Asturian-American Migration Forum

Hello,

I would like to announce the publication of my book Ghosts of Passion: Martyrdom, Gender, and the Origins of the Spanish Civil by Duke University Press (256 pages, 8 illustrations, 1 table, $22.95 (pbk.) [ISBN13 = 978-0-8223-3943-4] and $79.95 (cloth) [ISBN13 = 978-0-8223-3932-8]).

Members of this forum may be interested in the book because I argue that memories of the October 1934 revolt in Asturias helped to cause the Spanish Civil War. It includes information on Aida Lafuente, a young woman from Oviedo who fought and died during the rebellion and the martyrs of Turón, nine clerics killed by revolutionaries. Today there is a monument to Lafuente in the park of San Pedro de los Arcos in Oviedo. Here is the table of contents:

1. The Revolution of October 1934

2. Sacred Blood: The Martyrs of Turón
and Conservative Politics

3.“Your Comrades Will Not Forget!”
Revolutionary Martyrs and Political Unity

4. Grandsons of the Cid:Masculinity, Sexual Violence
and the Destruction of the Family

5.Hyenas, Harpies and Proletarian Mothers:
Commemorating Female Participation

6. The October Revolution in Democratic Spain



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Hola,

Yo quisiera annunciar la publicación de mi libro Ghosts of Passion: Martyrdom, Gender, and the Origins of the Spanish Civil por Duke University Press (256 pages, 8 illustrations, 1 table, $22.95 (pbk.) [ISBN13 978-0-8223-3943-4] and $79.95 (cloth) [ISBN13 978-0-8223-3932-8]). Los miembros de este foro se interesarán en el libro porque el tesis del libro es que las memorias de la revolución de Octubre 1934 en Asturias causa la Guerra Civil Española. Incluye información de Aida Lafuente, una mujer joven de Oviedo que luchó y murrió durante la revolución y los martíres de Turón (hoy santos de Turón), nueve religiosos que los revolucionarios mataron. Hoy, hay un monumento a Lafuente en el parque de San Pedro de los Arcos en Oviedo. Aquí es el índice del libro:

1. The Revolution of October 1934

2. Sacred Blood: The Martyrs of Turón
and Conservative Politics

3.“Your Comrades Will Not Forget!”
Revolutionary Martyrs and Political Unity

4. Grandsons of the Cid:Masculinity, Sexual Violence
and the Destruction of the Family

5.Hyenas, Harpies and Proletarian Mothers:
Commemorating Female Participation

6. The October Revolution in Democratic Spain

Welcome, Bunk!

Your thesis is interesting. In fact, that polarization seems to continue to this day in the feelings people have about the Civil War. I've heard religious Asturians talk angrily about priests having been killed. And I've heard secular people talk angrily about how the church and many priests sided with Franco and assisted by helping control the people.

Do you see any resolution to this polarization?

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¡Bienvenido, Bunk!

Tu tesis es interesante. De hecho, me parece que esa polarización continua hasta este día en las sensaciones que mantienen muchos sobre la Guerra Civil. He oído asturianos religiosos hablar airadamente sobre la matanza de sacerdotes. Y he oído asturianos seculares hablar airadamente sobre cómo la iglesia y muchos sacerdotes respaldaron a Franco y ayudaron por controlar el pueblo.

¿Ves resolución a esta polarización?

Thank you for the welcome,

One of the chapters deals briefly with memories of the revolt during the post-Franco period. In some ways there is a generational difference, the people who experienced the events generally felt much more strongly about them. As time went on, many folks just wanted to put the past behind them and move on. In the last few years, however, this has begun to change again but I have not done any research lately to see how feelings on the Asturian revolt of 1934 have been affected by the renewed interest in the atrocities of the Civil War.

Cheers,

Brian

hi Bunk,

I think you should check out Paquita Suarez-Coalla's book from 2001 (see below). It is the testimony of 17 country women who lived during and after the civil war in Asturias. Paquita collected their memories, some of which are truly harrowing and difficult to imagine in 2007. I really enjoyed the book and passed it on to my father, who lost his own father in 1938 after Luarca fell to Franco's fascists.

In my family's case, the experience of postwar exile (France, Mexico, US) has definitely colored our worldview. The polarization that Art refers to is easy to understand when families are directly affected. I haven't seen a copy of your book yet, but am interested in your take. I'm sure you can contact others in this forum who can share information with you. By the way, why the reference to 'El Cid's grandsons' in one of your chapters? The myth of 'El Cid' strikes me as being worlds away, both culturally and historically, from the Asturian miners' psychology of 1934.

Anyway, here is a brief description of Paquita's account:

"Paquita Suarez-Coalla, of the Borough of Manhattan Community College, reads excerpts of interviews with 17 peasant women who speak about their experiences during the Spanish Civil War. Published by Trabe in 2001, her book (‘La mio vida ye una novela’) is a touching account of life trajectories that have been eclipsed by time. Lucia Fernandez, born in Grullos (Candamo) in 1901, is one of them. She talks about sleeping in her parents’ horru (the Asturian granary) until it burns down one day because of a stray candle, about hauling stones on her way back from work to build a cowshed. The day she married, at age 33, she was so embarrassed that she gave the priest a cigar so he would not reveal she was 5 years older than her soon-to-be spouse. Despite the attempt to hide her age, it was the first thing the priest announced on her wedding day. “Priests are different these days,” Lucia says in the book. She died in 2001 at the age of 100."

I can speak only to my own experience, but when my father (now 90 and 82 at the time), my brother and I visited Asturias in 1999, we found that many people, especially older ones, were very wary of discussing anything relating to the guerra civil (and its victims) and the Franco regime. While an older man (my father) speaking pure central asturianu accompanied by two very large, middle aged, bearded men might raise questions of motives, the attitude was primarily one of wariness rather than overt mistrust.

"You have to be careful who you talk to, people here have long memories." "By the big rock at the top of the cliff overlooking Salinas is where they shot 27 of our fathers, husbands, sons and brothers."

The protagonists in the guerra civil were then in their 80's or 90's. Not an age group that is usually considerd a threat. Clearly, there is much more that remains to be explored. I only hope someone does this before all who were involved are dead.

I agree with Bob, there has been a willed dormancy to those civil war debates. Arguably, the Spanish transition was not as happy and benign as is often claimed. I remember being in Moscow in 2004 and telling Yevgenii Yasin, a former Yeltsin official, that his idealization of the Spanish transition, including interesting parallels between the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church, was far-fetched.

In Asturias in particular, there has been little in terms of transition in power/offices. Although nominally the local Socialist party (PSOE/FSA) is the kingmaker, the key decision makers are unchanged and feudal-like. Note the use of thuggish inuendo from people like Fernando Lastra, a former petty criminal from Cangas del Narcea who is actually a legit PSOE/FSA spokesperson in the Asturian parliament.

Hence the current PSOE/FSA distaste for any changes, despite the dismal economic and demographic indicators (Asturias is losing population; its GDP growth in 2006 was the slowest in Spain, behind Ceuta and Extremadura). Additionally, there is a string of non-meritocratic posts hard to disentangle from the whole 'favors-first´system inherited from the Franco regime.

My take is that debate is necessary, all the time. Those of us whose families were directly affected by the civil war in Asturias have 'issues', whereas other young Asturians might think it can all be relegated to an ossuary of memories. I often wonder why our memories (Americans, Mexicans, Swiss, Belgians, Argentinians, etc) are more awake than those of people our age in Asturias.

But that's another story, Bunk...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OybJvfSwrpw

For an interesting interview about the killings that took place in Restiellu and Robleu, county of Grau, during and after the civil war, click on the above link.

Fast forward to the house of Taresa and her husband, as they are interviewed by Xose Anton Ambas, who is himself from county Grau. The man mentiones how some villagers were denounced as 'rebels' just because their cows stepped over a neighbor's hedge. Often it was not political retaliation as much as small-town family vendettas.

Still, it's clear that they are not very 'chatty' about the subject. They're speaking the West Asturian spoken in Grau, by the way.