“The shape of our own face”

The words of HM Felipe VI in the presentation of the ‘Hispanic History’ portal cannot leave us indifferent. The story is, he said, what we are, what has made us. Without bombast and excesses, which are a fiction, a fable. Without either asking for forgiveness for what has happened, because we do not ride on the responsibilities of those who have preceded us. That is the classic mistaken maneuver of those of our contemporaries who thus hide their faults and crimes, those of today and also those of tomorrow. Put the focus elsewhere, point in another direction? The history of Spain, global, Hispanic, mestizo, intercultural, polyglot, intermingled, translated and transferred, appears here before our absorbed eyes in the form of a unique map of a world saturated with trajectories, itineraries and networks. In the geolocation system underlying the search engine (nice current expression, equivalent to the traditional “ask me a good question”) the five continents appear riddled with references. These contain people, moments, places and events. The saturation is so manifest that only one conclusion can be reached. Our ancestors, yes, our ancestors, were everywhere, they stayed there long or short, above all they moved. Hispanic history is the metaphor of the movement that globalization has built. The figures are overwhelming and show how much and well work has been done. The geopositioning of events and characters includes some 150,000 geographical references. More than 50,000 characters and the location of 20,000 events from the year 1,350,000 BC to the present day make the density of a shared experience available to everyone in free access. Although the miracle of current technology exhibits colours, textures and dimensions, the portal would not have been possible without the ‘Electronic Biographical Dictionary’ and the information on events that made up the ‘Chronological Atlas of the History of Spain’. The initiative of the distinguished Royal Academy of History has had the support of the Ministry of Science and Innovation for a long time. Please, access the halls of Hispanic history and enjoy so much wealth.