Entre el colorín y el color. Las fallas de la victoria y la nación viril de posguerra

Abstract

Throughout the immediate postwar period, the discourse on the nation was articulated around the assumption that the new Spain was inherently virile. Showing clear continuities with the previous regeneracionismo, the notion of virility, which was crosscutting enough to the different political cultures that conformed the regime, was constructed with two kind of attributes: those which alluded to force, vigor and impetus, and those which referred to sobriety, composure and control. In exchange, working as the opposite, the danger of effeminacy supposed both the version of the nation lacking the impulse typical of virility as well as the distortion in excess that resulted in a tasteless, gaudy and histrionic version. Taking the previous argument as a point of departure, the article is focused specifically on the discourse developed around the first celebration of the valencian Fallas after the end of the civil war, the one which took place on March 1940. Considering that it was an ambiguous celebration due to its local taste and rowdy character, the hypothesis of the text is that it needed to be reformulated in order to fit into the main discourse of national virility. The analysis of this discourse, as well as its limits and achievements, constitute the main goal of this article.