Resumen de Memory, media and spectacle: Interviú's portrayal of Civil War exhumations in the early years of Spanish democracy
Paloma Aguilar Fernández, Francisco Ferrándiz
The Franco regime promoted a memory of the war full of distortions and omissions. The silenced existence of mass graves with Republican civilians executed by Francoists was among the most outrageous of these. During the transition, the desire to put aside the traumatic memory of the war led to the neglect of these victims. This was particularly visible in the absence of government policies regarding these corpses. In spite of this silence, a first wave of exhumations took place in the transition period. We deal with its unique exposure in one of Spain's most controversial and successful magazines: Interviú. Despite widespread extreme-right violence and threats, Interviú was one of the very few media that dared to cover this type of information. This article is based on research in Interviú's archives and on interviews with some of the journalists responsible for the reports. We will explain the reasons behind these unparalleled reports and will analyze why, in contrast with what happened many years later, Interviú's efforts failed to unleash a widespread social reaction in favor of exhuming and reburying the remains concealed in these graves. Our study contributes to current debates on the interconnections between the media and complex social memory processes.
