At the turn of the twentieth century, two newspapers La Bandera Española (1895-1901) and El Heraldo Español (1901-1902) were founded by Spanish migrants in Caracas with the aim of defending the interests of the Spanish colony in Venezuela. As “residents” in Venezuela, Spaniards were prohibited from participating in Venezuelan politics. However, these newspapers provided an outlet for Spaniards in Caracas to counter Venezuelans’ criticism of both the community and Spain’s last attempts to retain its hold on Cuba and the Philippines. As such, I argue that these newspapers served as spaces of emotional and community support for migrants which allowed them to exercise agency and resist being typecast and vilified by Venezuelans in power. Additionally, they elucidate the evolving relationship and emotional bonds formed between the former Spanish empire and its citizens in Venezuela. In this sense, I rely on Barbara Rosenwein’s work on emotional communities to analyze the social and emotional components that impacted migrants’ national belonging. I also dialogue with Sarah Ahmed and Elena Delgado’s work on emotions to elucidate how love and fear, across former colonized and colonizing powers, marked the day-to-day interactions of migrants in the independent Iberian Atlantic.
