(Re)membering the Madrid Movida: Life, Death, and Legacy in the Contemporary Corpus. A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Marcela Theresa Garcés IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Ofelia Ferrán, Ana Paula Ferreira, Co-advisers June 2010 © Marcela Theresa Garcés 2010 Acknowledgements While my name goes on this dissertation, there are many other names that have gone into the creation of this work. To my parents, Linda and Juan Garcés, for so many things: for meeting at Ohio University in 1968, falling in love, and giving me the gift of two languages and four siblings, Sara Garcés Roselli, Cassandra Papadopoulos, Andrés Garcés, and Martha Garcés. All six of you have listened to me patiently over the last seven years about my process and my life, given me advice, and most of all, you have been instrumental in helping me to keep going. Papá, thank you for being another adviser, for telling me your stories, and for telling me that it would never be a disadvantage to have more education. Mom, thank you for listening, and always talking about your trip to Madrid. Thank you to both of you for supporting me to study in Cáceres and Madrid. Sara, thank you for being the example that made me want to go graduate school one day. Cassie, thank you for all your cards and conversations. Andrés, for your gentle spirit and kind words of advice. Martha and Tom, for the many meals and for moving to Minneapolis and making my life so much better. To my committee members, Ofelia Ferrán, Ana Paula Ferreira, Fernando Arenas, Lyndel King, and José Colmeiro. All of you have given me so much, and I am so fortunate to have had your support. Ofelia, thank you for your seminar on Memory and the Spanish Civil War, which inspired me to work on the topic of memory. Thank you for encouraging me to work on the Movida and for seeing that it would be the a topic that would provide me with continuous interest. Thank you for your meticulous proofreading of all my work, and for helping me to become a better writer. Ana Paula, thank you for i being an example for me, for making so many changes in our department, and for challenging me to work harder. Fernando, thank you for your wonderful course and for always being kind and supportive. Lyndel, thank you for introducing me to the field of museum studies and for the opportunity to do an internship at the Weisman Art Museum. Thank you to José Colmeiro for agreeing to be on my committee and for his countless detailed comments and cultural knowledge of the Movida era. To René Jara, for believing in me and recognizing me. Thank you to Roslye Ultan for the courses on modern and contemporary art, and for the independent study on postmodernism. To Nancy Marino at Michigan State University for encouraging me to pursue graduate studies in Spanish, and for helping me with the application process to graduate school. To Rod Phillips and Gene Burns at Michigan State University for providing me with wonderful mentors and being teachers I chose to emulate. To Tom McCallum and Susan McMillan-Villar for supporting me in my teaching career and giving me many opportunities. To my students, for teaching me. Thank you to Adelia Yount for listening to me and being my friend for 29 years. Thank you to Charo Vega-Villa for being such a consistent friend and for teaching me so many words. Thank you to Vanesa Arozamena for always being ready to help and for working by my side during so many hours in Folwell 401 and at Common Roots Café. Thank you to Adriana Sánchez-Bradford for listening, asking the right questions, and believing in me. To Deborah Meyer, for introducing me to many good things and for being there. Thank you to Deyanira Rojas-Sosa for being my informal adviser and encouraging me to have fun too. Thank you to Naomi Wood and Mandy Menke for our ii lunches and great conversations in 401. To Joseph Towle, for diligence. To Kelly McDonough for being a true jefa, and for Bird by Bird . To Kajsa Larson for keeping me updated, for being such a hard worker, and for being in Madrid with me. To Liz Lake, Michael Arnold, and Matt Desing, for great conversations. Thank you to Vlad Dima for helping me to learn to work diligently and for answering my questions about the job search. To Marcus Brasileiro and Marilena Mattos, for teaching me Portuguese and for our time in Brazil. Thank you to Juana de Aizpuru and Concha de Aizpuru for introducing me to the world of contemporary art, for inspiring me to research the Movida, and for being so generous in helping me with contacts and suggestions for my research. Thank you to Héctor Fouce, Sigfrido Martín Begué, Ágatha Ruiz de la Prada, Enrique Ruiz-Skipey, and Alejandro Andrade Pease for being so generous with your time and materials for my research. I would also like to thank the Program for Cultural Cooperation between the Spanish Ministry of Culture and United States Universities for their generous support in funding my research in Madrid in 2007. In addition, I would like to thank the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Minnesota for their generous support through conference travel grants, Dissertation Research Support grants, and the Graduate Research Partnership Program for my research in Madrid in 2008. A todos y todas: mil gracias. iii Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my family, my friends, and all my teachers. iv Abstract My dissertation explores the legacy of the Movida, a cultural renaissance that took place in Madrid, Spain from 1976-1986. I examine a series of cultural products that have contributed to the legacy of this fundamental moment in contemporary Spanish history, including museum exhibits, documentaries, novels, and feature films created between 1999 and 2007. I argue that the memory of this moment is constantly evolving, creating a series of narratives about the life, death, and second life of the Movida. The resurgence of commemorative efforts about the Movida serves a number of purposes. In certain instances, the Movida is viewed through the lenses of nostalgia, mourning and melancholia. Generally, the Movida serves as a place of memory on which many people dwell. In other instances, the moment of the Movida is used for the process of working through the past. Other products I consider transform the memory of the past, sometimes offering critical perspectives about how the Movida is remembered via the concepts of pastiche and postnostalgia. Still others utilize the past as an inspiration for the present or the future, creating a "Removida" by mobilizing the concepts of parody and kitsch to engage with the past. My analysis of these products demonstrates that in recent years, the Movida has been "re-membered" and given a new and distinctive form in its second life. v Table of Contents Introduction: Defining and Redefining the Movida 1 Chapter 1: ¿ Sólo se vive una vez ?: La Movida on Display 33 in Recent Museum Exhibits Chapter 2: Documenting the Past: Sombras de un Sueño or La Removida ? 131 Chapter 3: La Movida Re-leída : Mourning, Melancholia and Working Through 204 Literary Memories Chapter 4: Voices and Visions: The Madrid Movida Revisited in Film 263 Conclusion: Remembering and Forgetting the Past, and Looking to the Future 329 Bibliography 341 vi Introduction: Defining and Redefining the Movida The Madrid Movida is easily the quintessential cultural moment in Spain's recent past. Broadly speaking, it was a cultural renaissance that began in Madrid and lasted roughly from 1976 to 1986, a part of the 'uncorking' that occurred partly during the transition to democracy after the death of long-time dictator, Francisco Franco (1892- 1975). The transition to democracy is a term that has multiple meanings and is said to encompass various time periods 1. It is said to have begun in 1973, when Franco was still in power. 1973 was also the year of the assassination of then Prime Minister Luis Carrero Blanco. The transition lasted until 1982 with the victory of the PSOE (The Spanish Socialist Workers Party), but it is also said to have ended when Spain joined what is now known as the European Union 2. While the Movida began as an underground movement, it soon moved beyond closed doors, and those involved in the Movida were the cultural architects of a new, more brazen street life. In the beginning, the Movida was countercultural, but in the mid 1980s it was appropriated for social and political purposes as a marketing tool. The images in their artwork, films, fashions, and performances created narratives that helped a new generation of Spaniards to construct their identities. Not only did these narratives 1 See the introduction of Luis García-Torvisco's dissertation, "Modos del exceso en la cultura de la transición democrática en España" (2005). García-Torvisco mentions that some see the economic expansion of the 1960s as the beginning of the transition, and it is also said that the transition lasted until 1993 (Vilarós) , the year in which Spain signed the treaty of Maastricht. 2 See El aprendizaje de la libertad 1973-1986. La cultura de la transición , by José Carlos Mainer and Santos Juliá. (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 2000). 1 assist people in understanding the historical present in which they were created, they also played an important role in breaking free from, redefining and even burying the past.