| Frequency: | Weekly |
| Category: | Satirical magazine |
| Founded: | 1884 |
| Finaldate: | 1939 |
| Country: | Spain |
| Based: | Valencia |
La Traca (es|The Firecracker) was a satirical weekly magazine which was headquartered in Valencia, Spain. It existed in two periods between 1884 and 1892 and between 1909 and 1939. The magazine sold half a million copies making it the first satirical magazines with this circulation in Spain.[1] Its record was broken in the late 1976 when Interviú sold one million copies.
La Traca was launched in 1884. Its founders were Manuel Lluch Soler and Luis Cebrian Mezquita.[2] It came out weekly and was based in Valencia. It held a republican political stance. The magazine was folded in 1892 and was restarted by Vicente Miguel Carceller in 1909.[2] It was subject to frequent censorship during its existence and was permanently closed in 1939.[1] [3] The reason for its closure was the publication of the caricatures of the Fascist dictator Francisco Franco.[2] Its editor Vicente Miguel Carceller was arrested due to these caricatures and hanged in June 1940 due to his anti-Fascist leaning.[2]
The magazine featured satirical material written in the Valencian dialect.[3] In 1931 the language of the magazine was switched to Spanish after which it sold more than half a million copies.[3] [2] One of the contributors of La Traca was the illustrator Gaspar Méndez Álvarez whose anticlerical and political writings were published from 1928.[4]