White legend

Short description: Uncritical view of Spanish colonial practices

The label White legend (Spanish: Leyenda blanca) or the Pink legend (Leyenda rosa) is used to describe a historiographic approach which presents an uncritical or idealized image of Spanish colonial practices. Some authors consider this to be the result of taking attempts to counter the bias of the Black legend too far, whereas others consider it to have developed independently. Miguel Molina Martinez describes this legend as a characteristic of the Nationalist Spanish historiography which was propagated during the regime of Francisco Franco, a regime which associated itself with the imperial past and couched it in positive terms. Molina Martinez points to the classic text of Spanish Americanists during the Franco period, Rómulo Carbia's Historia de la leyenda negra hispanoamericana, as a work with a strong ideological motivation which frequently fell into arguments which could be qualified as part of the White Legend, while also giving more current examples of the trope.[1]

Some, such as Benjamin Keen, have criticized the works of John Fiske and Lewis Hanke as going too far towards idealizing Spanish history.[2] While recognising the general merit of Hanke's work, Keen suggests that the United States' contemporary imperial ventures in the Caribbean and the Philippines had led him to idealise the Spanish Empire as an analogy for American colonialism.[3] Both Keen and Sergio Villalobos and co-workers argues that the proponents of the White Legend focus on Spanish legal codes protecting the Indigenous population, while ignoring the copious documentary evidence that they were widely ignored.[3][4] Vifllalobos and co-workers posits that the encomienda was largely a bad deal for indigenous peoples and marred with abuses and criticize attempts by historians like Jaime Eyzaguirre to find anecdotes of a good treatment towards the indigenous peoples.[4]

Another trope commonly repeated among proponents of the white legend is that Spanish America was never a colony after the 1951 essay Las Indias no eran colonias of Ricardo Levene.[4] Followers of this view therefore avoid the term "colony" (colonia) preferring "kingdom" (reino) for Spanish entities in the Americas.[4] Reportedly, this view ignores the unequal treatment of Spanish possessions in the Americas in favour of metropolitan Spain.[4]

Luis Castellvi Laukamp accuses Elvira Roca Barea of "transforming the Black Legend into the White Legend" in her influential 2016 work, Imperofobia y Leyenda Negra, in which she claims that Spain confronted the other "not with racist theories but with [protective] laws". Castellvi Laukamp points out that not only did the Spanish Laws of the Indies include racism from the beginning, but slavery continued in Spanish colonies in the Americas until 1886. He further takes issue with claims that Spanish colonies' high level of mestizaje (biological and cultural mixing of the European and Indigenous population) demonstrates the absence of racism in the Spanish Empire. Castellvi Laukamp quotes from contemporary sources showing that Indigenous women were treated as spoils of war and subject to racialised sexual slavery and subordination and demonstrates the discriminatory racial stereotypes deployed against black and other non-white women in the colonial period.[5]

Dominican Historian Esteban Mira Caballos (es) argues that the Black and White legends form part of a single unity, which he calls a "Great Lie".[6] He goes on to describe the way the Black Legend is instrumentalised to support the White Legend:

> The consequence of the positioning of those who allude to the Black Legend in order to, in reality, defend the White Legend, has been to silence any criticism of the past: We were marvellous, and anything negative anyone has to say about us is fruit of the Black Legend. And without the possibility of criticism, the science of History loses all meaning.

— Esteban Mira Caballos, Mito, realidad y actualidad de la leyenda negra

## Other uses

The "White Legend" or the "Pink Legend" (Sp: Leyenda Rosa) may also refer to the propaganda which was circulated within Spain by Philip II and his descendants, propaganda which claimed that his actions in the Netherlands and America were religiously motivated, so his own patrimony would be preserved. This propaganda was intended to foster the image that Spain was ruled by a prudent and pious monarch, and control the unrest that was generated by his aggressive policies and his wars in the Netherlands.[7]

## References

1. ↑ Molina Martínez, Miguel (2012). "La Leyenda Negra revisitada: la polémica continúa". Revista Hispanoamericana (Revista Digital de la Real Academia Hispano Americana de Ciencias, Artes y Letras). ISSN 2174-0445. http://revista.raha.es/articulo1.pdf.
2. ↑ Walsh, Anne L. (2007). Arturo Pérez-Reverte: narrative tricks and narrative strategies. Colección Támesis: Monografías (Volume 246). London: Tamesis Books. p. 117. ISBN 978-1-85566-150-9.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Keen, Benjamin (1971). "The White Legend Revisited: A Reply to Professor Hanke's 'Modest Proposal'". The Hispanic American Historical Review 51 (2): 336–355. doi:10.2307/2512479.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Villalobos, Sergio; Retamal Ávila, Julio; Serrano, Sol (1980). "Introducción para una nueva historia" (in es). Historia del pueblo chileno. I. Santiago de Chile: Zig-Zag. pp. 40–41.
5. ↑ Castellvi Laukamp, Luis (11 October 2018). "Repensar la Hispanidad". https://www.elespanol.com/opinion/tribunas/20181011/repensar-hispanidad/344585540_12.html.
6. ↑ Mira Caballos, Esteban. "Mito, Realidad y actualidad de la leyenda negra". https://rebelion.org/mito-realidad-y-actualidad-de-la-leyenda-negra/.
7. ↑ Garcia Carcel, Ricardo (2017). El Demonio del Sur: La leyenda Negra de Felipe II. Historia.

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