Neo-Marxists trends in Franco's Spain: Jesús Aguirre and the Frankfurt School

Jesús Aguirre is regarded as the introducer of the Frankfurt School in Spain because he produced the various Spanish translations of numerous works of different members of the Frankfurt School. Despite the existence of these texts, the Frankfurt School, and Neo-Marxist trends in general are considered to have had very little impact on Spanish thought, and particularly so during the Franco dictatorship. The aim of this paper is to point out the interest in Marxism as well as in Neo-Marxism that existed at that time. The latter was a response to problems that were arising with Neo-capitalism into which Spain was immersed since the beginning of the process of economic reform and stabilisation (1958). This paper will focus on the figure of Jesús Aguirre for two reasons; firstly, because it was him who introduced and translated the works of the members of the Frankfurt School into Spanish, and secondly, because having become a public figure he had a considerable influenced in the process of Transition, particularly in shaping the socio-cultural landscape at that time.