One year into its second term, Spain's Socialist government is taking steps to boost the country's international status - and prove it has more to offer than its traditional image of sun, sand and sangria.
"There must be an effort to convey the notion that Spain is something more than just a tourist destination," said Julian Santamaria, a professor of political science at Madrid's Complutense University and a former ambassador to Washington.
The campaign has been given added stimulus with the election of US President Barack Obama after years of icy relations with the Bush administration, by Madrid's Presidency of the EU in the first half of next year, and by the economic crisis that has plunged the country into recession.
In New York this month, the government launched a plan called Made in/Made by Spain that highlights Spanish innovation in a bid to benefit from Mr Obama's €576 billion economic stimulus plan.
The two-year €44 million Spanish plan will "make known the quality and the technology of Spanish companies," said Industry, Tourism and Trade Minister Miguel Sebastian. The US "is a gigantic market and in which Spain is not sufficiently represented, even though we have companies that are world leaders," he said, referring to such giants as Telefonica, Banco Santander, energy group Iberdrola and Inditex, Europe's largest clothing retailer.
He blamed a misconception in the US about Spain, the world's second most popular tourist destination.
"The American media has a very stereotypical idea of Spain as a sympathetic country, happy, enjoyable, with good food and nice people, but is unaware that we are a very advanced country technologically and that we have many products to offer Americans," he said.
"It is not by accident that we are the eighth largest economy in the world, by the work of Spaniards and the creativity of its companies."
But the government of Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero feels this growing economic weight is not matched by its international status.
Strenuous lobbying led to Spain gaining a seat at the Group of 20 developed and developing nations conference in Washington in November and an invitation to join the next G20 meeting in London in April, even though Madrid is not a member.
Madrid feels it has a lot to offer the G20, as the country's more rigorous banking regulations have helped Spanish banks escape the worst of the crisis that has swept financial institutions worldwide, even though Spain's economy has collapsed as the bubble burst on its property market.
Mr Zapatero was re-elected last March after four years in which he transformed the country with a series of sweeping liberal social reforms.
Despite the concerns over the slumping economy, in his second term Mr Zapatero "is shifting a bit towards international affairs," Mr Santamaria said. And in Mr Obama, the Socialist leader appears to have found a soulmate.