Unveiling Madrid : queer intimacies under Franco

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the history of queer intimacies during the central decades of Francoist Spain in Madrid. Despite the recent upsurge in scholarship on sexual and gender dissidence in Spain, there persists a substantial need to recover queer histories during the Francoist dictatorship, particularly those dimensions that extend beyond simply the repressive aspects of the dictatorship. More precisely, this work adopts a localized perspective to unearth specific nuances regarding the spaces, practices, and experiences of sexual dissidents in the 1950s and 1960s. This project is grounded in the recovery and scrutiny of judicial records from the Madrid Archive of Vagrants and Criminals spanning the years 1954 to 1970. My objective is to reveal the aspects that go beyond the strictly legal nature of these records by employing a multifaceted approach to integrate judicial records with other sources, such as oral histories, magazines, and newspapers. This approach has enabled me to reconstruct an intricate, dynamic, and vibrant mirrored city of queer spaces, connections, and relationships during this period. I demonstrate how the archive constructed a particular queer subject through its legal and institutional perspectives: the "invertido.” This term named a subject who embodied dissident experiences defined by gender and sexual behavior at the time. The sexual experiences of the invertido unfolded within both public and domestic spaces, the latter extending beyond the boundaries of a traditional private sphere. The invertido constructed a domestic space in the places where affective and sexual intimacy were possible, incorporating practices and intricate networks of affection and dependency. Moreover, the archive reveals how the "invertido" subject underwent an evolution intertwined with the gradual transformation of the city throughout the 1960s. This evolution also reflects a discursive transition from an "invertido" city to an emerging "gay" city, characterized by new and distinct consumption patterns and forms of sociability.