Spain's National Cycling Tour and the Politics of Regional and National Identity, 1975
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Spain’s National Cycling Tour and the Politics of Regional and National Identity, 1975- 2000 Alexander Tuck January 2015 Abstract This thesis examines the banal nationalism of La Vuelta Ciclista a España (Spain’s national cycling tour) in the post-Franco period. In light of recent work completed on post- Franco Spanish nationalism, this project provides a robust empirical analysis of four newspaper’s coverage of the race between 1975 and 2000. The object of this thesis is to provide empirical ballast to a number of hypotheses and suggestions that have been made, primarily as to the role of informal symbols such as sport in the immediate post- Franco period where formal national symbols suffered a delegitimisation. There are two major themes in this work: firstly, a theme that comprises Spanish national identity and nationalism in the post-Franco period, and secondly, a theoretical theme that looks to interrogate and develop Michael Billig’s theory of Banal Nationalism (Billig 1996). Utilising Billig’s original publication, as well as other work on Le Tour de France, this thesis constructs a mixed quantitative/qualitative content analysis of newspapers in this period, seeking to expand our knowledge of informal national symbols beyond areas, such as football, where analyses have already been done. Newspapers from the main territorial cleavage in the country, Spain and Catalonia, are represented in an examination of the growth of La Vuelta as a national symbol as well as how this has been mediated across political and territorial lines. 2 Table of Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 2 1 - Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 4 2 - Literature Review ................................................................................................................. 20 I - History ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 20 II - Nationalism ............................................................................................................................................................................... 23 III - Spanish History ...................................................................................................................................................................... 35 IV – Sport ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 51 V - Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................................................. 56 3 - Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 59 Fig. 1. Newspaper readership, 1975-1978. ......................................................................................................................... 68 4 - La Vanguardia ...................................................................................................................... 76 I - Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................................ 76 II - Quantitative .............................................................................................................................................................................. 83 III - Qualitative ................................................................................................................................................................................ 91 IV - Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................................... 101 5 - ABC .................................................................................................................................... 103 I - Introduction .............................................................................................................................................................................. 103 II - Quantitative ............................................................................................................................................................................ 105 III - Qualitative .............................................................................................................................................................................. 115 IV - Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................................... 132 6 - El País ................................................................................................................................. 136 I - Introduction .............................................................................................................................................................................. 136 II - Quantitative ............................................................................................................................................................................ 140 III - Qualitative .............................................................................................................................................................................. 148 IV - Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................................... 160 7 - Avui ................................................................................................................................... 163 I - Introduction .............................................................................................................................................................................. 163 II - Quantitative ............................................................................................................................................................................ 167 III - Qualitative .............................................................................................................................................................................. 176 IV - Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................................. 190 8a - Discussion ........................................................................................................................ 193 Part I – Data, Method and Approach ................................................................................................................................... 193 Fig. 2. Cumulative Article Share By Number. ................................................................................................................... 195 Fig. 3. Cumulative Article Share By Size. ........................................................................................................................... 196 Fig. 4. Cumulative Article Size, 1975-2000. ...................................................................................................................... 206 8b - Discussion ........................................................................................................................ 209 Part II – Spanish Nationalism and Banal Nationalism ................................................................................................ 209 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 229 Appendix ................................................................................................................................ 246 3 1 - Introduction ‘The Spaniards, they said, did not know how to pedal.’ Ernest Hemingway.1 Most people have heard of Le Tour de France. One of the largest sporting events in the world, its lengthy history has left it inferior only to the Olympic Games and the World Cup in terms of size, reach and scale. Each year it draws a huge audience, not least the millions of Frenchmen (among other nationalities) who line the roads as it passes through the Pyrenees and the Alps on its metronomic way back to Paris.2 From the départements3 that it visits to the one hundred and ninety countries that receive images from France Télévisions, 4 it symbolises France on many levels. Its avowed ambition to visit all départements every four years, alternating clockwise and anti-clockwise biannually, as well as its centenary Grand Départ in Corsica in 2013,5 mark out the explicit national framing of the design committee.6 Domestically it is deeply symbolic, with the 14 July Bastille Day celebrations and the traditional finish on the Avenue des Champs d’Élysées creating an image of France, an idea stretching back to the origins of the race in 1903. Fewer people have heard of La Vuelta Ciclista a España,7