“The Will to Empire”

Josep Bartolí i Guiu (1910–1995) published editorial cartoons in the New York periodical Ibérica. For a Free Spain in the 1950s and 1960s. His satirical mode contested the US Cold War narrative about Francisco Franco’s Spain as an ally of world peace and Christianity. The interpretation of a satirical drawing involves an analysis of multiple meanings while powerfully engaging the reader, who needs to interpret messages that often play with, challenge, or reinforce stereotypes or preconceived notions. Without the need for a translation, anti-fascist graphic artwork transcended textual language barriers and was popular among readers, who embraced graphic art as part of their affective experience as victims of fascism. Now curated in the digital project “Fighting Fascist Spain – The Exhibits,” Bartolí’s visual language was a cognitive and political tool that exposed the Spanish fascists’ “will to empire,” and documented the freedom fighters “good fight” for posterity.