¡Santiago y cierra, España!

Battle-cry of the Kingdom of Spain From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

¡Santiago y cierra, España! is a Spanish-language phrase. The invoking of the apostle's name (Santiago, Saint James in English) is said to have been a common battle cry of Christian soldiers in medieval Iberia and beyond into the Early Modern Period.[1] The full form, using a conjugated form of the verb cerrar,[n. 1] is recorded since the late-16th and 17th centuries.[1] It made a comeback in 1930s Spain as it became the motto of Ramiro de Maeztu's right-wing magazine Acción Española.[1] As a reflection of a mythicized look on the middle ages, embedded in narratives of the Reconquista of Catholic Spain against the Muslim Other-enemy-invader, it has thus been historically embraced as a political slogan by arch-conservative milieus of Spanish society.[1] As a nationalist symbolic banner, the phrase has been a staple within far-right discourses in Spain, developed in war-related and national self-affirmation contexts.[2]

Saint James, represented by 17th-century painter Francisco Camilo as a Moor-slayer and with the Cross of Saint James as an attribute.

Notes

  1. According to Pedro de Ribadeneira, as a synonym of acometer (transl.assail).[1]

References

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