Cultural festival or Ayuso's political platform?

Madrid kicked off the fifth edition of the Festival de la Hispanidad on Friday, the cultural event that was born in 2021 under the umbrella of the short-lived Oficina del Español (Spanish Office), then directed by the now-defunct Toni Cantó. What was initially seen as an institutional whim of Isabel Díaz Ayuso to counter the historical revisionism that emerged in the Americas against Spanish colonialism—and which a few months earlier had led to symbolic gestures such as the removal of statues of Christopher Columbus in several cities—has ended up consolidating itself on the regional agenda as the great "global celebration of Spanish-language culture."

Concerts, dances, and street performances have multiplied since then. From a budget of €850,000 and 98 shows for the first edition, the event has grown, in just five years, to €4 million and more than 200 activities. According to the consulting firm Llorente y Cuenca, the overall economic impact amounts to €43 million, €30 million of which would correspond to direct spending on tourism and leisure.

It's a success that's hard to dispute. But Ayuso's team wants more. Starting with reaching one million total festival attendees. That's why they've decided to move the main stage from the Puerta de Alcalá, where Carlos Vives and Manuel Turizo have previously performed, to the Plaza de Colón. A location that allows capacity to be increased to 150,000 people and which Cuban artist Gloria Estefan will debut this afternoon with a free concert for which the regional government will pay €484,000.

The Community boasts of generating an economic impact of 43 million euros with an investment of 4

"We're talking about significant figures, but it's much more than that. It's also joy, brotherhood, harmony... And it's that jewel I always talk about that unites us, which is our word, our language, and our way of thinking," argued the Community's Culture Minister, Mariano de Paco, a few days ago, to put the finishing touches on this particular redefinition of Hispanic identity conceived from Puerta del Sol.

However, although the festival is marketed as a celebration, in all its editions it has also been used politically as ammunition for the open battle between the Community of Madrid and the central government. In 2023, in the midst of negotiations between the PSOE and the Catalan independence parties for Pedro Sánchez's investiture, Ayuso used the Hispanic heritage to contrast racial diversity and nationalism. "Madrid welcomes with open arms writers, musicians, businesspeople, and families who arrive with suitcases full of talent in search of lost freedom and prosperity," she stated, comparing the Catalan situation after the independence process with Spain's arrival in America in the 15th and 16th centuries. "What would have become of Greece, Rome, Spain, or Europe if the lack of culture that silenced those who think differently had prevailed?" she remarked, recalling the exodus of thousands of Catalan companies to the capital.

And the 2025 edition was no different. Twenty-four hours after Alberto Núñez Feijóo presented his controversial points-based visa for immigrants—a system designed to reward those who “demonstrate greater cultural knowledge and capacity for integration” as opposed to “the government's policy of letting anyone in”—Ayuso took advantage of this year's slogan, “All accents fit in Madrid,” to clarify her own vision. “Hispanic immigration is not immigration,” she maintained. “Hispanics are neither tourists nor immigrants in Madrid because they are at home.”

Más Madrid denounces the regional government's tailor-made contracts for artists close to the executive branch.

This "biased" narrative doesn't convince either Más Madrid or the PSOE, who are asking "what happens to the rest of the immigrants." Both parties maintain that what appears to be a musical celebration functions as a street sign to disguise the PP's identity-based strategy.

“It's an ideologically harsh political move by Ayuso,” argues Pablo Padilla, regional deputy for Más Madrid. In his opinion, the slogan "all accents" masks a narrow vision of Hispanic identity that privileges communities like Venezuela and Argentina, “which are the people she's really targeting. You only have to watch the campaign video to see that it projects individuals with a very similar phenotype to Spaniards, leaving out the real diversity of Latin America. It's a selective racism that allows her to differentiate between good and bad migrants, a scheme that Feijóo's national PP has now adopted to distance itself somewhat from the more generalized racism of Vox,” he denounces.

Mar Espinar, PSOE spokesperson in the Madrid Assembly, takes a similar stance, criticizing Ayuso for "irresponsibly equating" immigration and crime. Her party warns that, in its eagerness to maintain its position against Vox, the Popular Party has ended up "buying into Santiago Abascal's xenophobic roadmap, albeit with sugarcoated words."

The PSOE believes that, in its eagerness to suffocate Vox, the PP is "buying into Abascal's xenophobic roadmap."

Criticism also extends to the management of public resources. Padilla points out that the festival, with its growing budget, functions as a platform with "tailor-made contracts and nods to artists close to the regional government." And, without mentioning him, she points to Nacho Cano, who performed in the 2024 edition after "weeks of public praise for the president in various media outlets, when he had never previously made a political statement."

But beyond this potential clientelism, the MP points out a fundamental contradiction: "What Ayuso is doing is offering occasional access to cultural events that are inaccessible to most people the rest of the year. This is especially hurtful to a large part of the immigrant community, who live in precarious conditions in Madrid."

The battle of narratives is on: while the regional government showcases the festival as a success of international reach and cultural cohesion, the opposition portrays it as an ideological showcase sustained with public money and an exclusionary narrative.