La prensa ante la revolución de 1868 en BéjarEl nacimiento de una memoria

Abstract

A review of the nineteenth-century press, especially that of the democratic sexen- nium, most of which has already been digitized, makes it possible to trace the birth and spread of the Bejaran episode of 1868 and the emergence of a memory and a legend, which became ingrained in the historical psyche of Spain at the time. In the dissemina- tion of this memory by the nineteenth-century press, some concepts and principles that are rooted in the foundations of a democratic system, contemporaneous with a political transition, stand out. Values, debates, cautions, fears, and heroic exaltation were inter- mingled in this unprecedented moment. In the revolutionary memory of '68, the city of Béjar, alongside some other significant places, would be embedded as one of the popu- lar symbols of heroism. Tracing the process and the attributes of this memory constitutes the main objective of this article article. The revolts of the summer of 1867 made discrete echoes in the press that did not come together as news. Various circumstances includng the contemporary economic crisis contributed to explain these discontents, which were just a prelude to the events of the following year. The revolts and popular movements of the summer of 1868 were no longer isolated episodes. The outbreak of similar movements in different regions, difficult to quell or even to comprehend (did they represent uplift? revolution)—and the revolutionary demonstrations in several cities, with the subsequent deposition of the monarchy, contributed to inscribe the Bejaran epic in the history of the country and to make it a model of resistance, later invoked as a milestone of the popular uprising and as an unforgettable episode in the story of La Gloriosa. «From tyranny to freedom» was the utopia for which the protagonists of '68 fought, and in their speeches this transition appears between the errors of the past and the achievements of the present at the inau- guration of a «new era.» Béjar had actively participated in the inauguration of this new era. Like so many other revolutions in history, it would not be definitive, but its decisive participation earned it a place in history, and the collective memory, with things recalled, things forgotten, silences—especially the silence that hangs over women—and myths.