Resumen de Discussing the couto mixto (Galicia, Spain): : Transcending the territorial trap through borderscapes and border poetics analyses

Valerià Paül i Carril , Juan Manuel Trillo Santamaría

• The assumption that the border between Spain and Portugal is a stable one since medieval times is commonplace. Thus, the territorial trap conception, as defined by John Agnew, dominates understanding of this border. This paper will focus on a specific border area, the Couto Mixto, in an effort to contest this territorial trap. Furthermore, using some of the emerging border studies concepts, mainly borderscapes and border poetics, this research will discuss how this particular territory has been recently recovered and recreated. The theoretical underpinnings are followed by an analysis of what the Couto was and how it has been reappropriated in narrative terms in the last twenty years. The paper concludes by discussing the empirical findings on the Couto in light of the theoretical sections. It is eventually suggested that tourism based on specific immaterial border legacy could encourage Couto’s inhabitants and the precarious economy of the area.