Running Mascara: The Hermeneutics of Trans Visual Archives in Late Franco-Era Spain

This article traces the curation of visual archives of trans subjectivity by the Franco regime. It focuses specifically on the experiences of three trans women who were prosecuted in the early to mid-1970s. Based on the definition of photographs as “material performances,” the author reconsiders recent debates about the “ethics of turning away” from forensic documents. Since Spanish privacy laws forbid the full reproduction of defendants’ photographs, this study also delves into the ethics of research on trans visibility in contexts of criminalization. The examined evidence demonstrates the disproportionate targeting of poor trans women as well as the centrality of the paseo (stroll) in their daily struggle for belonging. The confiscated photographs show a community of trans women posing in natural or public settings using different techniques to highlight the eroticism of their bodies. Likewise, trans women’s representational strategies centered joy, sisterhood, and intimacy as tenets of a livable life.

Writing in Franco's Spain: Censorship, gender and social criticism in the postwar novel

<p>Following the Nationalist victory in the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), General Francisco Franco’s authoritarian regime ruled Spain in a dictatorship that lasted almost forty years. In order to preserve the dominance of the regime and its ideology in Spain, all cultural activity was strictly censored, with censorship being particularly severe in the immediate postwar years. The regime’s censorship board, often with the involvement of Catholic clergy, had to approve all types of public communication, from poetry to television, before it could be published or broadcast. The censor was to ensure that the material in question was not critical of the regime or its ideology and that it did not challenge Catholic morals and traditional Spanish family values. Despite the regime’s efforts, however, writers who wished to convey their opposition to the dictatorship turned to a realist, objective narrative style that would allow them to denounce Francoist society without causing concern for the censors. In this thesis, I examine five Spanish postwar novels, published between 1945 and 1961, that provide a critique of Francoism and its associated values: Carmen Laforet’s Nada (1945), Luis Romero’s La noria (1952), Ignacio Aldecoa’s El fulgor y la sangre (1954), Juan García Hortelano’s Nuevas amistades (1959) and Dolores Medio’s Diario de una maestra (1961). This particular combination of novels has been selected in order to examine social and political criticism in the postwar novel from a wider perspective than that which is traditionally assigned to the Spanish novela social. In each case study, I identify which aspects of the Franco regime and postwar society the author sought to denounce and discuss how the author manages to convey these critical views despite the constraints of censorship. Themes include the misery and hunger that plagued Spain in the 1940s, the harsh repression suffered by the losers of the war, class and wealth inequality, the subversion of the regime’s ‘official’ historiography and the adoption of the Catholic Church’s ultra-conservative moral values. There is a particular focus on the critique of social themes that most affected women, such as the strict moral code assigned to women by the regime and the double moral standards with regard to issues such as premarital sex, prostitution and abortion; these themes are prominent in all of the selected novels, regardless of the gender of the author. In the first chapter, I outline the historical background that led to the Civil War and the establishment of the dictatorship and describe the literary context of the early Franco era. The following five chapters consist of my case studies which are examined in chronological order: each novel is examined separately in the context of social and political history, although I will draw parallels where suitable. The analyses are framed by theories of political and social commitment in literature; I draw also on gender and memory studies, and critics who discuss the relationship between literature and censorship. I have consulted the official censor’s report for each novel and discuss how each novel was received and altered, if at all, by the censor, as well as speculating as to how each author may have tailored his or her work in order to avoid such censorial intervention.</p>

Writing in Franco's Spain: Censorship, gender and social criticism in the postwar novel

<p>Following the Nationalist victory in the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), General Francisco Franco’s authoritarian regime ruled Spain in a dictatorship that lasted almost forty years. In order to preserve the dominance of the regime and its ideology in Spain, all cultural activity was strictly censored, with censorship being particularly severe in the immediate postwar years. The regime’s censorship board, often with the involvement of Catholic clergy, had to approve all types of public communication, from poetry to television, before it could be published or broadcast. The censor was to ensure that the material in question was not critical of the regime or its ideology and that it did not challenge Catholic morals and traditional Spanish family values. Despite the regime’s efforts, however, writers who wished to convey their opposition to the dictatorship turned to a realist, objective narrative style that would allow them to denounce Francoist society without causing concern for the censors. In this thesis, I examine five Spanish postwar novels, published between 1945 and 1961, that provide a critique of Francoism and its associated values: Carmen Laforet’s Nada (1945), Luis Romero’s La noria (1952), Ignacio Aldecoa’s El fulgor y la sangre (1954), Juan García Hortelano’s Nuevas amistades (1959) and Dolores Medio’s Diario de una maestra (1961). This particular combination of novels has been selected in order to examine social and political criticism in the postwar novel from a wider perspective than that which is traditionally assigned to the Spanish novela social. In each case study, I identify which aspects of the Franco regime and postwar society the author sought to denounce and discuss how the author manages to convey these critical views despite the constraints of censorship. Themes include the misery and hunger that plagued Spain in the 1940s, the harsh repression suffered by the losers of the war, class and wealth inequality, the subversion of the regime’s ‘official’ historiography and the adoption of the Catholic Church’s ultra-conservative moral values. There is a particular focus on the critique of social themes that most affected women, such as the strict moral code assigned to women by the regime and the double moral standards with regard to issues such as premarital sex, prostitution and abortion; these themes are prominent in all of the selected novels, regardless of the gender of the author. In the first chapter, I outline the historical background that led to the Civil War and the establishment of the dictatorship and describe the literary context of the early Franco era. The following five chapters consist of my case studies which are examined in chronological order: each novel is examined separately in the context of social and political history, although I will draw parallels where suitable. The analyses are framed by theories of political and social commitment in literature; I draw also on gender and memory studies, and critics who discuss the relationship between literature and censorship. I have consulted the official censor’s report for each novel and discuss how each novel was received and altered, if at all, by the censor, as well as speculating as to how each author may have tailored his or her work in order to avoid such censorial intervention.</p>

Education in Spain under the Franco Regime, 1936–1975

Education under the Franco regime was divided into two clearly differentiated periods. The first 2 decades of the regime (1936–1959) were characterized by a policy inspired by a radical rejection of the modernization program designed by liberal Spain and especially of the progressive and secular policy of the Second Republic. The principles that formed the backbone of this first stage were a forced re-Christianization of education, a renewed role for ideologization and deprofessionalization of teachers, a contraction of the school network, and an emphasis on privatization. During this period, education was subordinated to the Catholic Church, with the state assuming a subsidiary position that allowed for an outstanding expansion of religious schools. At the beginning of the 1960s, there was a Copernican turn in the regime’s educational policy as a result of the directives of international organizations that sought economic development. The state abandoned its subsidiarity, and throughout the 1960s promoted an exponential growth of the country’s rickety education system. This new policy culminated in a general reform of the education system, the General Education Act of 1970, which put an end to the dual system inherited from the 19th century, and introduced comprehensive education in Spain.

Irregular adoptions and infrastructures of memory in Spain: remnant practices from the Franco Regime

The irregular adoption of displaced children during the Spanish Civil War, the Franco dictatorship and the early years of Spanish democracy remains silent and unrecognised. The difficulty in recognising these irregular practices is linked to remnant infrastructures of memory (Rubin (2018) How Francisco Franco governs from beyond the grave: An infrastructural approach to memory politics in contemporary Spain. American Ethnologist 45(2): 214–227). We propose that the time to speak openly about irregular adoptions of forcibly disappeared children in Spain is arriving, and doing so could be a way of exposing a series of ‘unknown knowns’ (Simmel, (1906) The sociology of secrecy and of secret societies. American Journal of Sociology 11(4): 441–498; Bellman R and Levy A (1981) Erosion mechanism in ductile metals. Wear 70: 1–27; Taussig M (1999) Defacement: Public Secrecy and the Labor of the Negative. Stanford: Stanford University Press).

La participación de los exiliados del noroeste hispánico en los Centros Gallegos de Buenos Aires y Caracas

El exilio gallego de la Guerra Civil española se inició en 1936 y se prolongó, con distintas características e intensidad, hasta la caída del régimen franquista. Los países americanos se convirtieron en los destinos preferenciales de estas corrientes forzadas, por la presencia de comunidades emigratorias peninsulares que facilitaron los procesos de traslado y acogida. En este artículo analizaremos la inserción de los exiliados gallegos en el movimiento asociativo de este colectivo en Buenos Aires y Caracas, desde una perspectiva comparativa y haciendo hincapié en su participación en los centros gallegos de ambos ámbitos urbanos. La interacción de los refugiados con la comunidad migratoria organizada en una y otra ciudad fue disímil, pues mientras que en la capital argentina el tejido institucional galaico se encontraba ampliamente desarrollado, en la capital venezolana era prácticamente inexistente. Ello condicionó la capacidad de acción de los exiliados y sus logros concretos. The Galician exile of the Spanish Civil War began in 1936 and continued, with different characteristics and intensity, until the fall of the Franco regime. American countries became the preferential destinations of these forced flows, because of the presence of peninsular migrant communities that facilitated the displacement and reception processes. In this article we will analyze the insertion of Galician exiles into the association movement of this group in Buenos Aires and Caracas, from a comparative perspective and emphasizing their participation in the Galician centers of both urban areas. The interaction of refugees with the organized migration community in one and the other city was dissimilar, because while in the Argentine capital the Galician institutional network was widely developed, in the Venezuelan capital was virtually non-existent. This conditioned the ability of the exiles to act and their concrete achievements.

A Critical Juncture

This chapter zeroes in on a series of events that helped Spain achieve a much higher degree of political stability than in previous decades. Having sided with the Axis, the end of World War II posed great danger to the regime of Spain’s dictator, General Franco. Yet as the Cold War intensified, the geostrategic value of Spain increased, helping shift American foreign policy interests. After the Korean War broke out, the US sought and achieved agreements with Spain to set up a series of military bases in its territory. The agreements helped solidify the Franco regime in power. The chapter shows how the achievement of political stability in Spain was unlikely, fast, and externally facilitated. Crucially, it also led to a significant increase in economic confidence among the business community in the country.

The International Trade Fair in Barcelona in 1942: a Look at Furniture in the Franco Era

This article studies the furniture present at the Xth Barcelona International Trade Fair in 1942, the first one after the Civil War. It is important to point out that the Franco regime tried to use this Fair as a propaganda device, as well as to reactivate the local and national economy, and internationalize the autarchic industries. The study focuses on the wood industry and the commercial and aesthetic relations with all invited countries, as well as with the Moroccan protectorate, and with Equatorial Guinea (a Spanish colony at the time, and source of exotic woods). The study also delves into the relationships between various local decoration and furniture companies and the Fair. In addition, it aims to create a typology of the different pieces of furniture that appeared at the event to draw a working hypothesis about the evolution of furniture during this period.

La Unesco y la Ley General de Educación: La influencia de los organismos internacionales en torno a la modernización educativa en el franquismo

This article analyzes the influence that the educational ideas proposed by UNESCO had on the development of the General Education Act (LGE) of 1970. More specifically, it attempts to establish the impact that this international organization had on the origin and development of the LGE during the Franco regime. To do so, the first part of the article studies the beginnings of UNESCO in Spain and how the educational conception that would give rise to one of the most important educational reforms of contemporary Spain was developed. In the second part, we examine the recommendations given by the «International Advisory Committee for the Reform of Education in Spain» regarding the debate generated by the Libro Blanco (White Paper). In the third part of the article we look at the Committe’s direct impact and the way its assessments guided the development of the LGE in its first years. This work aims to demonstrate that the LGE can be better understood as a reform born under the recommendations of UNESCO regarding the educational context originated within the framework of the Cold War and the Modernization Theory.