Anatomy of a Quiet Scandal: Sex and Politics in the 1920s

Abstract

In this paper, we analyse a rich unpublished document containing comprehensive details of a presumed offence committed by a civil governor in 1928, towards the end of the Primo de Rivera era. The events described are particularly serious, as they involve child abuse. The accused was José Cruz Conde, one of the regime’s strongmen, simultaneously holding the offices of civil governor of Seville and royal commissioner for the Ibero-American Exposition to be celebrated in 1929. The accusation was cast by Manuel Martínez Pedroso, Chair of Political Law and member of the Socialist Party, who would go on to hold key positions during the Second Republic. The key question we seek to answer in this paper is whether this was merely a case of presumed criminal behaviour belonging in the private sphere or, to the contrary, one involving political intent in the context of an increasingly weakening dictatorship.