"Cordons, vírgules i anguiles" en la ciudad. Sátiras y respuestas políticas en torno a la epidemia de cólera de 1885 en Valencia

Abstract

Whereas cholera was spreading over Valencia in social relations and trade flows in 1885, thriving satirical publications like La Moma and La Traca were attempting to widen their scope through a jocose perspective of city problems. At first, sense of humour was rooted in jokes about epidemic itself. Nevertheless, it gradually became a useful way to "make sense" of cholera and criticise the political practices of local and state authorities from near-republican perceptions. Likewise, in "sátiras coléricas" emerged several concerns which went beyond the epidemic scenario, portraying a city whose government and dynastic rotation were discredited. Issues like social cleavage reinforced by different exposures and reactions to epidemic, along with a lack of health infrastructures or the city interweaving with its agrarian environment, were increasingly discussed in the light of future horizons of urban development.