadic and is constituted by an essential or in-sistential self-affirmation, a recognition of the other and by an intercommunication in which there is a reciprocal acceptance of each other as "self" or "in-sistence". On this basis, we propose three models of interreligious and intercultural dialogue, which do not necessarily exist in a pure state, but are manifested in a combined or nuanced way. The three models are called respectively: unconscious, conscious, and holistic or integrated. The holistic or integrated model accounts for the dialogue of love and, although in its purity it is unattainable, it is presupposed in the other models. Moreover, the holistic or integrated model requires, to be understood and exercised, a committed ascetic and loving labour on the part of each individual, culture and religion.
Ismael Quiles S. J.: interreligious and intercultural dialogue as an aesthetic experience
The following study aims to delineate the way interreligious dialogue can occur as an aesthetic experience. By affirming the essential divine ineffability, following the line of negative theology in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, we will see how the very act of dialogue demands its transcendence for God in his ultimate essence is unthinkable, but “feelable”, “experienceable”. Under the guidance of two episodes of Scripture, the ideas of the Cappadocian father St. Gregory of Nyssa and various recent specialized papers, we will try to re-signify the place of the aesthetic in the interreligious experience with the final idea of demonstrating how interreligious dialogue can promote the common feeling of that Presence, beyond doctrinal differences, but without leaving them aside. After highlighting the way in which father Ismael Quiles S. J. conceptualized beauty as a fundamental category in the encounter between religions and cultures, we will move on to a general conclusion that presents aesthetics as an essential modality for the encounter between the different religions of the world in the 21st century.
María Teresa León: Living Memory in Exile Beyond Melancholy
Memoria de la melancolía, a work written by María Teresa León during her exile in Rome between 1966 and 1968, is one of the greatest exponents of 20th century memorial writing, and especially of the civil war and exile. An expression of “modern” melancholy, as a response to the violent ruptures of time experienced, her own writing expresses that fractal character that gives her an unmistakable personal seal. However, she transcends the possible inaction to which melancholy can lead, as an example of resistance (and resilience, we would say today) from the republican values, that she always upheld. Memory, then, but also a commitment to a future in which she dreamed of the triumph of freedom and democracy in Spain. In the 21st century, her testimony, her commitment, the strength of her word are more alive and more valid than ever. And time has fulfilled the wish with which he closes the work: “I still have the hope that my memory of remembrance will not be extinguished, and for this reason I write in large and hopeful letters: To be continued”. His memory lives on.
Interculturality as a Mirror of a Diverse Reality
Spanish Spoken in the Canary Islands: Mestizaje and pan-Hispanic Projection of a Small Dialect
It is surprising that, even though the linguistic modality of Spanish spoken in the Canary Islands is the dialect with the smallest territorial extension and the lowest speakers in its own territory, it is, paradoxically, possesses an extraordinary blend of influences, with characteristic elements at all linguistic levels from varied origins but perfectly structured, and a projection that goes beyond its island borders, settling in large areas of the Americas, with such a close influence that it has turned it, like few others, into a two-way dialect; this is demonstrated by the great parallelism with Caribbean varieties, such as, for example, Venezuelan Spanish. It is not surprising, then, that Canarian Hispanic is, in all likelihood, the most and best-studied Hispanic dialect, a circumstance that justifies the existence of an autonomous and decentralized institution: the Academia Canaria de la Lengua, an institution that has contributed to its standardization in its mere twenty-five years of existence.
The Spanish Language of the 21st Century as a Living Community
As the myth of Babel illustrates, languages have always represented a unifying element among people, but in modern times their role has been reinforced to the point of becoming the foundation of society. However, there are three linguistic patterns that allow members of a social group to connect, and the last three centuries have been characterized by the successive predominance of each of them. In the 19th century, at least in Europe, language was considered the foundation of the nation. In the 20th century, language served to establish economic interests shared by very large groups of people from almost all over the world. In the 21st century, fueled by social networks enabled by new technologies, we have moved to a point where language primarily sustains living communities. This paper examines the three successive communities of Spanish, the national, the economic and the experiential, and the reasons why the latter has conferred a very peculiar identity on the Spanish-speaking community.