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Memorial of Transitions (1939-1978): The Generation of 1978
February 25, 20157:30 p.m.
MADRID
Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62).
7:30 p.m.
Please confirm your attendance by calling 91 702 23 88 or send an e-mail message to: info@dcomunicacion.com
Presentation of a work by Juan Antonio Ortega Díaz-Ambrona
The Spanish Transition Foundation and Galaxia Gutenberg have organized this presentation of the book “Memorial de transiciones (1939-1978): La generación de 1978” (“Memorial of Transitions (1939-1978): The Generation of 1978”), by Juan Antonio Ortega Díaz-Ambrona. The event’s introduction will be given by Professor Santos Juliá, who will also be holding a conversation with the author.
This Memorial of Transitions narrates the origins of the current system and the breakdown of Franco’s regime. The author uses excellent writing to link together events from his own personal life and others of a collective nature, in an exciting chronicle which evokes nearly forty years (1939-1978). He explains the transition to democracy in light of many prior smaller transitions and shows how the idea of political reform matures, as well as all of the imagined scenarios which were left behind as mere possibilities.
Juan Antonio Ortega, a centrist and partisan of the Third Spain, lived half of his life under the Franco regime, and the other half under democracy. He introduces the role-players in Spain’s transition with a sharp and close familiarity, using touches of irony and humor. He believes that the decisive factor for change was the Generation 1978- those born from 1930 to 1945 - who, feeling distanced from the Spanish Civil War, decided to put Spain back on the path of European history.
The book, written with rigor using sometimes little-known sources, explains how, within the kaleidoscope of rivalries and uncertainties, the leadership of Adolfo Suárez and Felipe González grew stronger, as well as describing the role of King Juan Carlos I and the reasons behind the surprising non-existence of a Christian Democrat party.
He provides a positive version of the Spanish transition but does not conceal its limitations, denying that today’s problems might be attributable to them. He deals with these difficulties in a suggestive epilogue about the Spain of King Felipe VI seen through the experience of Spain’s democratic transition and the constitutional consensus of 1978.
Juan Antonio Ortega Díaz-Ambrona (Madrid, 1939).
A legal expert, philosopher and centrist politician, Ortega Díaz-Ambrona earned his degrees in Law, having received the Special Award upon graduation, and in Philosophy. He gained access to the State Council corps of lawyers by passing a competitive examination. He is currently a board member of that entity.
He cooperated with Spain’s democratic transition through the newspaper Ya and Cuadernos para el Diálogo. He belonged to the Democratic Left, a political party led by Joaquín Ruiz-Giménez. A member of the Grupo Tácito, he promoted the Democratic Center, which became the seed of the UCD party.
He was Undersecretary of Justice, State Secretary for Constitutional Development, Assistant Minister and Minister of Education under Adolfo Suárez and Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo. He propitiated the educational pact and left politics in 1982. He directed the legal consultancy of Repsol Petroleum and became the Group’s corporate director. He successfully mediated in Iberia’s conflict with its pilots’ labor union (SEPLA).
As BBVA’s customer ombudsman, he has reached many agreements with claimants under equitable terms. For thirteen years, he was a university professor in disciplines related with philosophy. He chaired the Commission for the Study of Humanities in secondary education, which reached consensus over a decision by the PP, PSOE, CiU and EA political parties regarding this topic. He presided over the Club Siglo XXI and the BLU Foundation for Universal Literature, directed by Claudio Guillén. He has completed numerous studies, held many conferences and published many articles on law, ethics and politics.
