Everything there is to say about Ministerio del Tiempo (2015–2020)
What happens when a Mexican, a Puerto Rican, and a Spaniard watch a sci-fi series claiming that nothing in Spain’s imperial history can ever be changed?
The three of us hope to present our transnational thoughts about an award-winning TV show, Ministerio del Tiempo, which aired on RTVE between 2015 and 2020 yet still remains largely unknown outside the Spanish-speaking world. On Prime and RTVE.com, one can’t find the English subtitles for the show, which may be a deliberate attempt by English-speaking television concerns to make sure it does not compete with English and American sci-fi series.
The series has won many deserved awards including Best Screenplay at the MiM 2016; Best Drama, Best Lead Actress (Aura Garrido), and Best Supporting Actor at the 4th Feroz Awards 2017; Best TV Series at the Platino Awards 2018; and Best Fiction, Best Actor (Jaime Blanch), Best Screenplay, and Best Production at the Iris Awards 2021.
The premise of the show is ingenious. In a flourish of revisionist history, the plot presumes that Ferdinand and Isabel discovered the secrets of time travel in the late fifteenth century, then created a “Ministry of Time” devoted to safeguarding time travel from malicious actors who might try to undo the glorious history of Spain. The Ministry continued all the way to the early twenty-first century, evolving throughout the reigns of the Austrian Hapsburgs, Bourbons, Napoleonic Wars, Carlist Wars, the Franco era, and beyond.
The 42 episodes span an incredible array of Spanish historical events, including many storylines that involve protecting the Spanish canon — Lope de Vega, Cervantes, Lorca, and Becquer — threatened at various times by people who seek to go back in time and “steal” Spain’s artistic patrimony.
As a Spanish teacher I can’t help but delight in the series, with its breathtaking costumes and erudite review of Spanish literature and history, so often forgotten in today’s era as Spanish classes must deal increasingly with language acquisition and rarely delve into the complexities of Spanish-speaking history.
At the same time, Ministerio del Tiempo participates in many of the worst forms of conservatism. While the plotlines show some sympathy to Jews and Muslims victimized by the Inquisition, it preserves a general silence about the evils of Spanish exploitation overseas. While the show presents scathing critiques of French and German abuses (Napoleon and Hitler, of course), it shows an eerie reverence toward everything done by England. The concern for women’s rights and gay rights seems from some angles to be like pinkwashing, celebrating the liberal capitalism of post-Franco Spain and paying homage to the Anglophone world that ostensibly advanced this sexual progressivism, while still insisting that England’s broader global project of colonization and Protestant capitalism led to a much better world than one could have imagined had French, German, or Spanish culture prevailed.
Looking at the show in 2025 from a triple vantage point — as a Puerto Rican, a Mexican, and a Spaniard — we hope to open a broader conversation about that the show reveals about late capitalism and the post-imperial world. A Spanish leftist can ironically participate in massive self-critique without worrying, the way a Puerto Rican and Mexican would, about the global domination of English over Spanish, something that poses an existential danger to Puerto Rico (where statehood may mean abandoning Spanish), and to Mexico (where anti-immigrant sentiments often manifest as disgust from English-speakers toward the Spanish language.)
We look forward to a rich conversation. Feel free to leave comments regarding your thoughts on this fascinating show.