Les Éditions Losada : de la production du livre à la production d’identité

Editorial Losada is a publishing house created in Buenos Aires by Spanish republican exiles so as to publish worldwide the works of republican intellectuals censored during the Spanish Civil War and the Franco dictatorship. Through a selection of publications, Losada upheld and transmitted a particular Spanish republican identity in a critical international context of rising fascism. At the crossroads between economics and culture on the one hand, and between local identity and globalisation on the other hand, Editorial Losada is an example of the complex challenges and struggles within cultural international businesses. This article deals with the duality of publishing houses as financial companies and cultural institutions, and with the subsequent various facets of books. From mere commercial products to cultural assets, books can become identity vectors and bear a symbolic significance.