https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7571-5818
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Abstract
This article adopts an urban cultural studies method to elaborate the historical-geographical formation of Madrid’s first American-style shopping mall, La Vaguada, in relation to important socio-spatial transformations unfolding in the Spanish capital from the 1950s to the early democratic period. Using insights developed in the field of critical geography, it construes the production of space in and around La Vaguada as a historically contingent process that offers remarkably unique insights into wider socio-cultural shifts occurring at a variety of geographical scales. With an eye toward urban planning in Spain during the twentieth century, the article first traces the origins of La Vaguada back to the capitalist speculators that built El Pilar and shows how this neighborhood was closely bound up with the urbanization of capital under dictator Francisco Franco. It then goes on to examine the grassroots campaign organized by the La Vaguada es nuestra neighborhood association in defense of El Pilar in order to map the constellation of contested discourses that ultimately coalesced around the proposed shopping center against the backdrop of Madrid’s historic 1979 municipal elections. The article concludes by performing a close reading of the mall’s architectural form to draw out its unique relationship to (post)modernity.
Notes
1 The Municipality of Madrid is composed of 21 districts, and each district is further subdivided into several administrative wards. The term for ward in Castilian Spanish is barrio, which in English is sometimes also translated as neighborhood. The Fuencarral-El Pardo district consists of eight administrative wards, or neighborhoods: El Pilar, El Goloso, El Pardo, Fuentelarreina, La Paz, Mirasierra, Peñagrande, and Valverde.
2 Throughout the present essay, the terms shopping mall, mall, and shopping center will be used interchangeably to refer to the American-style shopping mall. First made popular in the United States after World War II, these indoor retail spaces are generally marked by three distinguishing characteristics. First, they boast an anchor department store, which serves to attract consumers to the location and then encourages them to patronize the smaller retail shops that line the corridors of the [enclosed] complex. Second, they offer a range of leisure activities—such as children’s play areas, video arcades, movie theaters, or food courts. Third, the American-style shopping mall is thematically coded around an overarching motif that serves to stimulate the consumption act. Popular motifs include olde town, high-tech urban, and wilderness, among others. For an introduction into the difficulty of defining the term shopping mall, see the chapter “Centros comerciales, debate para una definición y tipologías” in Escudero Gómez.
3 In countless publications spanning nearly five decades, the English geographer David Harvey has systematically reworked Karl Marx’s materialist conception of history. In so doing, he has formulated a reinvigorated framework for understanding capital’s laws of motion. Broadly understood, his innovation was to integrate explicitly spatial concerns into a critical method that has traditionally privileged history over geography. For Harvey, the centrality of time in the Marxist tradition is accompanied by a resultant failure to adequately consider how space is produced. As such, historical materialism on its own could only paint an incomplete picture of the dynamics of the capitalist accumulation. Following the pioneering work of French philosopher Henri Lefebvre, Harvey argued from there that the production of space plays a key role in resolving capital’s ever-present internal contradictions. In this way, historical-geographical materialism was born. For Harvey’s most comprehensive work on the topic, see The Limits to Capital (1999).
4 In his The Urban Experience (1989), Harvey asks “how does capital become urbanized, and what are the consequences of that urbanization?” (17).
5 This Plan was approved by a special law in 1946. See Sánchez de Madariaga for a brief introduction. All translations are my own.
6 For a critical assessment of the Bidagor Plan, see the authoritative collection of essays in Plan Bidagor 1941-1946: Plan General de Ordenación de Madrid, edited by Carlos Sambricio.
7 See Castells, The City and the Grassroots, 217–224, and Terán, “Crecimiento urbano y planeamiento de Madrid” for general histories of Madrid’s urban process during the first decades of the Franco Regime.
8 See Díaz Nosty for a summary of symbolic changes made to Madrid’s urban landscape during the early Franco period.
9 For general histories of industrialization under the Franco Regime, see Tortella, 298–358, and Tusell, 147–159.
10 For details on the INI, see Tortella, 317–327.
11 Tusell writes that “[a]fter the start of the 1950s there was significant economic growth, especially in industry. The average rate of growth in industrial production was at about 8 percent during the 1950s and in some years, such as 1952, it reached the extraordinary level of 15 percent” (148).
12 Castells notes that “[b]etween 1950 and 1960, 440,000 newcomers came to Madrid” (The City and the Grassroots 218).
13 For a discussion on “Migration and chabolismo” in Madrid during the Franco Regime, see that chapter in Richards.
14 For an insightful summary of the complicated politics of housing in 1950s Spain, see also Terán, Historia, 232–236.
15 See “José Banús, el promotor inmobiliario del ‘Régimen’, falleció ayer en Madrid.”
16 The information in this paragraph was compiled from two sources. The first is an extraordinarily insightful pamphlet from 1977 called La Vaguada es nuestra: La lucha de un barrio contra la especulación, which was collectively authored by members of El Pilar’s neighborhood association and therefore appears in the Works Cited under the heading “Agrupación Vecinal ‘La Vaguada es nuestra.’” In all likelihood, however, the actual author of this important primary source was the famous Spanish sociologist Jesús Ibáñez, who lived in El Pilar during the 1970s and 80s (Ibáñez, “Autobiografía,” 17). The second source is called “La cotidianidad política de Jesús Ibáñez,” a 1990 essay composed in memoriam by Ibáñez’ widow, Esperanza Martínez-Conde. The account presented here can also be substantiated in additional source materials published over many decades. Several noteworthy examples include: Sánchez Gil (Citation1977); “La Vaguada: continúan las manifestaciones contra el centro comercial (1977); Jiménez (Citation1978); “Historia de una Vaguada que nunca fue suya” (1983); Alpuente (Citation1997); MDO (Citation2017); Robles (Citation2017); Pascual (Citation2018); and Cruz (Citation2019).
17 Another important factor was that large tracts of peripheral land had recently been incorporated into the municipality of Madrid (Fernández Talaya). Between 1948 and 1954, the dictatorship annexed a total of 13 municipalities then located on the outskirts of Madrid: Aravaca, Barajas, Canillas, Canillejas, Carabanchel Alto, Carabanchel Bajo, Chamartín de la Rosa, El Pardo, Fuencarral, Hortaleza, Vallecas, Vicálvaro, and Villaverde. El Pilar is today located in what was once the medieval city of Fuencarral.
18 See Santamaria.
19 See “Constituida la entidad ‘La vaguada es nuestra.’”
20 See Castells, The City and the Grassroots (215–288) for a detailed assessment of Madrid’s Citizen Movement.
21 All the citations from this paragraph come from Lefebvre’s The Production of Space.
22 See “Historia de un conflicto.”
23 See Navascues, “Los comerciantes” and Rábago.
24 See “El centro comercial de la Vaguada, impugnado por los vecinos del barrio del Pilar” and “Faltan plazas escolares en el barrio del Pilar.”
25 See J.S.; “Los vecinos piden la mejora la [sic] del equipamiento de Fuencarral”; Navascues, “Al pleno de hoy”; and Sánchez Gil.
26 See “El alcalde visitó a los acampados del barrio del Pilar.”
27 See “Cerraron numerosos mercados de Madrid.”
28 See Fuente Tarrero and Río López.
29 See “Una comisión mixta estudiará el problema de La Vaguada.”
30 These quotes come from “Un caballero español,” “La Vaguada, ¿es nuestra?,” and “Los alcaldes de Madrid/Vaguada,” respectively.
31 See “José Luis Alvarez, favorable al centro comercial de La Vaguada y a la escultura de Chillida.”
32 See “Un baile de metros cuadrados.”
33 See for instance “Alboroto popular y amenazas o le desalojo en El [sic] pleno municipal,” “El público y los candidatos a la alcaldía protagonizaron el pleno municipal,” and “Los vecinos del Pilar, contra el plan Álvarez para La Vaguada.”
34 See “Mitin del PCE en la Vaguada.”
35 See “Se cumplen 40 años de las primeras elecciones municipales de la vuelta de la democracia.”
36 See “‘El acuerdo de izquierdas propiciará un alcalde socialista.’”
37 As dictatorship gave way to democracy, the political landscape in the Municipality of Madrid unfolded in the following way. After the resignation of Juan de Arespacochaga in March of 1978, the King appointed José Luis Álvarez as mayor of Madrid. In January of 1979, Álvarez himself resigned, leaving his first lieutenant, Luis María Huete, in charge of the city. For his part, Huete was Madrid’s very last mayor of the Franco period. Years later, when asked to reflect on his 103 days in office, Huete laconically remarked “[s]oy la transición de la transición” (Niño).
38 See “‘El centro comercial de La Vaguada era y es inevitable.’”
39 See “Aplazada tres meses la construcción del centro comercial de La Vaguada.”
40 See Bellver, “La licencia de La Vaguada será suspendida temporalmente”; “Creados cinco grupos de trabajo para el tema de La Vaguada”; and “El alcalde visitó La Vaguada.”
41 On the El País website, the online version of the editorial does not have a byline, but Martínez-Conde explicitly states that it was authored by Javier Pradera (106).
42 See Tenientes de alcalde del Ayuntamiento de Madrid.
43 For coverage of the Vaguada in El País during the summer of 1979, see Bellver, “El centro comercial de La Vaguada será desplazado setenta metros” and “La Henin llegó a ofrecer nuevos terrenos”; “Creados cinco grupos de trabajo para el tema de La Vaguada”; “El alcalde visitó la Vaguada”; “Enríquez de Salamanca: ‘La oposición a La Vaguada nació de los locales comerciales’”; “‘Luz verde’ para el centro comercial de La Vaguada en septiembre”; “Pacto de silencio en torno a La Vaguada,” “Vecinos del Pilar se manifiestan contra el centro comercial de La Vaguada,” among others. For letters to the editor, see “La famosa Vaguada”; “Más sobre La Vaguada”; “Sobre ‘La Vaguada’”; and “¿Vaguada o desierto?”.
44 The quotes in this sentence are taken from the following sources, respectively: “La famosa Vaguada”; “Sobre ‘La Vaguada’”; “Más sobre La Vaguada”; and “¿Vaguada o desierto?.”
45 For details on citizen participation and the General Plan of 1985, see Molina.
46 See Compitello, “A Good Plan Gone Bad,” “Designing Madrid,” “From Planning to Design,” and “Recasting Urban Identities”; Fernández de Alba, “Madrid: Planning the Democratic City”; Geist; Larson, “Architecture, Urbanism, and la Movida madrileña” and “Shifting Modern Identities”; Stapell; and Wheeler, “The Movida and the Reinvention of Madrid,” amongst others.
47 Compitello briefly refers to the shopping mall in “From Planning to Design” (209).
48 See “Se construirá el centro comercial de La Vaguada.”
49 Born in Romania, de Balkany became a French citizen in 1956 and eventually married Princess Maria Gabriella of Savoy. In 1962, he founded his La Société Générale Immobilière (LSGI), which in 1969 went on to construct Europe’s first American-style mall: the Parly-2 outside of Paris (Gicquiau). Technically, La Henin was a subsidiary corporation of LSGI.
50 See Yagüe.
51 See note 32.
52 In September of 1979, the newspaper ABC reported that “[a] finales de junio de este año tuvo lugar el primer contacto oficial del actual Ayuntamiento con los representantes de la empresa L’Henin, promotora del Centro Comercial de La Vaguada. Con ello se iniciaba un periodo de información, estudio y trabajo municipal sobre el centro” (“Se construirá el centro comercial de la Vaguada” 24)
53 Other installations on the island that follow a similar design include the Mirador del Río, the Jardín de Cactus, and the Restaurante Diablo.
54 I agree with Luis I. Prádanos, who in his Postgrowth Imaginaries (2019) problematizes the idea of a “Spanish economic miracle,” because it reinforces the hegemony of capital’s growth ideology and contributes to the continued degradation of the biosphere (45).
55 The great irony is that Lanzarote is today known as a tourist destination precisely because of the legacy of César Manrique.
56 Umbral was particularly fond of making this observation.
57 See “La Vaguada será uno de los parques mejores de Europa.”
58 See “La terraza ajardinada de La Vaguada compensará la masificación de la zona.”
59 See Pascual for insights into the acrimony that emerged during the planning process between Manrique, La Henin, and the projects’ professional architects.
60 Despite protests by the Fundación César Manrique, the indoor waterfalls, the limestone benches, and other singular adornments inside the building were removed in a 2002 remodeling project (Pascual).
61 The authoritative text on this period of Spain’s architectural history is The Modern in Spain: Architecture after 1948 by Ruiz Cabrero. See also Capitel; Hernández León; and Larson, “Architecture.”
62 See “Architecture,” 192-197.
63 See The Condition of Postmodernity for Harvey’s early work on flexible accumulation. For his elaboration of neoliberalism, see A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Harvey speaks explicitly about the change from the vocabulary of flexible accumulation to neoliberalism in his podcast The Anti-Capitalist Chronicles. In the episode “From Fordism to Neoliberalism and Beyond,” he remarks the following:
It was only around 2000 that I started to look back on what had been happening since 1975 and I connected the New York fiscal crisis with the revolution and coup of Pinochet in Chile, who overthrew the democratically elected socialist government of Salvador Allende and introduced a whole kind of new economic system, which was designed by the “Chicago Boys” and which at the time was seen as the answer to the economic problems of the period as represented by the New York fiscal crisis. So, I had started to talk about this kind of economic transformation away from Fordism to flexible accumulation. That's the way I depicted it. But, by the year 2000 I realized that actually it would be much better to talk about it in terms of neoliberalism. It was only in 2005 when I published a book on the brief history of neoliberalism that looking back I could actually interpret what had happened in terms of a turn towards neoliberal politics, neoliberalization of everything through privatization, through the organization of market processes, through the liberation of finance to go to wherever the profit rate was highest. And so, I could provide an interpretation in 2005 of the events that had occurred since 1975.
64 See Harvey, “From Managerialism” for a detailed account of inter-urban competition in the neoliberal era.
65 For a description of the inauguration ceremony, see Robles.
66 See Martínez-Conde for the LVN’s understandably negative reaction to the mayor’s remarks (106).
67 See Vidal.
68 See Heras, “La oferta de 56 empleos,” Jiménez (59–60), and Cruz, respectively.
69 See Barrientos for more on crime statistics in Madrid during the 1980s.
70 For more on the double functionality of malls, see Escudero Gómez, “Los malls, espacios de consumo y de ocio,” in Los centros comerciales, espacios postmodernos de ocio y consumo.
71 Given that the term shopping mall does not have a universally accepted definition, many of the retail spaces in this dataset are different in kind from La Vaguada, either because of their decidedly smaller size (Centro Comercial Zoco Pozuelo, 1984), for example, or because they tend more towards the hipermercado model popularized in Spain during the 1970s (the Centro Comercial Carrefour Alcobendas, 1982, and the Centro Comercial Alcampo Vallecas, 1982).
72 See Cox for a statistical breakdown of the spatial distribution of Madrid’s population growth from the 1950s onwards.
73 See Barrenechea for an introduction to the pervasive inequities that exist along Madrid’s north-south axis.