From the fervor for Malvinas to the construction of the "alfonsinista phenomenon": Redacción in the transition to democracy (1982-1983)

Abstract

This article analyzes the editorial position of the Redacción magazine from the situation opened by the war in Malvinas in mid-1982 until the December 1983 elections that consecrated the democratic return. In this scenario of decomposition of the authoritarian power of the military dictatorship (1976-1983), we study the evaluations, representations and meanings given by the magazine to the political situation created by the Argentine defeat in Malvinas, the subsequent party reorganization attentive to the soon electoral act and, in particular, to the public construction of the presidential candidacy of the radical Raúl Alfonsín. On this point, we find in Redacción an early positive assessment of the radical leader as a new “phenomenon” of politics, whose figure and discourse represented political practices related to the democratic scenario towards which the country was heading. As can be seen from the analysis, the Redacción not only reported on the novelty, but also had an active participation in the construction of a discourse that, while approving, was fed back with the Alfonsinist narration.