The association movement related to intellectual disability started in Spain during the second part of Franco´s dictatorship. Its appearance was rather late with respect to other countries, where associations of families and defenders of people with intellectual disabilities had been going on for some time and were forming larger groups, first European-wide then internationally. Spanish parents were the principal actor of this social movement. They demanded the right of their children to receive a decent education and to have a more secure future beyond that of childhood. From 1959 (the year that first association —ASPRONA— was created in Valencia) until the end of the Franco’s regime more than one hundred family associations were created all over the country. Additionally, in 1964, the Spanish Federation of Societies for the Protection of the Subnormal (FEAPS) was created to liaise with the public administration and be in charge of promoting and helping the other associations. By analysing as main sources bulletins and reports published by these disability organisations, this article explains the rise of parents’ activism, it describes the spread of the self-organised groups and it looks at the way in which these associations built their identities and performed their intended functions. The paper focuses also on the criticisms and problems these groups faced and on the process that led them to take a more confrontational stance.