Spanish Transition To Democracy Research Articles

Women Narration: Land, Gender and Oral Memory. The Forgotten History of the Maquis at Aran Valley

In the Aran Valley, the political and administrative border does not coincide with the cultural boundaries. The Spanish Valley situated in the Atlantic Pyrenees and within the Occitan cultural realm has a peripheral and quite inaccessible location in relation to Spain, while it has easy access from the French side. The particularities of this territory where highly valued by the Spanish Republican army to design the Spanish Reconquista campaign during the early years of Franco’s dictatorship. The invasion of the Aran Valley is one of the historical episodes of the Spanish post-war that is has little been studied. It was the most serious attempt, in October of 1944, of establishing a provisional Republican government in the Aran Valley with the support of the Spanish guerrilla (the maquis), who also have been collaborating in the exile with the French resistance in Southern France. The operation lasted 11 days and the maquis’ presence was particularly important in this area. Its unexpected arrival and their contact with the local population are the subject of our research. This historical episode always has been explained from the point of view of the “maquis” or the francoist soldiers who participated in the operation, but never from the viewpoint of the valley residents. Our focus is to unfold the narratives of those who experienced a real alteration of their everyday life, and more particularly women. Recorded interviews are the methodological tools used to discover, to value and to preserve the oral memory of this event, always with a gender perspective. The analysis of these life’s stories of these women that were children at that time offers us a new narrative of the events, as well as a resource to understand the daily relationships and their particular sense of place. The objective and contribution of this research is thus the recollection of testimonies of the immaterial patrimony and the study of everyday life practices from a gender point of view in a key historical moment of the valley history. The importance of the recovery of the oral historical memory goes together with the breaking off of secrets around the post-war and the Spanish democratic transition.

Manila existe: Filipinas y la recuperación de la memoria histórica en la novela española

In the interval between 2001 and 2014, at least 20 novels set in the Philippines were written and published in Spain. They come after a period of time with barely no cultural production on this topic, which lasted for almost a century. The first part of this article approaches the reasons leading Spanish literature to forget the Philippines after 1898. To explain this phenomenon, it will establish a parallelism between the process of oblivion of contemporary Spanish history carried out during the Spanish Democratic Transition according to Maria Teresa Vilaros, and the forgetting of the Philippines after 1898. The second part of the article proposes two possible reasons for the small boom of novels set in the Philippines lately: on the one hand, the recent visibility of the country thanks to institutional efforts to rescue Spanish-Philippine cultural links, and on the other hand, the editorial success of novels dealing with forgotten episodes of Spanish history (Memoria historica). To draw the connection with Spanish novels dealing with historical memory, the paper will also attempt a general characterization of them.

Lugares comunes opacos: reflejos de las elecciones españolas

<p>El presente artículo aborda el proceso electoral acaecido en España en marzo de 2008, con el objetivo de replantear tres cuestiones comúnmente expresadas sobre el funcionamiento de la democracia española. <span style="font-size: 10px;">La primera cuestión es la supuesta condición modélica de la transición democrática española, la segunda es la incapacidad de la política para distensionar conflictos, y finalmente, la tercera es la fortaleza creciente de los dos partidos más grandes de España.</span></p><p>El autor señala que en las pasadas elecciones españolas se vulneró uno de los hitos fundamentales de la transición democrática española, cuando el Partido Popular hizo del terrorismo un arma de campaña electoral contra el Partido Socialista Obrero Español.</p><p>Ante esto, señala el autor, éste hecho pareció remedar los comicios mexicanos de 2006, cuando se acusó al candidato del PRD Andrés Manuel López Obrador de constituir “un peligro para México”. El autor argumenta que la práctica democrática se ve anulada cuando el respeto entre adversarios legítimos se ve sustituido por agravios autoritarios entre enemigos intratables.</p>

Hacia una contextualización histórico-cultural de "Brigada Central" /TVE 1:1989): leyendo la transición democrática en España en el drama televisivo de calidad y el género policiaco

Este articulo supone una aproximacion al contexto historico y cultural de la serie de television espanola Brigada Central (TVE 1: 1989). Los tres objetivos fundamentales de este trabajo son, en primer lugar, analizar la serie dentro de los patrones definidos para el drama televisivo de calidad (Thompson, 1996); en segundo, examinar la representacion de la policia en el imaginario social de la epoca e insertar la serie dentro de la produccion historica del genero policiaco en la television espanola; y, por ultimo, estudiar como la identidad etnica, geografica y social se representa en la ficcion y como se establecen vinculos entre la serie y el periodo postfranquista. Se empleara una metodologia cualitativa de analisis textual combinada con una interpretacion de los datos proxima a la corriente academica de los Cultural Studies para contextualizar el objeto de estudio. El analisis de Brigada Central expuesto en estas paginas pondra de manifiesto que la serie nace, de forma precursora en Espana, bajo los preceptos del llamado drama televisivo de calidad en la linea trazada por Cancion triste de Hill Street (Hill Street Blues, NBC: 1981-87). Por otro lado, se argumenta que enuncia un discurso esceptico con el cuerpo policial que la ficcion espanola no revertiria hasta finales de los noventa. Por ultimo, se concluye que, de alguna manera, representa el espiritu de desencanto con la Transicion democratica espanola, singularmente explicitado a traves del arco de personaje de su protagonista, el Inspector Flores (Imanol Arias). [ABSTRACT]The present paper is an introduction to the historical and cultural context of the Spanish TV series Brigada Central (TVE 1: 1989). The three main aims of this article are, firstly, to analyse the series according to the characteristics of quality television drama (Thompson, 1996); secondly, to examine the image of the police in the social context of the period and to place the series within the historical production of the detective genre in Spanish television; and finally, to study how ethnic, geographic and social identities are represented in this fiction and to establish the links between the series and the Post- Franco Era. A qualitative methodology based on textual analysis will be used in this paper. Besides, we will use a model of data reading close to Cultural Studies academic field in order to contextualize the object of study. This analysis of Brigada Central highlights that the series is a precursory quality television drama in Spain that followed the trail of Hill Street Blues (NBC: 1981-87). It also has a sceptical look at Spanish police, which wouldn’t be changed until late nineties. Finally, we conclude that the series represents somehow the so-called disillusion with the Spanish Democratic Transition, which can be seen singularly in Inspector Flores’ character arc.

Anillos de crecimiento en el árbol de la ciencia. La evolución institucional del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas

What factors affect the organizational models of the large national public research centers? How does organizational change affect the nature of the scientific activities they perform? This article uses the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) to illustrate an institutional change process taking into account the tension that exists between the public status of research centers and the high level of independence of its scientific communities. The main purpose is to explain how changes in the CSIC’s internal power structure, along with the relationships with external funding and evaluation agencies, cause those research practices considered most legitimate to emerge and produce a reorientation of the entire organization. To that end, a historical account of the CSIC’s situation in the period between the Spanish Democratic Transition and the beginning of the 21 st century is provided. The theoretical basis is defined by concepts from new institutionalism in organizational sociology. The results show that during the last quarter of the 20 th century, the CSIC has become an organization oriented to basic science. The conclusions have implications for future studies on the transformation of public research centers and for science policy in this field.

Contando historias: Las primeras novelas de Lourdes Ortiz by Lynn Ann McGovern

MLR, 104.1, 2009 217 her scope indicates theirlimitations; they were fineas faras they went.She goes further, and addswhat really mattersaboutHildegart,leavingitto researchers to takethings from there. Thisbook isa newstarting-point forreflection on thefigure of Hildegart. It is not easy towrite about an author who dies an untimely death. Her violentand shocking death is an overpowering elementinmostwritingon Hildegart(even Domingo's).Sinclair avoidsthis byassimilating Hildegart's brieflife intotheequally brief existence ofher mostprecious work,the'Ligapara la reforma sexual'-theSpanishbranch of the WorldLeague for SexualReform. Sex and SocietyinEarlyTwentieth-Century Spain isdividedintoeightchapters that go from the analysis of the Spanish case in relation to sexual modernism in Europe totheendofsexualreform and thereturn toconservative viewsstemming from Francoism in Spain and the end of the Second World War in the rest of the Continent. Sinclairaccurately reads Hildegart'sdeathand subsequent oblivion withinthecontext oftheendofeugenics, thefoundation ofHildegart'sidentity as a humanbeing. Withouteugenicideas, Hildegart wouldnothavebeenconceived. The movement, partofthe Europeanavant-garde, was radicalized andbecameespecially dangerous when itblendedwithNazism. Itdied, and so diedHildegart. When analysing Hildegart'slifeandworks,Sinclairdoes not forget thekey intellectual relationships thatinfluenced the youngfeminist, amongthemthecomplexrelation ship withMarafion, whomHildegartregarded as her 'maestro' (although shewas critical ofhimand therefore didnot lionize himeither). He neverreferred toher in hiswriting, beingoneof the manymale thinkers who suffered from amnesia when itcame to recognizing the workof theirfemale collaborators. Sinclairincludesa highly interesting appendixreproducing thecorrespondence written by Hildegartto HavelockEllis,thefather ofmodern sexology. The letters arepartofEllis'sarchive in theBritishLibraryand are a valuabledocumentforunderstanding thedaily existence, dedication, andpersonality ofthe childgeniusthat Hildegart was. Sinclair allowsthereadertoappreciate notonlyHildegartthethinker, an ardent believer in sexualreform and eugenicthought, but alsoHilde thechild,fatally bound to her mother, bothof them uncompromisingly committed totheir particular reading of theregenerationism that articulated Spanishcultural and intellectual lifeat the beginning ofthetwentieth century. This is a substantial and impeccable monograph. It does justice to a figurewho hashitherto beenonlypartially rescuedfrom oblivionandoften wrongly narrated, and itdeploys forus an intellectual world that isnot only Peninsular but also part of a European system of thoughtwith which Hildegart was keen to be in dialogue and out ofwhich she came to exist. UNIVERSITY OF EXETER NURIA CAPDEVILA-ARGUELLES Contandohistorias:lasprimeras novelasdeLourdes Ortiz. ByLYNN ANN McGo VERN. Madrid: Pliegos. 2004. 167 PP. ?15.20. ISBN 84-96045-26-9. Contandohistorias studies, as thetitle indicates, Luz de lamemoria(1976),Picadura mortal (1979),En dias comoestos(1981),Urraca (1982),andArcangeles(1986), 218 Reviews earlynovelsof thehighly acclaimednovelist LourdesOrtiz, allof them published duringthe yearsof the Spanishtransition todemocracy. Ortizhas thereputation of beinga solid writer. Shehas received wide attention frominternational Hispanism and from criticsingeneral. Lynn AnnMcGovern's interest inthis writeriscertainly basedon anappreciation of the profound richness ofOrtiz'sprose. McGovern favours a postmodern socio-cultural contextualization forthenovels inherstudy; sheconsiders that thisfits in with whathappenedinSpain inthose years andwithOrtiz's feminist dimension. Undoubtedly, theendof thedictatorship and thetransition todemocracy werehistorical events positively affecting the visibility of Spanish womenwriters, women'semancipation, the education ofgirls, andwomen's presenceinthe publicdomain. However,it wouldhavebeenbetter toeschew general statements devoidof specific reference suchas theassumptionthat'a traves de la inspiracion de autorasfemeninas, las mujereshanempezadoa recordar quienesson' (p. 14) or thebeliefthat, nowadays,'lasmujeres estain escribiendosobre mujeres comonunca se habiahecho' (p. 27).WhetherMcGovern is referring to thenew millennium or tothetransition that witnessedthe publication ofOrtiz's first books remains unexplained. Besides,Spanish womenwerenotan ignorant crowd waiting fora group of novelists to take them out of their ignorance and lack of consciousness of their identity. Itdoes notmake any sense to imply thatwomen did not know how to think and were confused until Franco died, and that they then started to look at themselves, reflected inthe mirrors offered tothem byanewgeneration ofnovelists. McGovernmentionstheexclusionfromthecanon suffered by female novelists, a factrepeatedly deploredby criticsand academics. However,theauthorherself repeats the same mistake, as she recalls Spanish male writers going into exile at the beginning of thedictatorship, presenting themaspartofhercritical overview, and forgets aboutawholegeneration offeminists writing prolifically about 'el problema de lamujer' and 'elproblema de Espafia'. There were great works to be read from a feminist perspective well before Laforet and Martin Gaite. Not taking this into account whenanalysing female-authored fiction after Franco,and instead assuming that female authorship begins in 1975, has been detrimental to the study of novels by women writers starting to publish after the death of the dictator and to the feminist cause ingeneral. Reference tocrucialscholarship ongenderisalsomissing inthis monograph. Nevertheless, theauthorisveryfamiliar withpostmodernism, Hutcheoninparticular, andappliesitefficiently toliterary analysis. Unfortunately...

El marco jurídico-político de la libertad de prensa en la transición a la democracia en España (1975-1978)

The article analyzes the laws about press passed during the Franco Dictatorship, such as the Decret of 1938 and the Act of 1966, and the deep changes occurred during the Spanish democratic transition (1975-1978), when a new democratic law was passed in 1977 creating a liberty of press which had an important role in the constitutional development of modern Spain . Submission date: 24/09/2000 Acceptance date: 28/12/2000

The Spanish transition to democracy seen through the Spanish database isoc

The study has tried to look at the political transition through the articles published by Spanish scientists in Spanish journals of Social Sciences and Humanities. A sample of 11000 article references from a selected set of 32 journals published from 1976 till 1985, has been the basis of the analysis. This time frame has been divided into two 5 year periods in order to detect any change in the topics published. The result of the analysis has been compared with the “events” as recorded by “El Pais” a very popular newspaper, during the same 10 year period and with a set of specific articles devoted to the Spanish political transition.

Le Parti nationaliste basque : un mouvement périphérique et totalisant

The Basque nationalist party : A peripheric and totalizing organization As early as the first general elections of the Spanish democratic transition (1977), the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) asserted its position as the central element of local politics. An embodiment of historic nationalism, a creator and a manager of Basque identity, not without competitors, an organizational model for the Autonomous Community, proved thanks to its mobilizing power able to create an extreme identification between country and party. Since the 1986 secession, the PNV is no longer the totalizing movement of first post-Franco decade. Its evolution reveals the ambiguity inherent to the nature of a regional party aiming at a dominant role.