Queer Geographies of 1970s Barcelona: Mapping the City in Transition through Image and Oral History

Space was a central concern in 1970s Barcelona, both for the Francoist dictatorship trying to maintain control of the city as well as for the gay, lesbian, and trans activists defying the repression of the regime. How to occupy space was a source of heated debate among these activists as a political transition to democracy was sought with uneven success in the Spanish State. This thesis analyzes photographs of marches and oral history interviews to argue that space was crucial in creating solidarities and delineations within and among identity categories. This analysis looks beyond commercial sites to investigate the relationships between spaces to demonstrate that it was through an engagement with the spatial politics of Barcelona and its geography in the Transition* period that lesbian, gay, and trans individuals articulated their political and personal identities.