The Canonical Story of the Transition. The Use of the Past as a Guide to the Present

Abstract

Transition to democracy has became the clearest reference for the new Spanish democratic identity. According to the official account, the years from 1975 to 1981 and its protagonists have been reached the national pantheon even turning into a period whose shadows are intentionally deleted in order to build mythical origins where set the new democracy. Thus, consensus and maturity came to be correlates of a new period in the history of Spain, which gave up violence and antagonisms that had characterized its past. As myth, denying or questioning the model character of the transition has became a kind of crime against democracy itself. So in this article we are trying to draw the basics points of this story and, from them, to do an attack to that narration.

Keywords

• transición
• democracia
• mito
• memoria colectiva
• identidad nacional