By Theresa Truong

REINOSA--It was 1 in the morning when 11- year old Pencho decided to steal bread from a local panedería down the street in the small town of Reinosa, Spain. He had been doing this for some time, there was a war going on and times were desperate, he was desperate. All he had on his mind was his family and sick brother waiting at home. Instead of getting away with his petty crime, he was, again, thrown into a jail full of political prisoners. He, who knew nothing of the commotion that was unraveling miles away, was thrown in and treated as a prisoner of war.

For people like Mr. Pencho Rios-Guerra, the Spanish Civil War was more than just a battle of bitter disputes between ideologies, culture, religion and ways of life unfolded; for him, as well as many other Spaniards, the war caused a series of daily life adjustments and transitions that they, even today, are still being affected by. It was a war between the old order--of monarchist, Catholic, elitist and the new order-- democratic, civilian and secular. War is almost never as clear-cut as it is portrayed in history. In history books, war has always, regardless of where and when it took place, been described with dates, number of casualties, treaties, blood, and soil, but what about its effects on the lives of the ordinary people involved?

Mr. Rios-Guerra, 81-years old, is almost finished telling his story. He remembers one of the prisoners telling him that, "kids like him were more of a battle to deal with than the fascists." There was no law for minors at the time, so it didn't matter that he was only 11; he stole regularly. He then continues on with another story, his wife, sitting beside him, looks on. Stories not of confrontations in battle, of battle wounds, or of death and disaster, but something he knows very well--his life and his family.

Pencho grew up with a mother, father and five brothers. He spoke much of his five brothers, all of whom, including him, served 21 years of military service together. One of his brothers was almost killed because he attested for a man who was blamed for killing 2 civil nationalist guards. Pencho claims that Franco would kill men and to justify it, blame it on somebody else. "It was a war of revenge and just getting back at people, it was a disaster." Another older brother, Arturo, had the chance to meet Francisco Franco himself a couple of years before Franco's death in 1975.

"In school, growing up, boys never allowed to learn history", he says but "my life was school," yet he didn't have read to know what was happening around him, to him the war was a "war between brothers"-- family members living under the same roof, eating in the same kitchen fighting each other over a matter of different political view points. He saw families being torn apart, and that's what the war was for him.

After the interview, passing an old church along the way, Pencho points to one of its walls. On the wall are the words "Jose Primo de Rivera", as well as names of those killed by Republican forces engraved on its surface. Pencho then asks, "Where is the list for other side, for those killed by the Nationalists?" For the Spanish Civil War, if it is true that its history is written only vaguely from one side, it's up to ordinary people like Pencho to tell its other.

 

Spanish Transcription:

 De los muchos de la anuncio de la muerte de Guerra civiles, y la mujer de aquel pobre hombre entro mi casa pos fijate, despavorida y al ver a mi difunta madre venia y ¿? A pedir un favor a  ver si podáis balar a mi marido que la van a dar, dos penos de muerte, le van a condenar. Mi madre una mujer muy Cristiana, a misa no iba mucho pero, bueno, y claro cuando llego mi hermano a casa dice ey Arturo, ha venido la vecina. Oye claro si hombre si, pero si este hombre no estuvo.   Que a este le he visto yo de todo detalle.

Y entonces mi hermano le valo y dos penas de muerte y mi hermano marcha a la mili y le llama el, un consejo militar. El capitán juez la pregunta que le hace a mi hermano: tu eres fulano de tal? “Si, mi capitán.”

 “Tu avalas a este hombre sobre esto y esto?”

 “Si, mi capitán.” 

“Te das cuenta lo que estas haciendo porque si este hombre es culpable, tu pagas con el.  Dice: si mi capitán si se lo que estoy haciendo . “

“porque estas tan seguro? 

Dice: “Pues mire usted mi capitán porque a bajo el los calabosos en donde asesinaron a los guardias, estaba mi hermano mayor.  De verdad? Y yo estaba mirando a ver todo lo que pasaba por la calle toda la gente ya sabebes, los escopeteros con las escopetas y a este hombre le eh visto enterar mi casa antes de la matanza, antes, y no ha salido hasta después.”

A los dos días este hombre estaba en la calle.  Si le matan, le mató Franco, verdad? Algun canaya que se cambia la chaqueta y para justificarse, le denuncio de la muerta de los guardias, no tienen mi hermano, pues le matan.  El hombre salio y no sabia lo que hacer, a los dos días estaba trabajando.  Pues es una guerra civil guapa, que no a habido mas que envidias, malas leches, y es un desastre, sabes? Un desastre. Porque entre compañeros, en el trabajos y todos los sitios cuando no  hay mas que envidias porque claro, yo siempre eh dicho que generalmente las personas que cada uno vale para una cosa, vale.  Y yo a lo mejor no valgo para medico pero igual para otra cosa.  Si yo en mi trabajo me defendía bien, pues me defiendo en mi trabajo.  Porque yo voy a mirar mal a este porque el haga otra cosa.

33:30

Listen to the original Spanish

Not able to load player, check flash plugin

English Translation:

There were many announcements of civil war death, once, a woman of a poor man entered my house terrified, and asked my late mother for a favor “if you guys could help my husband, he has been blamed for killing two people, they took him to be condemned.” My mother, a very Christian woman, didn’t go to mass a lot but, okay, and you see when my brother arrived home, Aurturo said that he had come in from the side. Listen, it was a man, but this man was not there, I saw it all in detail. 

As a result, my brother attests for this man and the two deaths on this man’s behalf and goes to the military service. Captain Juez asks this to my brother: “Are you acquainted with this man? “My brother says, “Yes, yes sir.”

“You guarantee that this man is so-and-so?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Are you sure of what you are doing? Cecause if this man is guilty, you pay with him. “

My brother says: “Yes, sir, I know what I am doing.”

“Why are you so sure?”

My brother says:

“Well, I saw him because under the “calabozos” where the guards were shot.”

My older brother was there. You see?