The satirical press and the struggle for cultural hegemony in Spain: a case study on La Traca, 1884-1938

Abstract

La Traca was a weekly magazine published in Valencia between 1884 and 1892 and between 1909 and 1938, with periods during which it was not published because of governmental censorship. Because it was written in Valencian, the vernacular language of where it was published, it did not go beyond being a magazine of local, or at most regional, interest, circulation and importance. However, its editor, Vicente Miguel Carceller, made the decision in 1931 to edit the magazine in Spanish and he thus conquered the country’s market, resulting in circulation figures that no other publication had ever reached. La Traca was the most loved and hated of all satirical publications. This article explores its characteristics and its ideology, it investigates how it resolved its conflicts and the terrible ending destiny afforded it. We work on the hypothesis that laughter helps dissolve cultural hegemony, since it balances on the edge between what is real and imagined; what is possible and dreamed.