Touring Globalization's Communicative Effect on Nationalism: An Analysis of the Memorialization of the Madrid Train Bombings

Memorials communicate nationalism everyday by embodying a society's collective memory of a historical event. Traditionally, memorials are thought to communicate a nation's past and convey a shared sense of national identity. This humanistic case study seeks to investigate and analyze if and how globalization impacts sentiments of nationalism at a tourist site. Specifically, the March 11, 2004 Madrid Memorial is examined for its context, design, and location/space. This paper derives from a multi-method data collection in which two formal and 25 informal interviews are conducted. Document analysis of a postcard, tourist maps, online wikis, and pamphlets are also examined. The results indicate that respondents felt global sentiments at the March 11 Memorial, more so than their national identity. Finally, the conscious identification with global ideals at this Memorial signifies that globalization is continuing to intensify and alter how individuals within a society remember and commemorate a tragic event.