Franco y la revolución. Una aproximación histórica a la retórica del franquismo

Abstract

Objective/Context: This paper aims to analyze the vast, varied and lasting presence of the little-known revolutionary rhetoric exploited by Francisco Franco throughout the dictatorship in Spain. To this end, this rhetoric is connected with the different contexts in which it was used and with the terminology employed in those same years by thinkers or politicians linked above all to the Falange. Methodology: As this article is interested in the public discourse of Franco's regime, it has examined in detail and qualitatively the content of Franco's public speeches. For this purpose, we have resorted to the official compilations made under Franco's regime and, because of their selective and incomplete nature, also to newspaper sources. Thus, more than a history of intellectual or political ideas, this work is linked to their public and pragmatic dimension and delves into the complex practical functioning of ideologies. Originality: With few exceptions, Franco's rhetoric has not been studied in detail, and even less in the revolutionary rhetoric. The originality of this study lies in the fact that it is the first specific and analytical approach, although not quantitative, to Franco's revolutionary rhetoric. For example, it explains its unknown survival until the 1960s and even the 1970s, so that it outlived the so-called defalangization of Francoism. Conclusions: Franco's revolutionary rhetoric was characterized by great flexibility and imprecision. It underwent many changes over the years and coexisted with other central discursive frameworks, such as the Cruzada's. It was a crucial factor in the discursive legitimization of Francoism, especially in its initial years. Compared to the Cruzada, with which it complemented, it stood out for its elasticity and pretended transversality. In addition, it was connected with a legitimacy of exercise, not of origin, which was, in fact, more easily connected with the present and the future.

Keywords

• cruzada
• fascism
• francisco franco
• francoism
• francoist ideology
• rhetoric
• revolution