The Valencian researcher and journalist María Iranzo wanted to do justice to the disruptive weekly El Papus with a book that exhaustively studies the satirical publication and remakes the history of the Spanish Transition. This is El Papus (1973-1987). Informational counterpower in the Spanish Transition, edited by the Aldea Global collection (Universitat de València, Universitat Jaume I, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Universitat Pompeu Fabra).
The launch of the book, just 50 years after the first issue of El Papus went on sale, arises from the thesis that the journalist wrote and which began in 2009. The idea of ??investigating this weekly newspaper was, on the one hand, the lack of information or studies that existed on it and, on the other, the conservation of a huge historical archive of the weekly that could be endorsed with testimonies from workers of the copies. “This gave it added value,” Iranzo stated in an interview with Europa Press.
Throughout this book, the journalist reviews the 14 years of history of the weekly – which achieved the highest circulation between October 1975 and July 1976 -, its 584 covers, its numerous articles and cartoons, its linguistic strategies, the most portrayed real characters and the most stereotyped.
Precisely after analyzing these contents, the also professor at the University of Valencia (UV) explained that one of the things that draws the most attention about the magazine – the first media outlet to suffer a terrorist attack in democracy with a fatal victim – is who began attacking the pillars of Francoism but the most represented character was the former socialist president Felipe González. “Perhaps it was because between the years 1982-84 there was already more freedom of expression and because it was very discouraging that some of the PSOE’s electoral promises were not carried out,” she explained.
In general, the magazine – he has outlined – dared to use political satire, criticizing the dictatorship, the business system and, above all, Catholic morality. On the other hand, it was somewhat contradictory with the issue of women, “since on the one hand it denounced the need to approve divorce or talked about the controversy with adultery or abortion, but it also made a lot of humor using women as an object.” “, has said.
In any case, it was an innovative magazine for the time, the journalist continued, because it notably opted for the weight of graphics and hired people “with a detail typical of North American comics,” she stated, adding: “There are cartoonists with a very schematic line and others where, in addition, there is an exceptional work of illustration”.
Along with this, the researcher has highlighted the language used in the magazine: “Papus spoke as the street did, although this did not detract from its value because behind that language there were references to poems by Miguel Hernández, among other examples,” she has highlighted. asserted after stating that cinema and television also had an important weight in the publication.
On the other hand, María Iranzo has stressed that the “great success” of the magazine – which had the support of the Godó Group – was due to its team, a staff made up of people between 20 and 40 years old and an editorial staff “with a very good atmosphere.” “This helped creativity a lot,” she stressed.
María Iranzo has stressed the “importance” of knowing this magazine since it was “key” in the history of journalism, as well as to understand the Spanish Transition “from another point of view, not so much the institutional/formal one,” she noted.
In this sense, he highlighted: “The history of Spanish journalism owed recognition to El Papus, a publication that went through very hard and very difficult times, that had its stages, and that is important to be known,” he said.
Thus, this weekly has been translated into a book “that may be of interest not only to those who read the magazine, but also to the younger generations to be able to learn about the Spanish Transition from another point of view. The Papus revealed the pact of silence that existed then, when everyone was sold out. It was a critical way of conceiving the Transition.” “The book combines the history of the magazine with the history of the Transition,” the author added.
