Local culture: Vitoria and «Vitorianism»

Abstract

In Vitoria, local culture started in the last quarter of the 19th century at the same time as the enlargement of the city. «Vitorianism» has expressed different realitites throughout time: nostalgia for the time and the city which had already dissapeared, local identity, a mechanism of distinction and belonging to the local community, urban as opposed to rural, anticarlism, victimism against other capitals in the autonomous region. At the beginning of the 20th century it became a political «Vitorianism» and served as the discourse for Eduardo Dato’s election as deputy of the district. Afterwards, as «alaveism», it was used by the right wing as an atempt to stop Basque nationalism during the Second Republic and also at the end of the century some years later.