Emotion expression works as an argumentative tool in the case of Spanish emigration and its depiction in the media. This paper proposes a comparative analysis of two distinct political contexts to observe different social parameters at work: the current democratic system and the post-Spanish Civil War dictatorial regime. In both cases, they are utilized by third parties to validate a specific political stance. The assay made here uses Edwards’ ‘emotion in use’ and the lexical framework within Martin and White’s ‘appraisal model’.