Articles by Miguel Ángel Del Arco Blanco
Famines and the Making of Heritage, 2024
For decades, Spain has struggled to come to terms with its dictatorial past. In the twentieth cen... more For decades, Spain has struggled to come to terms with its dictatorial past. In the twentieth century, this Southern European country was ruled by two authoritarian regimes (Miguel Primo de Rivera, 1923-30 and the longstanding dictatorship of Francisco Franco, 1939-75) and suffered a brutal, internecine Civil War (1936-39). These authoritarian regimes suffocated the burgeoning democratic social movements and political parties that were borne out during the First World War and flourished during Spain's Second Republic (1931-39). Ignited by the Nationalists' coup d'état in July 1936, the Civil War left around half a million dead and cumulated in the brutal dictatorship of General Franco that would last almost four decades. After the dictator's death in November 1975, Spain began its precarious transition to democracy, which was ratified by the 1978 constitution and the first democratically elected government since 1936, most prominently the left's resounding electoral victory in 1982. Spanish society, however, would have to wait until almost three decades after Franco's death for activism and policies on public memory to gain momentum. Memory capacity is limited not only by neural and cultural constraints, but also by the psychological pressures of the historical context in which one lives or regimes of power. This makes for an intense relationship between 'active' and 'passive' forgetting, as described by Aleida Assmann. 1 In Spain, the Franco dictatorship was instrumental in trying to foster active forgetting of the country's tumultuous past through censorship, myth-making, or even violence. A 'social forgetting' took place that reflected the tensions between the public silence imposed by the dictatorship on the one hand and the private memory that remained hidden and stored until it came to light in democracy on the other. 2 Until well into the twenty-first century, democratic
Historia Social, 2021
This article studies the daily, individual and subjective practices towards the misery of the pos... more This article studies the daily, individual and subjective practices towards the misery of the postwar period (1939-1952). The objective is, first, to analyse the popular responses to hunger within and outside Franco’s autarkic legality. Second, we delve into the meaning of these small tactics and on the motivations of their protagonists, their manifestations, the results achieved or the way in which the dictatorship perceived them. We demonstrate that post-war shortages were the element that most conditioned and shaped popular attitudes towards the dictatorship until the 1950s. In the context of extreme poverty, ordinary men and women activated a whole series of ingenious strategies with the triple objective of obtaining food and improving their domestic economies, normalising their daily lives and expressing disagreement or disagreement with Franco’s interventionism. Hence, depending on the necessity of each moment, these strategies can be interpreted as survival, Eigen-Sinn or resistance practices.
Historia del Presente, 2021
Los funerales políticos en la España contemporánea. Cultura del duelo y usos públicos de la muerte, 2023
Cualquier forma de reproducción, distribución, comunicación pública o transformación de esta obra... more Cualquier forma de reproducción, distribución, comunicación pública o transformación de esta obra solo puede ser realizada con la autorización de sus titulares, salvo excepción prevista por la ley. Diríjase a CEDRO (Centro Español de Derechos Reprográficos, www.cedro.org) si necesita fotocopiar o escanear algún fragmento de esta obra.
Ayer, 2022
La larga posguerra en España (1939-1952) estuvo marcada por las severas dificultades socioeconómi... more La larga posguerra en España (1939-1952) estuvo marcada por las severas dificultades socioeconómicas que tuvo que afrontar buena parte de la población. Para lidiar con la carestía, los hombres y mujeres que vivieron los grises años cuarenta pusieron en marcha pequeñas estrategias cotidianas de subsistencia-resistencia entre las que destacaron los hurtos famélicos y el pequeño estraperlo. Con sus acciones de desobediencia buscaron mitigar su miseria, pero también expresar de algún modo su disconformidad con la gestión que estaba haciendo la dictadura franquista de la crisis de abastecimientos. Ahora bien, aquellas prácticas no lograron desestabilizar el recién nacido régimen franquista, sino que, paradójicamente incluso, contribuyeron a su consolidación.
The long post-war period in Spain (1939-1952) was characterized by severe socio-economic difficulties faced by an important part of the population. When confronted with scarcity, men, and women of the grey decade of the forties put into motion small everyday strategies of subsistence-resistance such as petty theft or the small estraperlo (black market). Through these actions of disobedience, many searched to alleviate their misery while also expressing, in one way or another, their disconformity with the management of supplies by Francoist authorities during a subsistence crisis. Paradoxically, these practices did not succeed in destabilizing the new-born Francoist regime but contributed to the consolidation of the dictatorship.
Quaderns de Filologia: Estudis Literaris, 2021
La política autárquica del régimen franquista dio pie al surgimiento del mercado negro, a la brut... more La política autárquica del régimen franquista dio pie al surgimiento del mercado negro, a la brutal inflación de los precios y al desabastecimiento alimenticio que trajeron la hambruna al país tras 1939. En todo ese mundo, hubo unos beneficiarios: los grandes estraperlistas. Fueron personas afines al régimen o pertenecientes a él, que gozaron de la tolerancia de las autoridades y tenían los contactos suficientes para desarrollar sus negocios con impunidad. Sin embargo, la representación que se hizo de ellos por parte de la propaganda del régimen distó mucho de la realidad. Este trabajo pretende reflexionar sobre las narrativas que el franquismo construyó sobre los estraperlistas. Para ello recurrimos a la propaganda, al cine y a la novela de la época. En todas estas fuentes se construyó una imagen de los estraperlistas como malos patriotas, vinculados con el pasado republicano e identificados con el común de la población, confundiendo fenómenos completamente distintos como el pequeño y el gran estraperlo. Aquellas imágenes no eran más que una deformación de la realidad propiciada por la dictadura, que ocultaban palpables silencios sobre quiénes eran realmente los responsables de esos suculentos negocios y lo cercanos que estaban a las esferas de influencia del "Nuevo Estado".
The autarkic policy of the Franco regime led to the emergence of the black market, price inflation and food shortages that brought famine to the country after 1939. However, there were some beneficiaries: the big black marketers. They were people related to the regime or belonging to it, who enjoyed the tolerance of the authorities and had enough contacts to carry out their businesses with impunity. The regime propaganda depicted them in a distorted way. This work aims to reflect on the narratives that the Franco regime built on the black marketers. For this purpose, we analyse propaganda, cinema and novels of post-war years. In
all these sources, an image of the black marketers was built as bad patriots, linked with the republican past and identified with the common population, completely confusing different phenomena such as the small and the big black market. Those images were nothing more than a deformation of reality, which hid palpable silences about who were responsible for these succulent businesses and how close they were to the spheres of influence of the “New State”.
Alcores, 2019
Este artículo pretende ser una revisión historiográfica sobre las aportaciones que se han realiza... more Este artículo pretende ser una revisión historiográfica sobre las aportaciones que se han realizado sobre los años de la postguerra española. No obstante, lo hace bajo la perspectiva de una preocupación de una cierta laguna historiográfica: el estudio de lo que venimos a denominar la “hambruna española” y las condiciones de vida durante los años cuarenta. Además miramos a los años cincuenta, al considerar que el análisis de ese periodo (en gran parte desatendido en muchos aspectos por la historiografía) no puede ser entendido ni explicado sin lo sucedido en la década precedente. En suma, pretendemos señalar la necesidad de dar un papel principal al hambre y a las condiciones de vida en los análisis de los primeros años del franquismo.
This article aims to be a historiographic review of the contributions on the postwar years in Spain. It does so with the concern of a certain historiographical gap: the study of what we call the "Spanish famine" and the conditions of life during the 1940s. We also look at the 1950s, considering that the analysis of that period (largely unattended in many aspects by historiography) cannot be understood or explained without what happened in the previous decade. In essence, we underline the need to give a main role to hunger and living conditions in the historical analysis of the first years of the Franco regime.
Journal of Contemporary History, 2021
In the aftermath of civil war, Spain witnessed a period known as the 'Years of Hunger', which wou... more In the aftermath of civil war, Spain witnessed a period known as the 'Years of Hunger', which would extend throughout the postwar years (1939-52). The dictatorship would lay the blame on external factors, although the causes for the collapse of living conditions and food supply over that time lay in its autarkic policies. This article attempts to show that Spain was victim of a famine as a consequence of the economic policies of the Franco dictatorship. To analyse the Spanish case, we rely on the conceptual framework of famine studies throughout history. We will demonstrate that Spain suffered an extreme socioeconomic crisis during the 1940s, but that it was not until late 1939 and 1942, as well as 1946, that a true famine took place. In order to characterise and explain it, we will analyse three different aspects: the rise in the cost of living, the spread of infectious diseases and death by starvation.
Genealogie e geografie dell’anti-democrazia nella crisi europea degli anni Trenta. Fascismi, corporativismi, laburismi, 2019
In this essay we want to trace the political and ideological roots of the Fran-coist regime. The ... more In this essay we want to trace the political and ideological roots of the Fran-coist regime. The Francoist dictatorship was born in the context of inter-war Europe: both its political and social origins were closely linked to the general trend of the entire continent during those years (1918-39). The essay is divided into three parts. In the first part, we will deal with the political origins of the Francoist regime, trying to depart from the interpretations that identify its origins only in the period of the Second Spanish Republic (1931-36) or even in the months of the spring of 1936. Secondly, we will move towards the ideological origins of the 'Nuevo Estado': we will try not only to trace its trajectory over time, but also to highlight its links with the authoritarian and fascist tendencies that crossed Europe during the twenties and thirties, thus synthesising its main characteristics , including the social component. Finally, we will conclude with a section dedicated to the consolidation of the dictatorship. Dwelling on the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), we shall try to highlight how, in its consolidation, Francoism did not deviate from the elements of the modern Right embodied by Fascism in the inter-war period, even though it has shown itself to possess peculiar characteristics with respect to the more general and orthodox Fascism. In any case, the Franco regime represented-in its political and ideological origins as well as in its consolidation strategies-one of the dictatorships that destroyed democracy, civil rights and freedoms in Europe between the two wars. Ultimately, Francoism constituted the Spanish authoritarian solution to the political, economic and social crisis that emerged in those difficult years. Keywords Inter-war Europe. Francoism. Fascism. Dictatorship. Social origins. Spain. Sommario 1 Introduzione.-2 Origini politiche del franchismo.-3 Origini ideologiche del franchismo.-4 Il consolidamento della dittatura franchista: tra Guerra civile e dopoguerra (1936-45).
Revista del Centro de Estudios Históricos Granada y su Reino, 2019
RESUMEN Este trabajo pretende ser una aportación al estudio del asesinato de Federico García Lorc... more RESUMEN Este trabajo pretende ser una aportación al estudio del asesinato de Federico García Lorca y de la represión franquista en Granada. En primer lugar reconstruye el golpe de estado en Granada y la detención del poeta hasta que fue llevado al antiguo gobierno civil de la capital. Después, se estudia la historia de dicho edificio, definiendo sus características antes de ser demolido y construido durante los años cuarenta. Se ofrece entonces una hipótesis sobre la habitación donde estuvo detenido, así como sus características y el funcionamiento interno del gobierno civil como espacio de represión y violencia contra los partidarios de la Segunda República Española. Se pretende con ello arrojar luz sobre algunas cuestiones relacionadas con el asesinato de Lorca y, también, rescatar del olvido un espacio silenciado y que fue epi-centro del terror franquista en la ciudad de Granada.
Catholicism has occupied a central place in debates concerning the nature of Francoism. Conventio... more Catholicism has occupied a central place in debates concerning the nature of Francoism. Conventionally, scholars have suggested that the traditional, archaic elements of the Franco Dictatorship made it markedly different from other fascist regimes. This article explores the crucial role that Catholicism played in the popular mobilization, unification, and nationalization of rebel supporters during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Instead of focusing on an analysis of the discourse of the Catholic Church and its interactions with the politics and institutions of the 'New State', this study concentrates on Catholicism's role in generating social support for the regime. First, it examines the celebrations and religious practices that occurred on the battlefronts. It then deals with events on the rebel home front. It argues that during the Spanish Civil War, Catholicism became a force that united, mobilized, and forged both individual and national Francoist identities. * This article is part of the research project: " Movilización colectiva, conflictividad y actitudes democráticas entre la población rural andaluza durante el tardofranquismo y la transición política, 1962-1982 " , funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness.
The article studies the corruption during the Francoist regime. The myth of the absence of corrup... more The article studies the corruption during the Francoist regime. The myth of the absence of corruption under Francoist dictatorship is discussed. The text analyses a case of a non-very much studied phenomena: the “great estraperlo” (great black market). A highly profitable business that took place during the post-war years at the expense of the suffering, the hunger and the scarcity of a large part of the population. It was always developed with the complicity or the direct participation of members of the Francoist administration or people close to the regime. The dictatorship’s reaction consisted in the display of important propaganda campaigns or in the punishment of the small black marketeers, whereas it tolerated the clandestine trade and the impunity of the main culprits of the great black market. This way, corruption was structural within the dictatorship. It should be explained not only for the individual interests that it satisfied, but also because it was an essential element for the consolidation and stabilisation of the “New State” emerged during the Spanish Civil War.
El artículo se centra en el estudio de la corrupción durante el régimen franquista. Discute el mito, en gran parte vigente en parte de la sociedad actual, de la inexistencia de la corrupción durante el franquismo. Para ello estudiamos un fenómeno hasta ahora no demasiado explorado: el del “gran estraperlo”. Un negocio de alto rendimiento que tuvo lugar durante la posguerra, a expensas del sufrimiento, el hambre y la escasez de buena parte de la población. Fue desarrollado siempre en connivencia o con la participación directa de personas pertenecientes a la Administración franquista o cercanas a la misma. La reacción de la dictadura fue la de desarrollar importantes campañas de propaganda o castigar a los pequeños estraperlistas, mientras que toleraba el comercio clandestino y la impunidad de los principales responsables del gran estraperlo. De esta forma, la corrupción fue algo estructural dentro de la dictadura, justificándose no sólo por los intereses individuales que satisfizo, sino también porque fue un elemento esencial dentro de los mecanismos que consolidaron y dieron estabilidad al “Nuevo Estado” surgido de la guerra civil.
Introduction to the dossier published in "Hispania Nova" on the history of corruption in Spain
The mass confiscation of property by Francoists during and after the Spanish Civil War of 1936–39... more The mass confiscation of property by Francoists during and after the Spanish Civil War of 1936–39 stands out as one of the most testing issues in Spain’s tortuous recent past. This article explains popular participation in the seizuraes. It also seeks to overcome the divorce in the historiography between Francoist and Republican confiscations and between the history of the seizures and their collective memory. It further shows that historians struggle to bring the seizure into the public sphere because of obstacles created in particular by the reluctance of those controlling the Spanish state to confront this dark past.
Analizando la incapacidad de Occidente para comprender la revuelta esclava más importante de la H... more Analizando la incapacidad de Occidente para comprender la revuelta esclava más importante de la Historia junto a la negación del Holocausto y los debates sobre El Álamo y Cristóbal Colón, Michel-Rolph Trouillot nos ofrece una sorprendente reflexión sobre cómo el poder funciona en la producción de la Historia. Con una introducción de la renombrada investigadora Hazel V. Carby, Silenciando el pasado es un análisis indispensable de los silencios de nuestras narrativas históricas, sobre lo que se omite y lo que se registra, sobre lo que se recuerda y lo que se olvida, y sobre lo que estos silencios revelan sobre las injusticias del poder. Porque la Historia es siempre fruto del poder, un poder invisible. Nuestro mayor reto es mostrar sus raíces.
«Ahora que deben revisarse tantos grandes proyectos del pasado, Michel-Rolph Trouillot interroga a la Historia para preguntarse cómo las historias se producen
Resumen: Pese a ser uno de los temas más analizados de la historia contemporánea espa-ñola, algun... more Resumen: Pese a ser uno de los temas más analizados de la historia contemporánea espa-ñola, algunos aspectos de la represión franquis-ta son aún desconocidos. El objetivo de este artículo es reflexionar sobre esta cuestión y " reenmarcar " el debate. Para ello se exploran las dimensiones sociales de la represión, espe-cialmente en la vida cotidiana. A este fin, se presta atención a cuatro problemas fundamen-tales: los orígenes, la duración, los espacios y los actores implicados en tales prácticas. Como resultado, este trabajo ofrece una visión más compleja de la represión y abre nuevas vías para futuras investigaciones. Palabras clave: represión, régimen franquista, violencia, sociedad española, vida cotidiana.
Abstract: Despite being one of the most analysed topics of the Spanish Contemporary History , some aspects of the Francoist repression continues to be unknown. The aim of this article is to reflect upon this question and to re-frame the debate. It does this by exploring the social dimensions of the repression, especially in the everyday life. To do that, the article pay attention to four crucial problems: the origins, the endurance, the spaces and the agents involved in these practices. As a result, this work offers a more complex view of the repression and open new ways for future research.
Introduction to the issue about models of repression and social control under the Francoist regim... more Introduction to the issue about models of repression and social control under the Francoist regime in the local sphere.
El artículo pretendía dar respuesta, para el caso del franquismo, al debate existente en la histo... more El artículo pretendía dar respuesta, para el caso del franquismo, al debate existente en la historiografía internacional sobre el papel que en la represión jugaron las instituciones del Estado o la sociedad. Se sostiene que el personal político y burocrático del “Nuevo Estado” no fue una casta aparte del resto de la sociedad española. Así, muchos de ellos se integraron en las instituciones represivas llevando consigo una ideología marcada por la experiencia de la guerra civil. Los apoyos sociales del régimen participaron en la represión guiados tanto por motivos ideológicos como por intereses socioeconómicos. Tras la experiencia de la guerra civil tanto en el frente como en la retaguardia, muchos ciudadanos comunes no cesaron de interaccionar con las instituciones del régimen, mostrando su apoyo y ayudando a construirlo.
El artículo se ocupa del funcionamiento de las hermandades sindicales de labradores y ganaderos e... more El artículo se ocupa del funcionamiento de las hermandades sindicales de labradores y ganaderos en el mundo rural durante la posguerra en España (1939-1951). Mediante un estudio de caso centrado en el sureste español, se analizan sus actuaciones y las implicaciones que éstas pudieron suponer para los apoyos sociales del franquismo y para las actitudes políticas de la población. La idea principal sostenida es que mediante las hermandades y el desarrollo de sus políticas, a pesar de todas las dificultades, la dictadura contó con un elemento de control social sobre el campesinado, pero también con un instrumento importante para generar adhesiones y lealtades.
Historians have only recently established the scale of the violence carried out by the supporters... more Historians have only recently established the scale of the violence carried out by the supporters of General Franco during and after the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939. An estimated 88,000 unidentified victims of Francoist violence remain to be exhumed from mass graves and given a dignified burial, and for decades, the history of these victims has also been buried. This volume brings together a range of Spanish and British specialists who offer an original and challenging overview of this violence. Contributors not only examine the mass killings and incarcerations, but also carefully consider how the repression carried out in the government zone during the Civil War - long misrepresented in Francoist accounts - seeped into everyday life. A final section explores ways of facing Spain’s recent violent past.
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Articles by Miguel Ángel Del Arco Blanco
The long post-war period in Spain (1939-1952) was characterized by severe socio-economic difficulties faced by an important part of the population. When confronted with scarcity, men, and women of the grey decade of the forties put into motion small everyday strategies of subsistence-resistance such as petty theft or the small estraperlo (black market). Through these actions of disobedience, many searched to alleviate their misery while also expressing, in one way or another, their disconformity with the management of supplies by Francoist authorities during a subsistence crisis. Paradoxically, these practices did not succeed in destabilizing the new-born Francoist regime but contributed to the consolidation of the dictatorship.
The autarkic policy of the Franco regime led to the emergence of the black market, price inflation and food shortages that brought famine to the country after 1939. However, there were some beneficiaries: the big black marketers. They were people related to the regime or belonging to it, who enjoyed the tolerance of the authorities and had enough contacts to carry out their businesses with impunity. The regime propaganda depicted them in a distorted way. This work aims to reflect on the narratives that the Franco regime built on the black marketers. For this purpose, we analyse propaganda, cinema and novels of post-war years. In
all these sources, an image of the black marketers was built as bad patriots, linked with the republican past and identified with the common population, completely confusing different phenomena such as the small and the big black market. Those images were nothing more than a deformation of reality, which hid palpable silences about who were responsible for these succulent businesses and how close they were to the spheres of influence of the “New State”.
This article aims to be a historiographic review of the contributions on the postwar years in Spain. It does so with the concern of a certain historiographical gap: the study of what we call the "Spanish famine" and the conditions of life during the 1940s. We also look at the 1950s, considering that the analysis of that period (largely unattended in many aspects by historiography) cannot be understood or explained without what happened in the previous decade. In essence, we underline the need to give a main role to hunger and living conditions in the historical analysis of the first years of the Franco regime.
El artículo se centra en el estudio de la corrupción durante el régimen franquista. Discute el mito, en gran parte vigente en parte de la sociedad actual, de la inexistencia de la corrupción durante el franquismo. Para ello estudiamos un fenómeno hasta ahora no demasiado explorado: el del “gran estraperlo”. Un negocio de alto rendimiento que tuvo lugar durante la posguerra, a expensas del sufrimiento, el hambre y la escasez de buena parte de la población. Fue desarrollado siempre en connivencia o con la participación directa de personas pertenecientes a la Administración franquista o cercanas a la misma. La reacción de la dictadura fue la de desarrollar importantes campañas de propaganda o castigar a los pequeños estraperlistas, mientras que toleraba el comercio clandestino y la impunidad de los principales responsables del gran estraperlo. De esta forma, la corrupción fue algo estructural dentro de la dictadura, justificándose no sólo por los intereses individuales que satisfizo, sino también porque fue un elemento esencial dentro de los mecanismos que consolidaron y dieron estabilidad al “Nuevo Estado” surgido de la guerra civil.
«Ahora que deben revisarse tantos grandes proyectos del pasado, Michel-Rolph Trouillot interroga a la Historia para preguntarse cómo las historias se producen
Abstract: Despite being one of the most analysed topics of the Spanish Contemporary History , some aspects of the Francoist repression continues to be unknown. The aim of this article is to reflect upon this question and to re-frame the debate. It does this by exploring the social dimensions of the repression, especially in the everyday life. To do that, the article pay attention to four crucial problems: the origins, the endurance, the spaces and the agents involved in these practices. As a result, this work offers a more complex view of the repression and open new ways for future research.
The long post-war period in Spain (1939-1952) was characterized by severe socio-economic difficulties faced by an important part of the population. When confronted with scarcity, men, and women of the grey decade of the forties put into motion small everyday strategies of subsistence-resistance such as petty theft or the small estraperlo (black market). Through these actions of disobedience, many searched to alleviate their misery while also expressing, in one way or another, their disconformity with the management of supplies by Francoist authorities during a subsistence crisis. Paradoxically, these practices did not succeed in destabilizing the new-born Francoist regime but contributed to the consolidation of the dictatorship.
The autarkic policy of the Franco regime led to the emergence of the black market, price inflation and food shortages that brought famine to the country after 1939. However, there were some beneficiaries: the big black marketers. They were people related to the regime or belonging to it, who enjoyed the tolerance of the authorities and had enough contacts to carry out their businesses with impunity. The regime propaganda depicted them in a distorted way. This work aims to reflect on the narratives that the Franco regime built on the black marketers. For this purpose, we analyse propaganda, cinema and novels of post-war years. In
all these sources, an image of the black marketers was built as bad patriots, linked with the republican past and identified with the common population, completely confusing different phenomena such as the small and the big black market. Those images were nothing more than a deformation of reality, which hid palpable silences about who were responsible for these succulent businesses and how close they were to the spheres of influence of the “New State”.
This article aims to be a historiographic review of the contributions on the postwar years in Spain. It does so with the concern of a certain historiographical gap: the study of what we call the "Spanish famine" and the conditions of life during the 1940s. We also look at the 1950s, considering that the analysis of that period (largely unattended in many aspects by historiography) cannot be understood or explained without what happened in the previous decade. In essence, we underline the need to give a main role to hunger and living conditions in the historical analysis of the first years of the Franco regime.
El artículo se centra en el estudio de la corrupción durante el régimen franquista. Discute el mito, en gran parte vigente en parte de la sociedad actual, de la inexistencia de la corrupción durante el franquismo. Para ello estudiamos un fenómeno hasta ahora no demasiado explorado: el del “gran estraperlo”. Un negocio de alto rendimiento que tuvo lugar durante la posguerra, a expensas del sufrimiento, el hambre y la escasez de buena parte de la población. Fue desarrollado siempre en connivencia o con la participación directa de personas pertenecientes a la Administración franquista o cercanas a la misma. La reacción de la dictadura fue la de desarrollar importantes campañas de propaganda o castigar a los pequeños estraperlistas, mientras que toleraba el comercio clandestino y la impunidad de los principales responsables del gran estraperlo. De esta forma, la corrupción fue algo estructural dentro de la dictadura, justificándose no sólo por los intereses individuales que satisfizo, sino también porque fue un elemento esencial dentro de los mecanismos que consolidaron y dieron estabilidad al “Nuevo Estado” surgido de la guerra civil.
«Ahora que deben revisarse tantos grandes proyectos del pasado, Michel-Rolph Trouillot interroga a la Historia para preguntarse cómo las historias se producen
Abstract: Despite being one of the most analysed topics of the Spanish Contemporary History , some aspects of the Francoist repression continues to be unknown. The aim of this article is to reflect upon this question and to re-frame the debate. It does this by exploring the social dimensions of the repression, especially in the everyday life. To do that, the article pay attention to four crucial problems: the origins, the endurance, the spaces and the agents involved in these practices. As a result, this work offers a more complex view of the repression and open new ways for future research.
Chapters in the book focus on the myth of those said to have 'fallen for God and for Spain'—a phrase that encapsulated and shaped the dichotomy between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Spaniards. They also focus on the use of monuments to control political and ideological ideals and to legitimise the Francoist dictatorship. Further chapters study Spanish society’s struggle to deal with its past of mass killing, denial, and exclusion. Del Arco Blanco also pays attention to the way the Francoist authorities used monuments and memory for their political and ideological advantage and to control people, power as well as the political agenda.
The book draws on extensive research to reconstruct both the specific history of monuments scattered throughout the country and their role within manipulative Francoist memory of the Spanish Civil War. In these ways, monuments helped shape the Francoist narrative and memory, but they also became part of the landscape of contemporary Spanish history.
This book is an excellent resource for postgraduate students and professional researchers studying the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and the influence of monuments on the construction of national memory, culture, and society in Spain both at the time and through to the present day.
in Spain during the 1940s. This book provides a political explanation for
the famine and brings together a broad range of academics based in
Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia to achieve
this. Topics include the political causes of the famine, the physical and
social consequences, the ways Spaniards tried to survive, the regime's
reluctance to accept international relief, the politics of cooking at a time
of famine, and the memory of the famine.
The volume challenges the silence and misrepresentation that still
surround the famine. It reveals the reality of how people perished in Spain
because the Francoist authorities instituted a policy of food selfsufficiency
(or autarky): a system of price regulation which placed
restrictions on transport as well as food sales. The contributors trace the
massive decline in food production which followed, the hoarding which
took place on an enormous scale and the vast and deeply iniquitous black
market that subsequently flourished at a time when salaries plunged to
50% below their levels in 1936: all contributing factors in the large-scale
atrocity explored fully here for the first time.
El volumen está organizado alrededor de cuatro grandes ejes temáticos. El primero presenta distintos enfoques teóricos sobre la Revolución, con contribuciones en las que se reflexiona sobre las causas, la naturaleza y consecuencias de lo sucedido en Rusia en 1917. El segundo bloque se
ocupa de las expresiones artísticas de la Revolución o derivadas de ella. En esta sección encontraremos trabajos dedicados a la literatura, al arte o al pensamiento, donde se trata de ofrecer una visión compleja, heterogénea de los fenómenos culturales que hicieron posibles (o
caracterizaron) las sociedades de antes y después de Octubre. En tercer lugar, un buen número de investigaciones examinan el impacto y las consecuencias de la Revolución Rusa, evidenciando que fue un fenómeno de consecuencias globales que todavía perduran. Finalmente, la monografía se cierra con una sección sobre la Revolución Soviética y España, que muestra como los acontecimientos revolucionarios de 1917 en Rusia, dejaron su impronta en la historia española del siglo XX.
El libro está recomendado tanto para especialistas del ámbito universitario, como para el público general interesado en la Revolución Rusa de 1917.
vaticinaba el poeta Miguel Hernández poco antes de
terminar la guerra civil. Era una premonición que se
adelantaba a lo que sucedería tras el fin de la guerra.
Entre 1939 y 1951, España se vio sumida en un periodo
de escasez y miseria sin precedentes. Días de muertes por
inanición, enfermedades, cartillas de racionamiento,
estraperlo o pan negro. El régimen franquista culpó de
aquellos años recios a los desastres de la guerra, al
aislamiento internacional y a la «pertinaz sequía»,
eludiendo cualquier responsabilidad. Aquel tiempo,
grabado en la memoria popular como «los años del
hambre», fue mucho más que eso. El libro indaga en la
historia del hambre de nuestra posguerra, identificando lo
sucedido en aquellos tiempos como una auténtica
hambruna homologable a las que hubo entonces en
Europa. Mira a su origen, sus formas, sus contextos, sus
resistencias, a su utilización por parte del franquismo, a
sus dramáticas consecuencias y también a su memoria.
Como nos pedía el poeta, se rescatan del olvido aquellos
años extremos, valorando la responsabilidad de la
dictadura de Franco y acabando con el manto de silencio
que lanzó sobre el sufrimiento de muchos españoles.
sobre uno de los episodios más oscuros y traumáticos de la historia reciente de España. Partiendo de debates internacionales actuales, y desde perspectivas y metodologías diversas, el volumen aborda la brutal represión acaecida en la zona rebelde durante la contienda, reconstruyendo la imagen
de algunos de sus tristes protagonistas, analizando el castigo ejercido sobre las mujeres republicanas y demostrando la complicidad de parte de la comunidad internacional en las ejecuciones. Se estudia asimismo la violencia de la zona republicana durante la guerra civil, explicando tanto su funcionamiento como el fenómeno anticlerical. Igualmente se aborda la represión franquista de postguerra, analizando la política penitenciaria, la represión cultural y socioeconómica, y la guerrilla antifranquista. La memoria plural y cambiante de la guerra, junto con el concepto de genocidio, son también objeto de reflexión.
Podemos mirar al pasado o no, pero hagamos lo que hagamos él siempre vendrá a visitarnos. Las cenizas del progreso están siempre a nuestros pies, marcando nuestras vidas y nuestro futuro. Nuestra única alternativa es removerlas y reflexionar sobre lo sucedido. La Historia es, entonces, un arma válida para lidiar con el pasado y, así, construir nuestro futuro.
Bringing together a number of leading historians of twentiethcentury Spain, this book focuses on how key individuals experienced political crises that they themselves had helped to create.
El Diario es un documento inédito y excepcional sobre la guerra civil. El autor es el protagonista y, día a día, vierte en él sus impresiones, sus reflexiones sobre lo que está sucediendo. Muestra la vida en el Madrid republicano de los primeros meses de guerra pero, también, tras su huida, la vida de la retaguardia nacional. El Diario es un documento íntimo, que no quiere convencer: muestra los pensamientos de una clase media entre dos mundos, entre la voluntad de progreso, de reforma moderada, y la necesidad de orden y ley.
La historia de Carlos González Posada no es la historia de la guerra civil. Pero su vida, experiencias y reflexiones reflejan, desde una perspectiva personal y sincera, el destino de una de las muchas Españas vencidas. Hoy, después de 70 años de silencio, y tras ser descubierto hace un par de años en los cajones del escritorio de la casa londinense de la hija única del autor, el Diario de la Revolución y de la Guerra llega por fin a nosotros
Both decades deserve to be carefully studied: the 1940s because they gave birth to many of the Franco regime’s myths that still survive today. These myths both obscure the scale of the tragedy and hide the regime’s responsibility for the tragedy. For their part, the 1950s deserve attention because they have remained somewhat neglected by scholars. This is neglect is particularly marked in the realm of sociocultural history. Instead, the decade continues to be understood in the terms trumpeted by the Franco regime at the time: as a mere transition period between the dark years of the post-war years and the successful years of economic development.
While the study of Spain in the 1940s and 1950s has been understudied or poorly represented, the wider literature of the European continent has paid growing attention to famine (Ireland, the Ukraine, Greece, the Netherlands, etc.). Researchers have also produced pioneering studies of the reconstruction of European societies after the catastrophe of war. The project History and Memory of Hunger: society, everyday life, social attitudes and politics during the Franco dictatorship (1939-1959) (from now on MEMOHAMBRE), sets out both to integrate the Spanish case within this wider European literature and to generate new historical knowledge for present and future society.
MEMOHAMBRE has three major objectives. Firstly, to place ‘hunger’ centre stage in the analysis of post-war Francoism (1939-1950). We will study the famine that marked out this decade and other topics which have also been relatively neglected by specialists such as everyday life and the social policies developed by the ‘New State’. Secondly, bearing in mind both the importance and neglect of the 1950s, we will examine socio-economic and demographic aspects of this decade as well as the drives behind and the consequences of the regime’s social policies. Thirdly, we will introduce the role of memory in the study of the two decades. We will explain the politics of memory at the local level and we will explore the social memory of the ‘hunger years’, understood as a key element in the creation of future social attitudes.
MEMOHAMBRE builds on the achievements of a number of earlier research projects and brings together a team of twelve Spanish and international researchers, some of great academic renown. The team will draw on social and cultural history and a number of interdisciplinary concepts and methods from history, anthropology, economics and sociology. To achieve its aims, the team will adopt a variety of local, regional and national perspectives, to which it will apply insights derived from the wider historiography of famine in twentieth-century Europe.
Our project aspires to benefit the society it serves. It will make its findings available internationally, through conferences and seminars. The research findings will also be published in respected national and international journals. It will further seek to reach beyond the academy. Here the aim is to create new understanding and recognition of a particularly difficult period. These findings will offer a mirror for today’s society to examine itself and to confront problems that face us today.