AmerMad
America in Madrid. Interconnected heritage and impact on tourism in the Community of Madrid.
This project is part of the R&D Activities Programs between research groups of the Community of Madrid in Social Sciences and Humanities (H2019-HUM-5694), co-financed with the European Social Fund. With a duration of three years and starting on January 1, 2020, it has a total funding of € 219,075 to carry out activities within the line of research: management, conservation and dissemination of historical, artistic, linguistic heritage, musical, natural and audiovisual, in relation to tourism and the development of the Community of Madrid.
It is made up of a consortium that coordinates the Madrid Institute for Advanced Study, a mixed center made up of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and Casa de Velázquez, and includes a total of 9 research groups of 6 universities and research centers: Universidad de Alcala de Henares, Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Carlos III de Madrid, Complutense de Madrid, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas y el Instituto de Patrimonio Cultural de España. It also has the support of 25 associated entities, linked to the different lines of work of the project.
AmerMad's main objective is to value and exploit in an innovative way the historical, cultural, and natural heritage generated by the profound influence of America in the Madrid region and in the worldviews, customs, and material culture of its inhabitants.
The ties and the interaction between Madrid and America, insufficiently visible in our modernday Community, do have a solid past and a clear projection towards the future. The AmerMad project aims to resolve the “paradox of the invisibility of the Empire” in Madrid, a region which would be completely different were it not for the numerous influences of the Imperial conglomeration (Amelang, 2008). Our objective is to demonstrate that this invisibility is due to the lack of attention so far paid to the testimonies of the presence of America in Madrid’s worldview. We shall also demonstrate that the “interconnected patrimonies” in which this reciprocal relationship manifests itself are both varied and of a long maturation.
Indications of the presence of America in the region’s daily life and worldview appeared even before the establishment of the Royal Court in Madrid (1561) and take a symbolic step toward center stage as far back as in the decoration of the Salón de Reinos (Salon of the Kingdoms) in the Buen Retiro palace (1630s), in which the victories at Salvador de Bahía and San Juan de Puerto Rico are represented. Furthermore, all types of exchanges with the American world (which included large areas of modern North America) remained at the epicenter of Madrilenian life even after the loss of the continental viceroyalties and captaincies at the beginning of the XIXth century. Over the three years of the project’s implementation the patrimony of American origin is to be studied in all its manifestations, be they historical, documentary, artistic, cultural, or natural.
Partner Network
- GEMS (Facultad de Filosofía y letras de la UAM). Entidad coordinadora
- TURUAM (Facultad de C. Económicas y empresariales de la UAM)
- IRG (Escuela Politécnica Superior de la UAM)
- AMERMAD (Facultad de Humanidades de la UC3M)
- AmerMad_UCM (Facultad de Geografía e Historia de la UCM)
- AYBCAC (Facultad de Geografía e Historia de la UNED)
- CULPOVIME (Facultad de Filosofía y Letras de la UAH)
- GEA (Instituto de Historia de la Agencia Estatal del CSIC)
- IPCE-MCD (Instituto del Patrimonio Cultura de España del MCD)