Daughters of Isabella I of Castile»: discourse, representations and symbols of women and the feminine in Spanish interwar fascist political period

The political experience of the Second Spanish Republic led to the construction, on the part of the fascist, traditionalist and ultra catholic right, of a dreamed image of the Nation. In accordance with such an image, the Nation would be threatened by a diverse range of harmful and invading agents that weakened its past unity and strength. In such circumstances, the menaced Nation needed to achieve its complete regeneration, with the help of men who best defended the purest values of the National Spirit. But also a new model of regenerated and patriotic women would play a prominent role in this main purpose. During the immediate previous years to the outbreak of the Civil War, the various kinds of the extreme right that coexisted and expanded their influence in the middle of the political experience of the Second Republic proceeded to the redefinition and politicization of the model of femininity that had been forged in Spain over the nineteenth century. As worthy daughters of emblematic Isabel of Castile, «true Spanish women» were called to become the «captains» of a true Crusade. The above-mentioned Crusade was headed, on the one hand, to put an end to the enemies of Spain, and on the other, to lay the cultural, political and mystical foundations that would make possible the final regeneration of the Spanish Nation and the Hispanic Race.