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The Fabric of the City: Magazines, Dressmakers, and Madrid's Gran Vía

2021; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 28; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/mod.2021.0014

1080-6601

Maite Barragán,

Spanish Literature and Culture Studies

The Fabric of the City:Magazines, Dressmakers, and Madrid's Gran Vía Maite Barragán (bio) In February 1928, the popular magazine Estampa published an unassuming centerfold photograph of a large group of people strolling through Madrid.1 The jovial crowd pictured is so large that they take over the sidewalk and spill into the avenue (fig. 1). At the center of the image, cheerful female dressmakers walk with synchronized steps. Nearby pedestrians take note of the group's energetic display for the photographer and pause to look at them. This photograph does not appear to immediately offer revelations about the advent of modernity in Madrid. In fact, the revolutionary aspects of the image might go entirely unnoticed for a viewer today. However, this centerfold encompasses a number of key social and political debates brought on by the modernization of Madrid and permits surprising insight into the visual and literary culture of Spanish modernity during the 1920s and 1930s. The centerfold shows how the flourishing—albeit understudied—popular press negotiated the modernization of Madrid and the corresponding effects of this phenomenon upon metropolitan urban dynamics.2 I contend that mass-produced periodicals played a central part in creating new understandings of the role of modern urban citizens in Madrid throughout this period. While there are very few examples of paintings that portray early twentieth-century Madrid and even fewer that depict its modernized areas, the city in all its forms was a constant visual and textual presence in periodicals. Magazines contained photographs and conflicting reports that ranged from praise to thoughtful critique of the city's expansions and renovations. Together, text and images mediated the modern city's purposes and problems [End Page 1] Click for larger view View full resolution Fig 1. Estampa, Madrid, February 21, 1928. © Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de for readers. The popular press alerted their audience that modernity's objectives were debatable and compelled further reflection, inviting them to personally interpret their city's transformations. Thus, periodicals did more than entertain; they proposed and propagated critical views of modernization to their wide readership. The centerfold is one among thousands published in the thriving periodical culture of Spain in the 1920s and 1930s. By this time, the increased literacy rates among the Spanish population, along with new technologies and lower cost of printing, resulted in a surge of periodical literature. Spanish literary scholar Jeffrey Zamostny has designated these mass-marketed publications, frequently sold in newsstands, as "kiosk literature." Kiosk literature sought to entertain and inform. But beyond that, according to Zamostny, it was central to how Spaniards "represented the world to themselves in the face of modern change."3 Historians admit that the statistics declaring Madrid's illiteracy rate (21.4 percent in 1920) as the lowest in Spain are unreliable.4 Yet, despite the lack of precise data, it is certain that throughout the first decades of the twentieth century all of Spain's literacy rates rose rapidly.5 This burgeoning reading public sustained the booming number of newspapers, as well as dozens of serial literature and magazine titles. For the relatively low price of 20 to 30 céntimos, readers of different education levels could enjoy the photograph-filled pages, short stories, news reports, and celebrity interviews of an issue of Estampa (1929–38), Crónica (1929–38), Ciudad (1934–35), or Mundo Gráfico (1911–38).6 Party politics were not emphasized in these consumer magazines, as the editors intended to attract a broad consumer base. And among these many titles, Estampa, and its main competitor, Crónica, set the standard for success for Spanish magazines. Both of these weekly magazines helped modernize [End Page 2] Spanish graphic journalism by lowering the price, increasing the number of images, and paying close attention to the design and format of their product. To understand the influence Estampa wielded, consider that by the second month of existence its print run reached 100,000; by its third month, 150,000; and ultimately it surpassed 200,000 copies per issue. The weekly had one of the highest print runs in Spain before the print industry's plunge during the Spanish Civil War (1936–39).7 But why might...