Milagros, colosos y divisas. El régimen visual del Desarrollismo: energías, turismo y arquitecturas racionalistas

Abstract

Abstract

The Camp de Tarragona region clearly exemplifies how the so-called "economic miracle" of Francoist desarrollismo was built upon fossil energy. Accelerated industrialization and landscape transformation, driven by the construction of urban complexes dedicated to tourism, facilitated a massive influx of foreign currency. This article argues that the imaginaries accompanying this expansion -or, the visual regime of desarrollismo- reveal the deep entanglements between energy policies, fierce industrialism, and the booming construction sector. Specifically, this study aims to examine how non-fiction cinema, newsreels, and photographic archives served to visibility the links between new rationalist architectures and modernization processes under the late Franco regime. By analyzing filmic materials, photographs, and various infrastructures, the objective is to unearth how specific symbols and fetish images articulated the official narrative of progress. Ultimately, the paper concludes that these cultural productions functioned as a dual mechanism: while they projected a sanitized, localized spectacle of modernity, they simultaneously obscured the environmental degradation and socioeconomic fractures inherent to Spain’s period of intense historical acceleration