Loss of place, loss of self: musical heterotopias in Franco’s prisons (1938–1945)

Abstract

ABSTRACT At the end of the Spanish Civil War, the Fascist Government led by General Franco implemented a regime of extensive suppression over the population. As a result, prisons became overcrowded with thousands of political opponents. From 1938—a year before the end of the armed conflict—to 1943, musical practices were considered a crucial component of the propaganda programmes implemented in prisons to control and re-educate the inmates. In response to this official sonic environment, prisoners also cultivated their own musical practices as a means of preserving their self-identities. The initial section of the article offers a brief overview of the living conditions experienced in Spanish prisons during Franco’s regime. In the subsequent part, I delve into the significance of the unofficial musical practices developed by detainees, examining their relationship to concepts such as space, place, heterotopia, and the ‘construction of the self’. Due to the state’s ability to exert epistemic violence by suppressing individuals and groups’ capacity to speak or be heard, these unofficial musical practices can be regarded as cultural artefacts that emerged as a means of resistance against the propaganda enforced by the Franco government.