On the tourist colonization of Andalusia

Abstract

This text outlines the consequences of the arrival in Andalusia in the 1950s of a tourism model imposed from outside, which reinforced the existing role of Andalusia as a servant to the hegemonic centers of the North. This model is associated with serious social and ecological costs and, under a new guise, recreates old forms of exploitation, dispossession, and exclusion that deepen Andalusia's economic dependence, political subordination, and cultural alienation. The mechanisms by which this tourism model deepens a pattern of domination that goes beyond the economic sphere and shapes relationships of economic, political, and cultural colonization are presented. From this point, and in tune with what the world needs, the urgency of raising awareness is emphasized, allowing us to think about and update alternative forms and models of tourism outside the circuits of capital accumulation; a tourism that is part of new collectively organized spaces that, instead of destroying life from the logic of capital accumulation, puts life at the center from the logic of care.