From the convictions of Susana Estrada to the bombs in El Papus

These and many other cases of repression were brought together in the book by Juan Antonio Ríos Carratalá, professor of Spanish Literature at the University of Alicante. Offended and censors Struggle for freedom of expression (1975-1984) to discuss the difficulties that this right faced during the ten years after Franco’s death.

It wasn’t a good decade for him. Freedom of expression. Or yes, and so there were many who came under the pressure of recent blows. Legislation inherited from the Franco regime nor 78 Constitution “The problem is that even though they abolished censorship, it was not abolished, and censorship coexisted with the previous law for ten years,” says Ríos Carratala.

The author wanted to open the fan and add lesser known cases they had to face the courts and the councils of war for their work”scandal”, a crime not abolished until 88following the dramatic incident of a couple accused of kissing and touching each other in a nightclub, which resulted in the boy’s suicide when he was imprisoned.

Until that year, thanks to the initiative Nicolas Sartorius With the support of the PSOE, the weight of the old law, especially in film and magazinesis both illustrative and political. “The same cases are always counted, and I have expanded this list of chapters,” says the professor, who has published these seven books on Francoist culture and transition.

“There are so many contradictory things. pornographic films are allowed In 82-83, the scandalous crime of banning the display of only nudes in X theaters persisted. So it all depended on who was judging you, and that hurt a lot of people.”

magazine case priest It is very important because, in addition to the few bomb attacks that killed one of its employees, the accumulated More than 70 complaints against some editors. “He called his lawyer. gold billOr because he explained himself so well and was so used to it because he was in court every week,” he said.

difficult years

For Ríos Carratalá, who has researched such cases in newspaper archives and sentences, “They talk about the 80s as a time of liberation, and that’s true, but it was all in the air; it seemed to us that all movies would be made because censorship was overcome, but that’s because the judges already looked the other way“. However, “in the 80s there were complaints of Pedro Almodóvar or Forges, but then nothing happened because everything was more comfortable anyway.”

The book is divided into 25 chapters divided into three parts 😀Knots, Bombs and Ties, Parts of the Fight for Freedom of Expression Y Angry everywhere. In them, it reveals lesser-known cases like that of a person. alcoholic movie A controversial film about San Vicente Ferrer, directed by Carles Mira and starring Albert Boadella, is projected. Or some patron saint feast in a town in Soria, where some youth attended a demonstration without a tie, the Civil Guards condemned it and fought in the struggle. one of them died. “Also, doing normal things like kissing in public or going half-naked to a popular party today is also severely suppressed and judged.”

However, the situation It was not much different from other countries in Europe.. “In some respects it wasn’t much different; in Italy cinema practically had quite significant censorship problems until the 70s, and in France there were, although not as much as here. In Spain, it was more or less a decade ago”.