Resources to understand the Spanish Civil War (Review!)

This is a summary of all the novels, short stories and graphic novels about the Spanish Civil War that I showcased in previos posts. Naturally, there are many other texts and resources that we can use to introduce the topic of the Spanish Civil War in our programs.

Cielo Abajo, the battle of Madrid in a novel

Cielo Abajo by Fernando Marías

Fernando Marías is a writer  and  publisher. He has written novels, film screenplays and short novels for young adults. He has also received numerous awards among them: Anaya award for young adult novels 2005 and the National Award to the best Book for Children and Young Adults 2006 (Premio nacional de literatura infantil y juvenil), both awards for Cielo Abajo.

Plot
Joaquín Dechén has lived all his life in an orphanage in Ávila province. When students are 15 they leave the orphanage with a letter to either become a priest or join the army. Joaquín joins the army when Franco, with a part of the Spanish army, rise against the republican government. In the army Joaquín meets famous pilot Luis Cortés, who becomes his mentor. Luis sends Joaquín to Madrid to spy on Ramiro and Constanza, Luis' dearest friends before the war.

Joaquin discovers the terrible effects of the war on innocent people and realizes that Luis, a Francoist supporter, has not kept his word of defending the republic. Joaquín is torn between this harsh reality and his loyalty to Luis Cortés, the man who taught him everything. Things get more complicated when he falls in love with Constanza, a beautiful, sensitive woman expecting a child. Out of love he decides to help the republic but when both Costanza and Ramiro die in a bombing he joins the Francoist army again.  The couple leaves a daughter also named Costanza in the same orphanage where Joaquin lived.

After the war Joaquin is a respected pilot and spends time looking for the young Costanza. Joaquin tries to help her as much as he can but she disappears from his life again after having a daughter also named Costanza. When he is an old man, after the second Costanza´s death, he renews his relation with the third Costanza, a young independent woman who learns from Joaquín the passion for planes.

Joaquín writes his story in a book that he plans to give the third Costanza as a present. This story was discovered by a young unsuccessful writer who gets a  part-time job decorating old Joaquín's apartment. While he was painting, a book comes in the mail for Joaquin. As a young writer, he couldn't resist taking a look and we follow the story while he reads the book and tells us how he meets Joaquín and young Costanza. We realize that Joaquín is giving him a present too, a good story to write a book about it.

The book is beautifully written and introduces lots of themes that we can use for discussion in a novel study:

• Love (platonic, filial, admiration...)
• Loyalty and betrayal: Luis/Ramiro and Vicente Rojo
• Personal growth and the search for an identity. 
• The search for dreams
• Culpability
• Revenge
• Loneliness
• The evolution of the role of women in Spain

The novel depicts the so-called battle of Madrid in the fall of 1936. The Francoist troops were planning the assault to Madrid. Joaquín witnesses the meetings to coordinate the defense of the capital. Historical figures who took part in the battle appear in the novel such as Varela, Lister and Vicente Rojo. Joaquín is impressed by Vicente Rojo's integrity. He was a high rank military man but unlike Franco or Luis Cortés he remained loyal to the government because he had given his word to defend the Spanish republic. He organizes the defense of Madrid and coordinates all the different armed groups that existed at the time.

Cielo Abajo can be a good text to do a novel study with our advanced students. It portrays important historical facts very accurately but it also tells us a beautiful love story. 

More links
Author´s website
Anaya publisher study guide 

Webquest on the novel 

Interview in Canal Literatura  

Two novels set in the Spanish Civil War

To finish with resources about the Spanish Civil War, I'd like to introduce two novels aimed at young adult readers. Both books are love stories set at the time of the Spanish Civil War and we also follow the main characters' lives after their traumatic experience in the war.

Noche de Alacranes by Alfredo Gómez Cerdá.

Alfredo Gómez is one of the most prestigious and popular writer for young adults in Spain. He has published over 80 books which have been translated into many languages. I have introduced some of his books in previous posts and again I recommend the short novel Barro de Medellín to students in a bilingual or IB programs.

Plot
An old woman, Catalina Melgosa (aka Delgadina) is invited to talk to high school students in León, a city in Northern Spain. The retelling of her young life during  the Spanish Civil War makes her have a Noche de Alacranes, a night of insomnia. During this sleepless night she recalls her teenage love for Emilio and how she got involved in the war. She keeps memory tokens in a cookie tin. Looking at these tokens triggers flashbacks about momentous events in her life. 

As a teenager Delgadina lives in a village in León province and is in love with Emilio. Both come from different social backgrounds as Emilio belongs to one of the richest families in the area. When the war starts the region is soon taken by the Francoist troops and a period of repression starts. Many young men escape to the nearby mountains to continue the fight, among them Delgadina's brother. They are known by the name of 'maquis' fighters and Delgadina becomes their contact with the rest of the world, taking food and other supplies to them and being their mail.

When the group of 'maquis' fighters kidnap Emilio, a Franco supporter, Delgadina helps him to escape out of love. Soon after, all the 'maquis' fighters are killed by the Francoist police and Delgadina escapes to France where she gets married and has a family. Many years later, she returns to León as a widow and gets the invitation from the high school. The event is shown in the local newspaper where Emilio learns Delgadina has returned. Soon, they meet for a coffee 50 years later.

The novel shows the repression that the Francoist troops and police took on the citizens who supported the Republican government. It also portrays the life and fate of the 'maquis', the guerrilla groups who continued fighting Franco for many years even after the end of the Second World War. But the novel is also a beautiful love story between two young innocent people who were merely puppets engulfed by war and the social and political turmoil in Spain. The novel also reflects how fate influences our lives to an incredible extent. Finally, the novel serves to educate new generations and encourage them to take interest in 'Memoria Histórica', which has become a political policy in Spain.

More links:
Reading guide
Author´s website
Interview to the author
The author speaks about Noche de Alacranes 

Los Surcos del Azar, a graphic novel for the Spanish class

I have been showcasing resources about the Spanish Civil War. It is a very interesting topic to work with our students because they are familiar with the historical events around that time in Europe. It is important that they are aware how these events are interrelated and the fact that the Spanish Civil War cannot be understood outside the rise of totalitarianism in European countries.

I also like graphic novels for many reasons. They can help students to get used to reading in a second language and enjoy it. Another important reason is because authors tell us personal experiences which students can relate to easily. There has been a great production of graphic novels in Spanish speaking countries in the last years and we can use them in our Spanish classes.

Paco Roca is one of my favourite authors. I have introduced his award winning graphic novel Arrugas, which I highly recommend . Today I'd like to talk about his latest work, Los surcos del azar , which explores the lives of Republican soldiers after the Spanish Civil War and their involvement in the Second World War.  It is not the first time that Paco Roca uses the Spanish Civil or post-war as the  setting  one of his stories. In El Faro we read the story of Francisco, a young republican soldier. He became involved in the war by being conscripted like many other young Spaniards. After the war he flees and meets Telmo, an old lighthouse keeper who lives his life freely. Telmo will guide Francisco to a world of adventure and discovery until Francisco finally finds his place in the world away from his traumatic experience in the war.

Paco Roca was also the artist in El Angel de la Retirada published in French with a storyboard by French writer Serguei Dounovetz. More information in a previous entry.

Los Surcos del Azar was published in 2013. It is probably his most ambitious work up to now and  again depicts the lives and fates of the Republican soldiers who had to leave Spain after Franco´s victory in 1939. The title is taken from a poem by Spanish poet, Antonio Machado in his book Campos de Castilla (Proverbios y Cantares II):

¿Para qué llaman caminos

a los surcos del azar?...

Todo el que camina anda,

como Jesús, sobre el mar.

Antonio Machado had to leave Spain in 1939 entering France on foot accompanied by his ancient mother with the rest of refugees. This scene is portrayed in the novel as a token of the helplessness of the situation for the refugees. The poet and his mother died a month later in the small town of Collioure, which has become a place for pilgrimage.

In this article Paco Roca explains how he started the project after meeting Manuel Fernandez and Luis Royo in Paris in 2008 during the presentation of La Nueve, los españoles que liberaron Paris by Evelyn Mesquida. They were two of the few survivors of the company and Paco Roca found the story fascinating. Probably, we would have seen many films about their lives, had they been from a different country. 

The author started to research about these historical facts and found Miguel Campos, another member of La Nueve who disappeared mysteriously just after the liberation of Paris. The novel follows Miguel Campo´s life through his conversations with the author,  like a documentary and 70 years after everything happened. We learn that he is one of 1,800 lucky ones who could board the ship Stanbrook in Alicante port in 1939, where over 15,000 people where waiting for other ships which never came. Then we follow his steps in Oran, Algeria and how the French authorities put them in concentration camps to build the never completed Sahara railways.

With many other exiled Spanish he takes part in the Tunisia campaign against General Rommel and then the group of Spanish republicans joined Leclerc's army to form La Nueve company. The company is taken to England for training and after the D-Day they start their trip to Paris taking part in uncountable battles. When the French leader de Gaulle learns that a revolt has broken up in Paris against the Nazis, he asks the alleys to attack Paris. It is August 1944 and the Americans are not willing to enter the French capital out of fear of the reprisals on the civil population by the Nazis authorities. However, de Gaulle insists and orders Leclerc to enter Paris. La Nueve company, like in many other French cities before, is the one leading the attack reaching Paris city hall on August 24, 1944. The German garrison surrenders the day after (source Wikipedia). The bulk of the Alley troops parade in Paris on the 26th.

Most of the members in La Nueve company have been fighting since 1936, and some will still participate in the battle of Strasbourg and will eventually reach Hitler´s Eagle Nest. However, the main character Miguel decides to abandon the war to head back to Spain with his partner to fight Franco. When his partner dies in a car accident on the way to Spain he decides not to fight any more, settling in France and mourn his dead partner and also his lost country. 

Paco Roca convinced Miguel to talk about all these events 70 years later. He had kept silent for all this time and not even his closest friends knew anything of his struggle. He was a deserter after all! The graphic novel is presented in the form of a documentary. Paco Roca asks questions to Miguel and there are continuous flashbacks to the facts he is recalling. We also are present at the process of getting to know each other until Miguel trusts the author completely.

The real history of Miguel could be the plot for films or TV series however it was lost like the rest of the members in La Nueve. The graphic novel unveils the story of a group of people who lost a war and along with it their home and their country but who never gave up trying to liberate Europe. It is also the story of Miguel who also lost his family, his partner and was condemned to a life of silence. The story is told in a realistic way, like a documentary,  showing the injustice of wars and the cruelties committed by the contestants.

I highly recommend the graphic novel for an ADULT reader.

More information about Paco Roca's work in La guía del cómic.
Interview in RTVE.
Article in El Pais newspaper.
Paco Roca´s website
Post on La Nueve company
Conference by Evelyn Mesquida on Vimeo

eduPLEmooc course Entornos Personales de Aprendizaje (PLE) para el desarrollo personal docente

I have just finished my work at the eduPLEmooc course Entornos Personales de Aprendizaje (PLE) para el desarrollo personal docente. It was a unique learning experience. It was a Massive Open Online Course so anyone interested in education with enough command of Spanish could have joined in. There was a large number of participants from many different countries and various education fields and this fact made the course even more interesting.

The main goals of the course were to give  participants an experience of interconnected learning that will allow them to:

• build or redesign their PLE (personal learning environment)
• reflect on issues such as digital identity and personal learning processes
• contact education professionals through the numerous virtual communities created during the course. 

The course journey was exciting and very informative. I enjoyed being challenged learning how to use new tools to accomplish new tasks. Another plus was that we had to work with our peers in different projects and to share all our works through social media.  The chart below shows my personal experience during the course:

Going into the details of the chart:

• One of the main goals of this course was to reflect on the new role of education in the 21st century.
• New challenges arise after this process, mainly trying to integrate everything I learned in my classes and using media and ICT tools to enhance students' Spanish learning.
• One of the projects I´d like to work on is the design of an option subject for the Spanish bilingual program where students learn to create their own PLE.

I highly recommend the course for teachers working in the Spanish bilingual programs. I assume the same course will be offered in the near future. To get updated information visit the website of INTEF.