Spanish Mormon Westerns: Popular Literature, Religion, and US–Spain Relations during the Franco Regime

Abstract: This article explores the degree to which popular literary novels in Spain reflect the evolving relationship between Spain and the United States after World War II. The specific texts analyzed here are a selection of Spanish Mormon Westerns (SMW), which come in two types. The first are pseudotranslations of American texts and import an image of America (the West, Mormons, etc.) based on American stereotypes found in works like Zane Grey’s Riders of the Purple Sage . In SMWs of the second type, Mormonism serves as a foil for the Catholic characters who are portrayed as the heroes of the stories. In this way, the second type of SMW follows the model of José Mallorquí’s El Coyote by vindicating the legacy of Spain’s colonial past in the American West.