Expatriados en la madre patria: El estado de limbo de los emigrados realistas en el imperio español, 1790-1830

Abstract

This article analyzes requests for aid and compensation from royalists displaced by war within the Spanish empire in a period of still unsettled borders. It unpacks the terminology used both by the émigrés (emigrados) and by officials in the receiving societies, such as Spain, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, to demarcate the boundaries of inclusion and exclusion. The term patria (homeland) expressed belonging but with ambiguous meanings that could refer to one’s birthplace, the larger community of royal subjects, or an emerging nation. When émigrés complained of being treated as outsiders rather than compatriots, they expressed a bifurcated identity similar to those exiled in foreign countries.