Una crónica contracultural de la transición. Reflexiones sobre la revista ajoblanco

Abstract

An analysis of the counterculture in Spain is proposed, with a particular focus on the magazine Ajoblanco and the role it played in the second half of the 1970s, in the midst of the transition to democracy. The main objective is to understand not only the significance of the counterculture, but also the essential role played by the marginal press and, specifically, Ajoblanco, from a historical perspective, but also its relevance in the current political context. The focus is on the first period of the publication, between 1974 and 1980, years that coincide with the end of the dictatorship and the beginning of the process of democratic construction. It was undoubtedly a significant period in which Ajoblanco, despite its wide circulation, sought to maintain a countercultural tone, initially, and later a libertarian one, with which it managed to give a voice to incipient social movements (feminism, sexual liberation struggles, environmentalism) and marginal identities (prisoners in struggle, conscientious objectors, anti-psychiatry) which were emerging at that time and which also form part of the story of the Transition. The magazine offered an alternative vision of democracy, a key contribution to the cultural and political discourse at a crucial moment in Spain’s history