The Call of the Distant Fatherland: Spanish Migrants in Argentina and the Cuban War

It seems accepted knowledge that all America was in favored of an independent Cuba during the second Cuban War (1895-1898), and that it was only after Washington's armed intervention in mid-1898 that this changed, with some sectors of Latin American opinion siding with Spain. This paper challenges such perception. The Cuban crisis divided America from the very beginning, with at least Spanish migrants and the more traditionalist sectors of the Catholic Church siding purposefully with Spain. The role of Spanish migrants in particular has been grossly overlooked by the historiography of the period: it deserves more attention than just a passing footnote, both for its contributions to the Spanish war and for its impact on public opinion in America. In fact, had it not been for migrant intervention it is doubtful that the continental wave of post-1898 Hispanism would have taken the form and shape it did.