La Hispano
Guadalajara, Spain.
La Hispano was a Spanish automobile manufacturer active in the early decades of the 20th century, during a period when Spain was attempting to build its own domestic motor industry.
The company produced cars in small numbers, typical of Spanish manufacturers of the era, combining locally manufactured components with influences and technologies drawn from broader European automotive practice.
La Hispano automobiles were aimed at a limited market and were often assembled with a high degree of craftsmanship rather than mass production. Like many Spanish marques of the time, the company operated under difficult economic conditions, facing limited industrial infrastructure, a small internal market, and strong competition from imported foreign vehicles.
The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) marked the effective end of La Hispano as an automobile manufacturer. The company’s facilities were destroyed during the conflict. The company was liquidated, and no further cars were manufactured after the war.
Although car production ended permanently, part of La Hispano’s industrial and technical legacy survived in another form. A branch of the company dedicated to aviation continued operations in Seville under the name Hispano-Aviación.
1954 La Hispano Type 514.
Built in Guadalajara in 1935, it was a completely accurate version, both body and mechanical, of the Fiat type 514, which during the years 1929 – 1932, was built in Italy. Its engine, a four-cylinder 1438 c.c., allowed speeds of over 80 km / h. The premises where it was manufactured were the old facilities that Hispano Suiza had in Guadalajara and where, previously, Hispano Guadalajara was manufactured.
During the Civil War, the facilities were destroyed, the company liquidated and no more cars were manufactured. However, a branch dedicated to aviation continued in Seville under the name Hispano-Aviación. The example below is currently at Col·lecció d’Automòbils Salvador Claret in Sils, Girona.
