Manuel, Recovering the Sense of the Democratic Movement Through Living Solidarity in Dialogic Literary Gatherings

Manuel’s biography shows a valuable process of re-enchantment and belief in the possibility of social change. Manuel was strongly disenchanted with the bureaucratization established in Spain during the transition from the Franco regime to democracy in the mid-70s. He recovered his enchantment with democratic movements through contact with the social and educational movement of adult education in La Verneda (Barcelona) and especially through his participation in the Dialogic Literary Gatherings held in the school for adults. In Manuel’s words, the gathering was the best expression of democracy in the school; it was the democratic experience that he had always imagined. In this outstanding space, he could listen to his friends, who, just like him, had lowly academic backgrounds, and share in the reading of the best universal classic literature. For Manuel, this gathering held the germ of a great debate on social, cultural, and democratic transformation.