(anti)Fascism, (anti)Racism and (anti)Imperialism: Here and Then, There and Now

A workshop sponsored by a Global Opportunity Grant from NYU´s Office of Global Programs

New York University, Madrid

January 7 - 14, 2024

Snapshots of the Workshop

Unless otherwise indicated, all photos by Irene Montaner @ireamiare

Two of the primary goals of the Global Opportunity Grant program are: 1) to bring new faculty, from widely ranging disciplines and schools, into conversation with NYU Madrid and among themselves; and 2) to bring new scholars/practitioners/experts/institutions from around Madrid into conversation with the site, raising its local/regional profile and reach

To these ends, a diverse group of NYU faculty members met at NYUMadrid from January 7 - 14, 2024 to explore, via a discussion of syllabi, courses, and pedagogies, the interconnected legacies of fascism/anti-fascism, racism/antiracism, and imperialism/anti-imperialism, with a focus on Spain and the United States. Special attention was paid to how these legacies are represented (or not) in public life, the media, and cultural institutions in contemporary Madrid. The symposium engaged a wide range of local intellectuals, artists, activists, and leaders working on these topics, and generated precisely the kinds of conversations and connections envisioned by the GOG program.

"Like most European cities, Madrid today is more diverse than ever before, more interconnected (and subject to more complex governance arrangements), more unequal, more subject to volatile supranational financial investments, and more environmentally vulnerable. Through a series of case studies, we will explore some of the hottest issues being confronted and debated by Madrid’s citizen’s today from across the political spectrum –migration, housing and gentrification, gender inequality, historical memory, for example. Through walks, excursions and visits to local sites and institutions, we will learn a lot about the city of Madrid and the ways in which it is distinct as well as the ways in which it is typical of the European urban experience..."

Talk: Mapping Madrid

8 January, morning.

Ellen Carmen Gordón gave a talk about the course she teaches at NYU Madrid: ¨Madrid: Faces of the Changing European City" emphasizing the "cartographic literacy" she seeks to instil in students in that class via a wide range of activities involving maps and mapmaking.

Talk: The history of Africans and Afro-descendants in Spain

8 January, afternoon.

Dr. Antumi Toasijé delivered a sweeping lecture on the history of African and afro-descendant peoples on the Iberian peninsula.

It was truly a powerful experience to get to know fantastic faculty colleagues from across NYU's global network, in an informal yet highly stimulating context for learning and sharing observations and perspectives. I will no doubt stay in touch with many of the people I met, and continue to mull over the new ideas and sites I encountered at NYU Madrid. It was a perfect example of NYU's global network at its best! --Ann Morning, Professor of Sociology, Dean for Social Sciences and Vice Dean, Global & Strategic Initiatives

Walking Tour: Traces of Afro-Madrid

8 January, evening

Enslaved people of African descent and their descendants have lived in Madrid for centuries. The oldest quarter of Madrid was the site of the auctioning of enslaved people. Though most Spaniards ignore or deny the historic presence of large numbers of enslaved people in their country, in Madrid there are inscriptions on buildings and street names that recall that ignominious and whitewashed history. Led by Dr. Antumi Toasijé.

Excursion: Valley of the Fallen and Mingorrubio Cemetery

9 January, morning

We visited one of the most controversial sites in Spain: Francisco Franco´s massive monument to fascism –and to himself– built with the labor of political prisoners between 1940 and 1959. In compliance with the Law of Historical Memory of 2019, Franco has been exhumed from the Valley of the Fallen, but Cuelgamuros continues to be a site of pilgrimage for admirers of Franco from all over Spain and the world. We also visited Franco´s current resting place, in a public cemetery in Mingorrubio, El Prado –just outside Madrid– which has itself become an improvised shrine visited and decorated by visitors nostalgic for the rule of el Caudillo de España por la Gracia de Dios. Led by Emilio Silva.

[The workshop included] academic presentations and discussions, interactive walking tours around Madrid, meals, conversations, and debates with a range of local artists, authors, intellectuals, activists and even representatives from state-run institutions. The experience was incredibly enriching, and I learnt a lot that will contribute to my teaching in Madrid. Several of the tours and the discussions sparked ideas that I am sure will contribute to my future research. The experience created a strong sense of community for NYU Madrid staff, especially new staff members like myself. The workship also provided the opportunity to establish links with the visiting NYU staff, fostering the sense of belonging to a connected global institution. –Ellen Gordon, NYU Madrid

"Madrid was the first European capital ever to be bombed by military aviation. The first bombs of Franco, Hitler and Mussolini fell on the city on October 30, 1936; for the rest of the Spanish Civil War, Madrid´s civilian population was relentlessly pummelled from the sky. Images of this new form of horror –in photojournalism, newsreels and poster art for example–seized the imagination of the entire planet. And yet a visitor to Madrid today will find barely a trace –a plaque, a marker, a monument– of this terrorific history.

Using historical photographs of the very same sites we will visit on this walking tour, we will explore how Madrid, before Guernica, was the first iconic image of the aerial terrorism to which we have sadly become accustomed. We will discuss how and why the history of this particular form of terrorism had been rendered invisible in Madrid.

Walking Tour: Traces of (anti)Fascism on the Streets of Madrid

9 January, afternoon

The traces of the Spanish Civil War and the ensuing dictatorship have been rendered all but invisible in the official cityscape, as part of the deliberate strategy of amnesia and amnesty that has characterized the Spanish transition to democracy after Franco. This walking tour focused on making visible the traces of this hidden history.

Led by Emilio Silva

"I feared that my comics would be understood as a rejection of my culture, because I do not feel contempt for it, but how do you say, let’s say that I accept it now. When you grow up with an identity crisis, because as a child you want to be like the others, but with the responsibilities of the restaurant or accusations that you eat dogs, you can’t be like them, you end up feeling super-tired and sad as a result. You ask yourself: If I feel Spanish, why do they treat me like this? This in turn made me reject anything Chinese. And because my mother was the one that embodied everything that was traditionally Chinese, the obligation to marry and open a dried fruits store kept me feeling resentful. That is why my book should not be understood as a rejection: it makes peace. Now I understand who my parents were, where they came from, everything they have done and why; now I accept it and I try to extract the best from my two cultures, the Chinese and the Spanish."

Talk: Chinese Diaspora in Madrid: Introducing the Qingtianese Heritage

10 January, morning

Roughly 250,000 Chinese people officially reside in Spain. If we add to this figure the Spanish-born children of these immigrants, plus Chinese residents who do not appear in the official statistics, we can get an idea of the scale of the Chinese diaspora in Spain.

Artist, activist, podcaster and graphic novelist Quan Zhou introduced us to the history and character of the diaspora, through her own artistic and advocacy projects.

The exchanges with the amazing scholars from NYU’s global community have meant a turning point in how I see my course design and the city. This has been a lovingly curated week, with beautifully crafted content, caring programmatic decisions and amazing humans. –Sara Torres Vega, NYUMadrid

Walking tour: The Chinese Diaspora in Madrid

10 January, afternoon

Lawyer and community advocate David Lei Chen Ye discussed the history of the Chinese diaspora in Madrid and Spain, and led us on a tour of Leganitos Street, one of several neighborhoods in Madrid with a strong presence of Chinese immigrants and their descendants.

Photo by D. Wuebben

Museum visit: Museo de América

11 January, morning

The Director of the Museo de América, Andrés Gutiérrez, and the renowned art historian Estrella de Diego, led a tour of the museum, and an animated discussion with conference participants about questions of the decolonial moment, in this museum in particular, and in museums in general.

This week has not only facilitated stronger connections with fellow educators but has also provided invaluable insights into the diverse backgrounds of my students, enhancing my preparedness for upcoming courses. As a scholar, the opportunity to engage with NYU Faculty from different sites has been a genuine pleasure, offering a unique and enriching experience for adjunct faculty members like myself. The grant has played a pivotal role in fostering a sense of belonging within a larger intellectual community, and I am truly grateful for this chance to be a part of something greater.

--Elia Romera Figueroa, NYUMadrid

Photo courtesy of El Prado.

Museum Visit: New Constellations in El Prado

11 January, morning

"The Unexpected Prado" is the title of Estrella Diego's most recent book, in which she imagines and creates new personal itineraries through the museum, just as she invites each visitor to curate his or her own constellation of works and issues --with no need to move objects or reinstall collections. Dr. de Diego led us on one such tour, inviting us to think, for example, about race and gender, as they get expressed and explored --often tacitly-- in the Museum's permanent collection.

Museum visit: The Reina Sofía as a Museum of Bonds

11 January, evening

Dr María Acaso conducted a private visit of the Museo Centro de Arte Nacional Reina Sofía that led to a reflection on how museums --through their collections, their design and even their institutional configurations-- engage or fail to engage the communities that they purportedly serve.

To highlight just one of the various activities ..., I find very relevant the visit to the Museum of America where we have had the opportunity to speak with its director about the return of objects acquired in the colonial context. --Antumi Toasijé, NYUMadrid

Talk: LatinX Diaspora in Madrid

12 January, morning

More than 3 million people born in the Spanish-speaking Americas are currently residents of Spain. This diaspora of the inhabitants of erstwhile colonies of the Spanish empire in the metropolis is giving rise to fascinating cultural and sociological phenomena. Elia Romera Figueroa spoke about her work on the cultural manifestations of these emerging communities.

Walking tour: Cuatrocaminos and Tetuán

12 January, afternoon

After her morning lecture, Elia Romera Figueroa led a walking tour in the heavily LatinX area of Cuatro-caminos and Tetuán in north-central Madrid. Participants ate Latin American food at the multi-ethnic Mercado de las Maravillas.

The NYU Madrid workshop was the NYU global network model at its best. It was so stimulating to meet with faculty from other NYU sites, to have the luxury of spending a full week together, and to see the NYU curriculum embedded in this location in a way that allows for the possibility of exploring topics and having conversations that are not possible at other study-away sites and campuses.

--Masha Kirasirova NYUAD

"I will explain with first-hand experience how and why Lavapiés has intentionally been targeted by the authorities. I take a critical view on the previously held perception that gentrification is slow, passive, and inevitable, which I firmly believe it is not.

Gentrification is an institutional attack on marginalised communities disguised as organic urban development. It is social and ethnic cleansing of both long- and short-term residents. Understanding how and why this happens and what it looks like in reality is key to challenging the entire process of gentrification."

Talk: "The Violence of Gentrification" by Leah Pattem

12 January, evening

The British/Indian independent journalist and photographer Leah Pattem has been living, documenting, and analyzing the implacable process of gentrification of her adopted neighborhood, Lavapiés. In this talk, she discussed and illustrated the planned and systematic violence that underlies the apparently agentless transformation of neighborhoods such as Lavapiés.

Visit: Espacio Afro

12 January, night

Amal Hussein, Director of Programs at Espacio Afro introduced us to the history, space and the programs of this collective of young Afro-descendants in Madrid.

It was an honor to be in a select group of such engaging scholars. I was especially pleased to encounter the powerful work of our junior colleagues teaching at NYU Madrid, and was impressed by the depth of cutting edge expertise in NYU Madrid's faculty …. It made me want to explore other ways that NYU faculty in New York could meet and learn from NYU Madrid faculty, and vice versa…Overall this week revealed a dynamic concert of engaging debates and cultural practices that are contesting the legacies of fascism, racism, and colonialism.

—Jill Lane, NYUNY

Performance: Gad Yola

12 January, night

This Peruvian performance artist based in Spain, uses drag to explore and critique racism, imperialism and other phobias that target diverse individuals and communities (anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ+, etc). She performed for the conference participants and for a group of visiting undergraduate scholars from NYU at Espacio Afro in south-central Madrid.

Gallery visit: Alborrán Bourdais

13 January, morning

The art gallery that occupies the ground floor of NYU Madrid's academic center invited the conference participants to the opening of a solo show by the conceptual artist Fernando Sánchez Castillo titled "Counter infor-mations". Sánchez Castillo is a frequent guest in the NYU Madrid class on The Spanish Civil War and Historical Memory.

Closing party at the studio of artists Cristina Lucas and Fernando Sánchez Castillo

The artists welcomed us into their spacious studio in the neighborhood of Usera, for a glimpse at their work in progress and a closing dinner party. Both Lucas and Sánchez Castillo create works that explore many of the issues discussed throughout the workshop.

A note on our group meals

The group meals we enjoyed at the workshop were curated with an eye toward exploring both different neighborhoods and the culinary diversity that has come into being in Madrid only over the last thirty years of so. A diversity that owes as much to the influx into Spain of immigrants from all over the world, as to trends in the eating habits of Spaniards.

Casa de comidas, El Comunista, Calle Augusto Figueroa, an old-school classic Spanish-food hold-out in the heavily gentrified neighborhood of Chueca. The menu (but not the prices) could be from 1950 or even 1900.

Mandela 100, A hangout for Senegalese and sub-Saharan African immigrants in the Lavapiés neighborhood of central Madrid. Senegalese and African cuisines.

Casa Álvarez, Calle Santa Ana, another old-school Spanish hold-out, specializing in the iconic cocido madrileño, in the heart of the Rastro section of old Madrid.

O Faro de Lugo/La Caníbal, an old-fashioned Spanish/Galician restaurant across the street from the Reina Sofía, that has been updated in terms of decor and menu. Same ingredients as ever, more modern presentation and atmosphere.

Mercado de las Maravillas, in the Cuatrocaminos area of north-central Madrid is a classic municipal market that combines market stands that sell ingredients (fish, meat, vegetables, herbs and spices) to the local largely immigrant population, with food stalls offering prepared food from all over the Spanish-speaking world and beyond.

Chila, contemporary Hunan cuisine in the Santo Domingo area of Madrid, where there is a historic concentration of Chinese restaurants and businesses. Authentic food from the region of Hunan, not the global "chinese" fare served up in so many places the world over.

Photo by waiter at Mandela 100.

Questions?

Contact jf2@nyu.edu to get more information on the project

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