From anti-Franco resistance to the crisis of left-wing culture: Triunfo and La Calle, two weeklies in the democratic transition

Abstract

The fortunes of the two weekly magazines Triunfo and La Calle reflect the decline of the Marxist left in Spain during the transition to democracy. While Triunfo evolved from a position of resistance under the Franco regime towards a pragmatism that disenchanted many of its readers, in 1978, the creation of the new weekly La Calle represented a rallying cry to a readership that had already begun to drift away from the Marxist left, both in political terms and in terms of the kind of publication it was keen to buy. The study of the two magazines in these crucial years of the transition serves to exemplify the demise of the Spanish left: with time, both lost their market niche to more moderate and more profitable publications.