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Coplas and survival: Conchita piquer, "Tatuaje", and the mourning of the defeatednts

Publication ,  Journal Article
Sieburth, S
Published in: Revista de Dialectologia y Tradiciones Populares
July 1, 2011

The present study is a reading of "Tatuaje" (1941), the most famous copla of Conchita Piquer, in the context of Franco's mass graves. Several intellectuals who grew up during the postwar period in Spain have attested to the passion with which the defeated sang this song. The testimony of survivors of Franco's terror, presented in recent documentaries, describes the psychological suffering that resulted from the prohibition on burying their dead or carrying out rituals of mourning for them. I use this testimony to argue that "Tatuaje" had such a huge impact because it functioned during the entire postwar period as a clandestine ritual of mourning, a mourning done in code under cover of the story of the woman at the port and her sailor. I interpret the song as a representation of, and as a therapy for, the condition called "complicated grief". And I argue that "Tatuaje" also helped the defeated to solve an existential problem: that of being ghostly carryovers from a previous era, without a role in Franco's "New Spain".

Duke Scholars

Published In

Revista de Dialectologia y Tradiciones Populares

DOI

ISSN

0034-7981

Publication Date

July 1, 2011

Volume

66

Issue

2

Start / End Page

515 / 532

Related Subject Headings

  • 4401 Anthropology
  • 1601 Anthropology
 

Citation

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ICMJE
MLA
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Sieburth, S. (2011). Coplas and survival: Conchita piquer, "Tatuaje", and the mourning of the defeatednts. Revista de Dialectologia y Tradiciones Populares, 66(2), 515–532. https://doi.org/10.3989/rdtp.2011.19
Sieburth, S. “Coplas and survival: Conchita piquer, "Tatuaje", and the mourning of the defeatednts.” Revista de Dialectologia y Tradiciones Populares 66, no. 2 (July 1, 2011): 515–32. https://doi.org/10.3989/rdtp.2011.19.
Sieburth S. Coplas and survival: Conchita piquer, "Tatuaje", and the mourning of the defeatednts. Revista de Dialectologia y Tradiciones Populares. 2011 Jul 1;66(2):515–32.
Sieburth, S. “Coplas and survival: Conchita piquer, "Tatuaje", and the mourning of the defeatednts.” Revista de Dialectologia y Tradiciones Populares, vol. 66, no. 2, July 2011, pp. 515–32. Scopus, doi:10.3989/rdtp.2011.19.
Sieburth S. Coplas and survival: Conchita piquer, "Tatuaje", and the mourning of the defeatednts. Revista de Dialectologia y Tradiciones Populares. 2011 Jul 1;66(2):515–532.

Published In

Revista de Dialectologia y Tradiciones Populares

DOI

ISSN

0034-7981

Publication Date

July 1, 2011

Volume

66

Issue

2

Start / End Page

515 / 532

Related Subject Headings

  • 4401 Anthropology
  • 1601 Anthropology