H.E. Santiago Cabanas Ansorena

As a relatively new young diplomat Santiago Cabanas Ansorena volunteered for the post of deputy chief of mission in Iran. It was then well above his pay grade, but as there was a notable lack of enthusiasm among more senior diplomats (he says) to serve in the turbulent new Islamic regime, then in the throes of consolidating its revolution, he got the job. He had only been in Tehran a few months when the resident ambassador was absent through illness and the full impact of running the embassy fell on his shoulders as charge d’affaires. It was, he recalled in a recent interview with Diplomatic Connections, a learning experience.

That experience led to a coveted slot in Spain’s Washington embassy, followed by ambassadorships to Czechoslovakia (as it then was), the Kingdom of Jordan, Algeria, and then Washington, plus a spell as the Spanish Consul General in Florida.

The Ambassador belongs to a generation of Spaniards whose life straddles a seismic crack in the historical surface, with the closing years of the Fascist dictator Francisco Franco’s regime on one side and a return to democracy on the other, with all the bells and whistles of full membership in the western community, including in NATO and the European Union.
Spain’s transition began in 1975 with the death of Franco when, against the expectations of many, Spain morphed peacefully into a constitutional monarchy with King Juan Carlos as its first monarch. The repression of the fascist regime was replaced by an explosion of creativity and permissiveness known as La Movida.

In 2014, Juan Carlos abdicated as a result of a scandal and was succeeded by his Georgetown University educated son, Felipe VI. The Ambassador conceded that, like every other European monarchy, Spain has its republican undertow, but the king is popular and respected, as is his heir, the Infanta (Crown Princess) Leonor, currently doing her military service.

Spain-U.S. relations are rooted in a succession of defense agreements and in growing investments in each other’s economies. Under the so-called Treaty of Madrid of 1953, Spain gave the U.S. access to shipping and the Air Force at two mainland Spanish bases at Rota and Torrejón. The treaty ended years of diplomatic isolation of Franco’s regime by the democracies. Subsequent agreements increased the U.S. presence, and the current Defense Cooperation Agreement includes the permanent presence of 4,750 U.S. Marines and the headquarters of the Africa Command. Spanish forces were deployed in Afghanistan as part of ISAF, the International Security Assistance Force.
With a GDP of USD 1.4 trillion and a population  of 47.3 million people, Spain is the fourth-largest economy in the Eurozone. The Spanish economy increased 5.1 percent in 2021 (after a decline of almost 11 percent in 2020). The IMF forecasts that Spain’s recovery rate in 2022 is estimated to grow 4.8 percent, and then taper off to a recovery of 3.3 percent in 2023.

Many major U.S. companies are present in Spain, especially in the industrial sector—automobiles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, industrial machinery, etc. for a cumulative total U.S. investment in 2021 of $ 39.0 billion, an increase of 3.3 percent from 2020. Spain was the 10th largest investor in the United States in 2020, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Much of the investment has taken place in the past ten years, growing from $14 billion in 2006 to approximately USD 80.8 billion in 2021.
During Ambassador Cabanas’ tenure in Washington a statue of Bernardo de Gálves, leader of Spanish forces in the Revolution was unveiled outside the Spanish Embassy in Washington. It was a belated public acknowledgment of Spain’s little known
role in the American Revolution.

Diplomatic Connections: Washington is your fourth ambassadorial appointment, but you were posted in Washington thirty years ago, and I have to note in addition that more recently you were Spain’s consul general in Miami. Based on your experience, what advice would you have for a colleague newly arrived in Washington to take up a diplomatic assignment?

Ambassador Cabanas: In Washington I would say, first try to travel around the country. Washington absorbs most of your attention. I travel around—to Seattle, Boston, Dallas, Houston, or Miami. That’s how you get to know the reality of the country. It’s a different world; there are people to meet and there are opportunities. And the other advice would be, when in Washington, get out, don’t stay in your office.

Diplomatic Connections: Get to know the capital.

Ambassador Cabanas: Plus, a senior State Department officer once told me something that struck me, and I’ve always remembered it. He said, “You foreign ambassadors in the U.S. are very lucky, you have so many “diplomats” working for you, and that’s the American press. It was a simple observation, but it was right. You don’t have that in Jordan, or in Algeria. Here in Washington you have hundreds of people working for you: they write wonderful reports, they have wonderful contacts everywhere, and they write most of it. You have to learn to read it, but you learn that, and then you have all these people. But apart from learning how to read the press, and watching the news, you have to get out, and you have to listen to people. That’s the only way to do your job. Travel around, move a lot, never stop. It’s also very important to have a good team, and to work with that team.

Diplomatic Connections: What does being a Spaniard mean today?

Ambassador Cabanas: First of all, it means being a European, a citizen of Europe. I think that’s a big difference. We’re radically Europeans and that I think anchors us. But then we’re also Americans. Besides the Portuguese, we can say that we are both Europeans and Americans. You cannot understand Spain without the Americas. We can say that we are an American country and that has an impact in the way we relate to this country, and the rest of the Hemisphere. But then we’re also an African country. I was ambassador to Algeria, and all the west half of Algeria still has a very close relationship to Spain—in the way they act, in the way they react, in their architecture and their gastronomy. It’s so close. That gives us a special identity different from other European countries.

Diplomatic Connections: Do you count La Movida in this special identity?

Ambassador Cabanas: Of course. We are a modern country. We’re at the forefront of every social change in Europe. We’re at the forefront of the cultural wars, and I think Europeans realize that Spain is a country well ahead on many issues: we were the first ones to have homosexual weddings, gender equality laws. Any kind of social advances, in Spain we take them very seriously After years of being the backwater of Europe.

Diplomatic Connections: So this is a reaction to the years spent under a repressive regime.

Ambassador Cabanas: It is. But also part of identity is the fact that we’re of mixed blood. There is no such thing as a pure blooded Spaniard; we’re all half Arab, half Jewish, half European—the whole nation is mixed blood. I have blood from South America like 80 percent of our population, and I also have blood from northern Europe. We’re all mixtures, and that makes us very open. If you go to Spain there’s a big difference from any other European country in the sense that you’re immediately welcome. You’re a Madrileño after three hours in Madrid. That cannot happen in London, where it takes three or four generations to become a Brit. And that’s why I think there are not so many problems with migration as a political issue in our country. The extreme right focuses more on the issue of Catalan independence than the issue of migration. There are voices against excessive migration but still it’s not a real political issue.

Diplomatic Connections: With an official count of 67 million and growing, the Hispanic community comprises 20 percent of the population of the United States. How does the Hispanic population impact on your embassy?

Ambassador Cabanas: The Hispanic community is not unified, not like the Irish. The Mexicans and the Cubans, for example, have different interests, but we have something in common, which is the Spanish language. It does impact our work. In fact, one of our priorities is defending our legacy and trying to spread the word that we share a common history, which is not well known in this country. When this nation was born they looked south and west, and what they saw was a huge, huge territory that was nominally under the Spanish crown. It was obvious that Spain would be the new enemy. It was not in the interest of the new nation to depict us as friends. They wanted that territory; it was only normal. The good thing was that Spain understood very quickly that they couldn’t defend their territory, and so we managed to negotiate the way we handed it over—Louisiana, Florida—without war. The territory of continental America was actually peacefully transferred to the new nation by means of treaties and different agreements. 

Diplomatic Connections: It’s not too well known that French and Spanish troops supported the Americans in the War of Independence. The French role was crucial, but so was the Spanish force led by Gen. Bernardo de Gálves

Ambassador Cabanas: As crucial as the French, according to George Washington. But we were not interested in telling the story because it was absolutely contradictory with our colonies in the south. We were helping the British colonies to become independent, and at the same time we were fighting those who wanted to be independent of Spain. I sat next to a retired American general at a dinner in Galveston and he didn’t know the city was named after Bernardo de Gálves. He said nobody had taught that at school, not even at West Point.

Diplomatic Connections: What’s the good news about Spain’s bi-lateral relations with the United States, and what do you think the U.S. should be doing in this area that it is not?

Ambassador Cabanas: We are living in a period of very good relations. Looked at from any point of view, whether it’s economic, whether it’s the military, the multi-lateral aspect. We have a wonderful cooperation—artificial intelligence, space research, of course our defense agreement with the United States. The educational exchange, for example, with so many Americans studying in Spain and Spaniards studying here; the cultural exchange, and the political relationship, we’re going through a very positive time. I’m quite happy that this is happening and to have seen the improvement over the years. Even during the previous administration: there were tensions, of course, because Spain is part of the European Union and part of NATO, and our tensions were mainly because we were members of these organizations. But bi-laterally it was good. I leave to my successor relations with really no problems, except for the normal (occasional) differences.

Diplomatic Connections: Is there a feeling in Spain that Washington doesn’t take it as seriously as it deserves?

Ambassador Cabanas: I would say not only Spain: it can be true that perhaps, like other countries, we’re taken a little bit for granted, which is different. I believe there’s a tendency to identify Europe with a couple of capitals. And the rest, perhaps with a few exceptions, are seen as more troublesome. We’re not troublesome, but that’s something we have to deal with, something that is understandable. The United States is the global power and it doesn’t have that much time to pat you on the back all the time. The relations are good, if there are problems, let’s solve them. But yes, we’re taken for granted as a good ally. Which is a very positive thing. It’s not strictly bad: it’s a reality.

Diplomatic Connections: You attended the United World College in Wales, UK, where the Crown Princess Leonor of Spain was more recently also a student—actually, the two princesses. The Infanta (her Spanish title) will succeed her father, King Felipe, as the first reigning Spanish queen in centuries. How strong is the monarchy in Spain, and how much republicanism is there?  

Ambassador Cabanas: There are republicans in every monarchic country in Europe, but everybody recognizes that the monarchy has played its role in the modernization. It is true that the peaceful transition (from Fascism following the death of the dictator Francisco Franco) happened because there was a middle class which really decided it didn’t want trouble. They wanted Spain to be a modern European country, to join the European Union. They wanted to be European, to have stability, to have a car, vacations.  Everybody across the spectrum wanted something calm to happen and that was supported by the monarchy and so there was a great feeling for the monarchy. We’ve been very lucky to have a wonderful king now, very professional, very respected, and what I see is an extraordinary princess. She’s been a responsible young woman and is being educated to be a wonderful queen. So I’m quite hopeful that the monarchy will continue to be respected. The majority of the Spanish population supports the monarchy, understanding that it’s a unifying factor in a country.

Diplomatic Connections: The Hispanic population in the United States is 67 million, according to the latest population figures, which is 20 percent of the population. Is there a case for promoting Spanish to an official language alongside English and making the United States a bi-lingual country, as in Canada?

Ambassador Cabanas: What we’re seeing in the United States is the economy becoming bi-lingual. A medium or large sized company that wants to grow has to go into Spanish because the Spanish population is the one that is growing quickly, especially in its economic strength. You just have to see the increase in television advertising in Spanish because they want to sell to the Spanish. I don’t think you need to have this officially recognized. Look at the Netherlands, they all speak English, German, and Dutch, and it’s good for them. What I see as the important part is that the continent speaks both Spanish and English, but it’s not really important that the country speaks both languages officially. Right now Spain has 560 teachers in the United States teaching Spanish to Americans in the schools. And there are thousands of Americans in Spain learning the language. Because they realize one thing — that it’s an advantage.

Diplomatic Connections: The Spanish economy: it has had two big setbacks: 2008 was a big one, and the pandemic was another. How would you describe its current state?

Ambassador Cabanas: Actually, the economy is doing well. Very in some respects. Thirty years ago, if anyone would have told me there would be a time when U.S. investments
in Spain would be higher than Spanish investments in America I wouldn’t have
believed it—but today it is the case. You can’t compare unemployment with the United States, it’s a different world. It’s true that we have a problem with unemployment but not as bad as it was, and there are a number of differences—the structure of the economy, different employment laws. Here you can change the situation pretty quickly, for example, you can move from one place to the other.

Diplomatic Connections: With regard to the European Union, membership seems to have wide acceptance among Spaniards—in contrast to the skepticism in some other member states, isn’t that so?

Ambassador Cabanas: The general feeling in Spain is that the European Union is good for the country. And people recognize that. There is a general feeling that the European Union has been very positive for Spain. It’s not only the political stability, the feeling of being part of the western world. It’s also been good economically for us, and the changes in Spain have been tremendous. You go to Spain now and you see the railway, the highways, the airport. We have now one of the best railway systems in the world. There is a general consensus among political parties that it would be political suicide to go against public support for EU membership. You can criticize European politics, but we’re one of the most European countries inside the EU.

Diplomatic Connections: You said, in a recent interview, that what you called “the basic lessons of diplomacy” included “passion to do your work, [and] you really need to love the country where you’re posted…” Have you felt that way about all your posts?

Ambassador Cabanas: I think so. You need to feel well about the country, otherwise people realize that you’re not comfortable. I’m absolutely convinced that you can not be an ambassador if you don’t like the country where you’re posted, if you don’t feel at home and people see that you are not comfortable.