Gossip Franco. The Caudillo representation in gossip magazines (1944-1976), between politics, support, and normalization

Abstract

This paper offers an analysis of the representations of francisco franco in gossip magazines, by studying the one with largest circulation and impact, ¡hola! It focuses, on three crucial narrative cycles, namely: that of international legitimation in the context of the second world war postwar period; that of franco’s identification as a benefactor in the context of economic development in the 50s and 60s, and that of the «good dictator»: the familiar and close franco of the sixties until his death. Beyond the kind and in a certain way normalizing forms of representation of the dictator in the press for women, this paper argues that it was an eminently political press, where the ideological, political and identity principles that sustained the institutional architecture of franco’s regime were also filtered.