Misuse of Ancient Roman Identity in Contemporary Spain
Dylan Logsdon

The Romans are considered by many to be one of the greatest civilizations to exist in the world due to their wide range of influence and power in their time period and the influence that their civilization and culture still have in the world today. The Romans came to the Iberian Peninsula, where Spain is located, around the year 218 BC and their civilization was here for about the next 600 years (Tsurkin). As the Romans kept attempting to improve their society, they made major contributions to the way of life in Spain that can still be seen in modern day Spain with some examples of this being irrigation techniques and developing agriculture, drainage sewers, architecture and roads. This process of romanization can also be seen as the Romans modernizing the Iberian Peninsula for the time period and in doing this, ideas and opinions about the Roman identity were left behind. Even though the Roman identity can still be seen in Spain today, the identity as a whole has changed. The Roman identity and culture attracts tourists from all over the world as this is the only way to witness the Roman civilization and people in Spain are using the Roman identity to their advantage and changing it when necessary to better help themselves. There are many things in modern Spain today that would not exist without the Romans and I think it is important to look at the connection between the Romans and Spain today. More specifically, I look at how Roman identity is still being used in 21st century Spain in advertisements, and tourist locations and how these manipulate and use the Roman past and identity to obtain profits and advantages for themselves.

The first way that I would like to look at how the Roman identity is being misused today is through advertisements. What I mean by this is that there are festivals and celebrations in Spain celebrating the Roman identity. The people who run these festivals need to make sure that citizens show up and they do this through the usage of advertisements explaining what the festival is. Within these advertisements are examples of the roman identity as a way to draw in more customers and attraction from the public as many times the representation or identity of the Romans that is shown is the warrior aspect of their civilization as this is the most intriguing part of the roman identity to the majority of the population. An example of a festival that produces advertisements as described above is the Fiesta de Cartagineses y Romanos. This festival is something that occurs every year in Cartagena (Murcia) and lasts 10 days with events happening every day (De Murcia). The goal of the festival is to recognize and remember the Second Punic War that happened over two thousand years ago.

This is showing how the roman identity is being misused as this does not represent the full Roman identity. The aspect that is included of the identity, the warrior aspect, is not included because people believe it is the most important aspect of the Roman identity but rather because this is what is the most popular to the rest of the population. The people who run these festivals are focused on one thing and that is making as much money from the festival as possible and not the preservation and representation of the Roman identity. The reason why this is an example of manipulating the identity to their advantage is because this is exactly what is happening, the people who run the Fiesta de Cartagineses y Romanos found the most popular part of the roman identity and have been using it to make money.

Another important thing to think about is how the festival has changed over the years since it has existed. In the advertisement for this festival it mentioned how this festival started in the year 1990 and has happened every year since (except for the Covid-19 year). Just like any other business or company, with experience comes better success and I believe this is the same for this festival. In the early years the people who ran the festival figured out what worked and made money for them and what did not work. This leads to the manipulation of the Roman identity to make it into something that will make the most profit and not focusing on the accurate historical facts of it instead. Another reason as to why I think this shows the misuse of the Roman identity is when thinking about how many people come and see this performance at the festival showing celebrating the “Roman identity”. As stated on the website for this festival, over four thousand people show up for this festival every year (De Murcia). This means that in the 30 years that this festival has been going, around 100,000 people have come and seen their interpretation of the roman identity. The problem with this is that the focus is only on the warrior aspect with customers getting assigned to a group that is part of the Roman Military that they will be associated with for the week (De Murcia). The customers who experience this festival get a great amount of information about the Roman military; however there is not enough emphasis on the other aspects of the identity. This means that the customers get the stereotypical idea that the Roman identity was all about war and conquering when in reality there is much more to the identity. The Fiesta de Cartagineses y Romanos is just one example of how people in Spain are manipulating and using the Roman identity to their advantage in order to gain profits and better themselves.

When looking at Spain today and ways that the Roman identity is seen in the present day, it is important to not forget about tourist locations. One of the biggest ways that the Roman identity is shown is with all of the monuments, ruins, and artifacts that still exist from when the Romans were in the Iberian Peninsula and how these are now tourist locations for all to see. The people who run these tourist locations make it extremely easy to determine a possible tourist location to visit with a website that is titled “Destinations to Relive the Roman Empire in Spain”. Within this website there is a list of all of the tourist locations associated with the Romans and a brief description as to what the tourist location is and how it is connected with the romans (Turespana). When looking at the website and the tourist locations, a question came into mind and that is: Why is it the Roman identity and culture that is being used and presented in modern day Spain? Throughout the history of Spain, there have been many different civilizations and groups of people to come to the Iberian Peninsula and settled here. From the Basques and the Celts to the Visigoths and the Muslims, there are a wide variety of different possible civilizations and identities from the history of Spain that could be used in the modern day. However the most easily seen and recognizable is the Roman identity. There are endless possibilities for the answer to my question above but in my opinion the Roman identity is being used the most in Spain because of how popular the Romans are in general. The other groups mentioned before are not as well known world-wide, even not as well known in modern day Spain, and the people running tourist locations know this. They know that the best way to attract as many tourists as possible is to use the Roman identity as a large majority of people have at least heard of the Romans which shows how the tourist locations misuse and manipulate the Roman identity. The tourist locations dedicated to the Romans exist because the people running them know that this is the way to make the most profits which shows how they are misusing this identity for their own personal gains.

This concept of how tourist locations in Spain are misusing and manipulating the Roman identity for their own personal gain is of utmost importance as the Spanish economy relies heavily on the tourism industry. Tourism in Spain accounts for about 40% of the entire tourism industry in Southern Europe and about 5% of the country's gross domestic product showing the importance of it (World Data). With seeing how much money Spain as a whole makes from tourism, this brings up the controversy of people without any connection to the Romans are making money due to the use of the Roman identity. If anything, it should be present day Romans running these tourist locations as it is their identity and culture that is being used to make profit because this would allow for more accurate information and better preservation of the Roman identity in general. Due to this high popularity and reliance on tourism, the people who run the tourist locations are focused on one thing and that is making profit. Because of this mindset, it allows for the representation of the Roman identity at these tourist locations to be misused and manipulated. An example of this is when one of the Roman tourist locations changes. The reason for this change is not because it represents the Roman identity better but instead because the people who run the tourist location think that this change will bring in more profit. This shows the misuse and manipulation of the past as these tourist locations are focused more on profits for themselves and for the country of Spain as a whole and not spreading the identity and culture to the tourists who are visiting these locations.

In conclusion, the two ways in which the Roman identity is being misused and manipulated in modern day Spain mentioned previously, advertisements and tourism, are just two of the many ways in which this idea can be seen. The Roman identity is a big part of the culture in Spain today and the reason why I think this misusage and manipulation of the identity is occurring is because people do not know enough in-depth information about the Romans in general and with how popular the Roman civilization is. If people knew more information about it, then the misuse and manipulation for personal gains would be more noticeable by the people and I believe that this could lead to a change in how the Roman identity is portrayed overall in Spain. Without the roman identity and influence, the culture in Spain would look much different in all aspects as much of the Spanish identity is formed off of ideas from the Roman identity which is why it is important to look at the connection between the Romans and Spain today, and how Roman identity is still being used in 21st century Spain in advertisements, and tourist locations and how these manipulate and use the Roman identity to obtain profits and advantages for themselves because the misuse and manipulation of the roman identity will decrease (hopefully) or increase as it will be interesting to see how this change in the representation of the roman identity will affect the country of Spain as a whole.