Just forty years ago today, a 15 June of 1977, the first democratic elections took place after Franco's death and the end of his dictatorship. A time of Transition that allowed the change of Spain in all its facets, political, social and cultural.
There are many books written over time about that moment. I have chosen these seven titles to take a look at them. For all those interested in that decisive period in our history and the fundamental characters who made it possible.
The magical year of Adolfo Suárez and King Juan Carlos - Rafael Ansón
Rafael Ansón is the brother of the journalist Luis María Ansón and the writer Francisco Ansón, he was general director of RTVE. With the subtitle of A king and a president before the cameras. July 1976 - June 1977, this book collects the personal balance and memories of the author in those years. And he reviews how the news were and the change in the way of narrating the important events that happened.
I can promise and I promise - Fernando Ónega
Published in 2013, the journalist Fernando Ónega, a great connoisseur of the Transition, offers us the biography of a politician as decisive as he is unforgettable. Its subtitle already says it too: My years with Adolfo Suárez.
Among the biography and chronicle, this book tells the political, personal and sentimental trajectory of an essential man in the history of Spanish democracy. With the Testimonials of those who were with him, including him King Juan Carlos, Ónega offers his personal tribute to Suárez.
The end of the dictatorship - Nicolás Sartorius and Alberto Sabio
Published in 2007This book is so titled because in the months in which this story unfolds we witness the end of a dictatorship. They have parties and unions have been legalized, political freedoms have been recognized, amnesty is accepted and elections are held free to constituent courts. And all this happens not with the death of the dictator, but in June 1977.
Another contribution of this book is the description of the role played by countries such as the USA, France, Germany and England in those eighteen months, from November 1975 to June 1977.
A story to share - Landelino Lavilla Alsina
Landelino Lavilla was minister of Justice from July 1976 to March 1979 and president of the Congress of Deputies. In this book select the period between July 1976 and June 1977, which corresponds to the first government of Adolfo Suárez, to analyze its most important aspects.
What color was Adolfo wearing his socks? - Jose Luis Sanchis
Published in 2016, this book is a compilation of texts and letters, memories, handwritten notes, reserved documents and secret and confidential reports of Suárez.
Between 1977 and 1981, the team of advisers to President Adolfo Suárez led by José Luis Sanchís prepared a large amount of documentation that shows how this Valencian political consultant applied for the first time in Spain working methods and imaging strategies and communication imported from countries with greater democratic experience.
Suarez's spies - Ernesto Villar
Published in 2016 also. It bears the explicit subtitle of The unpublished history of the Transition through the secret reports of the "red spies" of the Government. And it is a detailed journey through the social and political history of our country through the intelligence services reports Spaniards between 1974 and 1977.
333 stories of the Transition - Carlos Santos
De 2015. Another book with a defining subtitle: Corduroy jackets, topless, saber rattling, sighs, shouting and… consensus.
The author, a journalist who lived through this period in the front row, believes that the Transition was not made in the offices but in «the bars, the streets, the workshops, the beds and the altars ». And it was not only a political process but, above all, a cultural, sentimental and social process.. Everything counts from the perspective of the citizens. The result is an entertaining series of funny and emotional episodes about that time.