The Spanish Civil War

[Salv]

Today, Monday 17th July 2006, marks the 70th anniversary of the start of the Spanish Civil War, in many ways a precursor to the Second World War. There are still many misunderstandings about the Civil War, and there has been some interest in the subject recently in the Lounge, so the anniversary is a timely starting point for a discussion about this conflict.

The rebellion had been scheduled to begin on 18th July, 1936 in Morocco, but the plot was discovered in the Moroccan town of Melilla by the pro-Republican General Romerales. The General hesitated to arrest the plotters, and the leader of the rebels in Melilla, Colonel Segui, took the initiative and arrested the General who would later be sentenced to death by the rebels. The local Assault Guard were persuaded to join the rebellion, and along with the Foreign Legion and the Moroccan Army regulares, took key buildings in the town. Local pro-Republican trade unionists held out for a short period in the Town Hall but once they had all been killed the town was in rebel hands.

The rebellion had been brewing for several months, following the elections in February of 1936 which had put the Popular Front coalition into power. The Popular Front was made up of several - generally speaking - left-wing and left-of-centre political parties:

• Izquierda Republicana - the Republican Left party of Manuel Aza?±a;
• Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya - Llu??s Companys' Republican Left Party of Catalonia;
• Partido Socialista Obrera de Espa?±a (PSOE) - the Spanish Socialist Workers Party;
• Partido Comunista de Espa?±a (PCE) - the Spanish Communist Party
• Partido Obrero de Unificaci??n Maxista (POUM) - the Workers Party of Marxist Unification, led by Andreu Nin and Joaquin Maurin.
• Uni??n Republicana - a centre-right party led by Mart??nez Barrio with support from liberal professions and businesses;

Allied to the Popular Front were:

• The Libertarian Movement - anarcho-syndicalist and anarchist, for obvious reasons without a political party, but organised by trade unions, including the Confederaci??n Nacional de Trabajo (CNT) - the main anarcho-syndicalist trade union; Federaci??n Anarquista Ib?©rica (FAI); Federaci??n Ib?©rica de Juventedes Libertarias (FIJL); and Mujeres Libres - the anarcho-feminist organization);
• the Basques - Partido Nacionalista Vasca (PNV) - The Basque Nationalist Party made up of conservative Christian Democrats; Acci??n Nacionalista Vasca (ANV) - a splinter group from the PNV; Solidaridad de Trabajadores Vascos (STV) - Solidarity of Basque Workers - the Basque nationalist Catholic trade union

Opposing them on the self-styled Nationalist side were:

• Alfonsine Monarchists - made up of two parties, Acci??n Espa?±ola and Renovaci??n Espa?±ola, and supporters of descendants of Queen Isabella II, strong among conservative army officers but with limited popular appeal;
• Carlists - members of the Communi??n Tradicionalista party, traditionally ultra-Catholic and supporters of the rival monarchy line of Don Carlos;
• Falange Espa?±ola de las JONS - the Falange was originally a small fascist-style party founded in 1933 which merged in 1934 with the Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista - pre-war the Falange included a revolutionary socialist wing. The Falange eventually became the Falange Espa?±ola Tradicionalista y de las JONS in 1937 when Franco amalgamated the Nationalist political movements, including the Falange and the Carlists, and appointed himself as its chief.
• Confederaci??n Espa?±ola de Derechas Autonomas (CEDA) - the pre-war right-wing coalition that had won the elections of 1933, but which lost out to the Popular Front in 1936;
• Partido Republicano Radical (PPR) ;
• Derecha Liberal Republicana - anti-monarchist conservatives;
• Lliga Catalana - upper- and industrial-class Catalan nationalists

The Popular Front coalition won 34.3% of the votes in the 1936 elections against the 33.2% won by the conservative parties, but a detailed breakdown by party shows some interesting results.

Party - Seats in Cortes
CEDA - 101
Socialists - 88
Republican Left - 79
Republican Union - 34
Esquerra - 22
Centre Party - 21
Carlists - 15
Communists - 14
Monarchists - 13
Lliga - 12
Agrarians - 11
Radicals - 9
Basques - 5
Falangists - 0

The still held belief that the Spanish Republic of 1936 was a Communist government is clearly mistaken. The Communists won 14 seats on the Cortes, one more than the Alfonsine Monarchists and one less than the Carlists. After the CEDA (the right wing coalition) the greatest number of seats went to the Socialists, the Republican Left and the centre-right Republican Union. This was the government that the military/church/landowner/industrialist axis aimed to destroy.

Recommended reading (and the sources for much of my information in this and any subsequent posts):

• Anthony Beevor's The Battle For Spain , a revised and much expanded update of his earlier history of the war, originally published in 1982;
• Ronald Fraser's Blood Of Spain;
• Adrian Bell's Only For Three Months - the story of the 4000 Basque child exiles;
• Bill Alexander's British Volunteers For Liberty;
• Hywel Francis' Miners Against Fascism;
• Peter N. Carroll's The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade: Americans in the Spanish Civil War;
• James Yates' Mississippi To Madrid;
• and John Tisa's Recalling The Good Fight.

I have also just bought Jason Webster's Guerra! - a study of a modern Spain that is still apparently riven by 70-year old hatreds; and I've just ordered a copy of Michael Richards' A Time Of Silence - a history of the Civil War and post-Civil War repression by the Franco dictatorship between 1936 and 1945.

A few interesting websites:

Basic introductions (these were posted by nightandthecity in the Vive la France! thread
http://www.historyhome.co.uk/europe/spaincw.htm
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Spanish-Civil-War.htm

http://www.spanishrefugees-basquechildren.org/ - Basque child exiles

http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/visfront/vizindex.html - the Herbert Southworth collection of Civil War posters

http://www.international-brigades.org.uk/ - the International Brigade Memorial Trust
http://www.alba-valb.org/ - the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives

 

[Salv]

Spain in the early 20th Century...

The events leading up to the Civil War did not occur in a vacuum. There's a good, if brief, overview of the period prior to the war on the spartacus website from which the following is taken. It's a lot to read, but it's worth taking the time in order to begin to understand how the Civil War started:

[Alfonso XIII's] anti-democratic views encouraged Miguel Primo de Rivera to lead a military coup in 1923. He promised to eliminate corruption and to regenerate Spain. In order to do this he suspended the constitution, established martial law and imposed a strict system of censorship.

Miguel Primo de Rivera initially said he would rule for only 90 days, however, he broke this promise and remained in power. Little social reform took place but he tried to reduce unemployment by spending money on public works. To pay for this Primo de Rivera introduced higher taxes on the rich. When they complained he changed his policies and attempted to raise money by public loans. This caused rapid inflation and after losing support of the army was forced to resign in January 1930.

In 1931 Alfonso XIII agreed to democratic elections. It was the first time for nearly sixty years that free elections had been allowed in Spain. When the Spanish people voted overwhelmingly for a republic, Alfonso was advised that the only way to avoid large-scale violence was to go into exile. Alfonso agreed and left the country on 14th April, 1931.

The provisional government called a general election for June 1931. The Socialist Party (PSOE) and other left wing parties won an overwhelming victory. Niceto Alcala Zamora, a moderate Republican, became prime minister, but included in his cabinet several radical figures such as Manuel Aza?±a, Francisco Largo Caballero and Indalecio Prieto.

On 16th October 1931, Aza?±a replaced Niceto Alcala Zamora as prime minister. With the support of the Socialist Party (PSOE) he attempted to introduce agrarian reform and regional autonomy. However, these measures were blocked in the Cortes.

Aza?±a believed that the Catholic Church was responsible for Spain's backwardness. He defended the elimination of special privileges for the Church on the grounds that Spain had ceased to be Catholic. Aza?±a was criticized by the Catholic Church for not doing more to stop the burning of religious buildings in May 1931. He controversially remarked that burning of "all the convents in Spain was not worth the life of a single Republican".

The failed military coup led by Jos?© Sanjurjo on 10th August, 1932, rallied support for Aza?±a's government. It was now possible for him to get the Agrarian Reform Bill and the Catalan Statute passed by the Cortes. However, the modernization programme of the Aza?±a administration was undermined by a lack of financial resources.

The November 1933 elections saw the right-wing CEDA party win 115 seats whereas the Socialist Party only managed 58. CEDA now formed a parliamentary alliance with the Radical Party. Over the next two years the new administration demolished the reforms that had been introduced by Manuel Aza?±a and his government.

This led to a general strike on 4th October 1934 and an armed rising in Asturias. Aza?±a was accused of encouraging these disturbances and on 7th October he was arrested and interned on a ship in Barcelona Harbour. However, no evidence could be found against him and he was released on 18th December.

Aza?±a was also accused of supplying arms to the Asturias insurrectionaries. In March 1935, the matter was debated in the Cortes, where Aza?±a defended himself in a three-hour speech. On 6th April, 1935, the Tribunal of Constitutional Guarantees acquitted Aza?±a.

On 15th January 1936, Manuel Aza?±a helped to establish a coalition of parties on the political left to fight the national elections due to take place the following month. This included the Socialist Party (PSOE), Communist Party ( PCE), Esquerra Party and the Republican Union Party.

The Popular Front, as the coalition became known, advocated the restoration of Catalan autonomy, amnesty for political prisoners, agrarian reform, an end to political blacklists and the payment of damages for property owners who suffered during the revolt of 1934. The Anarchists refused to support the coalition and instead urged people not to vote.

Right-wing groups in Spain formed the National Front. This included the CEDA and the Carlists. The Falange Espa?±ola did not officially join but most of its members supported the aims of the National Front.

The Spanish people voted on Sunday, 16th February, 1936. Out of a possible 13.5 million voters, over 9,870,000 participated in the 1936 General Election. 4,654,116 people (34.3) voted for the Popular Front, whereas the National Front obtained 4,503,505 (33.2) and the centre parties got 526,615 (5.4). The Popular Front, with 263 seats out of the 473 in the Cortes formed the new government.

The Popular Front government immediately upset the conservatives by releasing all left-wing political prisoners. The government also introduced agrarian reforms that penalized the landed aristocracy. Other measures included transferring right-wing military leaders such as Francisco Franco to posts outside Spain, outlawing the Falange Espa?±ola and granting Catalonia political and administrative autonomy.

As a result of these measures the wealthy took vast sums of capital out of the country. This created an economic crisis and the value of the peseta declined which damaged trade and tourism. With prices rising workers demanded higher wages. This led to a series of strikes in Spain.

On the 10th May 1936 the conservative Niceto Alcala Zamora was ousted as president and replaced by the left-wing Manuel Aza?±a. Soon afterwards Spanish Army officers, including Emilio Mola, Francisco Franco, Juan Yague, Gonzalo Queipo de Llano and Jos?© Sanjurjo, began plotting to overthrow the Popular Front government. This resulted in the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War on 17th July, 1936.

 

[dr greg]

a different generation indeed

As someone who remembers the activism of the 60's and the early 70's compared to today's apparently unconcerned youth, I really admire those who actually went and fought in Spain. It's worth remembering that although most went to support the Republic, plenty of others went to fight with Franco, so that level of conviction must have been general, and something you don't see a lot of these days, in our society anyway.

 

[Lincsong]

Where's Sierra at? I want to hear a Spaniards view on this?[huh]

 

[Sierra Charriba]

Sierra Charriba talks:
Here in Spain, the discussion about the SCW has been reopened, seventy years later, with an unusual harshness. This is mainly due to a new generation of spaniards, the "grandsons" of those who lost the war and feel no obligation to follow the "silence pact" that was agreed during the transition to democracy after the death of general Franco. During that period (1975-1978), it was a general opinion that in order to consolidate the peace and liberty it was necessary to avoid demanding any explanations about the Civil War and the 40 years of Franco´s dictatorship. The left accepted this pact, but now, many young people don´t feel attached to it and want to know what happened during the war and afterwards. The spanish right, the conservatives, have reacted accusing the left of wanting to “open wounds that were already healed” but the truth is that most of the right have refused to condemn Franco´s dictatorship (contrary to other european conservatives). The reason is that most of the spanish conservatives feel they are heirs of Franco and his political regime, but at the same time they can´t accept being considered the “bad guys” of the “movie”. This has unleashed a revisionist movement in the rank of some conservative historians and writers trying to demonstrate that Franco was the best thing that happened to Spain and that his political regime was actually mild and benign, regardless of the thousands of people he murdered because, well, the real “bad guys” were the “reds”.

Even though I don´t usually agree with this british historian´s opinions, I recommend the last edition of the book on the SCV by Anthony Beevor. The reasons of the defeat of the Republic are clearly explained and there is also a good description of the behaviour of both sides during the conflict. Curiously, the best books about our war have been written by Anglo-saxon authors.

Personally, I was born in a conservative family (my father was falangist and he appears in Ronald Fraser's "Blood of Spain" telling his dramatic story during the war) but my political preferences are in the left, and I ever choose to wear the republican army uniform in reenactments. But I hate any kind of sectarism and I try to see the Civil War with open mind. In any case, now I believe that the reason was in the republican side, in spite of his errors and faults.

Salud y Rep??blica!

 

[Salv]

18th July, 1936

The uprising went ahead as planned, with Spanish Morocco quickly falling to the rebels after the Foreign Legion and the Moroccan regulares joined the rebellion. Any Republican resistance was brutally repressed.

In an effort to break up the conspirators General Mola - who was one of the main organisers of the rebellion - had been sent to Pamplona, General Franco had been sent to the Canary Islands, and General Goded had been sent to the Balearic Islands; General Sanjurjo, who had led a failed coup against the government in 1932, was in exile in Portugal, but was the chief conspirator and was due to return to Spain to lead the rebellion.

In the days following the 18th Franco and Goded quickly took control of their respective islands, and Franco flew to Morocco - in a British plane flown by a British pilot sympathetic to the rebellion - to take over the Army of Africa. In the meantime the rebellion had been succesful in Pamplona, Zaragoza, Oviedo, Salamanca, Avila, Segovia, Seville and Cadiz and the rebels held about a third of the Spanish mainland. The rebellion failed in Madrid and the rebels retreated to the Monta?±a Barracks which were stormed the following day, leaving the capital solely in government hands; in Barcelona the CNT/FAI anarchists formed themselves into militias and joined loyal Republican troops and police to succesfully supress the rebellion; the government also held on to Valencia, Toledo, the industrial areas of the Basque country, Catalonia and much of Aragon, along with the eastern coast, most of the southern coast and the central area around Madrid. Sanjurjo boarded a plane in Portugal to fly to Spain, but it crashed on take-off, killing Sanjurjo and leaving a space at the head of the rebellion into which Franco soon manoeuvred himself. Anarchist militias from Barcelona, led by Buenaventura Durruti, left the city to take up positions on the Aragon front.

This map shows the gains of the rebels up to October 1936, and comes from another excellent site with a highly detailed chronology of the war, featuring many photos from the period - http://lacucaracha.info/index.htm

The rebellion was floundering with no advances after the first few days and Franco quickly needed to move the Army Of Africa to the mainland. The Spanish Air Force and Navy had remained loyal, although a large number of Naval officers planned to join the rebels but were thwarted when their pro-Republican crews had them arrested. With the Navy controlling the Straits of Gibralter the only way to move the Army Of Africa was by appealing for aid to Hitler and Mussolini who supplied planes to ferry the troops from Morocco - the Italians supplied a dozen Savoia-Marchetti bombers, while the Germans supplied 20 Junkers 52s. The airlift began on 28th July and by October 14,000 men and 44 artillery pieces had been flown in. Meanwhile the French government had supplied a handful of outdated fighter planes to the Republic but this small amount of aid was stopped after pressure was applied to France by Britain.

In the early days of the conflict both sides were guilty of brutal repression of those they considered enemies - it's estimated that over 50,000 assassinations and executions took place at the start of the Civil War, with the numbers being fairly evenly split between the two sides. As the rebels slowly won ground they continued this policy of wiping out the opposition, and when they were finally victorious in 1939 up to 28,000 Republicans were killed in a final spree of instant reprisals. In the years following the war many more Republicans - approximately 50,000 - were executed after facing trial or were left to die in concentration camps. It's estimated that in total the rebels executed up to 200,000 Republican Spaniards, while the Republic were responsible for a total of 60,000 executions of rebels. Mass graves of Republicans are still being found today and according to the organisation dedicated to finding the graves - The Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory - there are still 30,000 missing Spaniards.

 

[nightandthecity]

Salv, thanks for that great summary, and for discussing the political background. I was thinking of adding something on the social and economic background but time is limited and this little quote from Captain Gonzalo de Aguilera, Count of Alba and Yeltes, pretty much says it all. I should add he was not some off-the-map madman, but one of Franco’s chief PR officers, responsible for explaining the nationalist cause to important foreign visitors. This was a man who boasted that on the first day of the military revolt he had lined up the labourers on his estate and shot six at random “pour encourager les autres”.

Here he is talking to Associated Press correspondent Charles Foltz.

“The masses in this country are not like your Americans, nor even like the British. They are slave stock. They are good for nothing but slaves and only when they are used as slaves are they happy. But we, the decent people, made the mistake of giving them modern housing in the cities…we put sewers in these cities. Not content with the work of God we thus interfere with his will. The result is that the slave stock increases. Had we no sewers…all these red leaders would have died in their infancy instead of exciting the rabble….when the war is over we should destroy the sewers. The perfect birth control for Spain is the birth control God intended us to have. Sewers are a luxury to be reserved for those who deserve them, the leaders of Spain, not the slave stock.”

What really strikes the modern reader is how much this sounds like racism, though he is talking about the majority of his fellow countrymen. Attitudes like this certainly go some way to explaining the almost genocidal nature of the Nationalist war effort.

 

[nightandthecity]

Some rare original Film

http://www.tvhastingschristiebooks.com/documents/films_of_the_cnt_main.html

http://www.espanafreetv.com/documents/filmsofcnt.html

http://www.espanafreetv.com/documents/home.html

Here’s some great original film made during the Civil War by the CNT film unit, plus a couple of modern documentaries made by the Scottish Anarchist Stuart Christie which also contains much original footage. You will need to download the latest version of Quicktime to view them. If anyone can work out a way of making them full screen please let me know!

I spent an evening watching these last week. I should have been working but I just got sucked in….almost as addictive as You Tube! I have never seen any of this stuff used in modern documentaries or even as stills in books.

The newsreels come across as frank and realistic snaps of everyday life in a war zone. My favourite is the very first newsreel about the defeat of the rebellion in Barcelona: Reportaje del movimento 19 Julio. Notice that the original background street sounds can still be heard, they haven’t been edited out as was usual in period news film.

I was also quite taken with the two full length feature films Nosotros Somos Asi and Aurora De Esperanza. The former is a remarkable little piece in that it was largely written and made by children. It blends Hollywood musical (compete with an Anarchist Shirley Temple tap dancing on a drum and a Busby Berkeley-esque flower display) and a typical 1930s boys adventure (or “ripping yarn” as we Brits call them) with some serious discussion about the rights of women and children! I particularly like the parody of an adult political meeting c/w pompous chairman. The storyline seems fairly unremarkable at first, until you realize the kids are actually trying to save the life of a 5th Columnist who has been plotting with the Franco forces. For a bunch of kids it’s quite a sophisticated take on the themes of forgiveness, redemption etc.

Dawn of Hope also has more to it than at first appears. It initially struck me as corny, simplistic and pedestrian, but when you start to think about it afterwards certain things suddenly hit you. Like the fact it’s a propaganda piece for a political group that not only doesn’t ask you to join up or vote for them, the group doesn’t even mention itself once – presumably in line with the anarchist philosophy that “the emancipation of the workers is the task of the workers themselves”.

And there’s moral complexity here too. Notice that a rich society lady and a uniformed cop are among the good guys who help the hero out in his “hours of need”. Notice to the concern not just with the economic plight of the unemployed but with issues of dignity and morality, this was very typical of the Spanish Libertarian movement. Note too the use of town and country as contrasting symbols, from the very opening scene. In the town we see poverty, oppression, gross inequality, selfishness, cruelty – in contrast the countryside seems to represent things like virtue, peace, plenty, community – many Barcelona workers were of course only one or two generations away from the land.

I've been collecting some still images illustrative of clothing and equipment, if i get time I'll sort out a selection to post.

 

[Salv]

I'll take a look at the films when I get home from work - they sound very interesting.

I was also going to quote the Count of Alba at some point, but since the "slave stock" had the temerity not to die here's a transalation of an excerpt from the speech by General Millan Astray at the University of Salamanca which explains how he wanted to deal with them:

The Basque Country and Catalonia are two cancers in the body of the nation. Fascism, which is Spain's health bringer will know how to exterminate them both, cutting into the live healthy flesh like a resolute surgeon free from false sentimentality. And since the healthy flesh is the soil, the diseased flesh the people who dwell on it, fascism and the army will eradicate the people and restore the soil to the sacred national realm.

Every socialist, every Republican, every one of them without exception - and, needless to say, every communist - is a rebel against the National government which will soon be recognized by the totalitarian states who are aiding us in spite of France - democratic France - and perfidious England

 

[Salv]

Sierra Charriba - thanks for your insights by the way. I have every sympathy for Spaniards wishing to know what happened to their parents and grandparents, and with perhaps 30,000 Spaniards still unaccounted for it seems wrong for Spanish conservatives to want to keep the past buried.

It's very interesting that your father was a Falangist, and yet you have sympathy for the Republic. I shall have a look through Blood Of Spain this evening to see if I can identify your father.

 

[Sierra Charriba]

Hello Salv
Many children of people that sympathize with Franco or the Falange during the war have leftists political feelings. You know, the generational clash. In my case, is a ideological and rational position grown during Franco's dictatorship (I'm 49 years old). My father changed his ideology along the years, and when he died, was anarchist and member of CNT. Look in "Blood of Spain" index for "Rey, Mario" if you want to know something about him.

 

[Salv]

Hello Salv
Many children of people that sympathize with Franco or the Falange during the war have leftists political feelings. You know, the generational clash. In my case, is a ideological and rational position grown during Franco's dictatorship (I'm 49 years old). My father changed his ideology along the years, and when he died, was anarchist and member of CNT. Look in "Blood of Spain" index for "Rey, Mario" if you want to know something about him.

Thanks, I'll look for him. It's also interesting that he moved towards anarchism in later life.

So you must have been 18-19 when Franco died - a good age I think to watch the birth of a new democratic Spain. Were you left-leaning while Franco was still alive? If so how difficult was it for you? And had your father embraced anarchism by then? What was the mood like after the attempted coup in 1981?

Sorry for all the questions...

 

[jake_fink]

This is a fantastic thread. Thanks guys. I've had an interest in the SCW since I was a teenager, and the young men and women who packed up and went off to fight facism in another country were an inspiration to me. I'm glad that they are being remembered with respect, and that this thread has remained informative and interesting.

 

[Sierra Charriba]

When Franco died I was 18 yars old and it was my first year in the University.Many students had a political affiliation and the clandestine politicals partys were very active. I had (and have) socialists ideas from sixteen, and I found many options to choose in University. I hadn't many problems with the police then, but some activities were risky, because the extreme right groups activity.
My parents accept very well the democracy, and five years after Franco's death were loyal voters of Felipe Gonzalez and the socialists. My father arrived to anarchism across the philosphy...and some old friends. But never lost his furious anticommunism (very anarchist, too).
I was in te army in 1981, making my military service. The coup's day, during ten minutes that I never will forget, I feel real panic: a new dictatorship was starting and I was in the army...ready to shoot against my people...One of the worse days of my life...

I do not recommend the experience.

Well, I post some photos of our civil war reenactments. Some are from the footage of a film documentary for the BBC, about the Welsh in civil war.

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m308/sierracharriba/1938_044.jpg
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m308/sierracharriba/Asalto-007.jpg
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m308/sierracharriba/Bigadistas1.jpg
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m308/sierracharriba/12_nov_063.jpg

 

[jake_fink]

When Franco died I was 18 yars old and it was my first year in the University.Many students had a political affiliation and the clandestine politicals partys were very active. I had (and have) socialists ideas from sixteen, and I found many options to choose in University. I hadn't many problems with the police then, but some activities were risky, because the extreme right groups activity.
My parents accept very well the democracy, and five years after Franco's death were loyal voters of Felipe Gonzalez and the socialists. My father arrived to anarchism across the philosphy...and some old friends. But never lost his furious anticommunism (very anarchist, too).
I was in te army in 1981, making my military service. The coup's day, during ten minutes that I never will forget, I feel real panic: a new dictatorship was starting and I was in the army...ready to shoot against my people...One of the worse days of my life...

I do not recommend the experience.

Well, I post some photos of our civil war reenactments. Some are from the footage of a film documentary for the BBC, about the Welsh in civil war.

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m308/sierracharriba/1938_044.jpg
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m308/sierracharriba/Asalto-007.jpg
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m308/sierracharriba/Bigadistas1.jpg
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m308/sierracharriba/12_nov_063.jpg

An interesting personal and family history SC. The pictures look great too. When I lived in England I used to visit Spain frequently - I loved it. Though this thread is about a terrible, sad time for Spain, it is making me miss my times there, when I was young and all that malarkey.

I hope you stick around and continue to post here and in other departments.

Cheers.

 

[Salv]

When Franco died I was 18 yars old and it was my first year in the University.Many students had a political affiliation and the clandestine politicals partys were very active. I had (and have) socialists ideas from sixteen, and I found many options to choose in University. I hadn't many problems with the police then, but some activities were risky, because the extreme right groups activity.
My parents accept very well the democracy, and five years after Franco's death were loyal voters of Felipe Gonzalez and the socialists. My father arrived to anarchism across the philosphy...and some old friends. But never lost his furious anticommunism (very anarchist, too).
I was in te army in 1981, making my military service. The coup's day, during ten minutes that I never will forget, I feel real panic: a new dictatorship was starting and I was in the army...ready to shoot against my people...One of the worse days of my life...

I do not recommend the experience.

Well, I post some photos of our civil war reenactments. Some are from the footage of a film documentary for the BBC, about the Welsh in civil war.

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m308/sierracharriba/1938_044.jpg
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m308/sierracharriba/Asalto-007.jpg
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m308/sierracharriba/Bigadistas1.jpg
http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m308/sierracharriba/12_nov_063.jpg

Thank you for sharing your thoughts regarding the 1981 coup. I hope my questions didn't upset you - it must have been a terrible day for you ... and for all of Spain.

I've just read your fathers comments in "Blood Of Spain" and I remember them well from the first time I read the book - he was very lucky to escape the Monta?±a Barracks, and that's a great story.

 

[Lincsong]

little quote from Captain Gonzalo de Aguilera, Count of Alba and Yeltes, pretty much says it all. I should add he was not some off-the-map madman, but one of Franco’s chief PR officers, responsible for explaining the nationalist cause to important foreign visitors. This was a man who boasted that on the first day of the military revolt he had lined up the labourers on his estate and shot six at random “pour encourager les autres”.

Here he is talking to Associated Press correspondent Charles Foltz.

“The masses in this country are not like your Americans, nor even like the British. They are slave stock. They are good for nothing but slaves and only when they are used as slaves are they happy. But we, the decent people, made the mistake of giving them modern housing in the cities…we put sewers in these cities. Not content with the work of God we thus interfere with his will. The result is that the slave stock increases. Had we no sewers…all these red leaders would have died in their infancy instead of exciting the rabble….when the war is over we should destroy the sewers. The perfect birth control for Spain is the birth control God intended us to have. Sewers are a luxury to be reserved for those who deserve them, the leaders of Spain, not the slave stock.”

Well this quote explains why everything south of the Rio Grande in Texas will not change for a while and why Argentina is in such bad shape.

 

[Lincsong]

Hello Salv
Many children of people that sympathize with Franco or the Falange during the war have leftists political feelings. You know, the generational clash. In my case, is a ideological and rational position grown during Franco's dictatorship (I'm 49 years old). My father changed his ideology along the years, and when he died, was anarchist and member of CNT. Look in "Blood of Spain" index for "Rey, Mario" if you want to know something about him.

Sierra;
Forgive me if I'm too prying here, but, if your Father was a Falanigist/Franco supporter were you schooled by the Jesuits? Was your father still a Roman Catholic after he became and anarachist? This is very interesting. What region does your family come from? Didn't Galicia just take Franco's name off of a town they renamed after him?

 

[Sierra Charriba]

I was schooled by the Agustinians, in some way rivals of Jesuits...but my father had not catholic feelings. He didn't go to church on sunday, and that was something that shamed me when I was a boy...but my catholic education lost the battle against the rationalism at sixteen, just when I discovered the girl next door...

In sixties, the catholic school were everywhere. Most of boys and girls in these times were educated by the priests and nuns, including the sons of agnostics or atheists. Choosing another school was very difficult.

All my family is from Madrid from the XIX century (very rare).

The town of El Ferrol (Galicia), where Franco was born, was renamed as "El Ferrol del Caudillo" after the war. "Caudillo" means leader, chief of tribe, duce, f?ºhrer....

Regards

 

[dr greg]

to encourage the others

I hitchhiked through Spain when the general was still alive, and remember the walls still pockmarked with bullet and shell holes that had never been repaired, I was told that this was there to remind people of their defeat 30+ years before. Apparently more people were executed than died in any actual fighting. And coincidentally enough , I found an old Sven Hassell book at the markets on the weekend, and the first page has one of the characters talking about massacring prisoners in the SCW.