Peacebuilding, Memory and Reconciliation

Chapter 3

Familial trauma in democratic Spain

Memory and reconciliation through generations

Lorraine Ryan

The Spanish transition following the death of General Franco is generally considered a paragon of democratization to which aspiring democracies in both Latin America and Eastern Europe have aspired (Garton Ash 1998; Cuesta 2008). However, its exemplarity began to be disputed during the 1990s as democratization processes were increasingly judged in terms of their capacity to offer redress for human rights abuses and realpolitik became disaccredited. The acclaimed Spanish pact of oblivion, which promoted a simplistic acceptance of equal responsibility for the Spanish Civil War, was disputed as the ascent of a globalized human rights culture ...