Art and culture in Francoist Spain is a historiographic term, with little use beyond the chronological placement of artists and cultural events, or political identification. The term is used generically, without involving ideological or aesthetic evaluation of the entire art and

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...

Francoist Spain Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spani ...

(1939–1975), which would only be suitable for art and culture more identified with the

Franco regime Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spa ...

, where other expressions are sometimes used: 'Fascist art and culture in Spain', '

Falangist Falangism ( es, falangismo) was the political ideology of two political parties in Spain that were known as the Falange, namely first the Falange Española de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista (FE de las JONS) and afterwards the Fal ...

art and culture', or 'nationalist-catholic (nacional-católica) art and culture', and so forth. The terms 'Spanish Fascist art', 'Fascist Spanish painting', 'Spanish fascist sculpture', 'Spanish fascist architecture', 'Spanish fascist culture', 'Spanish fascist literature', and so on, are infrequently used, but there are examples, as in the writing of Spanish historian . Such terms have a wide application, which can be restricted to cultural products more identified with Spanish Falangism and the ''azul'' (blue) ''familias del franquismo'' (organizations affiliated with Francoism), although very often these more specific terms are generalized, to cover all of the art identified as "nacional" ('national') in Francoist Spain.

Internal and external exile

Artists active in Francoist Spain include the writers

José María Pemán José María Pemán y Pemartín (8 May 1897 in Cadiz – 19 July 1981, Ibid.) was a Spanish journalist, poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, and monarchist intellectual. Biography Originally a student of law, he entered the literary world with ...

, Agustín de Foxá and

Luis Rosales Luis Rosales Camacho (31 May 1910 – 24 October 1992) was a Spanish poet and essay writer member of the Generation of '36. He was born in Granada (Spain). He became a member of the Hispanic Society of America and the Royal Spanish Academ ...

, the painters Carlos Sáenz de Tejada and

Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor Fernando is a Spanish and Portuguese given name and a surname common in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Switzerland, former Spanish or Portuguese colonies in Latin America, Africa, the Philippines, India, and Sri Lanka. It is equivalent to the G ...

, architect and sculptors of the

Valle de los Caídos The Valley of the Fallen (Spanish: Valle de los Caídos; ) is a Catholic basilica and a monumental memorial in the municipality of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, erected at Cuelgamuros Valley in the Sierra de Guadarrama, near Madrid. Dictator Fran ...

, and the music of

Concierto de Aranjuez The ''Concierto de Aranjuez'' (, "Aranjuez Concerto") is a classical guitar concerto by the Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo. Written in 1939, it is by far Rodrigo's best-known work, and its success established his reputation as one of the mos ...

, Quintero, León y Quiroga, the films of

José Luis Sáenz de Heredia José Luis Sáenz de Heredia (10 April 1911 – 4 November 1992) was a Spanish film director. He was born in Madrid. His film ''Ten Ready Rifles'' was entered into the 9th Berlin International Film Festival. Filmography * ''Patricio miró ...

and Luis Lucia Mingarro. Prominent cultural figures included the psychiatrists Antonio Vallejo-Nájera and López Ibor, as well as the social scientists

Melchor Fernández Almagro Melchor Fernández Almagro (4 September 1893, Granada – 22 February 1966, Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of appr ...

, Ramón Carande and Luis Suárez Fernández). A lot of the Spanish artistic and cultural production of the time was made by authors ideologically opposed or indifferent, or who had aesthetic criteria completely unrelated to a Fascist aesthetic: writers

Carmen Laforet Carmen Laforet ( Barcelona 6 September 1921 – Madrid, 28 February 2004) was a Spanish author who wrote in the period after the Spanish Civil War. An important European writer, her works contributed to the school of Existentialist Literatur ...

Antonio Buero Vallejo Antonio Buero Vallejo (September 29, 1916 – April 29, 2000) was a Spanish playwright associated with the Generation of '36 movement and considered the most important Spanish dramatist of the Spanish Civil War. Biography During his career ...

Vicente Aleixandre Vicente Pío Marcelino Cirilo Aleixandre y Merlo (; 26 April 1898 – 14 December 1984) was a Spanish poet who was born in Seville. Aleixandre received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1977 "for a creative poetic writing which illuminates ma ...

; visual artists Dalí,

Joan Miró Joan Miró i Ferrà ( , , ; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan painter, sculptor and ceramicist born in Barcelona. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona ...

Antoni Tàpies Antoni Tàpies i Puig, 1st Marquess of Tápies (; 13 December 1923 – 6 February 2012) was a Catalan People, Catalan painter, sculptor and art theorist, who became one of the most famous European artists of his generation. Life The son of Jo ...

; sculptors Paul Serrano,

Eduardo Chillida Eduardo Chillida Juantegui, or Eduardo Txillida Juantegi in Basque (10 January 1924 – 19 August 2002), was a Spanish Basque sculptor notable for his monumental abstract works. Early life and career Born in San Sebastián (Donostia) to Ped ...

Jorge Oteiza Jorge Oteiza (October 21, 1908 – April 9, 2003), was a Basque Spanish sculptor, painter, designer and writer from the Basque Autonomous Community, renowned for being one of the main theorists on Basque modern art. Oteiza was born in O ...

; architects Saenz de Oiza,

Miguel Fisac Miguel Fisac (1913–2006) was a Spanish architect, urban planner, and painter. He was a member of Opus Dei. Biography Miguel Fisac Serna was born 29 September 1913 in Daimiel in Spain. His father was Joaquín Fisac, his mother Amparo Serna. He ...

; composers Bernaola Luis de Paul; filmmakers

Luis García Berlanga Luis García-Berlanga Martí (12 June 1921 – 13 November 2010) was a Spanish film director and screenwriter. Acclaimed as a pioneer of modern Spanish cinema, his films are marked by social satire and acerbic critiques of Spanish culture under t ...

Juan Antonio Bardem Juan Antonio Bardem Muñoz (2 June 1922 – 30 October 2002) was a Spanish film director and screen writer, born in Madrid. He was a member of the Communist Party. Bardem was best known for '' Muerte de un ciclista'' (1955) which won the FIPRE ...

Carlos Saura Carlos Saura Atarés (born 4 January 1932) is a Spanish film director, photographer and writer. Along with Luis Buñuel and Pedro Almodóvar, he is considered to be one of Spain’s most renowned filmmakers. He has a long and prolific career t ...

; and researchers in natural sciences such as Large Covián, Michael Sanudo Catalan,

George Francis Taylor George Francis Taylor (died 28 March 2011) was a British scholar, archaeologist, historian, and numismatist. Taylor was a professor of English at the American University in Beirut from 1960 until 1970. He was a member of the Royal Numismatic S ...

, Antonio de Zulueta, and social scientists such as

Jaume Vicens Vives Jaume Vicens Vives (6 June 1910 in Girona, Spain – 28 June 1960 in Lyon, France) was a Spanish historian, and is considered, along with Pierre Vilar, one of the top influential Catalan historians of the 20th century. According to Eliseo ...

, José Antonio Maravall,

Antonio Domínguez Ortiz Antonio Domínguez Ortiz (October 18, 1909 – January 21, 2003) was a Spanish historian, one of the leading specialists in the history of the Spanish Antiguo Régimen of the 16th through 18th centuries, in particular in social history. He was al ...

Julio Caro Baroja Julio Caro Baroja (13 November 1914 – 18 August 1995) was a Spanish anthropologist, historian, linguist and essayist. He was known for his special interest in Basque culture, Basque history and Basque society. Of Basque ancestry, he was the ...

José Luis Sampedro José Luis Sampedro Sáez (Barcelona, 1 February 1917 – Madrid, 8 April 2013) was a Spanish economist and writer who advocated an economy "more humane, more caring, able to help develop the dignity of peoples". Academician of the Real Academia ...

, Fabian Estapé,

Juan José Linz Juan José Linz Storch de Gracia (24 December 1926 – 1 October 2013) was a Spanish sociologist and political scientist specializing in comparative politics. He was Sterling Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Political Science at Yale Univers ...

. Some of these artistic and cultural figures were situated more or less precisely in the so-called internal exile. The list of those belonging to this category is not easy to determine. The literature often refers to

and

Dámaso Alonso Dámaso Alonso y Fernández de las Redondas (22 October 1898 – 25 January 1990) was a Spanish poet, philologist and literary critic. Though a member of the Generation of '27, his best-known work dates from the 1940s onwards. Early life and ed ...

, but in the case of Alonso, 'internal exile' can only be attributed to the period prior to integration in institutions (Royal Academy). Also frequently included are Juan Gil Albert and

Rafael Cansinos-Asséns Rafael Cansinos Asséns (November 24, 1882 – July 6, 1964) was a Spanish poet, novelist, essayist, literary critic and translator. Biography Censinos was born in Seville on November 24, 1882. Through his father's paternal line, he is rela ...

among the literati, and

among the visual artists. The ''Epistolario del exilio'' (Letters from Exile) of Max Aub, referring to internal exile, collects the letters of Gabriel Celaya Luis Landinez

Gloria Fuertes Gloria Fuertes García (28 July, 1917 – 27 November, 1998) was a Spanish poet and author of children's literature. She was part of the Spanish literary movement known as '' postismo (post-ism)'' that began after the Spanish Civil War. Active ...

, Aleixandre, José Agustín Goytisolo and Luis Goytisolo, Gil Albert, Jose Luis Lopez Aranguren José Carlos Mainer, Roman Gubern,

Ana María Matute Ana María Matute Ausejo (26 July 1925 – 25 June 2014) was an internationally acclaimed Spanish writer and member of the Real Academia Española. In 1959, she received the Premio Nadal for ''Primera memoria''. The third woman to receive the Ce ...

, and others. Others included as internal exiles may be Blas de Otero,

José Hierro José Hierro del Real (born 3 April 1922 in Madrid, Spain – died 21 December 2002 in Madrid, Spain), sometimes colloquially called Pepe Hierro, was a Spanish poet. He belonged to the so-called postwar generation, within the rootless and exis ...

, Eugenio de Nora, José Agustín Goytisolo, and José Ángel Valente. Jorge Tello Francisco, Antonio de Zulueta and Miguel Catalan Sañudo survived in internal exile, but in a significantly reduced capacity for scientific work due to the hostility of the new authorities, the lack of communication with the outside world, and the postwar economic hardships.( José Manuel Sánchez Ron
''Un siglo de ciencia en España''
Residencia de Estudiantes, ). Many artistic and cultural figures, whether or not from the beginning, eventually reaching a high social and even official recognition, as the regime struggled to maintain an inclusive attitude towards cultural products that were not identified as a direct challenge by the opposition to Franco (especially after the appointment of Joaquín Ruiz-Giménez as education minister, replacing José Ibáñez Martín in 1951). Spanish art forms not only developed in the interior of Spain, but outside it, given the extraordinary cultural power of the

Spanish Republican The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII, and was dissolved on 1 A ...

exiles, to which belonged figures of the stature of

Juan Ramón Jiménez Juan Ramón Jiménez Mantecón (; 23 December 1881 – 29 May 1958) was a Spanish poet, a prolific writer who received the 1956 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his lyrical poetry, which in the Spanish language constitutes an example of hi ...

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

, Julio González,

Pablo Casals Pau Casals i Defilló (Catalan: ; 29 December 187622 October 1973), usually known in English by his Castilian Spanish name Pablo Casals,

Luis Buñuel Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish-Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and ...

, the architects of GATEPAC, José Ferrater Mora, Zambrano,

Américo Castro Américo Castro y Quesada (May 4, 1885 – July 25, 1972) was a Spanish cultural historian, philologist, and literary critic who challenged some of the prevailing notions of Spanish identity, raising controversy with his conclusions that Spaniards ...

Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz y Menduiña (; April 7, 1893 in Madrid – July 8, 1984 in Ávila) was a Spanish scholar, politician and orator. He served as Prime Minister of the Spanish Republican government in exile during the dictatorship of Fran ...

Juan Negrín Juan Negrín López (; 3 February 1892 – 12 November 1956) was a Spanish politician and physician. He was a leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español, PSOE) and served as finance minister and ...

Blas Cabrera Blas Cabrera y Felipe (May 20, 1878 – August 1, 1945) was a Spanish physicist. He worked in the domain of experimental physics with focus in the magnetic properties of matter. He is considered one of the greatest scientists of Spain and one ...

, and many others. A leading Falangist,

Ernesto Giménez Caballero Ernesto Giménez Caballero (2 August 1899 in Madrid – 14 May 1988 in Madrid), also known as Gecé, was a Spanish writer, diplomat, and pioneer of Fascism in Spain. His work has been categorized as being part of the Surrealist movement, while Stan ...

, was the main theorist of the art of Francoist Spain. In 1934, after attending a conference in Italy, Ernesto Giménez Caballero had been published in an '' F. E.'' magazine article, ''Art and State'', which became a book in 1935. Caballero identified the Monastery of El Escorial as "the epitome of all the virtues of Spanish art" and a "symbol of what art should be fascist", while the most prestigious Spanish art theorist of the time,

Eugenio d'Ors Eugenio d'Ors Rovira ( Barcelona, 28 September 1882 – Vilanova i la Geltrú, 25 September 1954) was a Spanish writer, essayist, journalist, philosopher and art critic. He wrote in both Catalan and Spanish, sometimes under the pseudonym of ''Xèn ...

, strove to create an artistic environment related to the regime but open and assimilative ( Salón de los Once, Academia Breve de Crítica de Arte, 1941-1954)), including the

avant garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or 'vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical D ...

, which increased over time to even be a hallmark of the regime, increasingly interested in showing, both internally and externally, a contemporary image. Artists and writers related to Franco have suffered from a general underestimation by

historians A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

art critics An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogu ...

and

literary critics Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis, philosophical discussion of literature' ...

. As Andres Trapiello stated, Francoists "won the war and lost the history of literature". Andrés Trapiello, ''Las armas y las letras: literatura y Guerra Civil (1936-1939)'', Península, 2002, ; reeditado en Destino, 2009 . Citado por Javier Rodríguez Marcos e
''Generales, curas y señoritos españoles''
El País, 30/03/2009.

Fascist repression and ideological control

In accordance with the scheme menendezpelayano (identification with Catholic Spain and its opposite with anti-Spanish sentiment, coming from outside or inside), the government intended to create a new cultural and educational initiative in 1939, which would have an obsessive focus on the

Spanish nationalism The creation of the tradition of the political community of Spaniards as common destiny over other communities has been argued to trace back to the Cortes of Cádiz. Revisiting the history of Spain, after 1812 Spanish liberalism tended to take fo ...

and nacionalcatolicismo religion. Sincere or not, the Franco regime failed to impose a totalitarian culture consistent with other exclusionary cultural, and historical sources often termed "traditionalist," "authoritarian" and "dictatorial" to describe it. This meant, especially during the years immediately after the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...

, a culture of imposition, reconquest attitudes, or imperialism.

Schools and universities

Franco's regime brought about a strong political repression in Spain, the widespread and systematic 'cleansing' of the education system, through the D-Commission, responsible for academic appointments; the C-Commission to control changes in secondary schools; and the A- and B-Commissions to oversee universities. The government implemented an ideological and moral censorship and propaganda apparatus that effectively used modern means of mass communication ( No-Do, Prensa del Movimiento (Movement Press), strict control of radio and television from 1956). Most of the filters were merely symbolic sanctions, as many of those affected were either dead or in exile. Of those who remained in Spain some were also subject to criminal prosecution, such as

Julián Besteiro Julián Besteiro Fernández (21 September 1870 – 27 September 1940) was a Spanish socialist politician, elected to the Cortes Generales and in 1931 as Speaker of the Constituent Cortes of the Spanish Republic. He also was elected several times ...

, who died in prison, or John Peset, who was shot. Several of the victims of government reprisals had no special political relationship with the left, such as Flores de Lemus. Among high school teachers to be 'purified' by Franco's regime was

Antonio Machado Antonio Cipriano José María y Francisco de Santa Ana Machado y Ruiz (26 July 1875 – 22 February 1939), known as Antonio Machado, was a Spanish poet and one of the leading figures of the Spanish literary movement known as the Generation ...

(despite having died in France); among

Normal School A normal school or normal college is an institution created to train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. In the 19th century in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high school level, turni ...

teachers, there was Eliseo Gomez Serrano (shot), and among teachers Amos Steel and Vicente Moliner Nadal (both shot). Biescas and Tunon ('' op. Cit.'', Pg. 16) put the figure of 7,000 teachers among the 270,000 total prisoners in concentration camps and prisons of the first Franco period, and the'' two-thirds of faculty exiles or dismissed.'' Of professors active in June 1936 at the University of Madrid (Complutense today), 44.3 percent were sanctioned. The figure is similar between teaching assistants and aides reaching 43.6 percent, although 7.6 percent of them have not found data.
Complete listing of Complutense University reprisals after the Civil War
'. Universities were restructured by the law of July 1943. University

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

s had to be members of the Falange. The reality, both in secondary education as well as university and other higher level educational institutions, was that teachers and students, in opposition to the scientific spirit, were framed by the SEU and Servicio Nacional del Magisterio (National Teachers Service). Fascist ideals were also expressed through weekly publications, such as ''

El Español ''El Español'' is a Spanish online newspaper which started in 2015. It has its headquarters in Avenida de Burgos, 16D, 7º, Madrid, Comunidad de Madrid. History In 2014 Pedro J. Ramírez Pedro José Ramírez Codina (born 26 March 1952), w ...

'' published by the Deputy Secretary of Education and directed by Juan Aparicio. These devices were completed with the Instituto Nacional del Libro (National Institute of Newspapers), which was created in 1939 and led by Julian Pemartín, a leading ideologue of the regime. (Tunon de Lara,'' The Spain of the Crusade '','' op. cit.'', pg. 114). All cultural institutions were impacted, including the

Real Academia Española The Royal Spanish Academy ( es, Real Academia Española, generally abbreviated as RAE) is Spain's official royal institution with a mission to ensure the stability of the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, and is affiliated with ...

, from whom

Ramón Menéndez Pidal Ramón Menéndez Pidal (; 13 March 1869 – 14 November 1968) was a Spanish philologist and historian."Ramon Menendez Pidal", ''Almanac of Famous People'' (2011) ''Biography in Context'', Gale, Detroit He worked extensively on the history of t ...

resigned as director between 1939 and 1947; museums such as

Museo del Prado The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from th ...

; the

Ateneo de Madrid The Ateneo de Madrid ("Athenæum of Madrid") is a private cultural institution located in the capital of Spain that was founded in 1835. Its full name is ''Ateneo Científico, Literario y Artístico de Madrid'' ("Scientific, Literary and Artistic ...

; and others, among which were those previously identified with krausismo -

Institución Libre de Enseñanza La Institución Libre de Enseñanza (ILE, English: ''The Free Institution of Education''), was an educational project developed in Spain for over half a century (1876–1936). The institute was inspired by the philosophy of Krausism, first introd ...

, Junta para la Ampliación de Estudios,

Residencia de Estudiantes The Residencia de Estudiantes, literally the "Student Residence", is a centre of Spanish cultural life in Madrid. The Residence was founded to provide accommodation for students along the lines of classic colleges at Bologna, Salamanca, Cambridge ...

, Instituto Escuela - all of which were replaced by a new organization, the National Research Council ( CSIC):

Centralization of cultural control

While the pursuit of the peripheral nationalism fell short of a total ban on local languages and cultures (

Catalan language Catalan (; autonym: , ), known in the Valencian Community and Carche as '' Valencian'' (autonym: ), is a Western Romance language. It is the official language of Andorra, and an official language of three autonomous communities in eastern ...

and

Catalan culture Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

, Euskara and

Basque culture The Basques ( or ; eu, euskaldunak ; es, vascos ; french: basques ) are a Southwestern European ethnic group, characterised by the Basque language, a common culture and shared genetic ancestry to the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians. Bas ...

, Galician and

Galician culture The culture of Galicia is the patterns of human activity and symbolism associated with the Galicia region of Spain and the Galician people. Literature As with many other Romance languages, Galician-Portuguese emerged as a literary language in ...

), a policy of

Castilianization Hispanicization ( es, hispanización) refers to the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by Hispanic culture or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-Hispanic becomes Hispanic. Hispanicization is il ...

was nonetheless implemented in education and in almost all public areas. ( Luis Hurtado Alvarez: ''if you're Spanish, speak Spanish'', May 18, 1937. Quoted i
escueladesara.com
Even then policy was not always followed to the full extent, and with which not even all members of the regime agreed (as in the controversy between Carlos Sentís and Josep Montagut). The allocation of areas of power between the ''familias del franquismo'' - nacionalcatolicismo,

'Blues',

monarchists Monarchism is the advocacy of the system of monarchy or monarchical rule. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government independently of any specific monarch, whereas one who supports a particular monarch is a royalist. ...

Carlists Carlism ( eu, Karlismo; ca, Carlisme; ; ) is a Traditionalist and Legitimist political movement in Spain aimed at establishing an alternative branch of the Bourbon dynasty – one descended from Don Carlos, Count of Molina (1788–1855) – ...

(supporters of King Juan Carlos), 'Juanistas' (supporters of Juan de Borbón), military groups such as the Africanists, and other factions - corresponded to each of the areas including ministries, and did not always have well-defined functions: Catholics accounted for the Ministry of Education of Spain, which focused most of cultural policy, but the Blues had their share of political and social and apparatus in the nationalist Movement, which sought a totalitarian presence in all aspects of public life and even private. Each of the 'Blue' Francoist families controlled the country's communication media. The Church, in exchange for support for the uprising, the regime demanded control of the field that had traditionally considered theirs: education and teaching. For its part, the Falange as a single party would try to impose its support through the mass media. This explains the division of powers that the constitution made after the first administration by a law of January 30, 1938. In the Ministry of the Interior (National Service of Press and Propaganda) the Falangists had control; in Education, monarchists of

Acción Española Acción Española (, ''Spanish Action'') or AE was a Spanish cultural association active during the Second Spanish Republic, meeting point of the ultraconservative and far right intellectual figures that endorsed the restoration of the Monarchy. It ...

with Pedro Sainz Rodríguez in front, under the watchful eye of Cardinal Goma, primate of Spain. Colleagues appointed following the tactic of combining different ideological positions that had presided over the constitution of government. In the National Primary Education, the traditionalist Romualdo de Toledo, in Higher Education and Media, Joseph Pemartín, monarchist Acción Española, in the Technical Education and Vocational a technocrat, Augustus Krahe. Manager of Fine Arts,

, and Archives and Libraries, Javier Lasso de la Vega. Catholic clerical personalities were significantly elevated to positions of high influence in the ideological and cultural spheres of Spain: Justo Pérez de Urbel and other Benedictines in particular; Enrique Pla y Deniel, Isidro Goma,

Leopoldo Eijo y Garay Leopoldo is a given name, the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese form of the English, German, Dutch, Polish, and Slovene name, Leopold. Notable people with the name include: * Leopoldo de' Medici (1617–1675), Italian cardinal and Governor of ...

, Casimir Morcillo Gonzalez, and other bishops; or admitted to the clergy late in their careers, so-called late vocations (

Ángel Herrera Oria Ángel Herrera Oria (19 November 1886 – 28 July 1968) was a Spanish journalist and Roman Catholic politician and later a cardinal. He established the Instituto Social León XIII (later renamed Fundación Pablo VI) to promote the social do ...

, leader of the National Catholic Association of Propagandists, was ordained at age 53 and became a bishop; José María Albareda belonged to Catholic organization

Opus Dei Opus Dei, formally known as the Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei ( la, Praelatura Sanctae Crucis et Operis Dei), is an institution of the Catholic Church whose members seek personal Christian holiness and strive to imbue their work ...

since 1937, was director of CSIC, and ordained a priest at age 57 years; Manuel García Morente, a leading philosopher, was ordained a priest at age 54 years), so that neo-Thomist thought (revived interest in

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, Dominican Order, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino, Italy, Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest who was an influential List of Catholic philo ...

), or neo-Scholasticism, has been described as the dominant intellectual environment, based on the Vatican position prior to the

Vatican II The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions), each lasting between 8 and ...

Council.

Literature

Within Franco's Spain, and among artists in exile and in the image of Spain abroad, the

(1936–39) was perpetuated as a reference to Spain's cultural life. The destruction of the Spanish artistic heritage had been of great magnitude, not only as a result of acts of war, but particularly by the iconoclastic fury of the Republican rearguard. These events were widely publicized in the new state, which in turn exhibited as an achievement its own recovery the most important collections of the

, except at Geneva, where Spain obtained from

Vichy France Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its t ...

two emblematic pieces from Spain under different circumstances ('' La Inmaculada de Soult'' and '' La dama de Elche'', 1941). Spanish cultural life after the war was tragically overshadowed by the violent death of prominent individuals identified with both sides (

Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...

Ramiro de Maeztu Ramiro de Maeztu y Whitney (May 4, 1875 – October 29, 1936) was a prolific Spanish essayist, journalist and publicist. His early literary work adscribes him to the Generation of '98. Adept to Nietzschean and Social Darwinist ideas in his youth, ...

Pedro Muñoz Seca Pedro Muñoz Seca (20 February 1879 – 28 November 1936 ) was a Spanish comic playwright. He was one of the most successful playwrights of his era. He wrote approximately 300 dramatic works, both '' sainetes'' (short vignettes) and longer plays ...

). Valle Inclán and

Unamuno Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo (29 September 1864 – 31 December 1936) was a Spanish essayist, novelist, poet, playwright, philosopher, professor of Greek and Classics, and later rector at the University of Salamanca. His major philosophical e ...

died of natural causes (January and December 1936 respectively), and

Manuel Azaña Manuel Azaña Díaz (; 10 January 1880 – 3 November 1940) was a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1933 and 1936), organizer of the Popular Front in 1935 and the last President of the Re ...

and

(shortly after crossing the French border in 1939). The poet

Miguel Hernández Miguel Hernández Gilabert (30 October 1910 – 28 March 1942 ) was a 20th-century Spanish-language poet and playwright associated with the Generation of '27 and the Generation of '36 movements. Born and raised in a family of low resources, h ...

died in prison in 1942.

later attained great success with a bitter view of man and society in a theatre scene in which even the comedic playwrights of the winning side could not escape the absurdity (

Enrique Jardiel Poncela Enrique Jardiel Poncela (15 October 1901 – 18 February 1952) was a Spanish playwright and novelist who wrote mostly humorous works. In 1932-33 and 1934 he was called to Hollywood to help with the Spanish-language versions shot in parallel to ...

Miguel Mihura Miguel Mihura Santos (21 July 1905, in Madrid – 27 October 1977) was a Spanish playwright. He is best known for his comedy '' Tres sombreros de copa'' (1952), a work of absurd humor that predates similar works by Beckett or Ionesco and t ...

Edgar Neville Edgar Neville Romrée, Count of Berlanga de Duero (28 December 1899 – 23 April 1967) was a Spanish playwright and film director, a member of the "other" Generation of '27. Biography Neville was born in Madrid but lived in Hollywood in the 19 ...

José López Rubio José López Rubio y Herreros (13 December 1903 in Motril, Granada Province – 2 March 1996) was a Spanish playwright, screenwriter, film director, theatre historian and humorist. Rubio y Herreros worked in Hollywood as a songwriter for ...

, Antonio Lara de Gavilán ("Tono") and his follower Alfonso Paso).

The cultural landscape

The literary production of intellectuals related to the new national government, although some international celebrities of great weight returned to Spain ( Arturo Duperier,

José Ortega y Gasset José Ortega y Gasset (; 9 May 1883 – 18 October 1955) was a Spanish philosopher and essayist. He worked during the first half of the 20th century, while Spain oscillated between monarchy, republicanism, and dictatorship. His philosoph ...

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...

) and minimal scientific activity was maintained (creation of the Institute of Political Studies (1939), CSIC (1939), and the Institute of Hispanic Culture (1946)) and some areas of relations (social gatherings such as the Café Gijón, magazines such as ''Vértice'' (1937 to 1946), ''Escorial'' (1940 to 1950), ''Garcilaso-Juventud creadora'' (1943 to 1946), ''Espadaña'' (1944 to 1951), ''Ínsula'' (launched 1946), ''Cántico'' (1947 to 1949), the long Spanish postwar recovery during the 1940s and 1950s created a cultural wasteland within the destroyed, hungry and isolated Spain, exacerbated by repression, the 'purification' of the educational system and cultural institutions, the purges of books, and widespread censorship. Compared with the preceding period, called the Silver Age (''la Edad de Plata''), shows one of the clearest contrasts in the cultural history of Spain. The term "cultural wasteland" or "intellectual wasteland", widely used, has itself been debated by many authors and may be unfair to the actual cultural productions; but it nevertheless has the virtue of connecting itself to the essentialist debate, pessimistic and inward-looking, on the 'Being of Spain', the

existentialist Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and value ...

view of the country, that was in itself the more important intellectual subject of the time. From the history of science, the time has come to be known as the destruction of science in Spain. Possibly the most synthesized description is to be found among some novelists, poets and playwrights in their titles: Carmen Laforet with ''Nada'' (1945),

with ''Hijos de la ira'' (''Sons of Wrath'') (1946);

Alfonso Sastre Alfonso Sastre (20 February 1926 – 17 September 2021) was a Spanish playwright, essayist, and critic associated with the Generation of '36 movement. He was an outspoken critic of censorship during the reign of General Francisco Franco and the ...

with ''La mordaza'' (''The Bite'') (1954); Luis Martín-Santos with ''Tiempo de silencio'' (''Time of Silence'') (1962); and

Carlos Barral Carlos Barral i Agesta (1928–1989) was a Spanish poet, considered (along with Jaime Gil de Biedma) to be one of the greatest poets of the so-called generation of the 1950s. He helped to establish the Formentor Group and their literary awards t ...

with ''Años de penitencia'' (''Years of Penance'') (1975).

, among the

Generation of '27 The Generation of '27 ( es, Generación del 27) was an influential group of poets that arose in Spanish literary circles between 1923 and 1927, essentially out of a shared desire to experience and work with avant-garde forms of art and poetry. ...

poets and writers, best represented the vital, intellectual commitment to an interior exile, rich but hidden. Prominent representatives of the generation, such as

and

Gerardo Diego Gerardo Diego Cendoya (October 3, 1896 – July 8, 1987) was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27. Diego taught language and literature at institutes of learning in Soria, Gijón, Santander and Madrid. He also acted as litera ...

, were involved in the Franco regime's cultural institutions, while others (

Luis Cernuda Luis Cernuda Bidón (September 21, 1902 – November 5, 1963) was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27. During the Spanish Civil War, in early 1938, he went to the UK to deliver some lectures and this became the start of an exile t ...

Jorge Guillén Jorge Guillén Álvarez (; 18 January 18936 February 1984) was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27, a university teacher, a scholar and a literary critic. In 1957-1958, he delivered the Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard Un ...

Pedro Salinas Pedro Salinas y Serrano (27 November 1891 – 4 December 1951) was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27, as well as a university teacher, scholar and literary critic. In 1937, he delivered the Turnbull lectures at Johns Hopkins ...

and

Rafael Alberti Rafael Alberti Merello (16 December 1902 – 28 October 1999) was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27. He is considered one of the greatest literary figures of the so-called ''Silver Age'' of Spanish Literature, and he won numero ...

) went into an exile shared with a host of writers ( Ramón J. Sender,

, Corpus Barga,

José Bergamín José Bergamín Gutiérrez ( Madrid, 1895 – Hondarribia, 28 August 1983) was a Spanish writer, essayist, poet, and playwright. His father served as president of the canton of Málaga; his mother was a Catholic. Bergamín was influenced by both ...

León Felipe León Felipe Camino Galicia (11 April 1884 – 17 September 1968) was an anti-fascist Spanish poet. Biography Felipe was born in Tábara, Zamora, Spain, while his parents were travelling. His father was a public notary and comfortably off. H ...

, Francisco Ayala, Max Aub,

Arturo Barea Arturo Barea Ogazón (20 September 1897 – 24 December 1957) was a Spanish journalist, broadcaster and writer. After the Spanish Civil War, Barea left with his wife Ilsa Barea to live in exile in England where he died. Biography Barea was ...

María Zambrano María Zambrano Alarcón (22 April 1904 – 6 February 1991) was a Spanish essayist and philosopher associated with the Generation of '36 movement. Her extensive work between the civic engagement and the poetic reflection started to be r ...

Alfonso Daniel Rodríguez Castelao Alfonso Daniel Manuel Rodríguez Castelao (30 January 1886 – 7 January 1950), commonly known as Castelao, was a Galician politician, writer, painter and doctor. He is one of the fathers of Galician nationalism, promoting Galician identi ...

('Castelao') writing in the Galician language,

Josep Carner Josep Carner i Puigoriol (; born Barcelona 9 February 1884 - died Brussels 4 June 1970), was a Spanish poet, journalist, playwright and translator. He was also known as ''the Prince of Catalan Poets''. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Lit ...

and Mercè Rodoreda writing in the

), scientists, artists and professionals from all disciplines whose international recognition was high in all types of universities and cultural institutions, culminating in the Nobel Prizes awarded to

(literature, 1956) and

Severo Ochoa Severo Ochoa de Albornoz (; 24 September 1905 – 1 November 1993) was a Spanish physician and biochemist, and winner of the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine together with Arthur Kornberg for their discovery of "the mechanisms in ...

(medicine, 1959). The granting of the same award in 1977 to

featured the return to Spain of surviving exiles, who saw the international recognition of the restoration of democracy in Spain. Internal exiles who gained public recognition were Juan Gil Albert and

. The writers closely aligned with the Franco regime ( Manuel Machado's brother Antonio, a living symbol of the fratricidal division;

Eduardo Marquina Eduardo Marquina Angulo (21 January 1879 – 21 November 1946) was a Spanish playwright and poet associated with the Modernisme, Catalan Modernist school. His ''En Flandes se ha puesto el Sol (The Sun Has Set in Flanders)'' was awarded the R ...

Vicente Risco Vicente Martínez Risco Agüero (October 1, 1884 – April 30, 1963) was a Galician intellectual of the 20th century. He was a founder member of Xeración Nós, and among the most important figures in the history of Galician literature. He is w ...

, Lorenzo Villalonga, Julio Camba,

Wenceslao Fernández Flórez Wenceslao Fernández Flórez (1885 in A Coruña, Galicia – 1964 in Madrid) was a popular Galician journalist and novelist of the early 20th century. Throughout his career, he retained an intense fondness for the land of his birth. Early l ...

, Manuel García Morente, Tomás Borrás, Jacinto Miquelarena, José María de Cossío, the Marqués de Lozoya,

Rafael Sánchez Mazas Rafael Sánchez Mazas (18 February 1894 – October 1966) was a Spanish nationalist writer and a leader of the Falange, a right-wing political movement created in Spain before the Spanish Civil War. Sánchez Mazas received a law degree at the R ...

, Víctor de la Serna,

(the 'minstrel of the Crusade'),

, Manuel Halcón, Juan Antonio Zunzunegui, Ángel Valbuena Prat, Eugenio Montes, Samuel Ros, Agustín de Foxá,

, José María Gironella, José Luis Castillo-Puche, Emilio Romero) or those who for one reason or another tried a compromise approach, with different reception from the regime (

José Martínez Ruiz José Augusto Trinidad Martínez Ruiz, better known by his pseudonym Azorín (; June 8, 1873 – March 2, 1967), was a Spanish novelist, essayist and literary critic. As a political radical in the 1890s, he moved steadily to the right. In litera ...

('Azorin'),

Jacinto Benavente Jacinto Benavente y Martínez (12 August 1866 – 14 July 1954) was one of the foremost Spanish dramatists of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1922 "for the happy manner in which he has continued the illustriou ...

Ramón Pérez de Ayala Ramón Pérez de Ayala y Fernández del Portal (9 August 1880, in Oviedo – 5 August 1962, in Madrid) was a Spanish writer. He was the Spanish ambassador to England in London (1931-1936) and voluntarily exiled himself to Argentina via F ...

Carlos Arniches Carlos Arniches Barreda (11 October 1866 – 16 April 1943)"Arniches (y Barrera), Carlos" in ''The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. 1, p. 577. was a Spanish playwright, born in Ali ...

, bilingual

-writer

Josep Pla Josep Pla i Casadevall (; 8 March 1897 – 23 April 1981) was a Spanish journalist and a popular author. As a journalist he worked in France, Italy, England, Germany and Russia, from where he wrote political and cultural chronicles in Catalan ...

, and have been mostly a common destiny in their assessment by subsequent literary criticism; relatively speaking, somewhat similar to the relegation and contempt suffered by intellectuals who supported the European Fascist regimes after their defeat (examples include

Louis-Ferdinand Céline Louis Ferdinand Auguste Destouches (27 May 1894 – 1 July 1961), better known by the pen name Louis-Ferdinand Céline ( , ) was a French novelist, polemicist and physician. His first novel ''Journey to the End of the Night'' (1932) won the '' Pr ...

Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centu ...

and

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

). Others, such as

Camilo José Cela Camilo José Cela y Trulock, 1st Marquess of Iria Flavia (; 11 May 1916 – 17 January 2002) was a Spanish novelist, poet, story writer and essayist associated with the Generation of '36 movement. He was awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize in Liter ...

and

Pío Baroja Pío Baroja y Nessi (28 December 1872 – 30 October 1956) was a Spanish writer, one of the key novelists of the Generation of '98. He was a member of an illustrious family. His brother Ricardo was a painter, writer and engraver, and his nephe ...

, have been more fortunate. The alignment on either side of the

was becoming somewhat diffuse for a growing group of intellectual personalities, both in exile and within Spain, converging on what has been called the third (''una tercera'') of Spain. This is the case of

Manuel de Falla Manuel de Falla y Matheu (, 23 November 187614 November 1946) was an Andalusian Spanish composer and pianist. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first ...

and

Ramón Gómez de la Serna Ramón Gómez de la Serna y Puig (3 July 1888 in Madrid – 13 January 1963 in Buenos Aires) was a Spanish writer, dramatist and avant-garde agitator. He strongly influenced surrealist film maker Luis Buñuel. Ramón Gómez de la Serna was esp ...

(both resided until their deaths in Argentina, but are not identified specifically with either the exiles or with the Francoist authorities, who sought to recruit them), a significant group of Republican exiles to which violence had distanced them from the Republican side since the beginning of the war, called ''los blancos de París'' (the whites of Paris):

Salvador de Madariaga Salvador de Madariaga y Rojo (23 July 1886 – 14 December 1978) was a Spanish diplomat, writer, historian, and pacifist. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and the Nobel Peace Prize. He was awarded the Charlemagne Prize in ...

Niceto Alcalá-Zamora Niceto Alcalá-Zamora y Torres (6 July 1877 – 18 February 1949) was a Spanish lawyer and politician who served, briefly, as the first prime minister of the Second Spanish Republic, and then—from 1931 to 1936—as its president. Early life ...

or Alfredo Mendizabal, and the Spanish Committee for Civil Peace, established in Paris in February 1937), and other significant groups who chose to stay in Spain or who returned in the early postwar years: the physician and essayist

Gregorio Marañón Gregorio Marañón y Posadillo, OWL (19 May 1887 in Madrid – 27 March 1960 in Madrid) was a Spanish physician, scientist, historian, writer and philosopher. He married Dolores Moya in 1911, and they had four children (Carmen, Belén, Marí ...

or philosophers

, Javier Zubiri and

Julián Marías Julián Marías Aguilera (17 June 1914 – 15 December 2005) was a Spanish philosopher associated with the Generation of '36 movement. He was a pupil of the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset and member of the Madrid School.A. Pablo Ia ...

. Symbolically, the three main leaders of the Association of Service of the Republic of 1931 (Ortega and Perez de Ayala Marañón) agreed in its hopeless rejection of opposition and the resigned acceptance of the Franco regime, returning to Spain in the 1940s. Meanwhile, a select group of intellectuals from the left of

Falangism Falangism ( es, falangismo) was the political ideology of two political parties in Spain that were known as the Falange, namely first the Falange Española de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista (FE de las JONS) and afterwards the Fal ...

distanced themselves from the regime (the environmentalist journal ''Escorial'', which received the controversial liberal denomination "Falangism":

Pedro Laín Entralgo Pedro Laín Entralgo (15 February 1908 – 5 June 2001) was a Spanish physician, historian, author and philosopher. He worked, fundamentally, on medical history and anthropology. Biography He was born in Urrea de Gaén (Teruel, Spain) in 1 ...

Antonio Tovar Antonio Tovar Llorente (17 May 1911 – 13 December 1985) was a Spanish philologist, linguist and historian. Biography Born in Valladolid, the son of a notary, he grew up in Elorrio (Vizcaya), Morella (Castellón) and Villena (Alicante) where as ...

Dionisio Ridruejo Dionisio Ridruejo Jiménez (12 October 1912 – 29 June 1975) was a Spanish poet and political figure associated with the Generation of '36 movement and a member of the Falange political party. He was co-author of the words to the Falangist anthe ...

, Jose Maria Alfaro Polanco,

Gonzalo Torrente Ballester Gonzalo Torrente Ballester (13 June 1910 – 27 January 1999) was a Spanish writer associated with the Generation of '36 movement. Life He was born in Serantes, Ferrol, Galicia, and received his first education there, subsequently atten ...

, José Luis López Aranguren, and Álvaro Cunqueiro, who continued to write most of his work in the Galician language. Something similar happened with the explicit position of a remarkable group of poets to "uproot" (Dámaso Alonso's expression) and leave the "garcilasista aesthetic", named after the official youth magazine ''Garcilaso-Juventud creadora'':

, Luis Felipe Vivanco,

Leopoldo Panero Leopoldo Panero was Spanish poet, born in Astorga in 1909 and deceased in 1962. He was the father of the poets Leopoldo María Panero and Juan Luis Panero and the brother of the early-died poet Juan Panero. Biography Panero spent his childh ...

, in favour of social poetry (magazine ''Espadaña'', from 1944 to 1951): Eugenio de Nora, Victoriano Crémer, who is associated with the subsequent careers of Gabriel Celaya and Blas de Otero, usually identified with the internal exiles, or a group of novelists labelled "tremendistas" ( Tremendismo literary movement):

, ''La familia de Pascual Duarte'' (1942), Rafael García Serrano, Luis Landínez, Darío Fernández Flórez. File:PioBaroja.JPG,

. File:Monumento a Eugenio d'Ors (Madrid) 01.jpg,

monument in Madrid. File:Jose Ortega y Gasset.jpg,

. File:Vicente Aleixandre.jpg,

. File:Monumento a Gerardo Diego.jpg, Monument to

. File:José López Rubio.JPG,

. File:Manuel Brunet 06.jpg,

and Catalán language writer Manuel Brunet.Montero i Aulet, Francesc, ''Manuel Brunet i Solà (1889-1956). Itinerari d'un periodista catalanista, catòlic i conservador.'' UdG, 2005. Fuente citada en :ca:Manuel Brunet i Solà File:Álvaro Cunqueiro 1928.jpg, Álvaro Cunqueiro. File:Julián Marías.JPG,

The "openness" era

The end of the Franco regime was a long period, as much as the period that came before it, and it was a period in which social changes linked to economic development, industrialization, urbanization, opening to the outside and tourism, had different institutional responses, a highlight among which was the performance of

Ministry of Information and Tourism The Ministry of Information and Tourism () was a ministerial department of the Government of Spain created in 1951 during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco to control information and the censorship to press and radio. The ministry also assume ...

(1951), led by Manuel Fraga between 1962 and 1969 (a new Press and Printing Act of 1966 was brought into effect, which replaced the previous one of 1938), and educational reformer José Luis Villar Palasí (General Education Act of 1970), at the same time that substantial changes occurred in the Catholic Church, hitherto one of the main supporters of Franco's Spain, which became clearly marked by a new distancing (following

during the pontificate of

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City, Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his ...

in 1963, and president Cardinal Tarancón in the Episcopal Conference of 1971). The part of the hierarchy clearly identified with the most immobile elements, was (as they themselves were called "the bunker" during the 1970s) relatively marginalized from the center positions of power. In 1967, the government enacted a law to protect Religious Freedom. The Western Alliance Sentinel (rhetorical expression for Spain and Franco himself, identified with each other) with the United States to defend the free world had become a key support. The Franco regime even applied for membership in the European Common Market, which was denied approval because of Spain's lack of democracy (1962). The regime adapted Franco's charismatic ideology of the technocrat (a name which was used to designate economic and other technical experts linked to Catholic group

), while the ideological alternatives were raised with increasing boldness. The consequences came to the point that the result came to be described as a fight or dispute of

cultural hegemony In Marxist philosophy, cultural hegemony is the dominance of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class who manipulate the culture of that society—the beliefs and explanations, perceptions, values, and mores—so that the worldview o ...

, a hegemony crisis or ''crisis ideológica''.50 Some newspapers (''Diario Madrid'', forced to close in 1971; ''Informaciones'') and magazines ('' Triunfo'', '' Cuadernos para el Diálogo'', 1963–1976) exploited to the limits the relaxation of censorship, sometimes exceeding the tolerance of the authorities and arousing scandals, which made them political and cultural references. File:Estátua de Tierno Galván.jpg, Monument to

Enrique Tierno Galván Enrique Tierno Galván (Madrid, 8 February 1918 – Madrid, 19 January 1986) was a Spanish politician, sociologist, lawyer and essayist, best known for being the Mayor of Madrid from 1979 to 1986, at the beginning of the new period of Spanish de ...

. File:Agustin Garcia Calvo.jpg, Agustín García Calvo. The university, a challenging environment since the events of 1956 (led by youth of both sides), became one of the strongholds of the opposition to Franco, as demonstrated in February 1965, and the scandal of the deprivation of university chairs to

, Jose Luis Lopez Aranguren and Agustín García Calvo, in solidarity with

and José María Valverde. The incidents of 1968, simultaneous to the so-called revolution of 1968 worldwide, were the extension of these events. File:Camilo José Cela Madrid 1996.jpg,

. File:Antonio Buero Vallejo.jpg, Monument to

. File:Gabriel Celaya bere lantokian.jpg, Gabriel Celaya. File:Gonzalo Torrente Ballester-ERREKA.jpg, Monument to

. File:Placa a Miguel Delibes en la Calle Santiago de Valladolid.jpg, Plaque dedicated to

Miguel Delibes Miguel Delibes Setién MML (; 17 October 1920 – 12 March 2010) was a Spanish novelist, journalist and newspaper editor associated with the Generation of '36 movement. From 1975 until his death, he was a member of the Royal Spanish Academy, w ...

. File:Placa Salvador Espriu a la Universitat de Barcelona.jpg, Plaque dedicated to

Salvador Espriu Salvador Espriu i Castelló (; 10 July 1913 – 22 February 1985) was a Catalan poet. Biography Espriu was born in Santa Coloma de Farners, Catalonia, Spain. He was the son of an attorney. He spent his childhood between his home town, Barcelon ...

. File:Sculpture of the Celso Emilio Ferreiro head in Celanova, Ourense, Galicia.jpg, Monument to

Celso Emilio Ferreiro Celso Emilio Ferreiro Míguez (1912–1979) was a Galicianist activist, writer, poet, and political journalist. Early years Ferreiro was born in Celanova, into a well-off Galicianist family. In 1932, at the age of twenty, he created the ''Moce ...

References

{{Reflist Francoist Spain