By: Allison Banks

After years of virtual silence about the Spanish Civil War, Spanish scholars are just now starting to go back and research the events that occurred during that time.

The period in question was the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939 and then the years of dictatorship of Francisco Franco until 1975.

It took the scholars this long to finally study Spain’s recent history because there was a fear of a repression-- it was not simply painful to relive it. Also, needed archives were closed to the public, said independent historian José Luis Gutiérrez Molina, of Sevilla.

One of the main issues, Gutiérrez said, was that the government denied public access to the archives because it would reflect badly on those in power.

“Scholars used the sealed archives as their excuse to not having studied the Franco years before,” Gutiérrez said.

Gutiérrez said that since scholars could not have access to the archives, it was very difficult to study history because many people did not want to discuss the tragic events of the past, and some people would prefer to leave the past in the past and not bring it up.

Getting people to actually talk and tell their stories is the one of the only ways of recovering the history from that time period.

José Luis Gutiérrez Molina

Gutiérrez also said that scholars sometimes sit up in their “ivory tower” and have a hard time communicating and reaching out the citizens.

He said that the scholars forget they have a responsibility to society to inform and educate.

Now scholars have realized the importance of studying the Franco years, and are becoming responsive to society and starting to provide the citizens with information.

Gutiérrez, born in April 1952, lived through the Franco years and experienced the dictatorship that controlled Spain for about 40 years.

He was a contributing author to an anthology, “La recuperación de la memoria historica,” (The Recovery of the Historical Memory) and another about an event that occurred before the Spanish Civil War, in a rural community called Casas Viejas. Casas Viejas is a village near Cadiz whose National Confederation of Labour (CNT) branch revolted in January 1933 leading to many deaths and unforgotten tragedy.

In his book about Casas Viejas, “Casas Viejas: Del crimen a la esperanza,” Gutiérrez tells the story of two anarchists, María Silva and Miguel Pérez Cordón. , Casas Viejas,, how they fell in love and all the problems that occurred.

“Real life is better than a story,” said Gutiérrez , when he is describing the lives of María and Miguel.

Gutiérrez said that one reason that scholars are beginning to look at the Spanish Civil War, is that there is also government funding available. The edited volume he contributed to, for example, was sponsored by the Junta, or state, of Andalucía.

Since the Franco years, some Spanish citizens have been trying to recover the history to find out what happened to their family and think its important to know exactly what happened during those years.

The academics in Spain, however, got a late start on going back though the history.

“Scholars had been ignoring their responsibility to the society,” Gutiérrez said.

Gutiérrez believes that scholars have a duty to reach out to the public and inform the citizens about their country’s history.

In his opinion, the universities should be reaching out and extending knowledge to the public, but they messed up that relationship by ignoring the Franco years.

It took the citizens demanding that the scholars study the history during the Franco years for them to finally do something about it.

“They had no commitment to the society they lived in,” Gutiérrez said.

(José Luis Gutiérrez Molina was interviewed at the University of Cádiz on June 16, 2008, by Allison Banks.) 

 

Interview Excerpts from José Luis Gutiérrez Molina, on Academics’ Role

Transcript of Interview in Spanish, Quote 1:

En mi opinion, el mundo universitario entiendo academia igual a Universidad ha tratado – trata estas cuestiones de una forma tardía, ha empezado a tratarlo muy tarde cuando ya otras personas y otros grupos lo han hecho hace ya tiempo y ademas de una forma excesivamente, en mi opinion, alejada de lo que le pide la sociedad.

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English Translation of Quote 1

In my opinion, the university world understands-- academia the same as the university-- address these issues too late. It has begun to address this too late when other people or other groups have already begun it a long time ago. [Academia addresses the issues] in a way that is excessively, in my opinion, far from what society needs.

Transcript of Interview in Spanish, Quote 2:

Actualidad los primeros trabajos y los mas importantes, en mi opinion, han sido realizados por historiadados por sociologos por antropologos al margen que viven o que trabajan del mundo universitario.

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English Translation of Quote 2

Actually, the first tasks and the most important, in my opinion, have been conducted by historians, sociologists, by anthropologists who are marginalized where they live, or in the university world they work in.

Transcript of Interview in Spanish, Quote 3:

Eso es un tema que el mundo universitario no trato mucho. Había una seria de problemas de aceso a fuentes, los archivos no estaban abiertos, nos se podian consultar, existía todavía mucho miedo entre la poblacion para tratar una seria de temas que en un momento determinado, fue muy traumatico.

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English Translation of Quote 3

This is a theme that the university world had not addressed much. There was a series of problems of access to means, the archives were not open, they could not be consulted, there was a lot of fear in the population to try to address a series of topics that, at one time, were too traumatic.