On the Threshold to Democracy: Graffiti and the Spanish Transition

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between graffiti and liminality during the Spanish Transition to democracy. Following Franco’s death in 1975, Spain experiences the in-betweenness associated with transitional phases, and such slippage creates a site of hybridity or third space enacted in part through the plethora of pintadas found in its towns and cities. Graffiti contribute to the creation of a middle-passage in which the nature of the Spanish nation unfolds. In this site of flux, the Francoist vision of a unified Spain is both challenged and defended through a multifaceted, conflictual and collective process of identification. Such markings - photographed from 1979 to 1980 - reflect both the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the Transition and the potential of a nation in a process of change. In my study I draw mainly from Homi Bhabha’s thoughts on Third Space, and on scholarship on graffiti. I show that while the message and tone vary widely between opposing ideologies, their politically charged graffiti enact the instertices where national identity is negotiated.