The last few weeks have seen commemorations, mainly in the Basque Country, of the 75th anniversary of the bombing by German and Italian warplanes of the historic town of Gernika at the behest of General Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War. Around 4.30 in the afternoon of April 26, 1937, a joint squadron of 23 German and Italian planes appeared in the skies over the historic, and undefended, Basque town. Over the next five hours they dropped a total of 22 tons of high explosives and incendiary devices that burned for days, destroying 70 percent of the town, and killing and wounding at least 1,600 people, around a third of the population. Gernika remains a powerful symbol of … [Read more...] about Remember Gernika – but don’t forget Chaouen
spanish civil war
Amar y Vivir
The Great Inquisition did nothing for the Church, it led to Protestantism, to separation between Church and State and to a work ethic celebrating reconciliation and collaboration that became the precursor of modern western society and all its wealth. Japan’s infliction of terrible horrors led not only to its inevitable defeat, but indirectly to its ultimate wealth. (America wrote its Constitution!) Germany’s idiotic pre-war dreams about domination led not only directly to its defeat but to wealth attributable as much to production as to enforced tolerance. (America wrote its Constitution!) Franco’s cruel Spain did everything wrong, creating a nation the exact opposite of what he … [Read more...] about Amar y Vivir
Even Spanish TV feels the pain
As part of swingeing spending cuts being implemented at the behest of the European Central Bank, the Spanish government is to slash state broadcaster RTVE’s budget this year by €200 million to €1.2 billion. RTVE’s board says the cuts will have a “devastating impact” on its programming, predicting that its audience figures for its two channels La 1 and La 2, will drop by 8 percent. La 1 frequently tops audience ratings thanks to hugely popular programs such as Cuéntame como pasó — a long-running drama telling the story of a family from the Franco era up to the present day— or fantasy saga Águila roja, and post-Civil War soap opera Amar en tiempos revueltos. But the channel says that the … [Read more...] about Even Spanish TV feels the pain
Spain’s Civil War film canon needs new urgency
It’s a terrible thing to have to say, but maybe the time has come for a moratorium on films about the Spanish Civil War. Last week saw the release of The Sleeping Voice (La voz dormida), an adaptation of Dulce Chacón’s novelised account of the vengeance exacted upon Republican women in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War by the Franco regime. In late 1939 in Ventas prison in Madrid, a group of women await the firing squad for having supported the Republican cause, or for having husbands, brothers and fathers who did. Among them are Hortensia, who fought with the militia and is pregnant by her husband Felipe – still at large – and who has been told she will be shot after she gives … [Read more...] about Spain’s Civil War film canon needs new urgency
Gibson’s undimmed passion for Lorca
I first met Ian Gibson in 2004. While walking through the Madrid barrio of Lavapiés, I had spotted a face that I remembered from the book flap of his biography of Federico García Lorca. Like a weak-kneed groupie, I followed him into a bar and confessed I was a fan of the biography as well as his exploration of the events that led up to Lorca’s death, El asesinato de García Lorca. Gibson, who lived in the area, graciously invited me to sit down and have a drink and I spent 10 hurried minutes with him. Seven years on, I meet Gibson at the same bar (his choice), but this time the interview has been arranged by phone and it coincides with a new edition of his Lorca biography in Spanish, … [Read more...] about Gibson’s undimmed passion for Lorca
Spain’s buried past
A true city of the dead, five million bodies lie buried in Madrid’s Our Lady of the Almudena Cemetery. And bar the towering cypresses, it’s a monochrome landscape of powerful granite tombs and austere crucifixes. Winding through the graves, half lost, I finally glimpsed a flash of colour. Red, yellow and purple - the flag of the Spanish Republic. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Second Spanish Republic. A short lived affair, running from 1931 to 1939, the Republic was ring-fenced by dictators. And for many left-wing Spaniards it represents an oasis of progressive secular government - women’s rights, civil marriage and divorce, clear Church and state separation - before … [Read more...] about Spain’s buried past
Mission: Impossible, the Valley of the Fallen
Here’s a question: is the Valley of the Fallen (Valle de los Caídos) a religious shrine: a Benedictine monastery and Roman Catholic basilica that includes a memorial to the dead in the Spanish Civil War, along with the tomb of General Francisco Franco? Or is it a grotesque monument to hate, an enduring reminder, built by its victims, of a military dictatorship that murdered and imprisoned hundreds of thousands of people whose only crime was to have defended democracy? Coming up with an answer will be the task of a newly appointed 13-member commission. It’s been given five months to decide, once and for all, what to do with the Valley of the Fallen. (What do you think should be … [Read more...] about Mission: Impossible, the Valley of the Fallen
Valley of the Fallen: “A symbol of the Franco dictatorship or a religious site?”
The Spanish holocaust
Even to this day, when asked about the slaughter and repression carried about by General Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War and in the years that followed, the standard reply from many Spaniards is that atrocities were committed on both sides. But in this relentlessly harrowing read, British historian Paul Preston provides, page after page, factual, documentary accounts of the systematic policy introduced by Franco early on in the war to rid the country of the red menace and to install a reign of terror among the few that might still contemplate resistance. This was accomplished through disappearances, and in many cases, the murders of entire families, along with theft of young … [Read more...] about The Spanish holocaust
The Spaniards who fought for Hitler
On June 24, 1941, two days after Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, General Francisco Franco announced the creation of a Spanish volunteer unit “to fight Bolshevism” that would eventually grow to include some 48,000 troops. The División Azul, or Blue Division, was incorporated into the German Armed Forces as the 250th Division of the 16th Army and fought on the Russian Front. Its name came from the blue shirts worn by the Falange, the political movement that Franco took over, but its soldiers wore German Wehrmacht uniforms. In 1944, with the United States in the war and Soviet troops advancing on Germany, it was disbanded, although some Spanish soldiers fought in the defence of Berlin … [Read more...] about The Spaniards who fought for Hitler