While coming home through the Puerta del Sol tonight, I tripped upon a dark, but important chapter in the twentieth century history of Spain; the Spanish Civil War. The world was focused on the events of Spain during the years of 1936-1939 not only because it was a nasty, bare-knuckles fight, but also because so many countries had a hand in the fight. Hemingway wrote about it, it was headline news across the world, and money and arms where supplied from places far beyond Spain’s borders. The result was not unlike a cock-fight, where outside interests prodded and funded both sides for their own advantage, while Spain’s populace was caught in the horrific middle.
But because World War II began in the same year that Spain’s war ended, the world quickly forgot all about the bloody conflict here, and a devastated Spain was left to tend its own wounds. For nearly forty years that followed, Spain was closed off to most of the world, under the oppressive and brutal rule of the fascist dictator Francisco Franco, until his death in 1975. Countless people disappeared and/or were tortured by the Brigada Politico-Social during Franco’s rule, and many, many others were exiled during and after the war. After Franco’s death, forty years after the whole ordeal began, a nation with a bad case of PTSD began to pick up the pieces and try to process what had happened. It would be a long, introspective journey.
In recent years, Spain has mostly come to terms with its recent history, not necessarily because questions have been answered, but more because at some point, one just has to move on. Large economic expansion in the last decade or so of the twentieth century no doubt played a big part in that, and now Spain has zoomed forward to take its place at the table of the European Economic Union. In the past twenty-five years, Spain has come a long, long way.
But tonight in the Puerta del Sol, a die-hard consortium of groups related to the “Historical Memory Movement”, with all the passion of the American SDS movement of the late 1960s, made their weekly march on the Palacio de Correos in protest. Banners with depictions of “Guernica” and images Federico Garcia Lorca made their way through the plaza. It was difficult not to be drawn up in the emotion. Most people here just want to move on from a terrible chapter in the nation’s history, but everyone, whether they felt the passion or not, were respectful, because virtually everyone here knew or had family who knew someone who died or simply disappeared. I watched Sponge Bob, et al, literally pack-up and leave out of respect. More about the Civil War to follow ….
Pablo Picasso's most famous work, and one of the most important paintings of the 20th century was his depiction of the chaos and devastation that day in Guernica. Art appreciation classes on modern art always include a survey of it. It measures 24.5' wide and 11' tall. The reason that I tell you all of this is because Guernica was my mother's home town. The painting now hangs in the Museo de la Reina Sofia in Madrid, and given my own family's connection, I had to once again make the pilgrimage and pay homage. It's been sixteen years since I last saw it and every time I do, I am deeply moved ...
