Democratic Spain Research Articles

Minority Narratives: The Voices of Women Architects from the School of Madrid in Early Democratic Spain (1975-1982)

Since the mid-19th century and until the 1964 study programme, students at the Madrid School of Architecture had to undergo various entrance exams for university. Women architects in Francoist Spain represented a mere 5% of the profession, a gender gap only overcome many years after the democratic restoration. Yet most of them did not consider feminism as a matter major concern, since the lack of freedom in Spain held greater importance for women that gender issues, which were relegated to a secondary position in public discussions. Starting in 1985, with the development of the Autonomous Regions in Spain and its accession to the European Economic Community, the country underwent a propound transformation. Former generations of women architects would then play a relevant professional role. This paper aims to expose, through the chronological sequence of their graduation—initially in a testimonial and isolated manner and later forming small networks—how their professional careers developed. This chronological approach, as well as a study of their links from a series of conversations with several women architects that studied and/or set their practice during the years of the democratic transition allows us to conclude that they were not only pioneers but also role models and mentors to each other. Their status as a determined minority is reflected in the relationships they established, with friendships and student complicity that accompanied them throughout their lives, as confirmed by their professional collaborations, comments, and vivid memories of their belonging to a group or community.

A narrativa de Hemingway na Espanha da Guerra Civil e suas implicações históricas e políticas a partir da teoria de Edward Said

This article consists in an historical analysis of three works by Ernest Hemingway that are set in the Spanish Civil War. The analysis is complemented by Edward Said’s theory called Orientalism to extract the narrative that the author proposes to be contrasted with the historical events to see how it is that the narrative that sought to unite the United States with the USSR to go together against fascism contributed to the illusion in which republican and democratic Spain of has being seen as a satellite state of the Soviet Union and, therefore, an enemy of the United States in the framework of the recently begun Cold War.

Madrid's Arco de la Victoria: Cultural Symbols and Social Negotiations in Contemporary Spain

This paper examines Madrid's Arco de la Victoria as a cultural symbol and its role in the social negotiations of contemporary Spain. Anchored in the framework of cultural sociology, the study traces the monument's origins to Franco's regime, where it was intended as a symbol of authoritarian triumph. As Spain transitioned to democracy, the Arco's significance shifted, reflecting the changing narratives and collective memory of Spanish society. Through analysis of academic literature and historical records, the study explores the monument's contested semantics over time and public discourses that surround it. The findings reveal that the Arco de la Victoria, much like other Francoist monuments, has evolved from a representation of unified national identity to a site of contestation and re-negotiation in democratic Spain. The paper contributes to the understanding of how historical symbols are re-evaluated as societies progress and how they continue to shape and reflect collective identities and memories.

Resisting ruination: the termites of corruption in democratic Spain

ABSTRACT This article examines the processes of ruination that are at work in democratic Spain through Xavier Artigas and Xapo Ortega’s 2014 documentary Termitas: El Observatorio DESC contra Bárcenas, which delves into the “Bárcenas case”, a political scandal involving the illegal financing of the (at the time) ruling conservative party, which showed the role that the judiciary plays in fostering corruption. The documentary argues that the ongoing ruination of democracy in Spain cannot be blamed on individual instances of corruption involving public officials and institutions, but rather that it is ingrained in the structures of the system. To give material shape to this elusive structural corruption, the documentary uses the metaphor of termite infestation, suggesting that fighting it requires more than merely scratching the surface. It demands a four-step process: detect the signs of its presence, locate the nest, be vigilant and, ultimately, exterminate it. Through the work of Ann Laura Stoler and Rob Nixon, the goal of this article is to analyze how the termite metaphor invites us to rethink – figuratively, materially and affectively – systemic corruption as an ongoing process of ruination whose material effects do not unfold instantly, but slowly across space and time. By paying attention to the time gap between the cause of ruination and the eventual manifestation of its long-delayed effects, the documentary makes visible how systemic corruption slowly fades from public memory, resulting in political and legal inaction, and consequently, impunity. The article concludes by suggesting that while the termite metaphor gives systemic corruption a tangible materiality upon which viewers can act, the documentary’s call for the extermination of the termites as the ultimate form of resistance fails to capture its political message.

Regional Ambassadors or State Agents? Assessing the Role of Catalan Cabinet Ministers in Spain

AbstractThis study focuses on Catalan cabinet ministers in democratic Spain with a view to understanding what function they perform in the central government: regional ambassador or state agent? To this end, this analysis draws on a sub-dataset comprised of 22 Catalan cabinet ministers taken from a general pool of 220 cabinet ministers and 371 ministerial appointments from 1977 to 2021. Our findings demonstrate, first, that no Catalan cabinet minister has ever reached the position of Prime Minister and Catalans constitute a kind of ministerial “middle class” occupying intermediate positions in the cabinet. Second, the examination of career paths and publications of Catalan ministers shows that their role varied according to circumstances. Third, in this article we argue that those variations can be best interpreted as a delegation between principal and agent relying on two main variables, namely the type of party they belong to in Catalonia and the parliamentarian majority sustaining the party controlling the Spanish cabinet.

Francisco Franco Is Back: The Contested Reemergence of a Fascist Moral Exemplar

AbstractBased on long-term ethnographic research on contemporary exhumations of mass graves from the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), as well as analysis of the exhumation of Francisco Franco from the Valley of the Fallen, this paper looks at the ways in which the dictator’s moral exemplarity has evolved over time since his military victory in 1939. During the early years of his dictatorship, Franco’s propaganda machine built the legend of a historical character touched by divine providence who sacrificed himself to save Spain from communism. His moral charisma was enriched by associating his historical mission with a constellation of moral exemplars drawn from medieval and imperial Spain. After his death, his moral exemplarity dwindled as democratic Spain embraced a political discourse of national reconciliation. Yet, since 2000, a new negative exemplarity of Franco as a war criminal has come into sharp focus, in connection with the exhumation of the mass graves of tens of thousands of Republican civilians executed by his army and paramilitary. In recent years, Franco has reemerged as a fascist exemplar alongside a rise of the extreme right. To understand the revival of his fascist exemplarity, I focus on two processes: the rise of the political party Vox, which claims undisguised admiration for Franco’s legacy (a process I call “neo-exemplarity”), and the dismantling in October 2019 of Franco’s honorable burial and the debate over the treatment that his mortal remains deserve (a process I call “necro-exemplarity”).

Shadows of the Past in Spain: Historical Policy and Collective Memory of Civil War and Francism

The article is devoted to the study of the phenomenon of public memory about the civil war of 1936 – 1939 and the Francoist dictatorship in Spain. Another focus of the research is an analysis of the difficulties and contradictions associated with the transformations of the Spanish state historical policy, including the problems resulting from the adoption of a new law on democratic memory in the country. For twenty years, issues of memory have invariably been present in the Spanish political discourse and affect the daily life of Spaniards. This situation has been accompanied by significant media attention and wide media coverage. Numerous references to the themes of memory and the difficult past are often superficial and do not reveal the essence of the problem, forming a horizontal informational reflection that gives the illusion of saturation. The authors, analyzing the relationship of the Spaniards with their past, apply the comparative method in the context of four historical stages — the period of the Francoist dictatorship, the stage of democratic transition, democratic Spain in the 1980s – 1990s, and Spain of the 21st century. The conducted research allows us to assert that one important characteristic of the Spanish case is the lack of social consolidation and acceptance of the policy of public memory on a democratic basis. This reveals the difficulty of building a social and political consensus around the policy of memory. Turning to the history of the issue of the return of memory and noting the desire of the left political forces for a historical revenge, the authors of the article conclude that it is impossible to present a single correct presentation of democratic memory. Using the example of the denial of both the Francoist memory and the revolutionary memory of the anarchist movement, the article argues the specific character of democratic memory as a cultural phenomenon: democratic memory is multiple, it reflects and presents various interests of many social actors and does not have an exclusively liberal-democratic character.

Constitutional transition to democracy in Spain

In this article the author analyses formation of the country's constitutional legislation system. In the 20th century Spain experienced three different periods: the years of the Second Republic in 1931-1939, the Franco's dictatorship of 1939-1975 and the period of transition to democracy or, as it is called ‘constitutional transit' of 1975-1980, when the basic laws and regulations of democratic Spain were adopted. Each of these periods corresponded with fundamentally different lawmaking processes, based on different legal judicial norms that were strongly influenced by the peculiarities of the political situation in the country. This article examines the background of the creation of Spanish constitutions in a particular historical period, the domestic and international situation and its influence on the peculiarities of lawmaking process. The author studies the history of the constitutional documents' adoption, considers and examines their structure and content in a highly detailed way. The author scrutinizes not only the logic, but also the sequence and reasons for the adoption of all Spanish constitutional and legal acts, as well as their meaning and influence on the legal system of the state. The Fundamental Laws of Frankish Spain, as well as the Spanish Constitution of 1978, the Political Reform Act, the rulings of the Spanish Constitutional Court and other acts, the peculiarities of the transition process to democracy and the legal break with the Frankish epoch and its system of lawmaking are studied in the article. It is worth noting that, at a time when the exist opinions that the Spanish Constitution is outdated and needs reforming, the conclusion about its fundamental role for the peaceful transition to a new Spain at the end of the 20th century and its legal relevance is the issue of utmost importance.

“Pedir un café puede costarte la vida”: phobias of democracy in Álex de la Iglesia’s El bar

ABSTRACT The so-called Spanish transition to democracy has largely been a process of collective forgetting undertaken for the sake of progress and measured by the country’s perceived success at democratization, for example, by adopting a new constitution and joining the European Union after forty years of a repressive fascist dictatorship. As the 15-M movement took off in 2011, the effectiveness of the Transition started to be openly questioned. In the 2017 film El bar, directed and co-written by Álex de la Iglesia, the characters find themselves in a situation that appears to be a random terrorist killing as one of the characters walks out of a bar in Madrid. Implying that we live in a society where “pedir un café puede costarte la vida”, the film employs a rather predictable narrative trope of trapping a handful of characters from different walks of life in an enclosed space and shows the audience how they organize themselves into a community whose goal is to leave the trap as a community, thus questioning its functionality. This article examines the plethora of fears that circulate in democratic Spain including terrorism, disease and Balkanization through a cinematic lens that seeks to reevaluate the Transition process and the very notion of crisis that shapes the public sphere and is, in turn, shaped by it.

Tortura y malos tratos en la España democrática

La tortura en la España contemporánea y democrática es una realidad preocupante, como lo muestran Informes de los más relevantes organismos internacionales en la lucha y prevención de la tortura, como el Comité Europeo para la Prevención de la tortura del Consejo de Europa, ONG, sentencias internas del Estado español y, gravemente, sentencias del Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos. Estas condenas a España del TEDH se producen por la violación del artículo 3 del Convenio Europeo de Derechos Humanos, por no realizar de manera exhaustiva y adecuada las investigaciones ante denuncias por malos tratos y torturas, y la última condena también por tratos inhumanos. Realidades que ponen al desnudo graves situaciones que exigen respuestas democráticas urgentes con acciones políticas, jurídicas y sociales directas e inmediatas, que impliquen contundente rechazo a las mismas y condena a sus responsables.

Демократизация католической церкви в Испании в 1976–1978 годах

The article considers the changes in the position of the Catholic Church in Spanish society caused by the democratic transition. The beginning of the reign of Juan Carlos I was marked by the rethinking of the dialogue between the state and the Catholic Church. The king introduced the initiative to revise the provisions of the Concordat, thereby limiting the power position of the Spanish Catholic diocese. This decision looks like an intention to divide the history of Spain into Franco and democratic periods in the political and public consciousness. But the full-fledged democratization of society would have been impossible without the modernization of the church institution. The Constitution of 1978, being the main law of the country, reflects the state's attitude to religious issues, emphasizing the secular status of Spain and the pluralism of religion of the Spaniards. Despite the restrictions imposed on the Catholic Church, caused by the transition to democracy, the position of the religious institution remains high due to the pressure of the historical memory of Spain, in which Catholicism is a nation forming factor. As a result, the democratization of the Catholic Church was successful, and the church institution took a harmonious position in the conditions of democratic Spain.

Rethinking ‘quality’ cinema

ABSTRACT This article takes the Miró Law as a case study in order to analyse what type of cinema was regarded suitable to depict the values of the new Spain at the end of the Transition period (1975–1982) and the consolidation of the democracy in Spain when the Socialist Party won the general elections in 1982. The Miró Law has been one of the most discussed pieces of legislation by scholars in the field. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of cultural production, this article revises the notion of ‘quality cinema’ fostered by the Miró Law to propose a different reading of the film policies carried out by the Socialist Party to foster a cinema that could embody the values of the new democratic Spain.

The media in the Spanish transition to democracy (1975–82)

The transformations in Spain from the 1960s onwards in relation to communication resulted in a new legislation that allowed a certain liberalization to try to legitimize the Franco regime. Despite the information repression, some media outlets (especially magazines) became channels for the dissemination of democratic ideas and spaces for debate. In addition, the lack of consolidation in the socialization of the values of the ‘18 of July’ in the first stages of the dictatorship led to a more successful technocratic socialization to favour the depoliticization and demobilization of Spanish society. The interpretations on how this communication pseudo-space was decisive, during the last years of the Franco regime, for the formation of public opinion in democratic Spain have not taken into account a significant factor that allows overcoming the opposition between the emergence of civil society and the persistence of some values from Francoism. This factor is the enormous disparity in culture and media consumption, with its reflection in education and, more generally, in economic inequality.

Fighting against oblivion: the legacy of the 1982 World Cup, or the first challenge of democratic Spain

ABSTRACT In 1964, during the Franco dictatorship, FIFA decided to award the 12th FIFA World Cup to the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF). The objective of this article is to analyse various legacies that emerged from the holding of that sports mega-event. Many aspects have been reinterpreted over the years as being decisive in determining the legacy to Spanish society left by Spain’s 1982 World Cup. These include its economic impact, the remodelling of the stadiums and the modernization of the Spanish television network. This reinterpretation has likewise been true for the legacy that Spain ’82 has had both on FIFA and on the subsequent editions of the World Cup. Despite the political and economic difficulties at the time, it can be said that there were many aspects that were successfully addressed by the Royal Organizing Committee of the World Cup (RCOM), the Spanish Government and the regional and local political authorities.

Identidad profesional y socialización de género: un estudio desde la manualística escolar en la España democrática

The construction of professional identity is a concept that holds interest for a variety of disciplines such as Anthropology, Psychology or Pedagogy. From the perspective of social constructivism, it has a narrative, dynamic character and is shaped by the interaction of the subject with current socio-historical discourses and their interiorization. During the decade of the nineteen seventies, the labor market in Spain experienced a massive incorporation of women, brought about by social and legislative advances in education and employment. The years of Spanish democracy are essential in the configuration and renewal of female identity in the economic field. This article focuses on the influence of the school textbook - the main didactic resource used in formal education - in this configuration. It presents models and stereotypes linked to gender, with a potential influence on the transmission and configuration of a biased socio-labor culture. In order to study this influence, our research examines a total of 20 elementary education textbooks in the areas of Language and Social Sciences in two periods of democratic Spain —the so-called Transition period and the current moment—, to explore the professional identity of women linked to the economic socialization as this is conveyed through this educational tool. Our results reveal a minimal inclusion of women as economic subjects in the textbooks; the underrepresentation of females performing paid activities, as well the lack of professional diversity serve to highlight a substantial inequality in the socialization processes between men and women, contrary to the goals of coeducational teaching values.

La manipulación del lenguaje: Breve diccionario de los engaños by Nicolás Sartorius

Reviewed by: La manipulación del lenguaje: Breve diccionario de los engaños by Nicolás Sartorius Michael Vrooman Sartorius, Nicolás. La manipulación del lenguaje: Breve diccionario de los engaños. Espasa, 2018. Pp. 279. ISBN 978-8-46705-288-6. Sartorius begins La manipulación del lenguaje with a prologue that details his motives for writing this text, recalling his years as a university student during the dictatorship of general Franco and a developing awareness of the systematic lies perpetrated by the regime and their effects. The author recounts how the slogan that Spain was “Una, Grande y Libre” was a particularly disingenuous fabrication as the country was neither united, great, nor free under Franco. More recently, in democratic Spain, he began to notice how the meaning of words used repeatedly in the media were being severely distorted. It is these words that form the basis for his Breve diccionario de los engaños. At first glance, phrases such as ajuste de cuentas and voto útil may not appear to have anything in common, yet as the first and last entries in this text, and affirmed in the title, they serve as examples of how language can be used in deceiving ways. Sartorius identifies sixty-five such words and phrases that pervade print and online media, radio, television, and everyday communication and he reflects on their harmful effects on society. The entries are arranged in alphabetical order and address diverse topics, primarily of an economic, political, or social nature. [End Page 140] Examples such as crecimiento negativo and vivir por encima de nuestras posibilidades exemplify entries in the dictionary with an economic focus. Negative growth refers to a slowdown or contraction in the economy, but is a misleading term as it encourages us to believe that our financial situation only grows. Why would anyone create a term to suggest that an economic downturn was not possible? Perhaps it was out of fear of the impact that consumer confidence could have on the economy, perhaps that there could never be an economic crisis. Nevertheless, the contradiction in meaning is evident. Living beyond our possibilities is a phrase born of the economic crisis of the last decade and has been used to describe and chastise those Spaniards who were perceived to have spent beyond their means. Yet it was not the spending habits of most Spaniards that led to the economic crisis, but rather, as many have argued, international monetary policies and practices, a resulting housing boom and the fallout around the world. Almost one half of the terms in this text address political issues. Among them are phrases such as armas inteligentes and España nos roba. The use of intelligent weapons implies that these weapons would only target criminals and leave innocent civilians unharmed, in clear contrast to unintelligent weapons that kill indiscriminately. It appears to be preferable to have smart weapons than to accept the reality of weapons of another type. With a dose of sarcasm, the author comments that nowadays everything is smart: smart car, smart bombs, smart house and so on, with the exception of the majority of the population. España nos roba, used by some supporters of Catalonian independence during the last few years, alludes to the belief that the rest of Spain had been plundering Catalonia and that only by independence could Catalonia recover those resources. The author argues that the phrase was used to manipulate opinion in two ways. First, it served to underscore that Spain was in some way separate from Catalonia by the use of the pronoun nos. Second, it reinforced the belief that Spain had committed criminal acts by stealing from the region. He convincingly refutes both assertions. In the social realm, posverdad stands out as an example of language that has undoubtedly been used to deceive. It is the deliberate distortion of reality with the goal of manipulating beliefs and social attitudes. To knowingly and intentionally recast a lie as post-truth permeates much of contemporary political discourse around the world. While deliberate distortions of facts are not a new human phenomenon, the instantaneous nature of world-wide communication mediated by technology has dramatically intensified the...

The Catholic Church and consolidation of democratic civil society in Spain

ABSTRACTThis article examines how the Catholic Church assisted the transition to democracy and consolidation of democratic civil society in Spain through a position of political neutrality. By abstaining from any active role in political parties, abandoning pretence of moral monopoly and embracing pluralism, it helped facilitate the establishment of civil society. Analytically, the path dependence mechanism, Huntington’s theory of democratization and the secularization of religion theory are used to explain the how the Spanish Catholic Church helped establish the bases of civil society in democratic Spain.

El papel de la RFA en la negociación de España para el ingreso en la CEE: un “amigo” entre la política y la economía (1978-1980)

La adhesión al Mercado Común fue uno de los objetivos básicos de la política exterior española en el siglo XX. Un ingreso que suponía un cambio fundamental desde el punto de vista estratégico, pero también unas relevantes consecuencias económicas. Las negociaciones fueron mucho más complejas y difíciles de lo que se esperaba en una España recién salida de la dictadura franquista. A menudo se ha subrayado, con razón, el papel que Francia desempeñó en el proceso de negociación español. Sin embargo, diversos actores ocuparon también un importante papel. Entre ellos, el otro gran socio comunitario, la República Federal de Alemania. En esta comunicación nos proponemos analizar el papel de la RFA en los primeros años de la negociación desde el punto de vista de los propios negociadores españoles. El soporte documental principal para ello es el archivo de Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo, primer ministro para las relaciones con las Comunidades Europeas.

Introduction

The introduction offers an overview of English-language and Spanish-language scholarship about Spanish comics since 2000. This research is typically concerned with one of four main chronological periods, i.e. early comics history 1875-1939; the Francoist dictatorship 1939-1975; the Political Transition 1970-1985; and Democratic Spain from the early 1980s, and some of its recurrent themes are memory, gender, regional identities and history, and/or a focus on social or educational comics. The articles in the two special issues on Spanish comics (11.1 and 11.2) almost all relate to these periods and themes in different ways, and together they show that comics scholarship about Spanish comics is a fascinating field, and one that offers plenty of opportunities for further study.

Concepción Cascajosa Virino (éd.), A New Gaze : Women Creators of Film and Television in Democratic Spain

Cet ouvrage se decline en cinq sections precedees d’un avant-propos de Rosario Ruiz Franco et d’une introduction de l’editrice, Concepcion Carcajosa Virino, maitresse de conferences a l’Universite Carlos III de Madrid et membre du groupe de recherche TECMERIN (Television-Cine : Memoria, Representacion e Industria). Il a pour origine un seminaire qui s’est tenu en novembre 2013 a l’Universite Carlos III de Madrid et qui etait integre a un projet de recherche portant sur le cinema et la televis...