Americanism in Spain is deeply divided, along the same line that splits the continent. For obvious reasons, connected with the colonial legacy, Spain has dedicated most of its efforts to studying the so-called Comunidad Iberoamericana formed by the countries that were colonies of Spain and Portugal. It is community-like relationship that based above all on cultural links and also, of course, migration movements and financial flows. The result has been neglect by the academic or intellectual groups dealing with the "Iberian" world of concerns in areas that have a English, French or Dutch past. For this reason, in Spain, it is somewhat difficult to speak in terms of Americanist Studies in a comprehensive. This having been said, the characteristic feature of Americanist Studies in Spain is its institutional atomization. By this we mean that the networks of researchers studying the Americas, from History to Literature, Political Science to Sociology, are not articulated in a centralized institution, with any pre-established patterns or plans for the long-term, as is the case for instance with the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) or the Society for Latin American Studies (SLAS). Neither is there any single institution that regroups them such as in France the Institute des Amériques or the Institute of the Americas in Great Britain. There is the Asociación Española de Americanistas, but its last congress was in 2018 in Castelló, and the next one will be in Santiago de Compostela in 2021. The purpose of this association is the to hold various congresses and symposia year after year and promote activities; nevertheless, its academic focus is exclusively upon History. Since 1982 there was a Consejo Español de Estudios Iberoamericanos (CEIB) that brought together member institutions dealing with Ibero-American social studies, in an effort to coordinate their activities and hold a large conference every two years. The CEIB was a member of the Federación Internacional de Estudios de América Latina y el Caribe (FIEALC) and ceased their activities three years ago.
