The Collective Scene

Abstract

This article offers an analysis, though necessarily fragmented and incomplete, of travesti cabaret during the 1960s and 1970s in fascist Spain. It explores in particular the cabaret shows of travestis in Barcelona, as well as the admiration and recognition that they produced. The study focuses on the political capacities that privacy and closed spaces generated in an environment of dictatorship, albeit through a certain presence of the public as audience. From this analysis follows a problematization of the conception of the public as the ideal location for politics, particularly the street, as well as their possibilities for resistance. This essay seeks a reassessment of intimate spaces for sharing experiences that ultimately affect and condition the necessity of public representation.