Crónica21 is a collective, on-line, multidisciplinary archive documenting the economic, political and social crisis in Spain. The global crisis that began in 2008 has been called a “crisis of developed nations,” with its consequences hitting countries like Spain especially hard. The bursting housing bubble, the banking crisis, corruption, political scandals, high unemployment, and cuts and privatization in the public sector, have left the country reeling.
Crónica21 was inspired by the living archive of material in the United States Library of Congress, about the great depression of the 1930s. This extraordinary record was generated by the Farm Security Administration initiative, as part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, and is still used to understand the social and economic context of that time.
While there is a large volume of material addressing the current situation in Spain, too often important stories go unread and unseen by a wide audience. Crónica21 pulls these stories and projects together to be easily accessed by the public and provide for analysis and interpretation. By building a picture of the present, Crónica21 hopes to help raise awareness and promote positive change for the future.