The death of ‘traditional’ charivari and the invention of pot-banging in Spain, c .1960–2020

Abstract

Banging together pots and pans has become established as a common protest technique in Spain and across the world. Pot-banging can be linked to charivari: a centuries-old, Europe-wide, nuptial practice that subjected a marrying couple to mocking moral critique, which was also adapted for political ends. This article, however, distinguishes between nuptial charivari (the cencerrada) and recent political pot-banging (the cacerolada). The former suffered a process decline and disappearance while the latter, separately, was imported into Spain from Latin America in the late 1980s. The lack of connection between the two is reflected in different terms, but can be further established through close attention to their respective staging, gendered nature, meaning and sound. The case of Spanish pot-banging sheds light on the fate of ‘traditions’ during the Transition from the Francoist dictatorship to democracy, particularly in terms of changing notions of individual rights, civility and gender relations, and has implications for how historians approach the history of collective action. Historians should pay greater attention to how techniques are transmitted and learned within and across borders. The history of modern protest is perhaps more disjointed than modernizing approaches suggest.