A Spanish business association has drawn up plans for a theme park devoted to Hispanidad in Trujillo, the Extremadura town that produced Francisco Pizarro and a generation of conquistadors of the Americas.
The scheme, called Ciudad Hispánica, would cover 300 hectares and require €700 million of investment, its promoters said. They put the employment effect at more than 700 direct jobs and 3,000 indirect ones.
Behind the proposal is Loabre, a business and professional association with more than 200 members inside and outside Extremadura that works to strengthen the regional economy.
The executive director of the project is Marta Gálvez-Cañero, a lawyer who manages the Fundación Antonio Medrano. She said the aim was to counter the leyenda negra, the account of Spanish rule in the Americas as uniquely cruel, though she stressed the approach would be one of concord between a community of 600 million people.
The promoters forecast about five million visitors a year from the seventh year of operation. A business plan has been written and specialists approached, with investors to be contacted once regional political backing is secured.
The site would hold forest areas, a botanical garden planted with tree species from Spanish-speaking countries and a large lake. Plans also list a square for large events, an auditorium, a congress centre, five hotels, a campsite and two museum buildings devoted to Hispanidad.
Streets would be dedicated to individual countries and given over to their food and traditional culture. Craft workshops, shops, restaurants and a business incubator are also envisaged, alongside a training and employment centre run with embassies.
The organisers intend to set up an association of experts from both sides of the Atlantic, a foundation to set strategy and a company to carry out the development. A panel of historians would define the historical framing and a consortium of architects from Spanish-speaking countries would handle the design.
The promoters have sought meetings with Extremadura’s President María Guardiola and Trujillo mayor Inés Rubio, both of the Partido Popular (PP), which has governed the region since April in a coalition with Vox.
Gálvez-Cañero said other routes were set out in the business plan if that backing did not materialise, though the promoters wanted the park built in Extremadura. Trujillo has about 8,600 inhabitants and the region has the lowest output per head in Spain.
The proposal has come months after King Felipe VI said in March that there had been considerable abuse during the conquest and colonisation of the Americas, remarks that reopened argument in Spain over the imperial legacy.
The plan has already been presented at an event in the Cáceres town of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Work is also under way on an exhibition at the monastery of Guadalupe.
