When Two Tribes Go To War
There is no real politics in Spain, just visceral tribal loyalties.
Depending which tribe you belong to, the other one consists of a bunch of 'rojos' or 'fachas' (reds or fascists). It's no use debating the issues, and (as an ignorant foreigner) the sooner you realize this the sooner you'll stop wasting your breath and making people hate you by accident.
My husband's family are right-wing. Franco wasn't so bad, if you belonged to 'the right sort' and kept your nose clean. All that stuff about political prisoners, the brutal repression of the catalans and Basques, that's mostly Red propoganda. My mother-in-law literally couldn't bring herself to watch 'Cuéntame', a hugely popular series about a working-class Madrid family in the 60's and 70´s - because it was 'Red', apparently (ie had vaguely liberal messages).
But that's typical. Members of the two tribes can hardly bear the sight of each other's political representatives. The Vice-president of Zapatero's government is a woman, very capable from what I can see. I ask my husband, what exactly is she saying about the Estatut de Cataluña? Who cares? he spits back. Look at the old bag, what an ugly b**
When the 1981 attempted coup happened: did you see it? History in the making, gripping stuff: one military guy, a general I think, standing tall with his arms folded in the House of Deputies while bullets flew and his distinguished colleagues hid under the benches.......
I know people on the left who burned their ID papers that day....it's all coming back, the nightmare is happening again......
As a foreigner here who's studied their Civil war history, it's dangerously easy to take sides. But the wind was taken out of my liberal sails pretty early on.
My mother-in-law lived through the Nationalist attack on Madrid in her early teens. Their flat in Calle Ferraz was on the front line, and they emerged from the shelter after one mortar attack to find the upper floor had gone. People were starving;she told me once in her typically matter-of-fact way that by the time the war ended, her mother weighed under 6 stone.
My father-in-law's 2 younger brothers (14 and 16) were taken away in the middle of the night and shot by the Republicans. They hadn't joined up; this was just to make sure they couldn't.
Tío Joaquín and tío Luís. They're buried in the cemetery in Aravaca just outside Madrid, with a lot of others. He named two of his sons after them (my brothers-in-law).
Until stories like this are a distant memory, Spain will continue to be two tribes. Just don't mention the war. You don't know what you might stir up.
Depending which tribe you belong to, the other one consists of a bunch of 'rojos' or 'fachas' (reds or fascists). It's no use debating the issues, and (as an ignorant foreigner) the sooner you realize this the sooner you'll stop wasting your breath and making people hate you by accident.
My husband's family are right-wing. Franco wasn't so bad, if you belonged to 'the right sort' and kept your nose clean. All that stuff about political prisoners, the brutal repression of the catalans and Basques, that's mostly Red propoganda. My mother-in-law literally couldn't bring herself to watch 'Cuéntame', a hugely popular series about a working-class Madrid family in the 60's and 70´s - because it was 'Red', apparently (ie had vaguely liberal messages).
But that's typical. Members of the two tribes can hardly bear the sight of each other's political representatives. The Vice-president of Zapatero's government is a woman, very capable from what I can see. I ask my husband, what exactly is she saying about the Estatut de Cataluña? Who cares? he spits back. Look at the old bag, what an ugly b**
When the 1981 attempted coup happened: did you see it? History in the making, gripping stuff: one military guy, a general I think, standing tall with his arms folded in the House of Deputies while bullets flew and his distinguished colleagues hid under the benches.......
I know people on the left who burned their ID papers that day....it's all coming back, the nightmare is happening again......
As a foreigner here who's studied their Civil war history, it's dangerously easy to take sides. But the wind was taken out of my liberal sails pretty early on.
My mother-in-law lived through the Nationalist attack on Madrid in her early teens. Their flat in Calle Ferraz was on the front line, and they emerged from the shelter after one mortar attack to find the upper floor had gone. People were starving;she told me once in her typically matter-of-fact way that by the time the war ended, her mother weighed under 6 stone.
My father-in-law's 2 younger brothers (14 and 16) were taken away in the middle of the night and shot by the Republicans. They hadn't joined up; this was just to make sure they couldn't.
Tío Joaquín and tío Luís. They're buried in the cemetery in Aravaca just outside Madrid, with a lot of others. He named two of his sons after them (my brothers-in-law).
Until stories like this are a distant memory, Spain will continue to be two tribes. Just don't mention the war. You don't know what you might stir up.
posted by Radio Maria at 12:20 AM
1 Comments:
Good advice. Dont think we foreigners quite qualify for having opinions on the matter. What a frightening period it must have been. Im quite shocked by your tale.
Post a Comment
<< Home