Semana Santa and Re-catholization in Huelva. An Approach to the Symbolic Construction of Early Francoism

Abstract

This paper deals with an approach to Huelva’s Semana Santa during the most intense years of the ‘re-catholization’ project in Francoism. Said project was carried out in the city by Francoist authorities and the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. Huelva’s Semana Santa was used for the creation and reproduction –by means of its symbols– of a memorial imaginary about the republican period and the Civil War. It was also used to foster the spread and acceptance of the newly born regime values and ideology, fusing military, fascist, Falangist and national-Catholic liturgies in public ceremonials. This performance, reinterpreted as an evident rite of victory, combined –in its complex rituals– symbols of the different ideological constructions of Francoist regime political parties. Its entourages displayed synergy, public communion, between the Church hierarchy and the different civic and military authorities, even though each of those sectors intended different purposes.

Keywords

• primer franquismo
• cofradías
• religiosidad popular
• huelva
• semana santa