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  Terzioska

Use and Abuse in the Educational Apparatus during Franco's Regime in Spain: (1936-1951)

A dissertation submitted to the

Graduate School

of the University of Cincinnati

in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of

Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D)

in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

2009

by

Jasmina Terzioska

B.A. Purdue University (Indiana) 2000

M.A. Loyola University at Chicago (Illinois) 2002

Committee Chair: Dr. Connie Scarborough

Committee Members: Dr. María Paz Moreno, Dr. Carlos Gutiérrez. Abstract: This dissertation investigates the use the abuse in the educational apparatus during the most crucial two decades of Franco’s dictatorship in Spain (1936-1951). These years were the most difficult, including programs, curriculum, textbooks, students, and faculty, as it endured the most control. By analyzing approved textbooks, national newspaper articles, and illustrations of this specific period, this dissertation closely investigates the new implementations and changes in the educational system after the Spanish Civil War. It also explores how Spanish literature was taught, introduced and used, especially the Poema de Mío Cid. This medieval epic served as coursework for Franco’s primary school in order to mimic the process of nation building. For the propagandistic use of the literary works, we highlight Eco’s theory on text interpretation, which was developed in his book Lector in Fabula. For the ideological appropriation in the educational system, Franco was able to mimic what Louis Althusser calls reproduction of the productive forces outlines in Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses.

With this dissertation, I firstly aimed to profoundly study the manipulative evolution of the new educational apparatus after the Spanish Civil War; secondly, to analyze the use and the brainwashing of teaching of Spanish literature; and thirdly, to address the beneficial transmission of the interpretation of the Poema de Mío Cid in the educational apparatus.

ii Acknowledgements:

I would like to thank all individuals who have provided me unconditional support throughout the process of developing this dissertation. I am deeply in debt to my Dissertation Chair, Dr. Connie Scarborough, and my Committee members, Dr. Carlos Gutiérrez and Dr. María Paz Moreno.

iii iv Table of Contents

Abstract------1

Acknowledgements------2

Introduction------6

Chapter 1. Eco and Althusser: a Theoretical Perspective of Manipulation

1.1. Lector in Fabula: on Interpretation of Text ------15

1.2. Politics of Textual Use------18

1.3. Franco’s Educational System in the Light of the Althusserian Theory------22

Chapter 2. Transition and Evolution of Franco’s National Educational System

(1936-1951): Althusser and Eco

2.1. Educational Transition Period: Second Republic, Spanish Civil War and

National Government (1936-1951)------32

2.2. Economic Conditions of the Franquist Regime: A Historical Perspective------38

2.3. The Totalitarian Construction of the Educational State Apparatus: 1939-1951---44

2.4. New Implementation of National Ministry of Education (1939-1951) and the

Laws of Primary Schools, Secondary Schools and Universities------50

2.4.1. The Life of Teachers during Franco’s Regime------57

2.4.2. Elimination of Coeducation in the School System------63

2.4.3. Implementation of New Minister of Education (1939-1951)------68

2.5. Brainwashing: Old Secular Education vs. New Catholic Education------70

Chapter 3. Teaching of Literature during Franco’s Regime

3.1. In Search of Literal and Cultural Tradition: Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo,

v Jaime Balmes and Juan Donoso Cortés------76

3.2. A New Approach to the Teaching of Literature during the New State ------83

3.3 Educational Journals Form Part of Literature during the New State------97

3.4. Manipulation through Literature, Refrains, Dictations, Syntaxes, Stories, etc. -102

Chapter 4: Manipulative use of Poema de Mío Cid

4.1. La España del Cid; A Fascist Interpretation of the Cid’s Figure?------116

4.2. The Reception of La España del Cid------126

4.3. Poema de Mío Cid from Eco’s Perspective------135

4.4. The Interpretation of the Cid in the Textbooks------152

4.5. The Forgotten Role of Jimena during the Franquist Educational System------156

4.6. The Forgotten Role of the Cid’s Daughters and the Infants of Carrión in the

Franquist Educational System------165

5. Conclusions------170

6. Bibliography------176

vi Introduction

When examining the post-Civil War era in Spain, you will find countless publications that depict this elongated, memorable part of our history. In fact, it is a topic that can be studied all over the world, in several different languages. But for present and future investigators, many questions still remain unanswered. For example, there are numerous, valuable works that focus on education and teaching literature1 during the Spanish Post Civil

War period. However, specific studies on how the New State2 and its leader, the dictator

Francisco Franco, used literature as a manipulation tool has not yet been explored.

This dissertation will investigate the new implementations and changes in the educational system after the Spanish Civil War. It will also explore how Spanish literature was taught, introduced and used3, specifically the Poema de Mío Cid. This medieval epic served as coursework for Franco’s primary school system during the first, and most crucial, two decades of the dictatorship (1936-1951).

For the propagandistic use of the literary works, we will highlight Eco’s theory on text interpretation, which was developed in his book Lector in Fabula. He states that there are open and closed texts and that the Model Reader can take an active and cooperative role when it comes to its interpretation. Eco sees the body of the text as a lazy machine plagued with voids for the Model Reader to fill in and to make the text function (76-79). During Franco’s

1 See the works of Fernández Soria, Navarro Sandalinas, Mayordomo Peréz, Gervilla Castillo, Fernández Ferrer, Sánchez-Redondo Morcillo, McNair, Valls, Jóndóttir, and Galván.

2 By New State we are referring to Spain under Franco’s regime, especially the Post-Civil War period. This is also a term used by Víctor Alba in Transition in Spain.

3 When we analyze literary works, especially the medieval literary texts, we follow Eco’s Lector in Fabula. For more details on his theory refer to our first Chapter.

vii regime, the students were not the ones that were able to take an active and cooperative role as readers when interpreting a text. The Model Reader was represented by Franquist intellectuals, who developed the education system in connection with the regime’s fascist ideology. As a result, these intellectuals distorted the meaning of many literary texts such as the Spanish epic poem Poema de Mío Cid. The text was perverted from an ideological perspective in order to promote the dictatorship’s dogma. The problem with such an interpretative perspective is the fact that if we read a text perverting its meaning, changing the perspective foreseen by its Model Author, and altering (modifying) the steps that had to be taken by the Model Reader, then we are not cooperating with the text. In this instance, we are taking the text to a level for which it was not intended.

In order to realize the process of brainwashing in the educational apparatus, the

Franquist regime took control of what Eco calls use. According to Eco there are two poles when reading a text: use and interpretation. These two theoretical poles are never totally realized, and they only serve us as a model for analysis in the reading process. We should clarify that Eco is not considering the case of the manipulative process by the entire educational system with respect to a textual body. But the categories of use and interpretation can be used correctly when talking about what the Franquist system does: taking control and power from a pragmatic perspective, and engaging a use, an official use, to guide all of the possible readings by students that are educated under the regime. The body of the medieval texts for instance, is a lazy machine, and because of it, the Model Reader has to make it work in a pragmatic and semiotic direction in which case the reader is passing a valid judgment. In this instance, the epic poem of the Cid is as a lazy machine, and the use of the Cid as a pro-

Franco and pro-Generalísimo, is a mischievous and biased reading, suitable for the new

viii regime in Spain. As explained in more details later in the first chapter, what Franco’s educational system did with some medieval texts was not interpretation but use, using Eco´s terminology.

Franco’s ideological appropriation of Spain’s educational system is related to what the

Marxist tradition has called reproduction.4 In order for this transmission to take place, Franco had to erase the old, liberal ideological thinking and restore a new way of thinking following the old model of the Reyes Católicos, a historical aspect explained later on. In the words of

Carlos Sánchez-Redondo Morcillo in Leer en la escuela durante el Franquismo, “En cada

época de una sociedad predomina un determinado sistema ideológico, que se intenta transmitir y reproducir…” (15). As a result, the concept of reproduction is a process that takes an internal part in any political regime. For instance, a Socialist government, as well as

Capitalist government, also elaborates an educational system where all of their political powers and concepts are filtered in the educational institutions. Only through the development of this mechanism of social control Franco was able to mimic what Louis Althusser, called the productive force5 (5). After the transitional period (from Civil War to Post-Civil War) there was a fight between classes. In the words of Ramón Navarro Sandalinas, the landholder nobility remained untouched throughout the Franquist period, with the help of the Catholic

Church in its role of mass-indoctrinator (32). Manuel Ramírez, in España 1939-1975,

Régimen político e ideología, is more specific, and asserts that capital, in all its manifestations, the conservative bourgeoisie and the landholders, were the triumphant sector

4 Reproduction is the transmission of existing cultural values and norms from generation to generation. Furthermore, it can be summarized as groups of people, notably social classes act to reproduce the existing social structure to preserve their advantage.

5 Literally those things such as land, natural resources and technology that are necessary for the production of material good. By technology it is understood machines, tools, plants, and equipment. In other words, all of those aids which man act upon the subject of labor and transforms it.

ix after the Civil War in Spain (81). We have to consider as well that the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the utopian and semi- bourgeois intellectuals, the Phalangist 6 were of an enormous aid for such a new establishment. As a result, after the transitional period, the right ascended and had economical and ideological privileges. One of their principal objectives was the installation of the autarchical mode of production. As Althusser would say, one concrete way to achieve this social transformation was the implementation of an educational system coherent with the ideology of this New State. In other words, the rightists knew what was going to be triggered by this institutionalization: the reproduction of the relations of production7 and the maintaining of class differences (6). As we have mentioned above, the Church and the

Phalangist were the principal protagonists in the process of the configuration of the New

State, of course with the approval of the Generalísimo (Coles 6). According to the Italian

Marxist martyr Antonio Gramsci in Selections from the Prison Notebook, such a dominant position in a given society gains hegemony: a “manufactured consent,” created through the articulation of intellectuals in a public sphere (245). He further states that dominance is secure only if a majority complies with the law and that powerful sectors, such as the church or the military, comply with the State. The effort to win people’s consent, which is never entirely successful, is the attempt to gain hegemony. Force will be needed against some disobedient

6 Coles, in Franco of Spain, explains the origins of Falange and its function for the rise of the conservative educational system after the Civil War. Its organizer was Onésimo Redondo. The Falange was organized at a parade of thousand members of the Spanish fascist youth. Their day of celebration marks their patron, St. Ferdinad, XIII Century King of Castile and the liberation of Castile from the Moors. With dignity, in every village, the Castilian iron post bears the huge Phalangist emblem of the yoke and arrows. The inspiration behind the choice of the emblem was at the outset entirely patriotic because they were part of coat-of-arms of the Queen Isabella. Today general life can be seen just as they were printed in her own times on the arbor-posts of the incomparable general life gardens above the Alhambra and Granada after its capture from the Moors. The motto that the Phalangist used was the same as she adopted for herself and her husband Ferdinand: TANTO MONTA, MONTA TANTO-Isabel as Fernando: What belongs to you belongs to me.

7 Refers to all kinds of social and technical human interconnections involved in the social production and the reproduction material. Technical refers to a relationship between producers and objects worked upon. Social denotes belonging, group membership, and co-operative activity.

x citizens. In this case, Franco and the privileged groups and intellectuals monopolized and maintained what Gramsci calls hegemony. Such predominance was created with groups that followed Franco who transmitted the laws through education, media, speeches, etc. Through this propagandistic use, the ruling class and their perspective were getting absorbed by the masses.

Why are we choosing the years of 1936-1951? In 1936, the rise of the military forces took place and immediately, new legislations on education were promulgated (Mayordomo

146). Sánchez-Redondo points that as soon as Franco came to power, the laws of education changed, especially for the primary school (14). Furthermore, in 1951 certain liberalization in education started with the new Minister of Education, Joaquín Ruiz Giménez, and this year marked the end of the most crucial period after the Spanish Civil War. Our main focus will be the period of and between these specific years, in which Spanish education was under the power of the Commission of Culture and Teaching of the Junta Técnica of the State, with its president José María Pemán, and the two Ministers of Education, Pedro Sáinz Rodríguez and

José Ibáñez Martín (Romero 26). These years were the most difficult for the entire educational apparatus, including programs, texts, students and faculty, as it endured the most control. In fact, these were the years, from Althusser’s perspective, in which the Franquist

State utilized intense education for self reproduction and ideological assurance.

Finally, we would like to focus on the teaching and use of literature in the Franquist primary school apparatus. Programs, especially in the lower grades, were always very ambitious, but it was doubtful they were complete. Very little literature was covered and if so, it was the literature that supported the regime’s ideological interest. As Navarro Sandalinas states, “El franquismo, en material escolar, no hizo más que retórica; palabras es lo único que

xi puede presentar ante nuestro juicio” (65). The literature of the Middle Ages of Spain played an important role in schools, because Franco was apparently returning to the original traditions of Spain (Fernández Soria 12).

Some features of Spanish society during Franco’s period can be understood through knowledge of the way in which that society has developed through the centuries. According to

John McNair in Education for a Changing Spain, the most important historical event that served Franco was the notion of nation building; the unification of the country in the period to the fifteenth century under the pressure to drive out the Moors who had invaded and occupied it for seven centuries (7). The centuries-long struggle to expel the Moors helped consolidate a number of separate peoples into one nation: the Castilians, the Asturians, and so on—but its greater importance was its effect on emphasizing religious orthodoxy. The greatness of Spain was short-lived. It started with the final victory over the Moors in 1492, the same year in which Columbus discovered America, and ended a century and a half later. Franco’s focus was the historical aspects from the period of 1042 and on. Keeping this in mind, he was opening the interest for the origins and the authenticity of the Spanish person and society.

This interest dictated a search for a new national image that was going to unite the people of

Spain. In the words of Margrét Jónsdóttir, “…era menester una identidad monolítica y no heterogénea” (5). The heroic and historical figures of the Cid, of Colón, Hernán Cortes and of the Reyes Católicos played a major role in the ideological development of the New State because of their contribution of establishing a powerful nation in the Middle Ages. The expulsion of the Moors from Spain marked the beginning of the imperial Spain of the Reyes

Católicos. Because they formed an empire that was unique, centralized, pure and Catholic, it appeared, without any doubt, as a definite model for Franco to follow. He used the fame and

xii power of this once strong nation as a source of manipulation. As Fernando Valls explains in

La enseñanza de la literatura en el franquismo, the Middle Ages were idealized because they helped create an imagination of the New State (67). Considering these elements, Franco wanted Spain to be re-born under his leadership. With such an achievement, he would gain power over the entire nation. He wanted to make Spain unique without the existence of regional distinctions, a notion that was made clear when he prohibited schools from teaching

Catalonian and Basque languages in these regions. As McNair points out, it was also going to help him maintain a centralized educational system with its own characteristics (154). In order to transmit such an old ideology, Franco’s approach began with the educational apparatus. In this setting, the students were introduced to the notion of a powerful empire through literature, patriotic slogans, anthems, illustrations, and other means. More importantly, he specifically focused on historical and heroic figures that played a role in shaping a strong, unique empire. He used these figures at a satisfactory level to help build his image.

The heroic figure of the Cid is of great interest for our dissertation, but more importantly is how the context of the Poema de Mío Cid’s was used for the outcome of the leader. We are not only looking at the image of the Cid, but at the entire poem. Even though

Franco rhetorically advocated a return to traditions, not all of the texts from the medieval period formed part of the regime’s literary canon. The epic Poema de Mío Cid was the most used text in the classes, while Celestina was barely mentioned (Valls 96). Everything that was considered myth about the Cid was converted as a reality. We should also point out that only selected sections of the Poema de Mío Cid were used; the parts where the protagonist Cid is represented as a patriot and a Catholic hero of Spain who helped the nation get rid of the

xiii Moors and the Arabs. Unfortunately, this was only part of the global picture of the epic poem.

We must also point out that, for the first time, because of the positive methodological approach in the school system, the epic poem formed part of the Spanish literary canon. As far as our investigation goes, in contrast, parts of the epic poem, which would have triggered a problematic approach, were never mentioned.

In a parallel perspective, both the students and masses were taught that Franco played the same role for the New State as did the Cid against the opponents (Fernández Soria 16).

During this critical period, literature was taught through memorization, meaning that mostly religious poems or portions of text were read, parts that brainwashed Spain’s youth and gave a “false image” of the Caudillo. The literature teachers conceived of their assignments as a continuation of religious class, between “la moralina más ridícula y transnochada y el patriotismo mal entendido” (Fernández Soria 18). In a totalitarian state, Franco manipulated the youth, ensuring the adhesiveness of future Spanish men. Even though all of the “decent” institutions played an important role, the dictatorship’s preferred target was the primary school. Much of the influence on a child is implemented in the school and by his teachers, precisely where the fight for the conquest of the future Spaniard would be developed.

In the words of Louis Althusser, we can say that, in order to continue the reproduction of the productive forces, there must be an implementation and acceptance of the ideological apparatus. This is the reason why Franco made sure that the changes in the educational system were implemented immediately with the proclamation of the sanctions of education by the

Ministers of Education Pedro Sáinz Rodríguez and José Ibáñez Martín. Building a future generation and manipulating it was a difficult process in the universities because students were older and they had been already educated under the Republican Regime. They had

xiv previously read the work of the notorious and now exiled or missing intellectuals under the

Republican primary school system. In the words of the Republican educador Llopis:

La escuela instruye poco; pero, en cambio, puede educar, formar al niño, imprimir una dirección a su conciencia y mentalidad incipiente, cosa que no hace la Universidad, porque cuando ésta recibe a los alumnos, éstos ya están formados. Se explica, pues, el deseo de apoderarse de la escuela para convertirla en instrumento de una dogma de Estado, de clase o de religión. (189)

This dissertation will transition from a very broad approach to a more specific, concrete one. With this dissertation, I firstly aim to present the theoretical perspective of manipulation as seen in the light of Althusser and Eco; secondly to study the manipulative evolution of the new educational apparatus after the Spanish Civil War; thirdly, to analyze the use and the brainwashing of teaching of Spanish classical texts; and finally, to address the beneficial transmission of the interpretation of the Poema de Mío Cid in the educational apparatus.

xv Chapter 1

Eco and Althusser: a Theoretical Perspective of Manipulation

1.1. Lector in Fabula: on Interpretation of the Text

In Lector in Fabula, Umberto Eco states that is the interpreter’s work to make the text work. The text is a “lazy machine” inundated with empty spaces that must be filled in, by what Eco defines as, the Model Reader. We must take into consideration that there is a Model

Author who moves generatively (he is giving signals to the Model Reader for interpretation) in the same direction that the Model Reader must move interpretatively. As Eco states, to generate a text means to apply a strategy. This strategy must include the foreseeing

(beforehand seeing) of the Model Reader’s movements (79). This implies that those empty spaces must be filled out by the Model Reader, who is, as we have stated before, the interpreter, who can move in a way that is foreseen by the Model Author.

Eco gives us an example in the sub-chapter called Open Texts and Closed Texts. He provides a clear example of the interpretation of the Mysteries of Paris, by Eugene Sue. Even though this book was written as a picturesque portrait of the lives of the poor class, in the eyes of the proletarians, the book was interpreted as a clear, honest description of their oppression, and, consequently, as an illustrative reason for the proletarian revolution: something that was totally outside of the structure of the text.8

In The Medieval Spain, Reilly Bernard explains the history of the real Cid. Rodrigo de

Vivar was born in Vivar, some kilometers north of Burgos, around 1040. He was still young

8 Eugene Sue, in his book The Mysteries of Paris, gives a clear and vivid explanation of the Tapis-Franc, which in slang of the murderers and thieves of Paris, means a smoking – house inn of the very lowest class. To the reader from the beginning chapter he states, “this opening will inform the reader that he is about to be a spectator of sorrowful and dismal scenes. If he consents, we will penetrate into horrible, unknown regions; frightful and hideous figures swarm in these foul alleys, like reptiles in a swamp” (1).

xvi when he was sent to the kingdom of Fernando I to be educated alongside prince Sancho, who inherited Castile and Lyon. When Sancho came to power, the Cid was his general. As such,

Rodrigo had an important role in the war that King Sancho started against his brothers García de Galicia, Alfonso of Lyon and Urraca of Zamora. After Sancho’s death, a victim of his brothers, Alfonso took power of Castile and Lyon, and the Cid was thrown from the kingdom.

Shortly thereafter, they reconciled as Alfonso VI, fearing the loss of his ally, Al-Qadir of

Valencia, made a strong, yet unsuccessful, demonstration before the city during the spring of

1092. Instead, the former vassal of the Leonese, the Castilian minor noble and military genius subsequently the epic hero, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, el Cid, were to reap the immediate benefit. The Castilian had been militarily active in the east since his exile from Leon and

Castile in 1081. This was the period when King Alfonso believed the rumor that he took part of the tribute won from the Moor king of Seville. By 1092 had so far advanced his own fortunes there as to force not only the smaller taifas but Valencia itself to pay their parias to him as the price of his protection. The advance of the former in 1092 caused the Cid to retire momentarily from the field. Alfonso had to give up his attempt on the city where a revolt broke out and the unfortunate Al-Qadir was beheaded in October of that year. The rebels secured a small Murabit garrison to strengthen the city but sought to maintain their independence from their rivals. The major initiative was taken by Rodrigo Díaz who began a siege in 1093 and forced the city to surrender to him in June of 1094. The Murabit response was a major expedition, involving both Andalusian and North African forces. Nonetheless, the army was routed by the Cid at Quart de Poblet, outside Valencia, in October of 1094.

From then until Rodrigo’s death in July of 1099, the Castilian noble was to be one of the greatest princes of the peninsula (111).

xvii Continuing in Eco´s argument, we can say that Franco utilized this closed text, but from his own perspective, and tried to achieve his final objective: the presence of the good, the heroic, the valiant and the Catholic origins in the Spaniard man. The text was perverted from an ideological perspective in order to serve the dictatorship’s needs. But the fact is that if we read a text perverting its meaning, then we are not cooperating with the text, we are taking the text to a level for which it was not intended. Following Eco here, the Model Reader has to take an active and a cooperative role when interpreting a textual corpus. Of course, in some works of literature this is a very valued and usual exercise. Manuel Puig developed all of his narrative machinery altering kitsch literature. Another example of transversal writing can be

The Trial, the novel in which Franz Kafka uses the legal system and its particular jargon as a materia prima in order to achieve a very interesting critique of the bureaucratized societies.

Franco and the Ministry of Education with the Poema de Mío Cid are performing what Eco calls use and not an interpretation.

It is valuable to remark that even though Poema de Mío Cid does not have a known empirical author; it does have a Model Author that is present in the text, as one of the components of its structure. All the arguments and historico-philological disputes about the authorship of Poema de Mío Cid are very valuable, but can be put into brackets in the construction of the notion of Model Author. A short account of the philological discussion about the Poema de Mío Cid will help us demonstrate our hypothesis. Keeping in consideration the shortage of documents for investigation, there are many theories as far as the authorship of Poema de Mío Cid. The notion of authorship has been a controversial aspect of the epic poem, especially with regard to the identity of Per Abbat whose name appears at the end of the manuscript. Theorists have concluded that the poem is anonymous

xviii and that Per Abbat was merely the copyist. Menéndez Pidal’s theory as far as a juglar of

Medinaceli being the possible author of the Cid has been challenged. Following the interpretation of Colin Smith, Pedro Abad, was a lay person and possibly notorious, who with his sons Juan and Pedro, appeared before King Ferdinad III and his judges in Carrión in 1223, about the inheritance of a small monastery of Santa Eugenia in Cordobilla (39-40). The documents that Per Abbat demonstrated were false, such as the origin of this monastery in

1075 and its first Abad Lecenio, who was supposedly consanguineous of the Cid. Pedro Abad managed to falsify documents because he was acting as a lawyer in 1223. Subsequently, the title of copier of the Poema de Mío Cid was given to him. Abad was just his last name and not his ecclesiastical name. In recent years there is another Per Abad, discovered by F. J.

Hernández (1988), who was a canonist of Toledo documented in this city between 1204 and

1211. This was a period in which the courts were held by Alfonso VIII, and city in which the false courts are situated by Alfonoso VI in the epic poem for the judgment of the Cid. Smith considers Pedro Abad of 1223 as a possible copier of the epic poem because he is somewhat knowledgeable of the Cid’s town Burgos, its topography and the tombs that were found in

Cardeña and in Santa María of the once thought fictitious character Martín Antolínez (41).

The use of the epic poem to support the Franquist Fascist agenda configures a total use of the text, a movement that is not part of the strategies by the Model Reader. So, we can state that they take an active false role and not a cooperative one in accordance with the classical text.

The Franquist intellectuals, who used the epic poem with ideological intentions of supporting the Generalísimo, developed a decontextualized reading. The epic poem in its time also served as a propaganda tool for the Reconquest; knowing such a functionable model of manipulation, Franco did not have to create anything new in order to transmit the image of re-

xix building a new nation with heroic images from Spanish history and literature. Since he kept power in his own hands, the idea was just to use these influential notions to its maximum; to a point of abuse. In the next section, we explore Eco´s notions about textual interpretation in more detail.

1.2. Politics of Textual Use

The use of the medieval text during Franco’s regime was organized from a very structured political perspective. First of all, we must pay attention to the foundations, or characteristics, that Ramón Arango called “The Philosophical Foundations of the Franco

Regime.” To Franco, the Civil War meant a crusade to free Spain from being contaminated by everything non-Spanish. He also attempted to go back to the medieval order in Spain. This takes us back to the political model that he was following in order to manipulate and give reasons to be in power. Just like in the dominant times of the Reyes Católicos and the expulsion of the Moors from Spain marked the beginning of a strong empire, the fight against the rojos and re-building a new nation also metaphorically marked the beginning of a powerful nation in the 20th century. Arango explains that the Generalisímo “Saw himself as a fighter-monk who would lead the battle against liberalism, communism, and any other consequences of modernity” (111).

We have to consider that Franco was not isolated in Europe. He had political connections with Hitler in Germany and Mussolini in Italy. As the historian Eric Hobsbawm explains in Historia del siglo XX, the point of contact among those three fascist leaders was their common hate against the enlightenment of the 18th Century, as well as that of the French

Revolution and all its political and social consequences, such as liberalism, democracy, and

xx especially, atheistic communism (121). The values of the regime, as embodied in the

Fundamental Laws, were essentially conservative: obedience to authority, patriotism, religious orthodoxy, and respect for the family. Franco spoke in medieval parlance that resembled the age of the Reconquest. But, now, the enemies were not the Jews nor the Moors, but the liberals, the capitalists, the communists and the atheists. As a key part of this campaign, Franco manipulated the educational system in order to make classical texts agree with his political message.

Franco says that all those modern theories, (following Arango’s translation) “have caused our death… in the name of liberty, fraternity, equality and also liberal trivia, our

Churches have been burned and our history destroyed” (54). In another speech, the

Generalísimo adds:

We fight to free our people of the influences of Marxism and international communism: by this struggle we wish to save the moral, spiritual, religious, and artistic values created by the Spanish people through their glorious history, values which represent the foundation of our national and individual existence. (Arango 33)

For Franco, the “New Spain” will be faithful to her ancient traditions. The dictator condemned both capitalism and communism. His belief was that bourgeois capitalist profited from Spanish labors, and that “Foreign lodges and international communities may fight the sentiment of Nationalist Spain” (Arango 56). Further in his speech, he is convinced that these oppositions will achieve nothing against the strength of his Spain, the justice of his cause and the spirit of the Spanish youth. We can observe this translated excerpt by Arango:

We do not want a Spain dominated by a single group… either capitalist or proletarian. Our victory constitutes the triumph of economic principals in conflict with old liberal theories by whose myths colonialism was established over many sovereign states. The liberal world is dying; a victim of the cancer of its errors, and with liberalism is crumbling commercial imperialism with its financial capitalism and its millions of

xxi unemployed. His happiness offered by the French Revolution was bartered for “economic man” and for commercial competition with its miserable workdays and its abandoned, neglected masses. Increased wealth was not accompanied by equitable distribution, and an important part of humanity now struggles against new forms of misery. (Arango 55-6)

Franco, in the early years of his regime, saw the Civil War in a very large perspective because the Spaniards, under his regime, would carry the torch of the resistance of the

Spanish civilization, the Christian culture, the Catholic faith, and, last by not least,

“maintaining them like Don Quijote, marching with the courage, inspiration, and virtue that are the heart and sinews of Spain today” (Arango 57).

To justify the belief of returning to tradition, Víctor Alba in Transition in Spain points out that the Caudillo, when addressing countries such as France, Europe, and America, explained that the Spanish Civil War was not a traditional Civil War, a war of parties, but rather it was a crusade of Spanish men who believed in God, in the human soul, in the good, in ideals, and in sacrifice. True Spaniards battled against the communists, against men without faith, without morals, without nobility. This mentally inspired the life of the new State and in harmony with it, Franco (following the translation of Alba) in 1937 explained to the United

Press the following about his state:

Spain will follow the structure of the totalitarian regimes, as in Italy and Germany. It will be dressed in corporative forms and will do away with the liberal institutions which have poisoned the people. As in every empire, special attention will be given to the hierarchical principle. (Alba 175)9

Such a dictatorial discourse during and after the Civil War, was not only heard in the rest of the world, but ideologically was reaching the masses of Spain, and especially the schools, which in reality was his primary concern. His speeches were very powerful and easily convincing to the public because after the long suffering of the Civil War, they only

9 This is translated speech by Víctor Alba.

xxii wanted the situation to calm down. Besides, the groups of people that were against him were killed. Therefore, those remaining were manipulated by different means of propaganda. He states that he does not consider the Civil War a traditional war, but a war against communism to free the Spanish souls. Despite Franco’s reason, we can state that just like in any traditional war, at the end, there were corpses found in every corner of the street as we will see little later. When a country loses thousands of citizens, there are no excuses for such an event.

1.3. Franco’s Educational State Apparatus in the Light of Althusserian Theory

Even though Franco criticized the capitalist system, as we have seen before, we can analyze the function of the educational system in Spain during the years of dictatorship in terms of State Apparatuses. Marx elaborated the notion of State Apparatuses to criticize more widely the capitalist society. As it is known, Marx’s theory consisted of a critique of the roots of bourgeois society. The German philosopher wanted to develop a theory which would be the base for the future total revolution. In the heart of his political and social theory, we find some crucial notions that will be very useful in our work.

As we are working presently in a dictatorship, which took place in the middle of the twentieth century, it is important to not use a purely Marxist theory because we must take into account some historical facts that Marx did not live to know. Marx died in 1888, and he was not able to take into consideration: the new fascism in Europe, the mass society and manipulated opinion phenomena, and the new international order which took place between the First and the Second World War. That is why we will use one of his most original and profound followers in the twentieth Century, the French philosopher Louis Althusser (1918-

1990).

xxiii Louis Althusser paid special attention to the Marxist idea of State Apparatuses, but situated that classical concept in relation to mass society and governmental propaganda. In this context, we can say that Althusser revised the classical Marxist approach in terms of new historical facts.

In the following pages, we will develop the main notions of State Apparatuses, because it clearly explains how the brainwashing mechanism in the educational apparatus functioned during Franco’s dictatorship in Spain. We should also point out that in any political and governmental structure; the ideological beliefs are always filtered especially in the sector of education. As a criticism of the East bloc, the educational systems of the communist bloc also were filtered through a communist ideology. As a result, Althusser’s theoretical concepts can be applied in any political system. As we have mentioned before,

Franco deeply criticized the capitalist system but he understood the educational system in terms with which any Marxist would have agreed: education is crucial when we want to maintain and reproduce the social relations of production. All of this can be done in the educational sector because Franco was teaching the youth in such a way that they were going to comply with his ideological creation. Fernando Valls in La enseñanza de la literatura en el

Franquismo explains that education , after the Spanish Civil War, had to be reproduced and strengthened so the relations of production can survive and achieve their ideology (2). If we want to maintain the class differences, if we want to manipulate the masses, inculcating their notions which support conservatism, and ultra-Catholicism, we can employ the educational system, and this is exactly what Franco did. Such an opinion is supported by Valls by stating,

“Como señala L. Althusser, las leyes no son más que relaciones de fuerza que se ejercen bajo la forma de derecho… La educación en general fue un fuerte bastión que el nuevo régimen

xxiv utilizó para consolidarse (2-7). As McNair explains, everything was in Franco’s own hands, as a Head of State and also Head of Government, with the help of various groups on which he depended (Falange, Church, Army, Monarchists) in order to maintain his power (9-10). In this case, following Gramsci, Franco created a dominant power because the privileged groups were on his side. Through education, religion, and other means, these groups worked to gain the people’s consent in Spain.

Althusser, in order to establish the revolutionary character from the Marxist concept of

“social totality,” constitutes levels and instances articulated by a specific determination: the infrastructure or the economical base articulated by the productive forces and the relations of production, and the superstructure, articulated by the productive relations which contains two levels or instances: the juridical-political (the Law and the State) and the ideological (the different ideologies, religious, moral, juridical, political, etc.) (134). It is valuable to note that social totality moves from the infrastructure to the superstructure.

These relations determine the character of the work process in a historically determined society. Marx calls these relations “relations of production.” In the concrete conditions of a society, it is possible to verify the existence of individuals who own the relations of production (the bourgeois) and individuals who must work for them: the workers or “proletarians.” As Althusser explains, the most important characteristic of the capitalist production is the “reproduction of the relations of production” (128). The social capitalist system produces its goods, but in order to continue with this production, it is necessary to maintain the social relations of production. In the conditions of the capitalist system, these relations are relations of exploitation. The owner of the relations of production exploits the proletarian, and he needs to maintain this situation of inequality, to maintain his privileges. It

xxv is essential for our thesis to keep these notions in mind, because the reproduction of the conditions of production is made possible, among many other things, through the educational system: the poor are educated to remain poor; the bourgeois are educated in order to remain bourgeois. We will return to this point later, in a more concrete way.

As we have considered before, education is one of the apparatuses that the social system uses in order to reproduce the relations of production. At this level, we have to distinguish who is the owner of the relations of production, and who is the one who sells his productive forces in order to reproduce the dejected conditions in which he lives. Marx without any reservation would have answered: the bourgeois for the first question and the proletarian for the second question. Through education, we learn that we have to work for the system. We also learn different abilities according to our position in our society. Those who belong to the bourgeois will learn professional-based roles such as administration, law and engineering. Those who belong to the proletarian class will learn manual labor, what is referred to as blue collar work today. Through education, we learn to respect those institutions that were created in order to legitimate the injustice of the property of the relations of production which in Marxist-Althusserin terms is translated into an unfair social system. This is exactly the situation in the educational apparatus because through textbooks, national journal articles, illustrations and speeches, the Spanish youth was taught to produce for the country in accordance with the ideological dogma. At this point, we can say that education prepares us to respect a set of laws that otherwise we would not respect. As we will see in the following chapter, the teachers during the Franco era were required to teach and closely follow the establishment of the new program and the students had to obey such laws.

xxvi Althusser analyzes the role of education in the reproduction of the relations of production. Through education, the capitalist system ensures that it will be able to continuously replace the workers it needs in the different occupations. In this case, the Civil

War led to a lowering of standards. Many teachers were in exile, or dismissed on political grounds, and to find enough teachers with the right political sympathies, entry qualifications were reduced (McNair 121). As we have seen before, the system of production is constantly getting more and more complex. Let us remember that Marx wrote The Capital, taking as model the economic system of England in the mid XIX century. Some of the characteristics analyzed by the German philosopher are still current, while others are not. Thus, we must be careful when we apply some Marxist notions to Spain during Franco´s regime, and we have to keep in mind that there is, at least, one hundred years between the capitalist system that Marx studied and the economical system that existed in the Spain of the Generalísimo. The importance that Marx places on education in the process of reproduction of the relations of production is crucial. Probably in the origins of capitalism, the reproduction of the productive force took place in the same place of production: the workers learned to work in the factories

(Althusser 132). But, little by little, and in parallel with the complexization of the system of production, capitalism needed the hand of the education system to prepare the future workers.

In the words of Althusser:

How is this reproduction of the (diversified) skills of labor power provided for in a capitalist regime? Here, unlike social formations characterized by slavery or serfdom, this reproduction of the skills of labor power tends decreasingly to be provided for ‘on the spot’ (apprenticeship within production itself), but is achieved more and more outside production: by the capitalist education system, and by other instances and institutions. (132)

The education system has the role of differentiating the classes in society. Or, better: of maintaining the existing class differences. The primary school teaches basic abilities:

xxvii reading, writing, and basic arithmetic, besides some techniques, some elements of scientific culture, and even literary culture. In this manner, the school is the place in which society is differentiated into its many economical strata. There is an education for the future proletarians; there is an education for the future professionals, for the bureaucrats, etc. The most important element to take into account here is that besides the different techniques and abilities, the school teaches rules of good manners. It teaches the behavior that every social actor must observe, consequently to the place he or she occupies in the social division of labor. There are moral rules, rules of civic conscious, rules of respect for the division of labor, etc.

A social system must reproduce itself by reproducing the productive forces which also requires the reproduction of the qualification of labor. But now, we must emphasize that all these reproductive mechanisms require, as well, submission to the status quo (Althusser 132).

Reproducing itself, the social system reproduces submission to the dominant ideology. We learn that the bourgeois gets rich by keeping all the surplus value of other people’s work, and we accept it as something “good”. We do not question the basic fact of the stealing of surplus value (Althusser 132). This is because the school is a superstructure, a consequence of the economical system. Thus, we can conclude that the system reproduces itself through education as well. The educational system prepares future workers, but it also teaches them to respect and maintain the fundamental injustices of the system (Althusser 132-34). As we can see, this notion can be easily applied during Franco’s regime.

One important idea here, in relation with our thesis, is the following: the state is conceived, from the Marxist perspective, as an explicitly repressive apparatus. The state is always a machine developed to assure class domination, to maintain the processes of

xxviii exploitation and extract of surplus values. It is composed by the police, the court (including all the juridical practices) and the system of prisons. Furthermore, it includes the army as well, because the army intervenes as a repressive force of support when the police and its auxiliary forces are overwhelmed. Finally, the state includes, of course, all the instances of the executive government and the administration. This is the essential idea of the state, as

Althusser writes:

Presented in this form, the Marxist-Leninist ‘theory’ of the State has its finger on the essential point, and not for one moment can there be any question of rejecting the fact that this really is the essential point. The State apparatus, which defines the State as a force of repressive execution and intervention ‘in the interest of the ruling class’ in the class struggle conducted by the bourgeoisie and its allies against the proletariats, is quite certainly the State, and quite certainly defines its basic ‘function.’ (137)

Probably, the most important idea that Althusser adds to the classic Marxist notion of state is the explicit difference between repressive state apparatuses and ideological state apparatuses.

By repressive state apparatuses, Althusser means government, administration, army, police, courts, prisons, etc. They are understood as repressive because they function by means of violence (and the administration can function through “administrative violence”, or “not physical violence”, (but it is always violence at the end.) (Althusser 143).

By ideological state apparatuses, Althusser designates a certain number of specialized institutions. He proposes an “empirical” list:

x Educational Ideological State Apparatuses x Religious Ideological State Apparatuses

xxix x Family ISA x The legal ISA x The political ISA (distribution among different parties, etc.) x Union ISA x Press ISA (radio, T.V. news, etc.) x Culture ISA (literature, arts, sports, etc.) (143)

The first characteristic of these Ideological State apparatuses is that they are not constituted in a visible ontological unity. They show themselves as differentiated elements, while the repressive state apparatuses present themselves in a strong and coherent unity.

Another difference is that the repressive state apparatuses belong to the public sector of the society, while the ideological state apparatuses belong to the private sector.

We have to go back now to the essential difference between repressive state apparatuses and ideological state apparatuses. As Althusser says, the former function through violence, while the later function through ideology (145). According to the French philosopher, it is vital to explain that there is no such thing as purely repressive or ideological, because both of these elements are required in order to make the apparatus function. As we have mentioned, repressive state apparatus functions massively and predominately by verbal or physical repression, while functioning secondarily by ideology. For instance, the Army and the Police also function by ideology both to ensure their own unity and reproduction, promulgating its values externally. On the other hand, ideological state apparatuses, besides its ideological function, also functions secondarily by repression. Thus, Schools and Churches use fitting methods of punishment, expulsion, selection, etc., “to discipline not only their shepherds, but also their flocks” (Althusser 145). The same thinking is true for the Family and other ideological state apparatuses.

It is of a central importance for our work to depict Althusser’s thinking on the

xxx ideological state apparatuses:

Hence I believe I have good reasons for thinking that behind the scenes of its political Ideological State Apparatus, which occupies the front of the stage, what the bourgeoisie has installed as its number-one, i.e. as it’s dominant ideological State apparatus, is the educational apparatus, which has in fact replaced in its functions the previously dominant ideological State apparatus, the Church. (154)

The educational ideological apparatus, whether it uses new or old methods, provides students a certain amount of ‘know-how’ to contribute to the reproduction of the relations of production. These abilities are warped by the ruling ideology through history, literature, philosophy, arithmetic, etc. By the age of sixteen, most children form part of production, workers or small peasants. Another portion will become small- to middle- class technicians, white-collar workers, or in the words of Althusser, “petty-bourgeois.” The last portion reaches the top, such as intellectuals of semi-employment, intellectuals of the collective laborer, the agents of exploitation ( managers), the agents of repression (soldiers, policemen, politicians, administrators) and the professional ideologists (priests of all sorts) (155).

Once they form part of the production, they are provided with the ideology which suits their role in order to fulfill it in class society. For instance, an agent of repression will gain the ability to give orders and enforce obedience, and teachers to teach the students. According to

Althusser, in a capitalist regime the mechanisms of production are concealed by the universally reigning ideology: bourgeois ideology. Ideally, the teaching is one in which teachers respect the children who are entrusted to them by their parents, opening up for them the path to freedom, morality and responsibility by their own example, by knowledge, literature and their “liberating virtues” (157).

xxxi The teacher’s devotion should be truthful, but instead according to the French philosopher “their (teachers’) own devotion contributes to the maintenance and nourishment of the ideological representation of the State,” and does not contribute to installing liberating virtues (157). He supports this point as follows:

I ask the pardon of those teachers who, in dreadful conditions, attempt to turn the few weapons they can find in the history and learning they ‘teach’ against the ideology, the system and the practices in which they are trapped. They are a kind of hero. But they are rare and how many (the majority) do not even begin to suspect the ‘work’ the system (which is bigger than they are and crushes them) forces them to do, or worse, put all their heart and ingenuity into performing it with the most advanced awareness (the famous new method!) (157-8)

All of this is crucial for our work because we can state that the majority of the teachers in Spain who had held to Republican ideology had to adjust to the New State’s Ideological methodology for the implementation of fascist beliefs after Franco came to power. As the

Republican educational system made all the state’s structure work in its favor, once Franco gained power after the Civil War, he gained the same institutions and the productive forces, and changed the political direction to fascism. In order for this to happen, a transitional period between these opposite educational systems took place—it was a long, difficult process. In the next chapter, we will study the transitions of these two educational ideological apparatus and the evolution of the educational ideological apparatus in the New State after the Civil War.

xxxii Chapter 2

Transition and Evolution of Franco’s National Educational System (1936-1951): Eco and Althusser

2.1. Educational Transition Period: Second Republic, Spanish Civil War and National

Government (1936-1951)

During the Civil War, there were two separate political conceptions in the educational apparatus: Republican and National. The National school’s rhetoric naturally attacked the educational political apparatus of the Republic. The Phalangist, even before the war ended, started to portray the other side negatively. During the Second Republic, the educational apparatus was dedicated to promulgate literacy. Navarro Sandalinas describes the Republican educational system during the war as follows:

El gobierno de la República, simbiosis curiosa de burgueses progresistas y fuerzas proletarias, estableció en 1937 un plan de estudios para escuelas primarias que comprendía de los 6 a los 14 años; se implantaba la coeducación. Se creó un bachillerato abreviado para obreros, con varios institutos obreros creados. (64)

Fernández Soria supports the above statement indicating that during the war the

Republicans created secondary schools for the working class and also created 5,413 primary schools. On the contrary, the Nationals did not promote education for public education during the war (29). Pérez Galán in La enseñanza en la segunda república española, affirms that by

1936 the Second Republic had created 16,500 schools and had worked on the Plan de

Construcciones Escolares since the beginning of their power (1931) with a hope to provide schooling for every Spanish child by May 1, 1938 (60). The total number of schools they envisioned opening from the beginning was 27,151. But such an ambitious project was halted by the outbreak of the Civil War on July 17, 1936. On the contrary, we do not see the same

xxxiii state of affairs during the New State period after the Nationalist victory. Navarro Sandalinas points out that the New State built the first school in 1945 (116). Almost all of the territory and buildings that Franco’s regime gained were transformed into governmental and military institutions.

As Ramón Safón explains, in La educación en la España revolucionaria (1936-1939) the labor of the central government of the Republic in the field of education was impressive.

The Ministerio de Instrucción Pública (MIP), the Republican name for the Ministerio de

Educación Nacional (MEN), created during the war some groups named Milicias de cultura, in which a number of syndical and proletarian organizations were involved including volunteer teachers. The Militias of Culture were active during the war even in combat, military trenches, etc. The whole Republican apparatus of education was present, during the fighting, where licensed workers, commercial experts and every literate person over 16, teacher squads and others, were fighting illiteracy. In just one year period (May 1937-

February 1938), we register the following numbers:

365, 381 clases individuales 521,385 clases colectivas 20,077 charlas y conferencias 2,047 escuelas creadas 182 cursillos de capacitación 508 sesiones cinematográficas 68 representaciones guiñol (puppet theater) 4,223 periódicos y murales 20 academias e internados. (Safón 60)

While in combat, Navarro Sandalinas comments that the outside world saw the improvement of the Republican apparatus of education:

Un intelectual noruego dijo: ‘Frente a Madrid, en las trincheras de las primeras líneas de la Republica, hemos visto escuelas y bibliotecas a 100 metros del frente fascista. Las ametralladoras de los moros tiran por encima de las trincheras, mientras que los jóvenes soldados van a la escuela.’ (64-5)

xxxiv The Republicans did not stop here. In October 1936, they created the Cartilla

Aritmética Antifascista which provided maps, notebooks, 4,000 meters of paper, pencils, etc.

The event was announced on 200 radio stations of cultural character. Furthermore, the MIP created adult classes so the entire country had access to a teacher or at least a person who knew how to read and write. More than one thousand libraries, with more than 150,000 books, were created for hospitals, cultural centers, children’s’ sanatoriums and the war front, etc.

While in combat, 2,200 newspapers were handed out daily. (Navarro Sandalinas 65).

On the contrary, the fight for literacy on the Franquist side was not so dedicated to the development of education. We are not stating here that the Republicans were better than the

Nationals in the aspect of education, but we want to clarify that Franco spoke rhetorically in terms of education. The Nationalists did not have any literacy program or a plan for the construction of schools, or the building of libraries.10 During the years 1939-1951, the construction of new schools decreased substantially. During this period, only 141 schools were built. According to Navarro Sandalinas, the interest of the Franquist regime in education was nothing more than rhetoric. For example, they quickly purged primary schools of teachers

(65). The explanation of the lack of attention was justified by the Franquists who stated that they lacked a previous educational system. Another excuse was that they did not have money

10 The Ministerio de Educacción Nacional (MEN) issued the following statistics between 1930-1955: Año Escuelas Diferencias

1930 35.989 ------

1935 52.938 16.409 (Rep. hasta 1936)

1939 58.351 5.413 (Rep.1936-1939)

1951 58.210 141 (1939-1951)

1955 63.783 5.573

xxxv from the Banco de España to utilize for the advancement of education, and the most used excuse was that it was a difficult time of war. Navarro Sandalinas argues with Franquist thinking:

Decimos que el argumento es fácil, demasiado fácil, por una serie de razones. La primera es que el aparato educativo administrativo no es necesario para demostrar que se tienen preocupaciones en el campo de la educación; bien que crearon las comisiones de depuración en plena guerra, un buen aparato administrativo que llegó a todos y cada uno de los 50,000 maestros en España. (66)

According to Alba, the Republicans had sold the gold of the Banco de España in order to buy weapons during the war and had no money at the end of war to invest in education

(33). Furthermore, Navarro Sandalinas adds:

El gobierno de la Generalitat, que tan brillantísimos éxitos tuvo en política educativa en los años de guerra, se encontró en el segundo semestre de 1936 con que el pago de créditos a la industria, jornales de industrias de guerra y los gastos de la guerra misma se llevaban, en conjunto, el 90% de su presupuesto; todo lo demás tuvo que hacerlo con el 10% restante, y supo hacerlo. (66)

During the war, Republicans converted buildings that were confiscated from the

Franquist´s party into schools. As we have indicated before, the numerous confiscated buildings from the Republicans were used by the Nationalists for the Falange, for the new syndicates, including the confiscated schools of the Ayuntamiento de Barcelona which were converted into offices for the police squads of the civil guard. The Franquist regime did not create literacy brigades because the bourgeois class did not have much interest in this topic:

La nueva clase política no tenía excesivas preocupaciones por el tema. Porque ésta fue, y no hay que darle vueltas, la causa de que el franquismo pierda la batalla ante el juicio de la Historia en el campo de la educación en esos años que estamos viendo; la nueva clase política no participaba de la honda preocupación por las cuestiones educativas de que hizo gala la clase dirigente republicana, y máxime en los tiempos de guerra, en los que las fuerzas proletarias contribuyeron con un esfuerzo enorme en ese campo, hasta el punto que se superó amplísimamente, en aspectos importantes, la obra de la república

xxxvi burguesa. (Navarro Sandalinas 66)

The Republican progressive objectives, in the sector of education, secular, bilingualism, tolerance of coeducation, were substituted by the quite different ones, such as obligatory Catholic education for all, elimination of all languages that were not Castilian, the separation of the sexes, obedience to authority, patriotism, and respect for family (Sánchez-

Redondo Morcillo 44). Regionalism was anathema, and the Catalan and Basque languages were outlawed as far as possible. These changes in the school sector were a reflection of the traditional medieval model that Franco was following in order to form a centralized country under this power. The pursuit of those who had supported the “wrong” side in the war was relentless (McNair 10). In the apparatus of education, the teachers and administration were example of such relentless pursuit.

The Ley de la Enseñanza Primaria,11 promulgated in 1945 established obligatory primary school teaching until 12 years, which meant that the Spanish citizens of the New

State were not obligated to study after this specific age. In 1920, an order was established for the Spanish citizens to be educated until 14 years old. During the war, the Republic made primary school obligatory until 14 years old. In 1945, the Franquist regime lowered this criterion to 12 years old, breaking with a tradition that was in effect for 25 years:

El régimen franquista se quita una preocupación de encima; se fabrica una ley que le permite no preocuparse en absoluto de los niños de 12 a 14 años; teniendo en cuenta que, como veremos, tampoco se va a preocupar mucho de los 6 a 12. (Navarro Sandalinas 117)

Sánchez-Redondo Morcillo points out that there was an urgent reform for the educational system at the beginning of the Republic. There was an illiteracy rate of 65%, and the need for at least 50,000 new schools, a social and cultural lack of prestige for teachers,

11 See Leer en la escuela durante el franquismo by Carlos Sánchez-Redondo Morcillo.

xxxvii and backwardness and bureaucratization of the secondary and higher educational systems

(101). The Republican minister of public institutions, Marcelino Domingo, established a five- year plan for the construction of numerous schools. Simultaneously, hundreds of scholarships were created and the university faculty was rejuvenated (74). Studies for teaching staff were elevated by the Republic to levels that were never seen again after the Civil War. On the contrary, the Franquist regime set the educational system back by some thirty or forty years.12

There was a substantial percentage drop in education in the New State. Even though the

Nationalist system always criticized the Republican system, when we observe the years of the

Second Republic we can clearly conclude that under their power the percentage of the education in the state maintained steady with a substantial increase during the Civil War. In the following sub-chapters, we will observe how the New State implemented their ideology in the schools, students, teachers, etc.

12 According to the Ministerio de Educación Nacional y Ciencias (MEC) the outcome on the school budget was as follows: Año % Educación del Año % Educación del total total del estado del estado 1924 5,49 1937(Republica) 9,4

1925 6,04 1938 9,6

127 5,11 1940 5,51

1930 5,36 1941 5,62

1931 5,69 1942 6,16

1932 5,92 1943 5,28

1933 6,57 1944 4,37

1934 7,08 1945 4,79

1935 6,60

1936 6,54

xxxviii 2.2. Economic Conditions of the Franquist Regime: A Historical Perspective

In this sub-section, it is very important to see the points of contact between the different economical systems, and the educational system during the XIX century. From the

Marxist-Althusserian perspective that we are using in our investigation, the educational system is always understood as a super-structural element, constructed in coherent reference to the economical system, or structure (135). The structure, as we have already seen in our first chapter, uses the educational apparatus as a tool to maintain itself, as a means to maintain the relations of production. The economical differences between the owners of the means of production and the workers who sell their productive force are clear in any society. If Franco criticized the capitalist system, because all the traditions were endangered by the social progress that that system triggered, we must also point out that his critiques were, up to a certain point, just rhetoric. The Fascist dictatorship had a very clear political interest which guided each of its decisions: the priority of the interests of the capitalist class, as Navarro

Sandalinas explains in the text already cited in our first chapter. 13

The politics of the Spanish Restoration was largely based on an oligarchic system of absentee landlords who controlled the local population through a rigid system of boss rule, or caciquismo. Joaquín Romero Maura, in his article “El caciquismo: tentativa de conceptualización,” explains the functioning of this system, its bulling tactics, and the fraudulent practices during the elections, which included glass ballot boxes and the voting of dead persons (23-27). The loss of Cuba in 1898 triggered a mounting opposition to the government in particular, and to all the policies of the Restoration in general. Among the

13 See Navarro Sandalinas, p.31.

xxxix protesters it is important to mention the role of Joaquín Costa, who denounced the corruption and the sterility of the Restoration and its politicians. Costa is also one of the most important sources of documentation about the problem of caciquismo. He organized the “Ateneo de

Madrid” in 1901, and its conferences were published and later reissued, after Franco’s death, in 1976.

Before the industrial development that took place during the years which followed the

First World War, there were practically no industrialized cities south of the Pyrenees, with the exception of Catalonia and Euskadi. Catalan industry, at the beginning of the 20th Century, was mainly based on cotton and textiles. But this industry heavily depended on the remaining colonial markets in Cuba and Puerto Rico, as Jordi Maluquer de Motes explains in his article

“El Mercado colonial antillano en el siglo XIX” (325). Once Spain definitively lost its influence over the Antilles´ market, Catalan industrialists led the opposition to the

Restoration, flagging regionalist claims. During these years, the Lliga Regionalista was founded, a party that represented the interests of the Catalan industrialists. 14

At the same time, the Basque Region was also growing in economical terms, especially in Vizcaya and Bilbao, which were centers for the mining industry. Bilbao quadrupled in size during the last 25 years of the 19th century. Thousands of migrant workers sought jobs in metallurgical, shipbuilding and mining industries in the region. This massive industrialization in the Basque cities, in fact, threatened traditional values in the Basque region. José Solozábal, in his book El primer nacionalismo vasco: industrialismo y conciencia nacional, sees in this fact as the origin of the foundation of the Basque Nationalist party. This party represented the maintenance of traditional values, and supported the

14 For more information see Riquer, Borja de. Lliga Regionalista: la burguesía catalana y el nacionalismo, 1898-1904. Barcelona: Edicions, 1977.

xl conservative inclinations of the artisans and peasants of the Basque region. In general terms, the Basque nationalists were trying to restore the Carlist movement. 15

In contrast, the region of Valencia failed to develop during those years. Many economists have tried to understand why, when all the necessary preconditions for an important economical development seemed to have been present in the region. Valencia had a very wealthy countryside, with high rates of rural population, and a qualified labor force. We also should note the existence of a railway network, centered in Valencia, and connecting it with France, by the year of 1867. As Emili Giralt points out, an important retarding factor in the economy of the Valencian region was the massive amount of capital tied up in the land, and in the large expenditures in fertilizers. Other authors tend to see the root of the problem in the weakness of the bourgeois class, which was tied to the values of the Old Regime. 16

The investigations of Pedro Tedde de Lorca have shown the importance of the regional variations in banking practice in Spain. In his article, co-written with Anes Álvarez,

“La caída de la casa Baring y la economía española del siglo XIX,” he points out growing hegemony of financial institutions based in the cities of Madrid and Bilbao.

But an economical crisis, previous to the crash of Wall Street in 1929, affected Madrid and Barcelona. In the Catalan region, employers were involved in cruel confrontations with their workers. In addition, Basque employers´ associations, feeling disappointed with the weak Restoration’s policies, unable to restrain the persistent militancy of the working class, supported the coup d’état led by General Miguel Primo de Rivera. He tried to modernize the

15 The Carlismo was a Spanish political movement, traditionally oriented, originated during the 1820’s. The party had connections with the most extreme-rightist tendencies of the Catholic Church of the time.

16 For further information about this discussion, see the book edited by Ernest Lluch, L´estructua econòmica del País Valencià . Valencia: L´Estel, 1970. Also, the article by Marius García Bonafé, “El marco histórico de la industrialización valenciana.” Información Comercial Española 485 (1974), 135-46.

xli country through the implementation of a series of infrastructural reforms, without offending the landholders’ interests. In very general terms, Primo de Rivera’s regime tried to develop an autocratic industry-based State, centered on public works such as dams, irrigation, construction of roads and railways, port-works, and electrification. Despite all of this, a series of bad administrative decisions, concurring with the world depression of 1929, led to an inflationary pressure on the peseta, a fact which undermined the political credibility of

Rivera’s regime.

The sequence of political crises that took place in Spain during the 1930s (the October revolution of 1934, the Military rebellion of July 1936, the civil war, etc.) have been variously interpreted. But the general tendency is to see the crises in Spain mainly as the result of a frustrated attempt to replace the repressive and old-fashioned social structure installed in

Spain by the Restoration. From this perspective, external factors, such as the world depression of 1929, are relegated to a secondary role.

During the spring of 1931, the Provisional government, led by Niceto Alcalá Zamora, decided to engage in the agrarian problem by decree. At the same time, Alcalá Zamora implemented a technical commission to outline a bill for enactment after the June elections.

The commission, formed by non-political figures, recommended the resettlement of 60,000 to

75,000 peasants every year on land temporarily occupied on parts of large properties in the south that exceeded certain size limits. The commission required that the measure should take place immediately, by decree, surpassing any debate in the Cortes. But, the changes were not implemented, and all the recommendations of the commission were ignored by the politicians.

The Franco regime does not present a monolithic structure in economical terms. We have to

xlii consider that Franco ruled the country for 35 years—years of substantial historical changes in the world.

Considering policy-making, objectives changed from a fascist-modeled quest of autocracy during the 40s to a more neo-liberal perspective during the 60s. Joan Clavera, and his team, studied the period of 1939 to 1959. In the book Capitalismo español: de la autarquía a la estabilización, 1939-1959, the authors distinguish four sub-periods. 1939-1945 is the sub-period of reorganization and reconstruction, once the Civil War ended; 1946-1950 is the sub-period marked by economic stagnation and price increases. Unemployment and stagnation together brought low consumption and low productivity in both agriculture and industry. During the following sub-period (1951-1956), the United States helped Spain import raw materials. The government implemented certain policies of import substitution that generated expansion in industrial production. The sub-period of pre-stabilization takes place between 1957 and 1959. Here, the previous policies collapse. Jesús González, in his article

“La historia económica de España en el período 1939-59: una interpretación,” studies the factors that are, from his perspective, the most important in the Economic Plan of 1959: prices, production, inflation, foreign trade and reserves. In his opinion, the economy of Spain, which was predominantly agricultural, gave way to a semi-industrialized society during the decade of the 1950s. The following decade, the 1960s, was the decade of the so-called

“Spanish miracle”. At this point, a series of even more dramatic changes took place. Massive development, promoted by the Stabilization Program, caused the desertion of countryside lands. Every year, hundreds of thousands of agricultural workers abandoned their villages in search of jobs in the industrial towns. This phenomenon was studied by Alfonso García

Barbancho, with the denomination of “Internal migrations”.

xliii The 1960s was the decade of the Opus Dei. Daniel Artigues in El Opus Dei en

España: su evolución ideológica y política, at the end of the fifties, Franco brought a group of economists oriented to the most rightist notions of the Catholic Church. They proposed a policy of sanctification of professional work. In very basic terms, they tried to distance themselves from the traditional tendency of the Catholic Church toward asceticism and anti- materialism. They wanted to connect Catholicism to the pursuit of material goods, something that had been done before by Calvin and his mystification of labor (10). The Fifties are the years of expansion of the Opus Dei. Founded in 1928, the Order gained political power during the Franquist period, until reaching the point at which they had decisional power in the highest spheres of the government. Even though the Order only reached influential power by the Fifties, they were already previously working at the basic levels of the political map

(Artigues 14). The ultra - conservative orientation of the organization forced its founder, José

María Escrivá de Balaguer, to go into hiding in 1936, while Republicans were ruling the country. Escrivá was able to come back to Spain once Franco took power. The Order was the articulation between the practical governmental decisions and the right-oriented Catholicism.

This notion is of a great relevance to our study because the Order had a great influence on the educational system. Their religious viewpoints were imposed in this academic system from the very beginning of the student’s education. The religious notion is present in all of the textbooks, especially in the Enciclopedia intuitive, sintetica y práctica: primer grado by

Antonio Álvarez. This is a first-grade textbook, but all of the subjects, such as math, science, language and geography, are introduced through religion. The specific subject always has a religious connotation. It appears as if the students were learning religion, not math or grammar. As McNair explains, the State was the main provider of education in Spain, but it

xliv was not the only one. The Church had a large stake in education because from the very beginning Spain has been one of the most powerful institutions in the country (136).

Furthermore, in the Reconquest of Spain from the Moors the religious motivation was apparent: Spanish leadership of the Counter Reformation in Europe later confirmed the strong links between the church and the nation. This takes us back to the idea behind Franco’s agenda: the re-establishment of a new and strong nation using a model that once before functioned and helped maintain early modern Spain as a powerful and centralized empire using the notion of Catholic religion.

2.3. The Totalitarian Construction of the Educational State Apparatus: 1939-1951

From the beginning of the Nationalist State, there was a clear and fundamental orientation to break with all past elements of the Republican system. On April 14, 1931, the

Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed. On April 1, 1939, it came to an end and all of the newspapers and radio stations repeated the same slogan: “Today, with the disarmament and imprisonment of the Red army, the national troops have reached their final objectives. The war has ended after 986 days. Burgos, April 1, 1939. Year of Victory, Francisco Franco!”

(Alba 171). As Antonio Álvarez points out in his book, Enciclopedia Álvarez, slogans such as !Arriba España!17 !Presente!18 !Viva Franco! !Viva el Caudillo! were heard in every part of

17 “Con el grito de ¡Arriba España! Expresamos la decisión de elevar a la Patria hasta la cumbre de su grandeza. No nos conformamos con decir “!Viva!”, porque vivir se puede vivir bien o mal !Arriba! expresa mejor nuestro deseo de querer una España cada día mejor, más perfecta y más gloriosa. Con este grito en los labios han muerto miles de patriotas. Cumplamos su último deseo trabajando sin descanso por la grandeza de España.” (Álvarez 260).

18 “ El grito de ¡Presente! a los caídos expresa la decisión falangista de no olvidarse de los que dieron su vida por la Patria y obrar siempre como si ellos estuvieran presentes en nuestros actos. Para hacer patente su presencia y perpetuar su recuerdo se ha levantado en muchos pueblos la llamada Cruz de los Caídos. Ante ella, en las fechas conmemorativas, se hace oración y se pronuncia el nombre de los caídos, que es contestado con el grito de ¡Presente!” (Álvarez 260).

xlv their new nation (260). The students were taught that their country was in a verge of falling under the hands of the communism but Franco did not let such dominance occur, “esta guerra terminó victoriosamente el día 1.° de abril de 1939. Hoy España vive en paz y es gobernada sabiamente por nuestro invicto Caudillo” (218). The Republican weakness (which had brought about the war), SIM’s (Servicio de Inteligencia Militar) excesses under Communist

Control, the abandonment by Western Democracies, the USSR’s obvious betrayal, the daily nerve-racking discomforts of the recent months, all contributed to creating an atmosphere in the country which can be described by the following sentence heard in many streets and houses: “It matters not who comes along, as long as the war is ended” (Alba 173). Spanish citizens were tired of the war, death, hunger and suffering. After such torture, the only present desire was peace.

The war ended and Franco obtained total power. Franco won approval of the disillusioned masses, since all of the Republican leaders were now in exile. A total of 380,000 people were killed during this three year period, substantially more than the ten- year Vietnam

War where 60,000 lives were lost. The result of the war was a destroyed country, corpses in ditches, women whose heads were shaved, prisoners’ children handed over to religious schools, etc. Obviously, this was a time for Franco to shine because he was providing shelter for families, who in return demonstrated an appreciation and support for the new Caudillo,

“!Long live Spain, Long live Franco!” (Alba 172 ). As Alba explains, on every street of every small town one could find a man, woman, or child who denounced, accused, and cudgeled his fellow man, referring to the old power. All of this was politically wise, since it made people feel as if they were accomplices of the new regime. After all, they needed protection once they realized that by their accusations, they had created enemies. Franco was getting all of the

xlvi credit in Spain by the “converted Spanish citizens,” but obviously the Nationalists had great help from Germany and Italy during the war. Since they were provided with volunteers for the

Civil War, on March 15, they were sent home and happy to demonstrate to Hitler and

Mussolini the extension of Fascism.19

Now that the turmoil had been terminated, everything was in the hands of only one man. Arango in The Spanish Political System: Franco’s Legacy, explains that now Spain was not a collegial body, nor was the prime minister first among equals. In order to underscore this fact and to demonstrate that in his capacity as head of state, the Caudillo was responsible to no one. Franco was given the authority to make law: the supreme power to dictate juridical norms of a general character (122). This political situation in the eyes of McNair is seen as a

“police state” (10).

Thus, as of January 30, 1938, Franco was not only the head of state and head of government (power he had acquired on April 19, 1937), but also chief and sole legislator. In

Althusserian terms, the legal system, as a super-structure of the productive forces, was in his hands. Despite the fact that the creation of the F.E.T (Falange Española Tradicionalista) and the J.O.N.S. (Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-sindicalista) consolidated his absolute executive authority, in order to reach harmony with the masses after reviewing the economical situation of the country he addressed Spaniards, “and if fish imports decrease, we have corbine in the

Gulf of Guinea, which although not very palatable, will satisfy our humble classes’ needs”

(Alba 175). This kind of message was easy to spread because the press was completely in the

19 We should also point out that the Republicans had military volunteers from Eastern Europe such as the Ex- Yugoslavians which were sent by Marshall Joseph Bros Tito. At the end of the Spanish Civil War, Spain owed Germany 300 million gold marks, in spite of their shipments of minerals and cereals it had developed during the hostilities. Spain owed Italy 5 million gold lire, which in May 1949 it promised to pay by means of 5,000 treasury bonds of 1 million each. Its debt with England totaled 5.5 million pounds. (Alba 174)

xlvii hands of the Falange, which controlled and named all editors and managers. The workers’ cultural clubs became quarters for the Falange, sports clubs had supervisors from the

Falange, and public libraries were expurgated by censors. A double censorship, political and religious, was established to authorize the publication of books. New publication of books was especially important at the primary level given the fact that the majority of the population studied at this level (Sánchez-Redondo 51). It was very important for these books to contain the appropriate material because it was going to be read by children. On the other hand, the textbook is the essential material in the school, especially in those years when audiovisual means were not available. As a result, the notion of censorship was strictly outlined in the primary school laws. It was mandatory for the school authority to make sure that the textbooks did not pertain anything against their Christian morality and their patriotism.

Furthermore, all the works that had socialist or communist nuances were destroyed from the libraries and schools. Afterwards, inspectors had to authorize the text books used in the schools. The new textbooks had to reflect the Christian moral and to arouse patriotism among the children (Sánchez-Redondo 52). From this, it can be concluded that all of the power rested in Franco’s hands. In fact, he manipulated it in every aspect: through media, through religion and through education, in order to terminate everything that smelled like liberalism; 18th century, the Free Institution of Teaching, secularism, heterodoxy, intellectuals, political parties, and free thinking. According to Navarro Sandalinas, the New State’s apparatus of education in practice was not comparable with the Republican apparatus of education before and during the Civil War. In 1936, the national new educational laws froze all levels of the

Spanish schools and its elements such as its pedagogical principals and didactic techniques, etc. He interprets it metaphorically as “una especie de noche polar, algo así como una era

xlviii glacial en la que permanecerán hasta los años 60 como mínimo” (141). Education lacked creativity and initiative. The educational system glorified and spread archaic pedagogy because it was a school of anthem, prayers, crusifixes, images of Franco and José Antonio,

“es la escuela de las copias y de las cuentas, de memorismo y miedo a la palmeta del maestro, de rutina y tiempo perdido” (Navarro Sandalinas 141).

The dominant class wanted to build a new educational system, primarily to produce a better trained workforce. Valeriano Bozal in Una alternativa para la ensenañza clarifies that the new school system was not formed for the creation of a scientific teaching designed to make a better work force, and even less concerned with the possibilities of opening the minds of children (16). Obliviously, scientific objectives and technical learning were significant imperatives for the New State. Bozal adds: “En primer lugar se pusieron los otros componentes del sistema-el clasismo y la reproducción ideológica, que ya habían tenido preponderancia en el periodo de Guerra” (16).

As we have observed, the Franquist regime was in no hurry to resolve the atavistic school problem. Schooling for the masses was not the first priority for the conservative bourgeois who were more concerned with the continuation of power. The development of the labor force required simultaneously the creation of an elite class of executives who were to delegate authority. According to Bozal, the elite were the members of the bourgeois whose children became the new executives.

Los que lograban atravesar el Bachillerato y, más aún, llegar a la Universidad, los que alcanzaban el titulo, se convertían automáticamente en un grupo, casi casta (recordemos el caso de los arquitectos y los ingenieros), de privilegiados que ocupaban la cumbre de la pirámide social. (30)

xlix In other words, to produce lawyers and engineers, technicians for the State and technicians for the industry, no additional schools were required for the dominating class to educate their children. Bozal also supports this idea, reaffirming that at the high school level only a select group, or privileged elite, had access to the superior school in all sectors of the country (19). For the masses, literacy was not necessary because in the new economic system—where the majority worked in agriculture and different labor industries—a certain degree of illiteracy was tolerable. During the 1940s and 50s, the schools were neither free nor obligatory and, as a result, the lower-class children were not able to further their education in high school. According to Navarro Sandalinas, they were given a minimal formation so that they could be utilized in the system production. Marxist analysis applies perfectly here: poor keep being poor, rich keep being rich, because the class differences remain untouched.

Despite this obstacle, the poor were still able to produce for the country as their ancestors did, by working in industry and agriculture, which were very valuable sectors in the economy of the dictator.

Social education tended to function as above until the 1950s, and there were no great expectations for the apparatus of education. Spanish schools, during and after the Civil War, were just as they had traditionally been—few, poor and abandoned by public power (Navarro

Sandalinas 34).

In the following section, we will study the process by which Franco imposed his totalitarian thinking and ideology on the educational system in the New State utilizing the elite. We will see how the elite society was recognized in the formation and the evolution of the educational Spanish system.

l 2.4. New Implementation of National Ministry of Education (1939-1951) and the

Laws of Primary Schools, Secondary Schools and Universities

Now that Franco had gained national power, he used the educational system to support his social agenda. Navarro Sandalinas explains the two most obvious reasons why the

Caudillo implemented such a political approach in the school system:

De un lado, la prioridad de los intereses de la clase capitalista sobre los intereses de las fuerzas del trabajo, de otro lado, el protagonismo, absoluto, de las mentes acérrimamente opuestas a planteamientos educativos innovadores y obsesivamente partidarios del anclase en el pasado. (31)

From the beginning of the Civil War, the direction of education was in the hands of

Acción Española.20 Burgos and Salamanca were considered the most important centers of

National Spain. In these areas, intellectuals took charge of the mechanism of propaganda until the Phalangist gained official control of educational activities. Ricardo Montoro Romero, in

La universidad en la España de Franco (1939-1970): Un análisis Sociológico, points out that

Acción Española in Burgos published many volumes of their magazine, including a selection of works published during the Republic. Also, education formed part of the Comisión de

Cultura y Enseñanza de la Junta Técnica del Estado, which operated from 1936 to 1938. At this time, the proclaimed minister of National Education was Pedro Sáinz Rodríguez, the president of the commission was José María Pemán and the vice-president, who later became

20 According to Navarro Sandalinas, “Constituyó a un movimiento cultural inspirado en la doctrina tradicional del Derecho público cristiano, en el que las circunstancias del momento acentuaron su proyección política. Empezó a gestarse esta empresa por un grupo de monárquicos que, reunidos en casa del ex - ministro Guadalhorce, decidieron elaborar una escuela de pensamiento contrarrevolucionario para oponerse a la recién implantada Segunda República (Maeztu, Calvo Sotelo, Eugenio Vegas Latapié, conde de Santibáñez del Río y Yanguas). La aportación de 100.000 pesetas de los marqueses de Pelayo constituyó el soporte económico inicial. La revista Acción Española hizo su aparición el 16 de diciembre de 1931, dirigida por el conde de Santibáñez del Río. El editorial en el que se hacía presentación lo redactó Ramiro de Maeztu y le valió el premio Luca de Tena de 1931.” (38)

li the minister of education for much of Franco’s regime, was José Ibáñez Martín.21 These men formed part of Franco’s closest circle because they shared the same ideological mentality. The key members that formed Franquist politics were the Military, Falangists, Catholics,

Technocrats Opus Dei, Technicians, Monarchists and Carlists. His government consisted of

Traditionalists in Justice and Catholics in Education, in other words, as we have explained in the previous chapter, the dominant elite.

With the help of Franco’s ideological followers, one of the first sanctions of education and teaching appeared during the first month of the Civil War. Afterall, the new educational system had to be implemented for the new incoming students for the fall semester.

Eventually, these sanctions would become the official laws. Even though these new Laws were approved on different dates, the ideological implementations were the same. On August

19, 1936, a new sanction—later (1945) transformed into the Ley de la Enseñanza Primaria— regulated the resumption of Primary School teaching in accordance with Catholic tradition.

Authors such as Sánchez-Redondo, Navarro Sandalinas, McNair, and Fernando Soria among others have pointed out that the first, most fundamental element in the new law for the primary school was to incorporate religion in the school system. The first phrase outlined in this law stated, “La escuela al servicio de la Religión” (Sánchez-Redondo 44). It further stated that this law was catholic simply because the regime was based on such thinking: the immortal doctrine of the Church, which is the teacher of truth and life. He further states, the

21 The historical frame of the evolution of the Ministry of Education from 1939-1978 was as follows: Pedro Sáinz Rodríguez, the first minister of education during the rise of the military, José Ibáñez Martín, minister of education from 1939 to 1951, Joaquín Ruiz Giménez Cortés, minister of education from 1951 to 1956, Jesús Rubio García Mina, minister of education from 1956 to 1962, Manuel Lora Tomayo, 1962 to 1968 and José Luis Villar Plasí, minister of education from 1968 to 1978.

lii second phrase outlined was that the school had to transmit the national spirit; an essential discipline that was going to illuminate the spirit of the youth.

The law for the secondary schools closely mimicked those found in the primary schools. As a result, a law was established in 1938 to regulate the high schools (Bachillerato) in Spain. Valeriano Bozal explanes:

El Nuevo bachillerato se apoyaba sobre la formación clásica y humanística entendida de la siguiente manera: ‘La cultura clásica y humanística se ha reconocido universalmente como la base insuperable y fecunda para el desarrollo de las jóvenes inteligencias’; ‘es el camino seguro para la vuelta a la valorización del ser auténtico de España, de la España formada en los estudios clásicos y humanísticos de nuestro siglo XVI, que produjo aquella pléyade de políticos guerreros – todos de formación religiosa clásica y humanística – de nuestra época imperial, hacia la que retorna la vocación heroica de nuestra juventud.’ (17)

Furthermore, as Ricardo Montoro Romero explains, there were sanctions promulgated in the New State in the Spanish universities even though the Law of the University (Ley de

Ordenación Universitaria) was not established until 1943 (28). The preamble of these laws was that the New University of the State was going to be Catholic, exposing Christian dogma and morals. The specific articles are outlined by Francisco Franco in the Boletín Oficial del

Estado from 1944. The emphasis of religious dogma is the first aspect that the dictator specifies:

Artículo primero. Se establece en las Universidades españolas la enseñanza religiosa en el grado superior que requieren la capacidad y necesidades de los estudiantes universitarios y conforme a la doctrina católica y las orientaciones y disciplina de la Jerarquía eclesiástica (1106).22

22 It is taken directly from (BOE) Boletín Oficial del Estado, February 8th, 1944, number 39, pages 1106-1107. “La necesidad de implantar en la Universidad española Cátedras de Religión, en las que los alumnos completen y eleven al grado superior, propio de sus estudios, los conocimientos religiosos adquiridos en los Centros de Enseñanza Media, es tan manifiesta y urgente, que varias Universidades, anticipándose al propósito reiteradamente expresado por el Gobierno de la nación, las han establecido en algunas de sus Facultades.

liii Ya es llegado el momento de erigirlas y regularlas en toda España; de dotar a todos los alumnos universitarios de la ilustración religiosa que su cultura superior exige y sin la cual ni siquiera les sería dado entender nuestra literatura clásica; de facilitarles los conocimientos de la ciencia sagrada, que han de ser sólido y perdurable cimiento de su educación moral; de formar a las futuras clases directoras de la Patria a tono con las tradiciones seculares más arraigadas, con el espíritu animador de nuestra triunfadora Cruzada y con los nobles afanes de nuestros siglos más gloriosos. El superior grado de esta enseñanza, aun sin aspirar a que constituya Facultad, requiere no sólo estudio y conocimiento más profundo y amplio que el que proporciona la Enseñanza Media, sino también la explicación de algunas cuestiones selectas, como modelo de investigación de tipo universitario, que coronen la terminación de los estudios. La naturaleza misma de la enseñanza religiosa impone la subordinación más completa y leal al Magisterio de la Iglesia Católica y a lo dispuesto en sus sagrados cánones, no sólo en lo que mira a la aprobación del personal docente y a la estimación de la competencia e idoneidad de los que hayan de recibir el nombramiento de profesores a quienes tan alta misión se confíe, sino también por lo que toca a la vigilancia sobre la pureza de la doctrina y el fruto provechoso de su enseñanza. Todo ello lo debe poner en manos de la jerarquía eclesiástica un Estado que se ufana de ser y llamarse católico. Por todo lo cual, a propuesta del Ministro de Educación Nacional y previa deliberación del Consejo de Ministros, DISPONGO: Artículo primero. Se establece en las Universidades españolas la enseñanza religiosa en el grado superior que requieren la capacidad y necesidades de los estudiantes universitarios y conforme a la doctrina católica y las orientaciones y disciplina de la Jerarquía eclesiástica. Artículo segundo. La asistencia a los cursos en que esta enseñanza se desenvuelva será obligatoria para todos los alumnos universitarios. El régimen de matrícula y pruebas finales será el establecido para las demás disciplinas universitarias. Artículo tercero. La enseñanza religiosa se desarrollará durante los cuatro primeros cursos de cada Facultad. En el primero de ellos se expondrán las materias de Criteriología religiosa, y Eclesiología; en el segundo, las del Dogma; en el tercero, las de Moral general y Derecho público eclesiástico, y en el cuarto, las de Deontologías profesionales y Temas selectos de investigación teológica. Artículo cuarto. Se darán las lecciones durante una hora a la semana en los meses de curso correspondientes al primer cuatrimestre. Artículo quinto. La enseñanza religiosa se confiará a profesores para cuyo nombramiento serán requisitos indispensables: a) Ser Sacerdote en posesión de un grado mayor concedido por Universidad eclesiástica o el equivalente en su Orden cuando se trate de religiosos. b) Haber sido declarado apto para esta misión por la Jerarquía eclesiástica, habida cuenta de sus méritos, obras publicadas y cualidades pedagógicas, mediante las pruebas que la misma Autoridad eclesiástica estime convenientes. Artículo sexto. El reverendísimo Ordinario de la Diócesis en que radique la Universidad propondrá al Ministro de Educación Nacional los candidatos que sean precisos. Artículo séptimo. Para cada Universidad será nombrado por el Ministerio un Director de Formación religiosa, a propuesta del respectivo Ordinario y previo informe del Rector. Son funciones del Director de la formación religiosa universitaria: Primero. Organizar, de acuerdo con los planes que para todas las Universidades proponga la Jerarquía eclesiástica, las enseñanzas de cultura superior religiosa y vigilar el desarrollo de estas enseñanzas, bajo la autoridad, en el orden académico, del Rector, que las coordinará con las específicas de cada Facultad, oídos los Decanos respectivos. Segundo. Impulsar la creación de la Sección propia de Bibliotecas y Seminarios de trabajo, de acuerdo con las autoridades académicas. Tercero. La superior dirección e inspección de todas las prácticas religiosas, cualquiera que sea el órgano universitario en que se verifiquen. Cuarto. La superior dirección y organización de las Instituciones religiosas o piadosas establecidas con carácter universitario. Quinto. La ejecución de las decisiones rectorales sobre cuantas propuestas se hagan en asuntos de formación religiosa. Sexto. La Asesoría religiosa del Sindicato Español Universitario. Siempre que se trate de asuntos que, por su naturaleza, le afecten, el Director de la formación religiosa formará parte de la Junta de gobierno y será convocado a ella por el Rector. El Director de la formación religiosa percibirá, en concepto de gratificación, la cantidad correspondiente a los Encargados de Curso, y además, si no fuera Catedrático numerario, participará de la distribución de fondos prevista en el artículo noventa y uno de la Ley de Ordenación Universitaria, cuando éstos no estén exclusivamente atribuidos a Catedráticos numerarios. Artículo octavo. El Ministerio determinará para cada Universidad el número necesario de profesores para la debida explicación de las lecciones, a propuesta que elevará el Rector después de oír la del Director de Formación Religiosa. Estos Profesores deberán ser nombrados por el Ministerio con arreglo a los requisitos y propuesta señalados respectivamente en los artículos quinto y sexto, tendrán la misma consideración académica de los Catedráticos numerarios y percibirán remuneración igual a la de los Encargados de Cátedra o curso.”

liv This is also explained by Daniel Artigues in El Opus Dei en España:

Será necesario que en la Universidad se instaure un ambiente de piedad que contribuye a fomentar la formación espiritual en todos los actos de la vida del estudiante. En consecuencia, la enseñanza religiosa es obligatoria a lo largo de los estudios superiores, y los programas fijan las horas consagradas a los cursos (45).

This opened a constant redirection of the faculty to assign them a new fundamental roll, “resurrección patriótica” (Mayordomo 146). The norm for teaching was clear: the youth had to love and know their Patria. Such a labor had to be taught by faculty who also served a new, revised knowledge of Spain’s history. Under these laws, there were rules for the teachers. For instance, under the law for primary school, the teacher had to form a national spirit for the youth so that it would trickle down to the future generations of Spain. As

Sánchez-Redondo points out, the teacher’s position was to serve God and the country (45). As a result, the curriculum that the teachers had to follow was filled with popular and traditional

Spanish songs as well as national, patriotic anthems.23 Together, with this love and

Artículo noveno. Cuando, a juicio del Ordinario, el director o los profesores antedichos no desempeñen fructuosamente su misión o existan causas canónicas para su separación, bastará que lo comunique al Ministro para que éste decrete el cese. Si, por razones académicas, fuese necesaria la remoción, el Ministro procederá, oído el Ordinario. Artículo décimo. Con independencia de las enseñanzas antedichas de carácter permanente, podrán organizarse por el Director de la enseñanza religiosa, de acuerdo con el rector, cursos especiales, encomendando su explicación a los profesores de enseñanza religiosa o a otros designados de acuerdo con el Ordinario. Artículo once. El Ministerio de Educación Nacional queda autorizado para dictar las órdenes necesarias para la aplicación de lo establecido en los artículos anteriores. Así lo dispongo por el presente Decreto, dado en Madrid a veintiséis de enero de mil novecientos cuarenta y cuatro.

23 Álvarez incorporates some hymns that the Spanish youth had to memorize and recite before the class started. Some of them are as follows:

Himno nacional I !Viva España! Alzad los brazos, hijos del pueblo español que vuelve a resurgir. ¡Gloria a la Patria que supo seguir sobre el azul del mar el caminar del sol! II

lv knowledge, the youth were required to follow the expectations of their Patria. They had to understand that life demanded discipline and sacrifice. According to Alejandro Mayordomo in

Vencer y convencer. Educación y Política, España 1936-1945, there was a new installment of a clear, patriotic atmosphere in the schools, including the obligatory act of “izar y arribar banderas, el canto del Himno Nacional, la presidencia de los locales escolares por el retrato del Caudillo, los ejercicios ilustrados de tema patriótico cívico…” (146).

From this point on, there were more new intentions. For instance, primary school instructions, as a fundamental stone of the State, needed to contribute not only to the formation of the child in the aspect of general culture, but also to the “españolización de la juventud,” developed for national convenience (Navarro Sandalinas 79). In these first

Triunfa España, los yunques y las ruedas cantan al compás nuevos himnos de fe. Juntos con ellos cantamos de pie la vida nueva y fuerte de trabajo y paz. (257)

Himno Tradicionalista

Por Dios y la España inmortal pelearon nuestros padres. Por Dios y la España inmortal requetés, a luchar y a triunfar. Todos juntos en campaña lucharemos en unión defendiendo la bandera de la Santa Tradición. Por Dio, por la Patria y el Rey pelearon nuestros padres. Por Dios, por la Patria y el Rey lucharemos nosotros también. Los cruzados en campaña lucharemos en unión Defendiendo la bandera de la Santa Tradición. Que vivan los soldados, prez de la nación, y viva la bandera de la tradición. (258)

lvi sanctions, the educational philosophy24 of the New State appeared. Leaving aside the triumphant language of the Nationalists, we should especially note the so-called españolización de la juventud. The youth had to respect Spanish and National terms. The

National Rise, the National Unions, National Action, etc., corresponded to the idea of what the culture in the country was. At the same time implied to use especially primary and secondary school to include and reproduce the rise of the new ideology for the convenience of the Nationalists. Navarro Sandalinas indicates:

Esto es, la vuelta a los intereses de la burguesía conservadora: una escuela que permitiera que los niños terminaran por pensar lo que debían de pensar lo dictado por el poder, y una formación técnica mínima que permitiera utilizarlos en el sistema de producción. No son necesarias muchas inquietudes pedagógicas para crear ese tipo de escuela; un concepto de escuela simplísimo, pobre, sin ganas de avanzar. Una mentalidad que perpetua la escuela arcaica, tradicional, la escuela de siempre. Una camisa de fuerza que impide al sistema escolar plantearse nuevas metas, sentir necesidades de cambios. (111)

The primary school was the significant place for the survival and the movement of the national spirit, because it was the future of the nation. Mayordomo explains:

Es misión de la educación primaria, mediante una disciplina rigurosa, conseguir un espíritu nacional fuerte y unido e instalar en el alma de las futuras generaciones la alegría y el orgullo de la Patria de acuerdo con las normas del Movimiento y sus Organismos. (149)

The same sanction of the primary school on November 22, 1936 also dictated:

Los Alcaldes o Delegados que éstos designan, cuidarán: (…) De que los juegos infantiles, obligatorios, tiendan a la exaltación del patriotismo sano y entusiasta de la España nueva. Las prácticas tituladas de juegos y deportes se entenderán ampliadas en lo sucesivo con ejercicios de institución pre-militar que han de influir ya desde los años juveniles en la conservación y fomento de la disciplina social. (156)

24 Philosophy, as applied to the educational system in Spain, was a word very dear to the hierarchy of the new époque. They were convinced that they were implementing a new philosophy to education and teaching and not brainwashing children.

lvii Just like in any dictatorship, new laws are set in order to reach the masses. It is not surprising to see this same procedure in the case of Spain during Franco. The starting point was to clearly set the rules of the schools that the teachers and the students needed to follow.

Once they are functionable it is easier to rule the masses and establish hegemony in the state.

As in every setting, new rules always carry a level of resistance. As we will see in the next section, the consequences were difficult ones.

2.4.1 The Life of Teachers during Franco’s Regime

One way to describe a teacher’s qualifications is to say that they consist of two elements: knowledge—the content of learning, and technique—the way to convey content to the learner. According to McNair in the earlier stages of the development of the Spanish education system, as in that of many other countries, it was taken for granted that knowledge was enough. Anyone who had knowledge of the three Rs was fit to teach primary school children: anyone who had the appropriate degree was fit to teach secondary school or university students (119). In Spain, the Civil War led to a lowering of standards. Many teachers were in exile, or dismissed on political grounds. Therefore, in order to find enough teachers, with the right political sympathies, entry qualifications were reduced. At primary level, for instance, the age of entry to Normal School was lowered from 16 to 14, and the course itself shortened to three years. Despite all of this, Sánchez-Redondo indicates that in these sanctions, there were rules for the teacher to follow within the new and anti-secular system (45). Teachers had to transmit the new Spanish spirit to the student and obey the new teaching philosophy of the New State. Besides the fact that the Church kept vigilance over the moral and Christian formation of Spanish youth after the Civil War, it also took advantage of

lviii infiltrating all suspicious material. The Church even had the right to watch teachers outside of the school, in the conduct of their private lives (Tejada 97). Ecclesiastic control was also directed to eliminate teachers that were indignos; the teachers who were not participating and obeying Catholic dogma. Tejada reaffirms:

Si un maestro tuviera la costumbre (la mala costumbre) de enseñar su física, sus matemáticas, su biología, su geografía, inyectando en el niño, su alumno, una concepción total de la vida que resultase irreligiosa o atea, ese tal no tendría derecho de enseñar. (97)

Observing such situations, we can conclude that during the Second Republic, there was a hunting of priests. Also, during the New State, we can state that there was a hunting of teachers. According to Navarro Sandalinas, professors were shot by their own Phalangist students. He further points out that if the teachers were suspected of any red tendencies, they would lose their jobs, their freedom, or their life. Many teachers that were identified as maestro- rojo were killed by a horda de requetés, by the Phalangist or they committed suicide in order to save their families from suffering.25 These circumstances have been depicted in many Spanish films, such as La lengua de la mariposa, El Florido Pensil, and El laberinto del fauno among others.

The rhetoric of the Minister of National Education covered up the often frustrating reality of the life of teachers. The new State was eager to transmit its message to teachers on how to implement the new educational ideology. On the other hand, there was no mention as to what the teacher was going to gain in return for such a new implementation. Once the war

25 “He dejado para el final el más escalofriante. Fue mi informador M.B.P., compañero mío en años pasados en un colegio público de Barcelona. Su padre era maestro en Navarra en 18 de julio de 1936. Ese día, una horda de requetés, falangistas y demás iban de pueblo en pueblo matando al maestro y a toda su familia; ya hemos hablado de la identificación maestro-rojo, confirmada por todos cuentos me hablaron de aquellos años. Este maestro, informado de lo que ocurría, quiso, al menos, salvar a su mujer e hijos, cuando tuvo enfrente al grupo asesino les dijo que dejaran tranquilos a los suyos, que ya se autoinmolaba él: con su navaja de afeitar, delante de todos, intento cortarse las yugulares.” (125-6)

lix ended in 1939, the salary of the school faculty fell substantially. A teacher’s salary in 1939 was the same as in the late 1920s. The salary decreased even more in 1941, equaling salary of

1913. The popular saying “pasar más hambre que un maestro de escuela,” fits the teacher’s situation during Franco’s period (Navarro Sandalinas 109). The following table indicates the evolution of the teachers’ salary in Spain.26

Año Coste de vida Sueldo anual de Sueldo en pesetas 1913=100 entrada, pesetas de 1913 Reales 1913 100 1.000 1.000

1920 223 2.000 896

1930 167 2.000 1.197

1931 168 3.000 1.785

1936 167 3.000 1.796

1939 241 3.000 1.244

1940 288 3.000 1.041

1941 341 3.000 879

1942 364 3.900 1.071

1943 362 5.000 1.381

1944 378 5.000 1.322

1945 405 6.000 1.481

1946 531 6.000 1.129

1947 625 6.000 960

1948 667 6.000 899

26 This table was put together utilizing various sources. See Navrro Sandalinas (55).

lx 1949 703 7.200 1.024

1950 780 7.200 923

1951 853 7.200 844

For many teachers, the Republican years were remembered as nostalgic. A teacher’s image after the Civil War was poor, hungry with old, torn clothes. To cover up for the mistreatment of the teachers, beautiful speeches began appearing in the first number of the nationalist magazine, Servicio from 1942. The following excerpt appears below Franco’s photo:

Vosotros, Maestros, tenéis por misión crear, desde el primer plano que habréis consagrados con toda vuestra alma a educar a las nuevas generaciones para crear el Imperio que el pueblo quiere. Sois vosotros los que tenéis que cultivar los ideales nacionales y a los que os corresponde la misión extraordinaria y sagrada de forjar la grandeza de España. (4)

The rigid censorship of the regime did not permit a word of complaint. According to father Olaejuela in a pastoral letter of 1951:

Los maestros, esos hombres y mujeres que son, después del sacerdote, los mejores artífices del alma religiosa patriótica de nuestros ángeles de la tierra… hay que atarlos al pueblo en que ejercen su sublime ministerio, y no sólo con palabras cariñosas…sino con realidades económicas que les quiten la angustia del vivir. (12)

When it came to inspection of teachers, the National Ministry of Education (MEN) assigned inspectors to visit the schools yearly. Maíllo Adolfo in Historia y funciones de la

Inspección de Enseañanza Primaria points out that each inspector had to cover 244 classrooms and as a result, yearly visits were difficult to be fulfilled. When they were completed, they were inoperative due to the “grotescas arrogancias de ordeno y mando,

lxi esteriles, cuando no contraproducentes” (215). In the following excerpt, Maíllo explains incidences between the directors of the school and the inspector:

Ha venido el inspector esa tarde… Me ha preguntado donde pensábamos poner la clase que habíamos solicitado, que venia a revisar el local… Le he explicado que hace más de tres meses que la tenemos a punto, atiborrada de niños, que solo falta… el maestro… casi no me ha dejado seguir. Finalmente, ha clavado la mirada sobre la pared y me ha preguntad: ¿Y dónde está el cuadro de la Virgen María? ¿O es que no piensen poner ninguna Virgen? No enviaré ningún maestro mientras no pongan un cuadro de la Virgen en la pared. (253)

This excerpt demonstrates a clear picture of how religion had to be installed even before a teacher was allowed to teach with the Fascist perspectives. In order for all of this to take place in the sanctions the Minister of Education, Sáinz Rodríguez, explains the nationalist educational ideals cited by Navarro Sandalinas:

Primero: aprovechar todas las tareas escolares imprimiéndoles un sentido y una directriz profundamente católica y nacionalsindicalista. Segundo: Orientar a los niños, según el estilo de nuestra revolución, de forma tal y con tal intensidad, que su formación católica y nacionalsindicalista perdure hasta la edad adulta. (94)

As we can observe from the above rules, the new direction of the educational system that the teachers had to follow was strictly Catholic and Nationalistic with an aim for the creation of the future Spanish generation. Pedro Sáinz Rodríguez proposes other ideals as followes:

Tercero: Incorporar nuestra juventud a la rica y original cultura patria, dándole a conocer nuestra verdadera historia y nuestros legítimos valores, sembrando ansias de superación y acentuando la personalidad hispánica y el orgullo de ser español. Cuarto: Incorporar a la conciencia infantil el significado y valor de destino imperial de nuestro pueblo, creando en la juventud la confianza en sí misma y en la misión histórica de España. (94)

The new educational system aimed for teachers to incorporate and distribute “the real history” but let us not forget that this is only manipulation, because the teachers had to follow

lxii the methods and the books that were approved by the educational system. The true history, is not the true history but the history that the government wanted to distribute. All the books and all the intellectuals that were against the new state, were erased from history. As a result students learned only parts and not the entire history. In terms of Eco, we can observe here that the Regime was actually re-writing history in order to control better the possible interpretations about it. Making a text less open to different possible interpretations, that is, making the texts more linear reduces the number of options for the Model Reader to interpret.

Here we can say that the manipulatory strategy follows a way that is different from proposed by Eco in his theory. Instead of manipulating the interpretations of the text, the Regime was just changing the text of history. Or, in other words, the Regime was giving its own manipulated interpretation of history in its new texts. The intention was very clear. They wanted to control the otherwise dangerous flux of textual interpretations. If a historical text had content that could contradict the Regime’s ideals, then, instead of work on the complexities of textual interpretations, it was easier just to rewrite the historical text, changing, or directly eliminating all the elements that could erode the Regime’s principles.

The minister of education Pedro Sáinz Rodríguez continues:

Quinto: Tender al pleno y total desarrollo espiritual, intelectual y físico de los alumnos, haciendo al niño más niño y a la mujer, más mujer. Sexto: Tener presente las características positivas y negativas de los escolares, (conocer al niño) aprovechándolas y explotándolas para llegar a un máximo rendimiento. (94)

The new State by creating these rules from the very beginning was establishing the gender roles that were going to have in the new society and these rules were very clear for those that were not going to obey them. The perfect place was to start from the young generation in order to store the Spanish spirit into their minds. The rules

lxiii of the new dogma made sure that there are separate set of laws for both of the genders so that way they are previously educated about their position in their society. These rules had to be stressed by their teachers, and their families in order to distinguish the abilities that boys and girls are capable of without even having the opportunity to experience for themselves as we will see it in the next sub-chapter.

2.4.2. Elimination of Coeducation in the School System

From the above mandates, we can observe that the New State also manipulated gender roles. The Falange and its Feminine Section with its founder Pilar Primo de Rivera, (José

27 Antonio’s sister) advocated separate teaching for the sexes. It is of a great importance here to mention that Isabel la Católica and Santa Teresa de Jesús because of their virtuous and exemplary lives were elected as models for the Spanish woman. This was the way to return to tradition and use such heroic examples to contribute to the formation of the national spirit. This is the way the girls were introduced to the Feminine Section, “su misión

principal consiste en preparar a la mujer para que el día de mañana pueda fundar una familia católica, patriótica y ejemplar” (Álvarez 270). Antonio Álvarez also teaches Spanish youth that the feminine section role is to prepare the women to collaborate in a safer country.

27 “José Antonio Primo de Rivera was the eldest son of General Miguel Primo de Rivera, who was prime minister and director during the reign of King Alfonso XIII of Spain from 1923 until 1930. In 1933, José Antonio founded Falange Española, a Nationalist party inspired by the fascist ideology. Franco’s Spanish government formed a cult of personality around José Antonio. After his arrest by Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War his Phalangist supporters called him el ausente, to symbolize his importance as a leader of the Nationalist forces despite his absence. After he had been killed while imprisoned, he was called Martyr of the Crusade by his supporters. During Franquist Regime, there was a plate on the outer wall of every parish naming local soldiers and civilians assassinated by the Republicans, who died during the war (Caidos por Dios y por España) (Fallen for God and Spain). José Antonio’s name was the first on every plate, and he became a very common name in Spain.”< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jose_Antonio.>

lxiv Sánchez-Redondo explains that it was dictated to the Spanish woman that everything depended on her because her position in society was to produce the future man of Spain. In order to encourage the national perspective in her, she was taught that all of the Spanish heroes were product of the Spanish woman and because of this her job was to give birth and produce as many heroes as possible (266). So it is not surprising to

always see two separate rules on how the boys and the girls had to act in the schools.

Niñas Niños

Las niñas se habituaran a comportarse Encauzamiento de los primeros impulsos: siempre con respeto y delicadeza. evitar lloros, pequeñas mentiras, querellas, etc. La niña debe darse cuenta de lo que es Iniciarle en la autonomía, perservancia, capaz de hacer en bien de sí misma y de los austeridad, veracidad, prudencia. demás. Conservar la escuela limpia y alegre, Iniciarle en el sentido del servicio y cuidando todos los servicios con pulcritud cooperación. Prudencia, discreción, orden, exagerada higiene. Comportamiento del coche, tranvía, avión Practicar formas de cooperación, o buque destinados al transporte de responsabilizándose de un puesto dentro pasajeros. del equipo de juego, trabajo, estudio, etc. (Navarro Sandalinas 224)

Coeducation, from the Republican educational system, was abolished during the New

State, only in the small villages where the number of students was not sufficient, the system of coeducation was permitted, even though this was a very difficult process to be approved because the Church had to get its approval from the Vatican Council in Rome. As a result, from the fifth ideal we can conclude that the women did not play the same role as men, because the teachers had to teach the students how to behave according to their gender. When it comes to sexual repression, the Church’s influence was detrimental in three aspects. First, and as indicated, coeducation was prohibited in the schools. Second, the imposition of special

lxv education28 among the girls was prohibited, and third, any type of education or information about sexuality was also prohibited. The division of boys from girls was based on the Catholic doctrine. The Church did not support equality or the capacity to consume information as the same for boys as for girls. Father José Antonio de Laburu in “Jesucristo y el matrimonio” argues against coeducation:

¿Va a ser ciencia dar la misma dirección intelectual y afectiva a los que no solamente en el sexo, sino en sus notas psicológicas, son marcadamente diferentes? ¡No, señores, no es ciencia! Ni la conocen ni les interesa. Lo que sí les interesa es la promiscuidad de los sexos, precisamente en las épocas de la pubertad y de las pasiones mas violentas, para atentar contra el pudor y encender las pasiones azuzándolas con las burlas y desprecios irónicos a la religión y a la moral. (146-47)

The second reason for opposition to coeducation was because the Church determined that women had to learn to be housewives and mothers or in the words of Navarro Sandalinas:

Sacralización del matrimonio como fin de la mujer, opiniones contrarias a su trabajo fuera del hogar, obediencia a los padres, al párroco y toda una retahíla enorme de consejos para el hogar, desde decoración, corte y confección, alimentación, etc. (224)

The role of women is a secondary and subordinate one, because as we have indicated, her position in the society was to perform the duties of housewife and produce future Spanish heroes. An essential example we find in the Enciclopedia intuitiva, sintética y práctica by

Álvarez when he describes the heroic figure of Isabel la Católica. Her image is omnipresent in this textbook to describe her energetic and trustworthy images who together with her husband

King Fernando V of Aragón were the principal cause for a once powerful nation. Despite the fact that the queen was so powerful during her time, Álvarez in order to fit the national role of the Spanish woman further reassures the student that she was also a great housewife and that,

28 Special education here is referring to the disciplines that were considered inferior. For instance, a woman was to become a house wife and have children. These duties formed part of the special education that she learned from her mother because women were not expected to enter the workplace as men did.

lxvi “sin perder su dignidad, hilaba, tejía y atendía otros menestres caseros” (203). Unfortunately, the girls are not taught to be powerful and take part in the decision making of the nation. They are only to be housewives and take care of their families. The girl is not taught to take an intellectual role in the creation of the state, but is manipulated by using the image of the medieval queen, who supposedly also did such a work. This role was also taught in the classroom through stories, poems among other means. We find an example of a short story where the voice of the mother demonstrates that she has a clear understanding of her duties in the society and her household. The story goes as followes:

Mamá dice, preparando un Nuevo plato: Verás qué contento va a ponerse tu padre. Este es muy de su agrado…Papá dice: Esto está muy bueno, María, pero trabajas demasiado por agradarme. Mamá responde, entre suspiros de satisfacción: No digas esto, Antonio. Cumplo con mi deber. Las mujeres estamos obligadas a que el hombre encuentre en su hogar cuantos encantos y comodidades podamos darles. (Sánchez-Redondo 267)

María’s husband feels sorry for all the work that she has put into the new dish but the point of interest here is the fact that besides his understanding María is aware that she is the one that has to accommodate her husband and her children. In other words, through such stories, the girls and the boys learned their particular roles and positions in the society. The women’s position is inside and the men’s position is outside the house. As a result, men were the absolute model for all levels and the women were radically devalued. Even though it is not directly written, we can imply that the education for the woman was an unnecessary luxury.

With such an ideological dogma, the Church with Franco, from a very young age transmitted to the girls that the universities were for men, and they had nothing to strive for. Families usually did not send their daughters to school and as a result, there was an extremely high percentage of illiteracy among women.

lxvii Finally, the third prohibition was in the field of sex. The opposite sex was presented to the youth in a very cold manner, extraño and atemorizador. In order to discourage masturbation, boys were not allowed to cross their legs, or cross their arms by their chests, which was considered a feminine gesture. It is valuable to point out that at the dormitories at the universities, every night the students were watched by a guardian who watched over their rooms and the ones that had their hands under the sheets were woken up. Also, if men were on their feet or seated, they could not cross their legs or stand with their legs touching one another. Tejada states:

A chicos y a chicas por igual se les prohibía mirar a los ojos y, sobre todo, las llamadas amistades particulares, es decir, cualquier manifestación personal de afecto, por inocua que fuese. Se les inculcaba un temor morboso a cuanto expresara ternura y sentimiento. La música romántica de Chopin, Schumann, Liszt y otros era gravemente deformadora de la sensibilidad… (104)

As we can observe, there is no healthy teaching of sexuality to the children. Literature that mentioned this taboo word or whose plot had some kind of sexual involvement was also prohibited. Going back to tradition and following the religious aspect of Christianity these situations were some of the elements of the model that Franco was going to transmit in his new State. As a result, the education was seen from a patriotic and religious perspective and this aspect was distributed differently to the genders by educating them and setting rules in the classrooms from the very beginning about their different roles in the Spanish society. In order to portray such mentality, heroic figures such as the Cid, among others were going to contribute to the implementation of Franco’s agenda for his hegemony. In order to reach his dominance in the field of education and in society he overly used the figure of the Cid to a point where he was abused and partially interpreted.

lxviii 2.4.3. Changes of the Ministries in the new Educational System

Pedro Sáinz Rodríguez 29played an enormous role in the implementation of the educational laws, but in 1939 he distanced himself from active politics, and resided in Lisboa.

It was not until 1969, that education started to become more liberal unlike the years of José

Ibáñez Martín, who occupied the Education Department as a new ministry for much of the

Franco’s regime from 1939 to 1951. Under the power of Ibáñez Martín, education became more regulated and the general rubric of model teaching was exclusively Catholic. After the

Civil War, the Department of Education encountered many vacancies because many in power before Franco’s government were dead, disappeared or exiled, and now they had to find intellectuals, who were “ideologically secure,” who were going to follow the ideological dogma of the national regime (Montoro Romero 26-7). Ibáñez Martín wanted to renew the glorious tradition and to form professionals with Catholic and Spanish thinking. It was under his power that the regime of Franco was able to achieve and implement the Catholic, totalitarian and national education in order to reproduce what Althusser calls productive forces. Supporting his new boss, Francisco Franco, in a speech Ibáñez Martín stated that

Spain had to be united as it has been in traditional times, returning to the previous centuries.

With ideological assuredness, he connected Franco, God and Spanish orthodoxy in the following way:

No duermen en el olvido las grandezas de nuestra Edad de Oro. Pero si los siglos XVI y XVII señalan el punto central de la historia española, es porque en aquellas centurias nuestra Patria fue campeón de la unidad y de la ortodoxia y se sintió como pueblo elegido de Dios, llamado por Ơl para ser brazo y espada suya. Había, pues, que rematar el intento restaurador de la esencia

29 He was a Ministro de Instrucción Pública de la Dictadura Eduardo Callejo. Eduardo Callejo was a Ministro de Instrucción Pública de la Dictadura de Primo de Rivera.

lxix nacional, sustentando en esas dos columnas milenarias de la ortodoxia católica y de la unidad política. (8)

Even though the speech does not refer to the Middle Ages, but to the Golden Age, the context is the same. The Regime’s intention to revive the past is very clear. Ibáñez Martín claims that the success of the previous centuries was due to the unity of the Spaniards, an ideological unity that the New State now was trying to reestablish. The other success of the past was obedience to the Church and God. Following Eco and considering the history of the past as a text, we can state that the new ministry of education was only using (and not interpreting) the historical narrations of the past centuries in a convenient way for their political interests. The history of the 19th and 20th centuries was not mentioned at all. Ibáñez

Martín continues:

Esto lo supo entender, con genial intuición, el Jefe del Estado, Francisco Franco, cuando, adornado providencialmente de cualidades carismáticas, convocó a todos los españoles para una gesta castrense, a la que su magnitud espiritual dio carácteres de Cruzada. Y así, las armas restituyeron al pueblo el sentimiento de su fe religiosa, profanada tantas veces, su cristiano afán de justicia social y hermandad, sus ansias de prosperidad material y renacimiento económico. (9)

Marxist doctrine does not distort the picture here, because, if we analyze Marxist notions, we clearly see that they do not contradict the state of affairs in the Regime’s period.

If one studies and internalizes the ideological contents elaborated by the economical system, then, the economical system is reproducing itself through the educational system, but, in a sort of double movement, the person, who reproduces the economical system, also benefits from collaboration with the reproduction of the economical system. As the economical system progresses, the people who are educated by the system, integrated into the system, and make the system progress, also progress, and get “material gain”. In this context, a Marxist critic would say that those who are part of the system, getting the most of the “material gain” are

lxx “the bourgeois”, and those who sell their work force just in order to survive, are “the proletarians”. Marxist-Althusserian theory has the capability to describe the state of affairs in the Franco’s Spain, because we can observe that at that moment there was an economical system which organized in one direction the super-structures of the legal system, the educational system, and religion.

Finally, by following the catholic religious path, Ibáñez Martín uses the example of his leader, the dictator, who by believing in the Church and in his Patria, was able to turn the country around and give freedom30 to the Spaniards. Many of the political leaders utilized the success of Franco in order to reach the students and the masses and it was also the example which the new government wanted the masses to follow.

2.5. Brainwashing: Old Secular Education vs. New Catholic Education

As we have indicated before, the teaching of the future generation is one of the predominant concerns in the creation of Franco’s new education. Once the Ministry of

Education was implemented and, with the help of the Church, Franco convinced the masses that the education they received during the previous regime was not adequate. Fernández

Soria in Educación, socialización y legitimación política clearly explains that the transition from Republican to Nationalist educational system achieved its boom especially after the

Spanish Civil War, because Franco was trying to reach the masses with his own ideology since the dominance was in his own hands and some prestigious groups such as the Church, the Phalangist, etc. During the Republic, together with the General Director of the Spanish

Primary School, Rodolfo Lopes, the Church was not playing a role in the educational system.

30 This is referring to the Freedom from the Republican Government.

lxxi Furthermore, the Republican educational system was a modern, secular and democratic system because it believed in “el Estado soberano y legislador y no la Iglesia” (Fernández

Soria 76). Under Franco’s educational system, by contrast, families had no other option but to obey the new political philosophy and teach their children to adhere to the doctrines of the

Church. If this was omitted, families would be accused of not practicing the Catholic religion at home and were subject to sanctions. Secular education was not approved in Franco’s regime. According to the Franquist Regime, the Republican approach to the educational system was the “antítesis de la España tradicional y la pendiente hacia la revolución”

(Fernández Soria 149). Llopis’s vision in the eyes of the Nationalists was characterized as a chaotic, antinational, anti-Catholic, anti-military, anticlerical, dictated by the enemies of the

Patria--the communists, the masons, the Jews, and the anarchists.

This kind of criticism against the former educational systems was constant, especially in the transition period after Franco won the Civil War. In order to reach the masses and convince them, Pedro Sáinz Rodríguez, the chief and minister of Education in the New State, criticized the former educational system and indicated, “es una legislación inspirada en el odio, en el odio a la Iglesia, en el odio a la España tradicional” (40). The new plan was designed by the FAE, (“Federación de Amigos de la Enseñanza”). There was a boom of educational organizations, implemented against Republican education. Such propaganda started to circulate after the Spanish Civil War when they tried to gain control for their new methods of teaching by involving parents in this movement. 80,000 adults were recruited to teach parents about how their children would benefit from Religious Education. The media,

lxxii the Catholic Church and the professionals,31 spoke out against Republican values, otherwise known as “educación en sombra.” (Navarro Sandalinas 98).

This point is extremely important because it demonstrates that the manipulatory strategies of the Regime were focused on the youngest generation. The fact that Franco’s educational system taught 80.000 adults about the advantages of religious education for their children implies that the center of the education, the main target, were the children. Their minds were much more malleable than adults’ minds and thus we do not see the same level or number of manipulatory structures for adults at the beginning of the Regime. Rather, they taught adults about the advantages for their children to receive Catholic education, but they did not directly implement a new corpus of knowledge completely manipulated for the older students who were already studying in the Universities. Some years passed before the

Regime implemented parallel manipulatory structures in the higher educational levels, because the laws for University were promulgated later. In order to eliminate any Republican residue in the educational system, Franco made sure that libraries were purged and books were even burned because they had “falsos valores.” Fernández Soria explains:

Las comisiones depuradoras ordenaron la retirada de libros, folletos, revistas, publicaciones, grabados e impresos que contengan en su texto láminas o estampados con exposición de ideas disolventes, conceptos inmorales, propaganda de doctrinas marxistas y todo cuanto signifique falta de respeto a la dignidad de nuestro glorioso Ejército, atentados a la unidad de la Patria, menosprecio de la Religión Católica y de cuanto se oponga al significado y fines de nuestra Cruzada Nacional. (135)

A more contemporary investigator on this topic, Enrique Gervilla Castillo, in his book, Escuela del Nacional-Catolicismo, ideología y educación religiosa, explains that the educational system was in the hands of the Church:

31 We are referring here to the politicians and to the intellectuals during Franco’s period.

lxxiii La Iglesia se convierte en depositaria de la única doctrina verdadera y en árbitro de la educación, no faltando voces en su seno que propugnaran la coalición de los escolares, como medio lógico e histórico de educación y de salvación. (132)

Elías Díaz, in his book, Pensamiento español en la era de Franco, explains that in order to erase the Republican ideology, many books from the schools and the libraries were burned. Many intellectuals left Spain and their works were no longer in circulation (19). He

further states that intellectuals who formed the literature of the 20th Century in Spain, such as

the Generation of ´98 and the Generation of 27, disappeared from the academic landscape, in

such a way that all intellectual life stagnated (23). The Ministry of Education implemented a

new system and new regulations that met the ideological standards of Franco. Juan Manuel

Soria Fernández explains even a classic such as Little Red Riding Hood was manipulated.

Since red was the official color of the communist party, Soria Fernández states, “Caperucita,

roja de toda la vida, durante un tiempo fue azul, reflejándolas o mitificándolas, pero contribuyendo, en definitivo, a su refuerzo” (155). On symbolism and the importance of the blue color, Antonio Álvarez in Enciclopedia Álvarez: intuitiva, sintética y práctica primer grado, teaches Spanish youth the importance of the color blue, which was incorporated into the school uniform at schools. The students wore the uniform of the Falange, which consisted of three articles of clothing: blue shirt, red boina and black tie. Álvarez explains the new symbolism and the significance of these colors and articles:

La camisa azul fué(sic) impuesta por José Antonio por entender que el azul era un color neto, serio, entero y proletario; la boina roja, característica de los requetés, fue adoptada por la Falange al unirse con ellos en 1937, y la corbata negra fue impuesta por Franco como señal de luto por la muerte de José Antonio. (276)

lxxiv There were many more other changes in the educational system:

Las fiestas y conmemoraciones escolares republicanas de carácter cívico dejan su lugar a otras de tono heroico y religioso (Día del Caudillo, del Valor, de la Hispanidad, de la Fe, del Dolor, de la Canción, de la Independencia. (Fernández Soria 155)

In the Enciclopedia Álvarez, the first of October was the day of the Caudillo,

Francisco Franco, which was the official date when Franco was elected in Burgos in 1936, as the leader of the State and Chief of Spain.

The day of the Faith was celebrated on 29th of October which was the day that celebrated and taught Spanish youth how the leader of the Falange, José Antonio, gave a speech which reaffirmed how their nation was saved from the Republicans and their enemies, by having strong catholic faith: “Con la fe todo se alcanza. Si no la perdemos, España volverá a ser grande y feliz” (Álvarez 264).The day of mourning (Día del Dolor) was also dedicated to the death of José Antonio who died fighting against his enemies. This special day was celebrated on November 20th: “Honremos su memoria en este día y hagamos fervientes votos para que su sangre y su ejemplo den abundantes frutas” (Álvarez 265). The day of song (Día de la canción), celebrated on the first of April commemorated the end of the Civil War when patriotic manifestations were organized and happy songs were sung. The list of days celebrated in order to commemorate the new state and its victory is extensive, but the essential part is to remember that textbooks were designated and especially written for the children during the new regime and that they presented nothing but a positive perspective either of the Caudillo, his leaders or his New State, “Franco es el Salvador, es enviado por la providencia para salvar a España. Es el representante de la providencia, Salvador de España y

lxxv hacedor de su futura Historia. Franco es el Caudillo de España por la Gracia de Dios (Soria

Fernández 33).

The charisma of Franco was emphasized and he always was portrayed as saving the country from the enemies much like el Cid Campeador. It appears as if all blood shed in the end was worth it because it brought once again unity to the people and their country. Also, according to the above quote, the new leader was able to accomplish all of this because he had the assistance of God. At the end of the speech, Ibáñez Martín refers to the future generations of the country, in this case the Spanish youth, who were going to form the future by following in the footsteps of their leader. If we observe the idea of the State by Althusser, we can clearly see that just as he explains, in order to reestablish the new state, the labor forces must be taught the new way of thinking so it could be transmitted to the future. Here we can also see the strong connection between the state and its ideological apparatuses. As Althusser states, the state was trying to legitimize itself through its educational system. At the same time we should add, with Eco, that that same state elaborated in its complicated process of self- legitimization a perversion of the modelic (canonical) interpretation of classical texts. All of these positive ideals were distributed and implemented through the teaching of literature. In order to transmit what the New State thought was a true history and true literature, texts had to be carefully approved or selected because they had to match the new ideological perspectives.

lxxvi Chapter 3

The Teaching of Literature during Franco’s Regime

3.1. In Search of Literary and Cultural Tradition: Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo,

Jaime Balmes and Juan Donoso Cortés

Catholic groups with specific political and cultural agendas began to appear in Spain at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1908, a Jesuit group, called “Areneros,” and its key leaders Father Ayala32 and Ángel Herrera33 formed the Asociación Nacional de

Propagandistas.34 This Catholic group launched a newspaper El Debate, an organ of expression for rightist Catholic thinking. Herrera, the key person who directed Catholic political groups during the Second Republic, proclaimed that “el magisterio y el profesorado son los problemas que más deben preocuparse a la Iglesia y a España” (Valls 17). In 1931 the rightists began to reorganize their political approach because with the arrival of the Republic, they thought that their privileges would be eroded. In response, they vowed to defend the concepts of Patria, property, religion, family, and regain their power and influence. The first step was to form Acción Nacional on May 29, 1931 which united many Catholic groups under one motto: “Religion, Patria, Order, Family, and Property” (Valls 13).

Acción Española, the Falange and the Church, then moved to install their doctrine by identifying those who sympathized with their ideological beliefs. According to Raúl Morodo in Acción Española: Orígenes ideológicos del franquismo, the group Acción Española had already worked towards this end during the Second Republic (25). They called on Marcelino

32 Father Ayala was the director of Los Luises of Madrid from 1904 to 1908.

33 Ángel Herrera was the president of Asociación Nacional de Propagandistas from 1909 to 1935, and his position was replaced with Fernando Martín – Sánchez.

34 Their goal was not to only form intellectuals but also “men of action.”

lxxvii Menéndez y Pelayo, Jaime Balmes, and Juan Donoso Cortés among others to give voice to their beliefs. These intellectuals already formed part of the national cultural and literary tradition and they also were to serve as role models in contrast to exponents of the Republic- liberal culture and literature which dominated during the 1930’s.

The most important figure for the rightists of the time was Marcelino Menéndez y

Pelayo. Douglas Foard in his article, “The Spanish Fichte: Menéndez y Pelayo,” talks about the prominence of Menéndez y Pelayo during these years. By referring to him as ‘the Spanish

Fichte,’ the comparison between the Spaniard and the 19th century prophet of strident German nationalism was first employed not by some Phalangist propagandist but by the distinguished historian, Luis Araquistain, who in the University of Berlin in 1932 assured his audience:

No other Spanish writer has equaled Menéndez y Pelayo in the resurrection and renovation of Spanish culture… Without him we Spaniards would be poorer in our understanding of our own culture. (Foard 87)

During the early months of the military uprising against the Republic, Nationalist propaganda officers were charged with rallying civilians to General Franco’s cause by explaining the ideology which moved them to revolt. As Valls explains, for want of any other clear statements of purpose, these officials read excerpts from Menéndez y Pelayo’s Historia de los Heterodoxos Españoles, to inspire the confused and terrified citizens of remote Spanish villages. From memory, the Nationalist orators recited: ‘Spain, evangelizer of half the world;

Spain, hammer of heretics, light of Trent, Sword of Rome, cradle of Saint Ignatius… This is our greatness and our unity; we have no other” (84). Even though Marcelino Menéndez y

Pelayo had written these lines nearly a half a century before, his words were employed as weapons in the Nationalist arsenal. His work was obligatory reading and it served as a source for Nationalist intellectuals who wanted to become successful during the forties.

lxxviii Menéndez y Pelayo in his book Historia de los Heterodoxos Españoles (1880-82)

continuously argues for a return to Catholic instruction to keep man on the “right path:”

Hay que confesar que el hombre, aun en las sociedades cristianas, ha solido andar muy fuerte de camino, tropezando y cayendo, así en las obras artísiticas como en la vida… La tiranía de los príncipes seculares, sobre todo de los alemanes y franceses, había pesado durísimo sobre el poder papal… A consecuencia de la incuria e ignorancia de muchos prelados, las iglesias yacían abandonadas, así como la instrucción religiosa de la plebe, que fácilmente se arrojaba a supersticiones y herejías. (658-59)

His book contains moral teaching for Christians which were appropriated to awaken a national and Catholic spirit for Spanish society during the transitional period. For instance, in

Historia de los Heterodoxos Españoles, Menéndez y Pelayo identifies Spaniards as true,

Catholic believers:

Dicen unos que Jesucristo es adoptivo según la humanidad y no según la divinidad. Contestan otros que Jesucristo en ambas naturalezas es Hijo propio, no adoptivo, y que el Hijo verdadero de Dios, el que debe ser adrorado, es el mismo que fue crucificado bajo el poder de Poncio Pilato. Este partido somos nosotros. (322)

Refael Calvo Serer in España sin problemas has also recognized the work of

Menéndez y Pelayo as one of the most influencial intellectuals for the establishment and the fulfillment Franco’s beliefs. He indicates:

En la labor intelectual de Menéndez y Pelayo, y en la reconstrucción que él hizo de la conciencia española siguiendo la línea del pensamiento contrarrevolucionario están las bases firmes para la única solución verdadera de tan fundamental disyuntiva (10)

After the Civil War, the Instituto de España, with approval of the C.S.I.C (Consejo

Superior de Investigaciones Científicas) published an edition of the complete works of

Menéndez y Pelayo. The editor was Minister Sainz Rodríguez. Moreover, the Instituto de

España published a series of pamphlets popularizing the ideological thinking of the

lxxix Santanderian author. The first published works were Menéndez y Pelayo y la educación nacional, Concilio de Trento, Las cortes de Cádiz, El enciclopedismo en España. 35 The main goal was to reiterate the spirit of Nationalism, religion, and the traditionalism that appears in the work of Menéndez y Pelayo. Another goal was to recover his attempt to create a National, traditional and Catholic essence (Foard 87). As Pedro Sainz Rodríguez later recognized: “El ideario de Menéndez y Pelayo sirvió para que, los que no tenían ninguno, lo acogiesen y lo convirtiesen en bandera política” (263).

Many authors36 utilized Menéndez y Pelayo as a source during the Nationalist years.

According to Juan Rey Carrera in El resurgir de España previsto por nuestros grandes pensadores, Ángel Herrera sees in Menéndez y Pelayo a man who intended to “despertar la conciencia nacional,” the personification of the purest National tradition and the espiritualizador (spiritualizer) of the sciences (66). Ángel Herrera thought that the teaching of Spanish culture should be guided by his thinking. The Jesuits consider him a visionary capable of foretelling the violent future of Spain. In the words of Rey Carrera, “vislumbró también la gran catástrofe que sobrevendría a su querida patria” (66). Another person who valued Menéndez y Pelayo was Pedro Sainz Rodríguez and he dedicated various works to him, i.e. El concepto de patria y de región en la obra de Menéndez y Pelayo, Epistolario de

Valera y Menéndez y Pelayo, Menéndez y Pelayo y la educación nacional, Menéndez y

Pelayo historiador y critico literario, Menéndez y Pelayo, ese desconocido (Rey Carrera 67).

Two other important intellectuals who contributed to the ideological and literary culture in Spain during Franco’s years were Jaime Balmes and Donoso Cortés. These two

35 See Sainz Rodríguez’s Testimonios y recuerdos. (p. 262)

36 Ángel Herrera, Juan Rey Carrera, S.J. Pedro Laín Entralgo, Rafael Calvo Serer, etc.

lxxx writers were heavily influenced by the work of Menéndez y Pelayo and by the Antología of

Juan Rey Carrera. José Sánchez de Muniáin in Antología general de Menéndez Pelayo, states

“la filosofía, más afortunada (que las ciencias), se reduce a dos grandes nombres (en el período 1834-1852): Balmes y Donoso” (482). The victorious rightists found in these thinkers from the past a spirit which corresponded to the interests of the New Spain.

According to the Nationalists, a negative mindset developed when one accepted foreign thinking, and, as a result, it was necessary to re-encounter the tradition of genuine Spanish thinking to guide the new beliefs in the country. Franco, in his declarations published in Le

Jour in 1937, stated the following, “Se despreciaba a los maestros auténticos de nuestro pensamiento y se prefería a los demagogos más subversivos de otros países” (1). These authentic maestros included Menéndez y Pelayo, Balmes and Donoso Cortés who also were referred to as visionarios. Rey Carrera synthesized their thinking as follows:

La revolución, que, por espacio de largos años, se ha ido fraguando en nuestra patria, tendrá como término una catástrofe sangrienta y colosal; pero España no perecerá. Contra las falanges revolucionarias saldrán al campo de batalla las legiones católicas; mientras que los partidos liberales desaparecerán definitivamente de la escena. La lucha será encarnizada; pero el indómito y heroico pueblo diante de gloria y pletórica de vida, la España tradicional y eterna. (14-15)

As we can observe, faith and the doctrine of the Church were key elements for the establishment of the new educational system. Father Jaime Balmes (1810-1848) with his philosophy tried to reaffirm traditional religion. His El Criterio was one of the most utilized books in the schools during Franco’s era. This was a didactic resource for the Spanish youth with its defense of Catholic beliefs, instructions on how to think in a Catholic way, how to find religious perfection, how to find God, etc. Balmes’ philosophical texts played a key role

lxxxi during this period in the schools. In his book, El Criterio, we find a chapter entitled, Quien abandona la religion católica no sabe dónde refugiarse, in which he indicates:

Hemos seguido el camino que puede conducir a la religión católica; echemos una ojeada sobre el que se presenta si nos apartamos de ella. Al abandonar la fe de la Iglesia, ¿Dónde nos refugiamos? Si en el protestantismo, ¿en cuál de sus sectas? ¿Qué motivo de preferencia nos ofrece la una sobre la otra?... Abandonar, pues, la religión católica será abjúralas todas, será tomar el partido de vivir sin ninguna; dejar que corran los años, que nuestra vida se acerque a su término fatal, sin guía para lo presente, sin luz para el porvenir; será taparse los ojos, bajar la cabeza y arrojarse a un abismo sin fondo. La religión católica nos ofrece cuantas garantías de verdad podemos desear. (180)

He further explains that the Catholic religion is essential for leading a good life:

Ella, además, nos impone una ley suave, pero recta, justa, benéfica; cumpliéndola nos asemejamos a los ángeles, nos acercamos a la belleza ideal que para la Humanidad puede excogitar la más elevada poesía. Ella nos consuela en nuestros infortunios y cierra nuestros ojos en paz; se nos presenta tanto más verdadera y cierta cuando más nos aproximamos al sepulcro. ¡Ah, la bondadosa Providencia habrá colocado al borde de la tumba aquellas santas inspiraciones, como heraldos que nos avisaran de que íbamos a pisar los umbrales de la eternidad…! (180)

During his entire life, Balmes fought for literature based on orthodox criteria. Most of his work was developed between 1840 and 1848. He created the Partido Monárquico

Nacional and founded three newspapers - La civilización, La sociedad, and El pensamiento de la nación, through which he disseminated his ideas. During the Republic he was recognized by the magazine Acción Española as one of the maestros. For Luís Costa Araujo in his article

“La materia y la forma literaria” the work of Balmes formed the basis to “rehacer la verdadera cultura, el verdadero espíritu de España” (28). After the Civil War, his work was glorified and taken as a model for what new Spanish thinking should be. Many authors during the Franquist period dedicated themselves to the study of Balmes work. 37

37 Some of them are Ernesto la Orden, Tomás Marco, José María García Escudero, Feliu Egiodo, Sainz de Robles, Roig Gironella, etc.

lxxxii Balmes’ ideology was embraced by Juan Donoso Cortés (1809-1853). After a liberal youth he later developed into an intransigent conservative. He defended Catholic solutions, and put them into practice. He was another man who the men of Acción Española cited as maestro. During the forties his texts were utilized endlessly.

According to Béla Menczer in Tensions of Order and Freedom: Catholic Political

Thoughts, 1789-1848, Juan Donoso Cortés had achieved a most brilliant literary, political and diplomatic career (158). His work constitutes a spiritual link of considerable relevance between Spain, France and Germany. As a child he was recognized as an infant prodigy; at the age of twenty, he was a Lecturer at the University of Salamanca, where regulations had to be waived in order that he might take his degree before the required age. Before he was thirty, he was elected by his native province to the Congress of Deputies, where he soon was called to a junior Cabinet post. Later on he held an important diplomatic post in Paris at the time of

Louis Philippe and Guizot and later was named as Marquis of Valdegamas. In 1849 he was

Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Prussia. He died in Paris when he was forty years old (Menczer 157-59). His early writings included political and literary chronicles and comments on Spanish, French and world events of the 1830’s and the 1840’s.

His Discurso sobre la dictadura, written in 1849 was especially utilized by Franco’s school system. On this subject Donoso Cortés states:

Digo, señores, que la dictadura en ciertas circunstancias, en cincustancias dadas, es un gobierno legítimo, es un gobierno bueno, es un gobierno provechoso, como cualquier otro gobierno; es un gobierno racional, que puede defenderse en la teoría, como puede defenderse en la práctica. Y si no, señores, ved lo que es la vida social. (307)

lxxxiii Furthermore, his Ensayo sobre el Catolicismo, el Liberalismo y el Socialismo, was also well-utilized during Franco’s regime because it supports the installation of religious dogma in the new educational system. Donoso Cortés states:

Esa nueva teología se llama el catolicismo. El catolicismo es un sistema de civilización completo; tan completo, que en su inmensidad lo abarca todo: la ciencia de Dios, la ciencia del ángel, la ciencia del universo, la ciencia del hombre… Llámase esta teología católica, porque es universal; y lo es en todos los sentidos y bajo todos los aspectos; es universal porque abarca todas las verdades; lo es en su Dios y lo es en sus dogmas. (508-509)

All these Spanish intellectuals were fighting for orthodox Catholicism, purged of foreign ideologies and preservation of their patria. These are constant elements reiterated by

Franco’s New State. Consequently, all of these ideological elements guided the reproduction of relations of power as filtered through three main State apparatuses: law, religion, and, finally, education. The educational system, and especially the teaching of literature, was configured in such a way as to maintain class differences, as we will see in the next section.

3.2 A New Approach to the Teaching of Literature during the New State

The cultural and literary situation in which Spain found itself after the Civil War was a very difficult one. Manuel de Puellas Benítez in Educación e ideología en la España contemporánea, points out the drastic change in the New Ministry of Education:

Se ha suprimido el laicismo en las escuelas y restablecido la enseñanza confesional; se ha prohibido la coeducación; se han derogado los orígenes educativos de la Generalitat y del País Vasco; se ha excluido el bilingüismo de la enseñanza a favor del idioma castellano, único considerado como oficial; se ha establecido la censura de los libros de textos; se ha efectuado prácticamente, en fin, la depuración del personal docente. (375)

Since the New State had to erase any vestiges of old dogma, according to Antonio

lxxxiv Fernández Ferrer in “La crisis del modelo historicista en la enseñanza de la literatura,” the teaching of literature was reformulated to reflect a Catholic and monarchist spirit, “Así, pues, la enseñanza literaria se estructura e imparte como medio para mostrar el paradigma del culturalismo nacional” (157). Most of the intellectuals had been allied with the Republican government, but their ideas did not inform the literary tradition in post-Civil War schools. In the words of Fernández Ferrer:

Digamos de paso que, irónicamente, los nuevos procedimientos de inculcación literaria acabaron convergiéndose, con el tiempo, en otra especie de encorsetada perceptiva: el aprendizaje mecánico, al margen de los textos, de fechas, datos biográficos y anécdotas ociosas como prácticas escolares correspondientes al historicismo puramente memorístico. (156)

Furthermore, Adolfo Maíllo, a notable National inspector and educator at the time justifies the fight against Republican instructive methods:

We are teaching against the demanding liberal intellectualism, which had the syllabus as a ‘fetish’ and the instruction as a pedagogic peak, we defend a comprehensive training, where feeling, good will and character prevail. Against the naturalist ‘infantilism’ or ‘juvenilism’ of Claparéde or Wyneken, we are clear supporters of Christian and Catholic supernaturalism. Against Rousseaus’s ‘negative education’ and Rodolfo Llopis y Compayré’s ‘respect for children’s conscience’, we advocate the principles of discipline, spirit of service and aesthetic repression of natural instincts. (60)

Due to the removal of Republican faculty, there was a need for new faculty who had to quickly learn the dogma of the new educational system. In the old Republican zones (before the Civil War) positions in the universities, especially the ones in Madrid and Barcelona, high schools and primary schools now had to be filled with new faculty. Following the program for the formation of teachers in the BOE (Boletín Oficial del Estado de 1937) candidates were eligible to teach after they completed a short two-week program. Navarro Sandalinas interprets this formation as “un retraso enorme, sin que se puedan encontrar atenuantes en un

lxxxv juicio histórico” (118). The new educational system produced faculty who were uncultivated intellectually in order for the new ideology to be installed easily and quickly. In the words of

Navarro Sandalinas:

La explicación está en los intereses de la castas dominantes después de 1939: una oligarquía siempre intensada en un pueblo inculto que no le cause problemas; una Iglesia preocupada únicamente por la defensa de sus escuelas e interesada en que el Estado no le hiciera la competencia; y preocupada solamente por la restauración de unos valores arcaicos. (118)

For example, Fernández Ferrer indicates that new faculty was instructed to teach

literature according to a simplistic formula: “Dense las reglas con buen orden, con estilo fácil, con palabras que todos entiendan, y en poco tiempo los que no saben qué cosa es poesía se formarán poetas” (153).

The New Ministry of Education transformed new candidates into faculty members in a very short time. In 1937 the ministry formed a program38 designed to install Catholic dogma

38 PROGRAMA PARA LOS CURSILLOS DE FORMACIÓN DEL MAGISTERIO 1937.

(Programa para dos semanas) Cursillo núm. 1. – La Religión

1ª lección.- Qué es la Religión. Superioridad de la Religión Cristiana sobre las religiones de tipo oriental o panteísta y sobre las de tipo griego o antropomórfico. 2ª lección. - Dios. Su concepto, su existencia, su unidad. El dogma católico de la Trinidad. 3ª lección. – Israel. Caída original. El Decálogo, las figuras, las Profecías, etc., del Antiguo Testamento. 4ª. lección. – Jesucristo. Su doctrina, su figura, su Divinidad. 5ª.lección. – El Espíritu Santo y la Iglesia primitiva. San Pablo. Las persecuciones. Constantino. 6ª. lección. – La misión redentora de la Iglesia ejercida en la Edad Media, Moderna y Contemporánea. Teoría de la Acción Católica. Cursillo núm. 2. – La Patria 1ª. lección. – La unidad romana y la unidad visigótica. 2ª. lección. – La unidad forjada durante la Reconquista. 3ª. lección. – La unidad imperial. Los Asturias. 4ª. lección. – La unidad estremecida de la Guerra de la Independencia. 5ª. lección. – Unidad y sentido del Arte Español. 6ª. lección. – Unidad y sentido del pensamiento español. Cursillo núm. 3. – El Hombre

lxxxvi 1ª. lección. – Nociones sobre el cuerpo humano, y en especial sobre su sistema nervioso. 2ª. lección. – Las sensaciones e imágenes. 3ª. lección. – La vida intelectual y volitiva. 4ª. lección. – La vida afectiva. 5ª. lección. – Lo subconsciente. 6ª. lección. – Grandeza y debilidad del hombre. Cursillo núm. 4. – el Maestro 1ª. lección. – La pedagogía en Oriente y en Roma. 2ª. lección. – Jesucristo, divino Pedagogo. 3ª. lección. – La Pedagogía Medieval. 4ª. lección. – La Pedagogía del Renacimiento. 5ª. lección. – La Nueva Pedagogía. 6ª. lección. – Concepto católico del maestro, según la Enciclopedia del Pío XI. El domingo queda libre para actos de piedad, excursiones, etc. Cursillo núm. 1. – Pedagogía de la Religión. 1ª. lección. – Su concepto, su contenido: Dogma, Historia y Liturgia. 2ª. lección. – Adaptación de la instrucción religiosa a las diversas edades infantiles. 3ª. lección. – Principales métodos y procedimiento didácticos. 4ª. lección. – Formación de la voluntad y del carácter. 5ª. lección. – Formación del sentimiento. 6ª. lección. – Formación del cristiano práctico. Cursillo núm. 2. – Didáctica de la Historia patria. 1ª. lección. – Diversos conceptos de la enseñanza de la Historia. La Historia como Maestra de la vida. 2ª. lección.- Adaptación del contenido y el tono de la Historia de España a las diversas condiciones infantiles: edad, sexo, etc. 3ª. lección. – Principales métodos y procedimiento didácticos. 4ª. lección. – Formación del patriota que conoce y estima, sin chauvinismo, pero con toda el alma, su patria en todos sus principales aspectos. 5ª. lección. – Formación del sentido internacional o imperial. 6ª. lección. – Formación del ciudadano. Cursillo núm. 3. – El Niño. 1ª. lección. – Leyes generales de psicología infantil. 2ª. lección. – Las edades. 3a. lección. – Los sexos. El ambiente. 4ª. lección. – Las diferencias, los temperamentos, los tipos, los caracteres. Test y observación. 5ª. lección. – Lo subconsciente en la niñez. 6ª. lección. – Nociones de sicopatología infantil. Cursillo núm. 4. – La Escuela. 1ª. lección. – Generalidades sobre la organización escolar. Higiene. 2ª. lección. – La Escuela rural. 3ª. lección. – La Escuela de tipo familiar. Relaciones entre los padres y el maestro. 4ª. lección. – La clase. Distribución de su tiempo. Su mentalidad. 5ª. lección. - Los planes de enseñanza primaria. Diferencia entre los planes antiguos y los sintéticos o paralelos. Propios de la Pedagogía contemporánea. 6ª. lección. – La Escuela y las Autoridades. La escuela y el Párroco. Queda libre el segundo domingo para los actos de piedad y para la clausura. (Navarro Sandalinas 119)

lxxxvii in the entire school apparatus. Such a program took center stage and the teaching of Spanish literature, not to even mention foreign literatures, was relegated to secondary status. If we observe a cuestionario of the superior grade, we see how political formation was inculcated in the students. MEN (Ministerio de Educación Nacional) in 1943 released a cuestionaro for all levels of school beginning with grado de iniciación, and finishing with grado superior. The former system for the teaching of literature was erased and the new faculty struggled to devise syllabi which no longer followed a chronological perspective.39 Entire literary movements,

39 Lección I. – El Cristianismo, factor determinante de los españoles. -la misión espiritual de España.

Lección II. – La Reconquista. Lección III. – Pelayo. Lección IV. – El Cid. Lección V. – San Fernando. Lección VI. – Los Reyes Católicos. Lección VII. – El Imperio de España. Lección VIII. – Destino de España y Portugal. Lección IX. – La guerra de la Independencia. Lección X. – El siglo XIX. Lección XI. – Breve ideas de la situación de España en el momento de Nacer Falange. – Lucha de clases. – Separatismo.- Persecución religiosa. Injusticia social. Lección XII.- Las J.O.N.S. – Personalidad y obra de Ramiro Ledesma. Lección XIII.- Ídem. – Ídem de Onésimo Redondo. Lección XIV.- F.E. y sus fundadores. –Concepto de José Antonio. Lección XV. - José Antonio, fundador y jefe nacional de F.E. Lección XVI. - Unión de F.E y J.O.N.S. Lección XVII. - Época heroica de la Falange. Lección XVIII. - El Alzamiento Nacional. – Franco, Caudillo de España y Jefe Nacional de la Falange. Lección XIX.- La guerra de España. – Su sentido. – Episodios más destacados. – Héroes y mártires. Lección XX.- La División. – La Unificación. Lección XXI. - El valor. – Ejemplos. Lección XXII. - Espíritu de sacrificio. Lección XXIII. - La camaradería. Lección XXIV. -12 de octubre. – 18 de julio. Lección XXV. - 29 de octubre. Lección XXVI. - 8 de diciembre: Día de la Madre. Lección XXVII. - 1º de abril: Día de la Victoria. Lección XXVIII.- 2 de mayo. Lección XXIX. - 30 de mayo: San Fernando. Lección XXX. – 18 de julio. Lección XXXI. – 2 de agosto. Lección XXXII. – Hecho heroico de carácter local.

lxxxviii such as the Generation of ‘98, the Generation of ‘27, and the Avant-Garde, were simply erased from the history of literature, as if they had not even existed. Carmen Benso Calvo in

“Traditon and Innovation in the Practical Culture of Schools in Franco’s Spain” states that the first didactic principals in Franco’s educational system was to reconnect the Ancient i.e. traditions, with the New order while ignoring any systematic imparting of information. She states:

In line with the inconsistency of combining the Ancient and the New, didactic resources combined the use of manuals with prints and history illustrations- similar to the ones used for Sacred History lessons- projections, study visits to museums, excursion…, The teacher’s eloquence and storytelling skills, adorned with high doses of enthusiasm and passion, together with the powerful aid of images, were to replace the school textbook. (409)

In a commentary about the presentation of literature in the most used Encyclopedia during Franco’s Regime, Enciclopedia Álvarez, written by the National Teacher of Zamora,

Antonio Álvarez Pérez, Francisco Umbral indicates:

Lo que más me ha interesado, naturalmente, es la literatura y sus criterios. Hay aquí mucho poeta local, clásicos que amuerman al escolar, con tiradas de versos de Calderón. Luego los románticos, Zorrilla y Bécquer -ninguna introducción al Romanticismo ni a nada-, del 98 sólo aparece Unamuno, sin duda por su aura religiosa y por su ubicación franquista durante la guerra. El 27 no existe, pero existen los Quintero, Manuel Machado -con levísima alusión a Antonio-, don Jacinto Benavente. (1)

The Encyclopedia’s presentation of the literary canon was obviously biased:

La nota trágica del romanticismo liberal revolucionario. Era gran ingenio pero sabía poco y nunca se dio cuenta de su ignorancia. Lo que no sabía lo adivinaba a veces (…). Acierta intuitivamente, porque Dios le había dotado de una razón clarísima y de un buen gusto ingénito; pero rara vez se detiene a profundizar lo que ha encontrado. Como el manual escolapios lo califica: ‘incrédulo y volteriano, romántico liberal y pesimista.’ (38)

lxxxix As we have indicated before, one of the insistent obsessions of the new regime was to break with the liberal and European cultural tradition. According to Fernández Soria, Church dogma characterized national culture after the Spanish Civil War. In order for this ideological dogma to be transmitted, teachers were expected to promote the Fascist thinkers such as

Álvarez, Serrano de Haro, Menéndez y Pelayo, José Rogerio Sánchez, and anonymous national writers who wrote for the editorial Edelvives. Álvarez, in his Enciclopedia Álvarez, taught youth that to die for the love of God and for the love for the country was an honor. In order for children to grasp this, he compares examples of young saints who gave their lives for God with Phalangist who died for their nation. He states:

Aunque los actos de heroísmo suelen ser realizados por personas mayores, también los niños pueden ser héroes. Lo fueron, las nueve flechas que al hundirse el crucero “Baleares” murieron cantando el “Cara al Sol,” y también lo fue el falangista Jesús Hernández, que a los quince años murió por la Patria al cumplir un peligroso servicio de enlace. Los santos Justo y Pástor, Santa Eulalia, Santa Inés, San Pelayo, etc., son otros tantos niños héroes del Cristianismo. (274)

Observing the above passage, we can conclude what Spanish youth were taught about religious and patriotic heroism. We will now examine the textbooks that the dictatorial commission approved. These approved texts for many years formed the curriculum for patriotic youth (Fernández Soria 112). Some of the books considered the “best” for teachers were:

El caballero cristiano, Padre RemigioVilariño Imitación de Cristo, Tomas de Kempia La Historia de España, Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo El criterio, Jaime Balmes Introducción de la mujer cristiana, Juan Lluis Vives La perfecta casada, Fray Luis de León Partes de Poema de Mío Cid, Anonymous El libro de su vida, Santa Teresa de Jesús Partes de El Quijote, Miguel de Cervantes. (Navarro Sandalinas 115)

xc Teachers had very limited input regarding what would be taught as the literary cannon.

Many of above-referenced books reflect a religious perspective and are written by priests and teachers. Since the New State wanted to erase every vestige of the previous regime, many famous and valuable authors were not seen nor mentioned. Out of the entire list we can see that the majority of books were from the Spanish Middle Ages and Golden Ages. This aspect is observed in the Enciclopedia Álvarez, where in lesson number 18, youth learned about the great writers of their nation. Only Santa Teresa de Jesús, Fray Luis de León, and Miguel de

Cervantes were included as the literature writers of Spanish literature.

In order to adhere to this notion in the schools, approved authors constantly reminded students about the benefits of learning and reading the works of the literary heroes:

Han ido enriqueciendo y perfeccionando nuestra lengua…ahora, es una de las más hermosas del mundo. Como Cervantes y Santa Teresa, yo prometo aprender bien la hermosa lengua castellana y emplear después en provecho de mi Patria y de mi Dios. (Álvarez 81)

Learning the beautiful Spanish language was not for the benefit of the student but for

God and for his Patria. It is valuable to add that the textbooks that were approved for all levels of education were also rewritten and filled with recommendations according to the New

State’s dogma. In other words, texts were different when studied during the Republic and after the Civil War. Cervantes’s novel Don Quijote, was a subject to such reworking. Serrano de Haro in his book Yo soy Español, designed for students in the elementary level, taught Don

Qujote in the following lesson:

Viva Don Quijote! Don Quijote era como España: no quería dineros, quería honra. Y no le temía a nada ni a nadie para defender la justicia y la verdad. (Serrano de Haro 75)

xci The title !Viva Don Quijote! was designed to correspond to the famous slogan ¡Viva

Franco! !Viva España! !Arriba España! heard on every corner and from every media source during the new regime. Franco in Pensamiento Político de un General: Franco, in a political speech he gave in Sevilla in 1968 explains the significance and the importance of the “grito

!Arriba España!:”

Muchas veces se creen que cuando nosotros gritamos !Arriba España!, lo hacemos con un propósito partidista. No. El ¡Arriba España! Es una promesa general de empujarla y de levantarla. (Grandes aplausos) No excluye al ¡Viva España! que presidió nuestros siglos de decadencia. El ¡Arriba España! Representó y significa (Los aplausos interrumpen), nuestra voluntad de esfuerzo, la promesa para el futuro. Para el futuro que está en nuestras manos y que es invencible. Podemos decir que en España empieza a amanecer. !Arriba España! (306)

In order for Spanish youth to get accustomed to this traditional slogan, it was convenient to insert it as part of a classic of Spanish literature.

The comparison of Don Quijote with Spain in the context given by Serrano de Haro is deceptive because reading Don Quijote is not the same as reading the re-interpretation of a small part of the novel by one of Franco’s favorite national writers. Agustín Serrano de Haro and other writers of the period utilized minor aspects of classical canonical texts in order to manipulate and install the new ideological perspective of the regime. This kind of writing was often the only source available to children and teachers.

Don Quijote, says Serrano de Haro, did not want money but only honors, and in this way he epitomized Spain. Spanish youth thus had to accept poverty, had to accept the fact that they, and their parents, were going to work forever in a system that was extracting the surplus value of their work, at the same time that it was marginalizing them. At this point we should say that we are not mixing economic issues with cultural ones, but that these issues were already commingled in Spanish reality. If we read attentively a text like the one quoted above,

xcii it is impossible to see Literature as something completely separated and independent from economic issues. Economic issues drove the Franquist regime’s decisions about which works and selections of literature were going to be studied (and from which perspective), and which works were going to be excluded or erased. Teaching Don Quijote as Serrano de Haro interpreted it, or showing the Cid as a heroic figure who shared some characteristics with the

Caudillo, as we will see later, reflected a politico-economical decision on the part of the

Franquist regime. Literature had to be molded to fit into a total political-economical system which guided the regime’s ideology.

Since the Ministry of Education had contracted its own intellectuals and writers, now it was not the same to read from the editorial Edelvives as to read Díaz Plaja, or José Rogerio

Sánchez on the theme of “honor,” than José Manual Blecua or Menéndez Pidal. If the first ones represented the most orthodox, most traditional and reactionary ideology, the second ones were educated in traditional institutionalism. Fernández Soria observes that, “El punto en común era esa pizca o puñado-según la vinculación al sistema-de pimiento que todos debían y tenían que conceder si querían ver sus libros autorizados por la Comisión dictaminadora” (40). It is not surprising that young children were learning and the teachers were teaching from the textbooks published by the editorial Edelvives, from the encyclopedias of Antonio Álvarez, from José Rogerio Sánchez and from Agustín Serrano de

Haro-Franco’s preferred writers with an ability to rework original literary texts in accordance with the dictator’s dogma. All textbooks of the period carry a seal indicating that they had been approved by the Ministry of National Education. And the seal is followed by a Sanction number. In an interview with Elena Pita, Antonio Álvarez explained the importance of this

xciii seal of authorization in response to a critic who claimed to “detectar muchas artes del engaño estudiando Historia de España en la Enciclopedia Álvarez.”

His response is:

¿Muchas artes del engaño? Bueno, verá, existían unos cuestionarios y un régimen censor que te indicaba lo que habías de poner; y si no era así, no te aprobaban el libro. Dicho esto, que había que escribir que el Alzamiento fue un éxito muy conveniente y que Franco era un tío muy bueno, mi opinión es que aquello fue una dictadura. Aunque, quién va negar que Franco debía ser un tío muy listo, y que ganó la guerra y que los llamados rojos fusilaron a José Antonio en Alicante. Eso es Historia. (1)

As we can see, there was censorship as far as to what material had to be covered in the book in order for it to be approved for use in the schools. Despite this fact, Antonio Álvarez did not believe that he was transmitting wrong information to the youth of Spain. However, due to the censorship, he and other writers of the period only wrote about the historical facts which could be cited as supportive of the Franco’s regime and its new Catholic ideology.

As mentioned earlier, literature was learned by memorization. In order to keep the students informed about their country and engender love for their patria many poems were written with overt patriotic and Catholic tones. As soon as students opened their book,

Historia de España they read:

Gloriosa Patria mía, de lauros coronada, espejo de heroísmo, guardiana de la fe; la que renueva triunfos en moderna cruzada, porque hace inseparables a la cruz y la espada… ¡Gloriosa Patria mía! Tu nombre ensalzaré. (5)

Here, the reference to the Cruzadas clearly indicates the Franquist´s intentions to identify with the military expeditions of the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries when European

Christians fought to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims. Furthermore, it also refers to the Reconquista in Spain when Christians defeated the infieles on their own soil. Glory is here

xciv a synonym for war, and the cross has to be defended with the sword. Franco´s regime is, at the same time, warrior and Christian. But, in the name of Christ, the ideological discourse as elaborated by the Falange, justified the extermination of the Other, i.e. the democrat, the liberal, the free thinker, the republican. And students were thus familiarized with the extermination of the Other, familiarized with the renewal of the pact between the cross and the sword. Antonio Fontán, quoted by Vittorio Messori in Opus Dei: una Investigación, talks in very clear terms about this proximity between the Church and the Regime:

El régimen autoritario de Franco no tuvo que temer en su origen oposición seria por parte católica. Sobre todo, porque estaba fresco en la memoria el proceder del derrotado Frente Popular, que había desencadenado una cruel persecución contra la Iglesia… Cuando Franco tomó el poder, terminó la política discriminatoria contra la Iglesia. Se comenzaron a reconstruir las iglesias y monasterios, que habían quedado reducidos a montones de escombros…Muchos colegios privados, en gran parte confesionales, fueron homologados con los oficiales. En las aulas se pudieron volver a colgar crucifijos. El derecho matrimonial civil volvió a estar de acuerdo con el ordenamiento canónico. (263)

To this enumeration by Fontán, we should add the words of the Caudillo (again, quoted by Messori), who said: “El Estado perfecto para nosotros es el Estado Católico. No nos basta que un pueblo sea cristiano para que se cumplan los preceptos de una moral de este orden; son necesarias las leyes que mantengan el principio y corrijan el abuso” (263). In the words of Vittorio Messori, the main problem we have to analyze is not the connection between the Opus Dei and the Franquist Regime, but, in a wider perspective, the connection between the Regime and the Catholic Church, considered as a totality. For Messori, it is necessary to remember that the end of the Civil War meant the reemergence of the Church’s life, and of all its associations, and also of the Catholic Schools. In this context, the Catholic hierarchy took a clear position in favor of the Generalísimo (262). Messori continues, explaining that, for many, Franco was considered “el hombre de la Providencia” (262).

xcv Furthermore, he remembers the fact that “Basta recordar, por ejemplo, que al terminar el conflicto se puso en la fachada de catedrales e iglesias el escudo de la Falange con la inscripción «Caídos por Dios y por España ¡presentes!»”

Coming back to the poem from the first page of Historia de España: segundo grado, we read:

Desde remotos siglos, mil sombras venerables pregonan tu grandeza, que fue grandeza impar; y me hablan de victorias, de empresas memorables, de sueños sobrehumanos y de audacias laudables… ¡Yo quiero, Patria mía, tus glorias renovar! (Anonymous 5)

Once again, we can clearly see the reference to the crusades (“empresas memorables”). Obviously, Spain had, for catholic ultra-conservatives, to regain its ambitions, its lost glory, its vanished power to combat all the Others in Europe. The others, at the time of

Franco, were represented by all the governments with democratic systems and ideas: France,

England, the United States, Holland, Belgium, and Sweden. The regime’s only friends were the German Nazis, the Italian Fascists and the Papacy. The renewal of the pact between the cross and the sword meant leaving behind all pacifist ideas, all the possible progressive interpretations of Christian thinking, and to facilitate an aggressive ideology, the social implementation of a set of fanatical ideas elaborated to support the exploitation of the Other.

As Rafael Gómez Pérez says, in his book El franquismo y la Iglesia, “la actitud de la jerarquía eclesiástica, romana y española, ante el régimen de Franco durante el período 1936-62 se podría resumir en tres palabras: reconocimiento, gratitud, apoyo” (55). The Coup of Franco was strongly supported by the Catholic Church. Messori says:

El Alzamiento capitaneado por Franco buscó y obtuvo una legitimación en el campo eclesiástico, y mantuvo con él después de la guerra una relación privilegiada. Por ejemplo, en el concordato de 1953 se estableció que los obispos debían jurar ante el general Franco: «Juro ante Dios y los Santos

xcvi Evangelios respetar y hacer que mi clero respete al Jefe del Estado y al gobierno, según las leyes españolas». (265)

Coming back to the poem from the editorial Edelvives, we can see, in its last stanza, the clarification of the intentions of creating a unified Spain the intentions of going back to medieval traditions, and the acceptance of death as something necessary in the fight against all others:

Y quiero verte doquiera, trono de un Rey Divino que se complazca en ti; fiel a tus tradiciones del progreso lumbrera… Que flote en cada cumbre tu espléndida bandera y, si preciso fuera, ¡que esa bandera acepte de mi sangre el rubí! (Anonymous 5)

We will now turn out attention to the portrayal of Franco’s image in textbooks. This anonymous writer not only writes with the most positive adjectives about the leader, but also glorifies him with an illustration of their Generalísimo. Franco’s image on the illustration is sophisticated, dressed in a military outfit, with the Spanish flag flying behind him. As we know, when children start reading textbooks, the first aspect that draws their attention is some kind of drawing, a visual image that helps them to draw conclusions and better understand the text. Looking at Franco’s illustration in Historia de España: segundo grado, Spanish youth automatically observed something positive. The image was accompanied by a short historical description of the Falange organization:

La Falange Española Las elecciones de 1936. Ante los crímenes y desafueros de la República, José Antonio Primo de Rivera reaccionó recia y virilmente y fundó, en el mitin del teatro de la Comedia, 29 de octubre de 1933, la Falange Española, que, con nuevas ideas y nuevo empuje, se propuso la salvación de España por encima de todo…(Anonymous 213)

xcvii As we can observe, the Falange with its leader was the redeemer and savior of the country. Children read this passage and concluded that the Falange and its leader were also heroes just like their Caudillo who is described as follows: (following Historia de España: segundo grado)

El Caudillo Desde los primeros momentos, Franco fue aceptado como Jefe del movimiento y Caudillo de España. El 1 de octubre de 1936 la Junta de Defensa Nacional, creada en Burgos al iniciarse el Movimiento para el gobierno de la Nación, le nombró Generalísimo de los ejércitos de Tierra, Mar y Aire y Jefe del Estado con plenos poderes. Militar de brillantísima historia, adornado de las más excelsas virtudes de la raza, nuestro Caudillo fue un don de la Providencia para aunar todas las voluntades y conducir a la patria de triunfo en triunfo hasta rescatarla de las guerras de marxismo y ponerla en el camino de su futura grandeza. (Anonymous 213-15)

With a basic methodology, Antonio Álvarez, Agustín Serrano de Haro, José Rogerio

Sánchez and the anonymous writers of the Edelvives editorial, communicated with the

Spanish student about the triumph of the National government and the head of the state. From

Gramsci’s perspective, we are seeing a hegemonic approach where the dominance of state now is in the hands of one leader and this is transmitted by compulsory schooling among other propagandistic usage. Students learned that the current government was heaven sent to fight against Marxist thinkers and the previous government in order to achieve the grandiose implementation of the New State.

3.3. Educational Journals during the New State

Besides approved books like the ones from the editorial Edelvives, Álvarez, Rogerio

Sánchez and Serrano de Haro, educational journals were also instrumental in the literary formation of the new generation of Spain. Fray Justo Pérez de Urbel in his article “Las

xcviii revistas infantiles y su poder educativo” indicates that Spanish youth had to have a complete religious, moral, patriotic, scientific and humane formation. In order to achieve this goal journals started to replace censored or banned literature: “debían ser revistas nacionales, de fuera no puede venir nada o casi nada, y, aunque viniese, nos veríamos en la obligación de examinarlo y cribarlo escrupulosamente” (Pérez de Urbel 1). The regime rejected foreign pedagogic guidelines, and pleaded for a sui generis teaching based on the intuitive abilities of the Spanish people, which gave them real insight into things far beyond the possibilities of mere intellectual knowledge (Benso Calvo 409). Schools filled the shelves of their small libraries with lecturas ejemplares which were conveniently provided by the Ministry of

Education. According to Manuel Ramírez Jiménez, national journals that formed part of the new Spanish literature were Atenas,40 Razón y Fe, Revista Nacional de Educación and a little later, Arbor. Atenas had been used in private schools even during the Republic. Razón y Fe was a Jesuit publication from 1902 and La Revista Nacional de Educación was new, created by the sanction of 1940 with the objective to propagate the cultural movement. The very first number of La Revista Nacional de Educación proclaimed faith in the Falange as an instrument of a cultural renovation. Its purpose was to reach the outside world in order to demonstrate the new vision of the educational system of the Falange and the New Spain. So it is not surprising that the exiled intellectuals were able to keep informed about Franco’s new and grand educational system for Spain. In these national journal articles, religious figures and Phalangist collaborated including Fray Justo Pérez de Urbel, first Abbot del Valle de los

Caídos, Falangists like Pilar Primo de Rivera, Pedro Laín Entralgo, Antonio Tovar, as well as literary critics like Martín de Riquer, Alonso Zamora Vicente, Dámaso Alonso, Ramón

40 The dictator Franco religiously subscribed to this journal.

xcix Menéndez Pidal,…; the philosopher Manuel García Morente; the art critic José Francés; and from Opus Dei, José María Albareda and Pedro Rocamora.

The educational journal Atenas, initiated in 1937, brought the new orthodox dogma to

Spanish youth by publishing the nine mandates for a good Spaniard:

1. Creer en Dios, amarle y pedirle todos los días su protección a España. 2. No consentir sectas secretas ni asociaciones que mediaticen el Estado. 3. Defender y amar a España una e indivisible, con todas nuestras fuerzas. 4. Trabajar todos los días para que nuestra tierra sea la primera nación del mundo. 5. Que nuestra cultura sea española: agro, industria, ciencia, y arte. Tomar del extranjero lo que oriente y sirva de contraste, sin adaptárselo servilmente. 6. Amar la verdad sobre todas las cosas, y defenderla para bien de todos los ciudadanos. 7. Organizar la riqueza en beneficio de nuestros hermanos. 8. Que no haya un hogar sin trabajo, sin lumbre y sin pan. 9. Aborrecer a los hipócritas, a los embusteros, a los cínicos, y a los arrivistas, e impedir que medren los enemigos de la Patria. (Serrano Suñer 123-24)

Observing the above mandates, and following in the steps of Althusser, we can conclude that the journals were designed to orient the labor force, because they establish goals for an ideal Spain, in terms of industry, agriculture, sciences and the arts. As an educational magazine, Atenas included very little literature. And the literary works included were re- written or simply used in order to fulfill ideological objectives, since its political message was not only intended for the students but also the teachers. In the same issue of the journal, often, the directions for teachers were published as, for example, in the following:

Maestros españoles: Después de la oración, del canto poético y sublime de Pemán a la Patria y a la Religión, solo una palabra debía decir: Amen, así sea; pero para esto es temprano, y con fe y entereza habrá que decir: Así será. (Serrano Suñer 123)

c Here the journal speaks in clear reference to the tie that must exist between the

(Catholic) Church and the State: between the cross and the sword. Then, Franco adds more signals in reference to the battle for faith that is taking place in Spain. As Ramón Serrano

Suñer explains: “No perdió su hora el Caudillo al venir aquí, dejando por un momento las tareas relacionadas con los frentes; que si allí se libran batallas de las armas, aquí se libran batallas de fe, de verdad” (123). One of the forms that these battles for the faith can adopt is the brainwashing of the new generations. It is very difficult to convince adults, to make them think and elaborate concepts from a fanatic perspective. It was much easier for teachers to convince children to become activists, fanatics, soldiers willing to kill or to die for the Church and for the Generalísimo. Again, we quote Serrano Suñer, who cites Franco: “Nosotros no sólo tenemos que vencer al enemigo; tenemos que desarmarlo, despojarlo de su ideal absurdo, y ese deber os corresponde a vosotros, maestros de España” (123).

Franco continues to exhort teachers, stating:

Habréis visto el resurgir de un pueblo, de una raza al calor de los santos ideales de Patria y Religión. Sus proezas son tales, que han empequeñecido a los hombres grandes de la Historia, porque tienen fe en Dios. Estos son nuestros héroes-sacrificio, virtud, valor-soldados abnegados, orgullo de la Patria. (Serrano Suñer 123)

Later, the Generalísimo classifies people who do not think like him as “barbarians”and non-believers. Once again, the role that teachers play in Spain is emphasized by Franco:

¿Y por qué nuestros enemigos carecen de estas altas cualidades y encarnan el prototipo de la barbarie? Porque son los detritos de Europa y no tienen fe. El maestro, hasta ahora, estuvo despreciado; no se tenía en cuenta el alto significado de su valiosa misión, esto termino, la labor del Magisterio ha de cumplir de plano. La instrucción importa poco que sea grande o que sea chica; lo indispensable, lo preciso, es educar. Tenedlo muy en cuenta, maestros: Estos buenos materiales de construcción de la Patria, que son esos niños cuya educación se os encomienda; ésos que son los hombre del mañana, han se ser guiados por la senda de la verdad y el bien; ese es el mandato del frente, de las trincheras, de la sangre vertida y de las vidas

ci inmoladas, de los mártires, de los héroes que pusieron muy arriba el santo nombre de España. Nosotros, conscientes de nuestro deber, sepamos forjar la España grande que ellos sonaron. ¡Arriba España! (Serrano Suñer 123-24)

The writings in these journals are essential to understand the ideology that we have found in the textbooks. For instance, how to teach literature and what children should read were recurring topics in the Revista Nacional de Educación. Articles in the educational journals were a mixture of didactic correspondence, the use of the morality and the spirit of the most orthodox patriotism. Following Eco’s theory, such an explosive mixture gives a false and edulcorated product. The intellectuals that remained after the Civil War in Spain were not the most intellectually capable, but the most addicted to the Regime or the ones who were afraid to express an opposite opinion. A clear example is Carlos Barral in Años de penitencia, a student from the Jesuit School in Madrid, in the 1940’s, who states in his memoir the hierarchical distinction that existed between assignments:

No eran sólo la gramática, la métrica y la historia de la literatura las disciplinas deseñadas por los curas, eran la mayor parte de las humanidades (…) con la excepción de las asignaturas de religión y los cursos de latín. (85-6)

The Catalonian editor does not have a better opinion about the methods of teaching:

Los métodos pedagógicos eran (…) abominables, los textos escolares inmundos y el plan de estudios medieval. En nuestras clases de literatura, Voltaire era un monstruo satánico que soñó con destruir la Iglesia, nada más, sobre todo no había que leer. Todo se aprendía de memoria. (85-6)

Due to the fact that literature was almost completely erased from the curriculum, the

Franquist Regime replaced it with national journals as seen above. Original books could have become dangerous if read without the ideological filter of the governmental censorship

cii provided in pedagogical journals. Thus, Quijote became just a thin man looking for the forgotten honors of Medieval Spain, and the Cid became the incarnation of the Catholic religion fighting against the unbelievers.

3.4. Manipulation through Literature, Phrases, Dictations, Syntaxes, Stories, etc.

Costa Araujo in his article “La materia y la forma literaria” published in Revista

Nacional de Educación 1942, explains the role that literature played after the Civil War. First, he claims that, since Spanish youth had just gone through a war and many of them had lost their families, literary works could help them to forget about the war by implementing an absolutely pure and new vision. This pureness does not refer to a “totally free” interpretation, or to an interpretation based on an appreciation of Literature. The main conditions for choosing a literary book for students were clarity, visual content (images and drawings, e.g.), and dogma. Once these conditions were established, the next requirement for the authors was to write in a way that encouraged teacher’s persuasiveness and storytelling abilities. On one side authors had to subordinate their art to the rules of Catholic orthodoxy, to function primarily, as mass educators, and, only secondarily, as artists. Furthermore, Costa Araujo explains that Franquist writers: “señalan que los publicistas católicos deben tener como norma, a la hora de juzgar la obra literaria, la consigna del Apóstol de las Gentes: ‘Omnia ad aedificationem fiant’ (That all is for enlightment)” (30). Observing this notion and following the writing of Serrano de Haro, his book Yo soy Español is filled with beautiful descriptions of Spain, of its General and of its people. Also, Isabel la Católica is represented as white, beautiful and humble as a saint who loved Spain with all her heart. The Cid is represeted as a strong and valient person: “el Cid Campeador amaba mucho a su patria y a su rey, pero sobre todo amaba mucho a su Dios” (45). It is valuable to point out that this does not mean that any

ciii piece of literature that was aesthetically pleasing was able to form part of the literary educational canon, because if books were artistically presentable but affirmed immoral and obscene situations, they would not be included in the list of accepted texts. As a result, some texts from medieval Spain were erased from the literary canon and from other ones only sections were presented, as we will see below. For instance, El libro de buen amor of

Archipreste de Hita deserves to be praised, even though it was never recommended to be used in the classrooms. The reason was because of its edifying themes and because of its sensual and almost obscene feelings. Sometimes these notions were justified with a satiric spirit but many clerics during the time of Franco criticized the book because it was considered as immoral and it went against the dogma that was proposed in the New State. El libro de buen amor was not given the chance to be studied profoundly when it comes to its moral and educational motives. The same case is with the work of Fernando de Rojas, the Celestina.

Valls explains that this book was seen negative even in the superior school. He states that a teacher in the Royal Academy in the department of drama had great problems, difficulties and was penalized for choosing a scene from the Celestina, which was considered also as immoral for the students (139). The Jesuit Pedro Ladrón de Guevara, in Novelistas malos y buenos, gives a list of all the authors who have disqualifying works or qualifying works chosen for

Catholic and Franquist education. For instance, the epic poem was recreated in the literature throughout the centuries, maintaining the Cid’s image and constantly adapting to new mentalities. The reception of the Cid throughout the centuries has been studied by Luis

Galván in El Poema del Cid en España, 1779-1936: Recepción, mediación, historia de la filología. In order to characterize the complex history of the reception of the epic poem, we have to keep in mind three principal divisions that back as far as 1936: neoclassical, romantic

civ and realistic (305). The first division starts in 1779 with the prologue of the first edition by

Tomás Antonio Sánchez41 and it survives until 1862. During this period, the poem is examined in light of epic poetry, and it is compared with previous and new models, “Iliada,

Eneida, Lusiadas, Jerusalén liberada” (305). In general, attention is given to the style and to the metric instead of giving more importance to the context or the narration of the entire poem. To this period, authors were trying to distinguish the difference between epic and historical poetry (61). The romantic division (following Galván here) starts in Germany,

France, and Great Britain in the beginning of the 19th Century, but it does not arrive in Spain until 1840 when introduced in the works of Joaquín Rubió and Pedro José Pidal. Here, importance is given to epic actions, national and medieval spirit, and individual values. The national Spanish character was sintetizad as, “entusiasmo sin límite por su religión y su Rey, su honra y su dama” (65). The poem is elevated to a point where is considered a poetic jewel and masterpiece until 1862. The third division is essentially realistic and it starts around 1863.

This position is realized especially in 1891 in the works of Menéndez Pelayo and it lasts until the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Here, we have interpretations that value the simplicity of the realistic narrations. More specifically, it is valued for veracity of what has been told, the fidelity of the real history of Rodrigo Díaz, and verisimilitude (Galván 306). It is within a national and religious context where chivalresque, loyalty, respect, and nobility are characters overly stressed (140). What stands out about the figure of the Cid is his pragmatism

41 Galván explains, “Durante siglos el Poema apenas fue conocido. Comoquiera que hayan sido su composición, su difusión y su recepción medievales-cuestiones bastante debatidas-,está claro que en algún momento desaparece de la vida literaria, quizá después del siglo XIV, cuando se copió el códice que hoy se conserva. Este quedó archivado en el Concejo de Vivar al menos desde finales del XV, fue pasando luego por manos de varios particulares, y llegó al convento de Santa Clara de Vivar, donde se encontraba en el XVIII. En 1596 Juan Ruiz de Ulibarri realizó una copia manuscrita, conservada hoy en la Biblioteca Nacional de España… el códice medieval o la copia fueron consultados por algunos autores de los siglos XVII y XVIII, que no llegaron a darle gran difusión. Por fin, el consejero de estado Emilio Llaguno extrajo el códice del convento, y lo facilitó a un erudito investigador de la literatura medieval, Tomás Antonio Sánchez, quien realizó la primera edición, en 1779, dándo el título de Poema del Cid.” (1)

cv and his dignity even more than his heroic actions or his ideals. For instance, Menéndez y

Pelayo and Unamuno are especially responsible for promoting the national spirit of the epic poem. Furthermore, Menéndez Pidal emphasized the poem´s realism and its national spirit in its portrayal of the fight between Christianity and Islam as well as the political independence of the hero. The realistic reception of the Cid also fostered a methodological renovation where the poem is no longer explained as a historic copy, but an interpretation of reality.

Despite the above receptions, the heroic figure of the Cid, not the Poema de Mío Cid, reached its highest elevation during Franco’s regime. During his time the poem is seen as a mixture of the last two divisions explained above. It is transmitted as if the Cid and his King are the only protagonists of the entire poem. The Cid is endowed with political, social, literary, ethic and national significance in order to promote the national ideology. In order to reach such significance the linguistic barriers of the epic poem were broken and replaced with pleasant reading. The poem is appreciated as the first work about the Cid in Spanish and as a unique piece of work in the history of the literature. Unfortunately, during the Franco’s educational system, the Spanish youth knew who the Cid was because of the fictitious literary works and not because of the original medieval epic poem. According to Jónsdóttir the myth reached the society by means of recreation where the national aspect was easily entered in the spirits of the youth without presenting the linguistic difficulties that the poem conveys previously encountered by Ménendez Pidal (9). In order to transmit the appropriate significance of the regime, the anonymous textbook Historia de España: segundo grado teaches the parallelism between the Cid and Franco. The same is the case in the book of

Serrano de Haro. This is how students were introduced to the epic hero:

Los guerreros cristianos que peleaban contra los moros eran muy valientes. Iban cubiertos de hierro desde la cabeza hasta los pies. Y

cvi hasta los caballos iban cubierto de hierro. El más valiente de todos aquellos guerreros españoles fue el Cid Campeador, quien fue a pelearse contra los moros, en su caballo Babieca, con más de doscientos capitanes. Se pasó la vida peleando y siempre ganaba. Los moros le temían tanto que apenas veían su caballo echaban a correr llenos de miedo. Y por eso decía el Cid: Se va ensanchando Castilla Delante de mi caballo. Y los juglares cantaban en ferias y romerías: En busca va de los moros Su bandera va tendida. El iba por capitán, Libra la gente cautiva, Quitábales los ganados, Siete leguas les seguía. Tantos mató de los moros, Que contarse no podían. El Cid Campeador amaba mucho a su patria y a su rey, pero sobre todo amaba mucho a su Dios. (45)

Following this excerpt the student has a section called nociones where it teaches him to follow the footsteps of el Campeador stating: “ Como El Campeador, yo prometo querer y amar a mi Patria y nuestro lenguaje ha de estar siempre al servicio de Dios y la

Patria” (81). Obviously, there were many parts of the epic poem missing from this excerpt and only teaches the student to fight for his country as the Cid did. The mistreatment of the Cid’s daughters by the Infants of Carrión was nowhere to be seen in the textbooks for example.

Since students were exposed to only selected passages from a limited number of authors, they could not participate in the play of textual interpretation as described by Eco. The role of

Model Reader, as one who is able to dialog with the text, was interrupted, and replaced by a politically-biased interpretation (and Eco would say that here we do not even have a case of interpretation, but a case of use) of Medieval texts. If we are able to read the Poema de Mío

Cid as a work that posits the problem of religious wars, of exile, or the mistreatment of women, we are interpreting the text. But, if we read the figure of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar as an

cvii antecedent of the figure of Franco, we fall into a politically-biased use of the Cid. The ones who were using the texts for their own convenience were the intellectuals belonging to the

Franquist Regime, the designers of the educational plans, and not the students. Part of the functioning of the educational system as a State Apparatus consisted, then, in using medieval texts, making them fit into the organization and the strategies of reproduction of class differences. As we have seen above, the use of medieval texts played a very important role in connecting the Educational Apparatus with the economic interests of the ruling class.

This brings us to Agustín Serrano de Haro in Yo soy Español, a primary school textbook and manual for teachers. This textbook also works with the manipulation of the students’ thinking. Each chapter deals with a patriotic, religious, aesthetic, or historical theme, and is followed by a suggestion for the teacher. Following is an example from the chapter called “! España!! España!”

España es muy hermosa. En España hay unas sierras muy altas y unos ríos muy anchos y muchas flores. Y los campos dan trigo y aceite, vino y miel. Y el sol es muy brillante, y el cielo muy azul. Por eso todos los hombres querían vivir en España. ….. Y unos venían con sus barcos cargados de telas, para cambiarlas por el oro de España. Y otros se venían aquí a vivir con sus mujeres y sus hijos. Y vivían tan a gusto y nadie los molestaba. Pero algunos de los que vinieron eran muy ambiciosos y querían echar a los españoles y quedarse con los pueblos, con los campos y con las riquezas de España, pero los españoles no se lo consintieron y los arrojaron al otro lado del mar. (17)

After such a beautiful explanation of Spain, there is an illustration of the strong

Spaniard killing and chasing away the enemies. This is followed by a teaching suggestion, which gives an idea to the teacher of how to interpret the text for the students:

cviii Sugerencias: Que se recreen los chiquitines en la contemplación y en la rememoración de las batallas y las riquezas de su Patria: ábreles tú los ojos y el corazón, Maestro de España. Asómalos a estos campos, a estos valles, a esta luz. Y que ellos te digan las cosas bonitas que han visto y las dulzuras con que nos regala el regazo opulento de la Madre Patria. Así se explicaran que España fuera un día---¡y acaso siga siendo!---codicia del mundo.---Influencia del suelo y del clima sobre el hombre; ejemplos al alcance de los niños.---Hágase notar la diferencia de conducta de los españoles con los pueblos que venían de buena fe y los que venían con aviesas intenciones. ¿Hicieron bien o mal arrojando a estos últimos? ---Consecuencias morales y patrióticas.--- Premiar la mejor colección de fotografías de paisajes, panoramas y monumentos de la Patria que presenten los niños. (¿Te parece esto ir demasiado lejos? No. Inténtalo, y versa de cuantas y cuan admirables cosas son capaces los pequeñines.) Frases para dictar y aprender: “España es muy hermosa. Nunca consintieron los Españoles que los extranjeros se apoderaran de ella.” (17)

From the above quote it is of a great importance to mention the fact that during

Franco’s dictatorship all foreign influences were erased and strong chauvinism was enforced. Franco wanted to make Spain as pure as possible, just like in the times of the Reyes Católicos. We can easily state that he was creating a xenophobic society by eliminating and censoring the external aspects.

Furthermore, from the above quote we find the suggestion to the teacher very powerful because neither the student nor the teacher was entitled to his own opinion of the text. The last line of this poem is a reflection and a repetition of traditional Spanish thinking in twentieth-century Spain.

Moreover, the manipulation of the students often was performed through dictation.

Teachers dictated a sentence and students wrote it correctly. These dictations covered religious, political, moral and patriotic themes. Following are some of the famous phrases for dictation found in Historia de España: segundo grado:

!Viva España! !Arriba España! !Gloria al Caudillo! España es muy hermosa. Nunca consintieron los Españoles que los extranjeros se apoderaran de ella. (…)

cix En España ha habido siempre muchísimos cristianos y muchos mártires y muchos santos. El Cid fue el más famoso de los guerreros cristianos. ¡Yo soy capaz de dar mi vida por Jesucristo! España civilizó a América, las naciones de América llaman a España madre. Yo quiero que mi patria sea siempre buena, siempre rica, siempre felíz. (10-30)42

Once again, these examples gave students a very positive view of Spain.

Obviously, religious dictations were also popular in these primary school books, because they taught the children to sacrifice their lives for Jesus, and that God will make their nation the first nation in the world; a centralized and pure nation just like from the medieval times. Also, it teaches children to work, to create and make their country rich.

According to José Rogerio Sánchez, in the scholarly journal Atenas, in order to inculcate the expected ideological, religious and patriotic morality to students, only

“approved” sayings from literary works were presented for dictation (100). As with literary texts, the phrases had to pass through various stages in order to get approval from the Ministry of Education. Usually selections were chosen from approved texts. Another manipulation through literature was to analyze fragments from literary texts. For instance, in a section called partes de la oración, there usually appeared a fragment of Galdós’ only

43 approved novel, Trafalgar . In 1943 the centenary birth of Galdós was recognized. But for the Jesuits it was not a preferred celebration because they considered Galdós an author who

42 This is a collection of manipulative phrases found throughout the entire textbook. 43 This is a series of historical romances known as Episodios Nacionales: this cycle of thirty tales leads the reader through the most striking incidents in the history of Spain during the first forty – five years of the nineteenth century, from the disaster of Trafalgar through the brief period of Napoleonic domination to the national uprising and the glorious scenes of Bailen, Gerona and Zaragoza, then from the battlefields of the Peninsula to the constitutional struggles of the reign of Ferdinand VII and the dynastic disputes of his family. This book is a representing the years of 1792 to 1805. The battle of Trafalgar is the last great battle in which Spaniards and Englishmen have faced one another. For more information on this battle please consult Historia de España by Modesto Lafuente.

cx falsified the national spirit.

Besides Marianela and the above mentioned novel, Galdós’ other novels were not permitted under the new regime. The major objection of Franquist intellectuals to his work was his militant anti-clericalism. Even though the majority of Galdós’ novels were burned,

Mariano Peset in “Tolstoi y unos viejos manuscritos” notoriously recognizes his place within

the creation of the Spanish literary canon:

Vivió y murió, completamente ciego de cuerpo y de alma; pues, a pesar de que, en su última enfermedad, un celosísimo arzobispo y algunos buenos amigos trataron de despertar en él la fe adormecida, por su servil sectarismo no dio señales de conversión. No pueden negarse los méritos literarios de Galdós (…). Pero lo que afea torpemente su enorme antireligiosas, y las negras tintas con que dibuja los personajes de ideología religiosa, haciéndolas avaros, viciosos y antipáticos, mientras presenta a los anticlericales como modelos de caridad, benevolencia y simpatía. (116)

Despite all the controversy about Galdós’ work, students had to respond to the following assignment: ¿Cómo explicaríais vosotros el sentimiento de la Patria en Trafalgar?

Students were already given the sense of the text, warning them that they had to comment on the aspect of the Patria and nothing else. The student could not annotate anything else from the text, nor draw his own conclusions, but following Eco’s theory, the text is used in order to brainwash the students or to induce the new ideological thinking. The majority of the exercises had an ideological weight and, from an Althusserian perspective, all tended toward one end: to reproduce the dominant ideology; impose the ideas of the conquerors in the Civil

War and their particular vision of the world. This ideological reproduction continued in other

cxi writing themes, e.g., paternal love. Also, themes such as love of national ideals and the fight to obtain them, obedience to laws and respect towards them were utilized in the schools. For such a reproductive transmission, texts from Fray Luis de Granada, Santa Teresa, and Antonio

Solis were especially utilized in writing classes.

In this way, the Franquist regime assured the reproduction of its ideology. Looking at the above example, we observe that the student did not think for himself, nor was he entitled to his opinion. The passage has given him the ideological path that he should follow.

Josefina Álvarez Cánovas, inspector of Primary school and author of childrens’ books, points out that to study narrative there are two points of view: literary and psychological. A literary text is:

La forma primitiva y elemental y pertenece a la literatura de ficción, cuyo fin es crear un mundo nuevo que nos sustraiga al vivir cotidiano sin relieve. Es una evasión de lo real pobre y mezquino y limitado a lo maravillo.(44)

Psychologically narrative fiction is:

Una proyección del alma infantil, es un sonar despierto, es un asesinato al mundo real, en el que suceden las cosas como no deben ser a ese otro mundo de magia y de maravilla en el que las hadas-madrinas se encargan de arreglarlo todo (…) es el desquite de los débiles, los oprimidos, los torturados, los pequeños (…) es el complejo de inferioridad sublimado, creado por Freud en 1900 con su teoría de psicoanálisis. (44)

She further states that stories that were of a great interest to students should reflect the ideological thinking of their society. During the regime the preferred stories for children were

Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and Mari-Sol, a child’s novel with an idealistic, mystic and religious tone. It describes the life of a little girl who is in love with Baby Jesus, and it is

cxii filled with songs and divine love. Passion for God, conversion, suffering for the love of God, the strength of prayer, morality and religion were its primary themes. To clearly see how stories were transmitted to the students and the interpretations that were given, we cite the story entitled La abeja y la mariposa given by José León Domíniquez in “Lectura comentada de un cuento” in the journal Atenas from 1950:

Una abejita volaba por entre las frondas y flores de un bello jardín. Iba un poco fatigada porque llevaba las patitas cargadas del néctar de las flores para hacer su miel. Una mariposa de brillantes colores, rojos y negros, grande y magnifica, al ver a la abeja gris, tan torpe y lenta se echo a reír: -¿Adónde vas, compañera? – le dijo-. A ese paso pronto caerás a tierra para arrástrate como un gusano. -Calla, calla, locuela. ¿Quieres que probemos a ver quien llega antes a tocar la rosa tan roja y fragante que nos espera allá a los lejos? -Tú, ¡qué has de llegar! - contestó burlona, aleteando coqueta para hacer admirar los brillantes reflejos de sus alas ante los rayos del sol. - Vamos allá – contestó sencilla e inquieta la abeja. Porque como tenía el hábito de trabajar, no se entretenía en palabras. Partieron ambas. Torpe y pesada, pero recta, la abeja. Graciosa y tenue, alzándose ligerísima hacia el sol, la mariposa. Peor vio un rojo clavel, y se entretuvo un poquito. Vio después volar a otra mariposa, y fue a charlar con ella, entreteniéndose otro poquito para contarle la apuesta. Las dos se reían de la abeja humilde y cargada, que avanzaba rectamente. -¡Ay, que llega! – exclamó de repente la mariposa. Y entonces partió veloz, agitando sus alas. Era tarde. La abeja había llegado ya, y en el rojo corazón de la magnifica rosa se rociaba de su delicioso néctar. -¡Hola!- exclamo burlona, al llega la mariposa-. ¡Ay, mariposa bonita! No des tantas vueltas en balde, y ve siempre recta hacia tu fin. (48)

How should this text be interpreted during the regime? A good beginning would be to ask the student about the argument, the characters and the consequences of the action. The last sentence “siempre recta hacia su fin” compares the behavior of the butterfly to that of the

cxiii student, because he should not be distracted during school. On the other hand, and as

Domíniquez explains, the focus of analysis was more directed towards religion. The last sentence implied that, at the end, human beings have to love and serve God. In order for this to be accomplished, one had to behave as the bee and not as the butterfly. Domíniquez, for a better understanding of the religious aspects explains it as follows:

En él hay dos senderos: uno tortuoso, zigzagueante, hacia el abismo; otro recto, orillado de espinas, compuesto de diez estancias que son los Mandamientos del Decálogo. Este es el camino que se debe seguir. Por el otro camino, van los niños poco piadosos, amantes de vicios, que no cumplen con el precepto de oír misa, desobedientes e irrespetuosos con sus padres y maestros, iracundos, impuros, amigos de lo ajeno, soberbios, enemigos de la catequesis y de la escuela, envidiosos, dominados por la pereza; los que no fomentan ni la oración ni los sacramentos... (49)

Taking into consideration Althusserian terminology about the reproduction of the working forces, we can interpret the story in another way. The bee is working hard, extracting honey. To this we can add the moral reflection, about the hard work of the insects, the necessity of working hard and being noble. Teachers should also comment on the work of the bee with respect to the grandiose Creator. All of these methodological approaches were intended for the student to acquire a certain religious and moral vision. Following the theory of Eco, the interpretation of the story is shifted in different terms. In this work we can see how the Franquist oligarchy utilized the teaching of literature to reproduce the national ideas, introducing a series of elements that do not appear in the story, such as, the students that arrive late to school, the end of human life, the workers, the ideal child, etc. This is done so the students, the future generations of Spain, continue working for the benefit of the regime.

The manipulation through literary texts was also found in syntax class, where students studied free construction, rhymes and meters of selected poems. Many of the texts used were

cxiv from 15th century Spanish literature, and sometimes contemporary work such as Los chachos from Pedro Álvarez, El tonto discreto from Miguel Villalonga, and IV grupo de 75-27 from

José-Vicente Torrente (Rogerio Sánchez 101). Many times there were also selections from the Poema de Mío Cid. Also, the syllabus recommended one novel from Golden Age Spain and one novel from 19th century chosen with close judgment by the teacher. Usually the teachers referred to the list of the literary pieces that were considered and recommended to use in class such as El libro de su vida and Don Qujote. Also, novels chosen to form part of the texts for syntax class were Galdós’s Trafalgar, works form Valera, Alarcón, Pereda,

Palacio Valdéz, P. Coloma, etc., form part of the texts for syntax class (Rogerio Sánchez 101).

As we can observe Unamuno, Baroja, Antonio Machado, J.R. Jiménez, Azorín, Ortega, the generation of 27 and 98, Pérez de Ayala, just to mention the most known Spanish intellectuals, were absent. Salvador Fernández Ramírez in La enseñanza de la gramática y de la literatura, explains the strictness in the selection of literary texts:

Los profesores deberán tener cuidado siempre que tengan que dar a conocer el nombre o las obras de algún autor de gran mérito literario, pero de carácter moral reprobable o de tendencias ideológicas o religiosas erróneas, de señalarlo y subrayarlo así a sus alumnos, recomendándoles la evitación de sus lecturas y poniendo bien de manifiesto el carácter de sus errores o de su inmoralidad. Siempre se deberá como regla general, huir de los autores que, aunque tengan méritos literarios relevantes, sean peligrosos para la buena formación moral y la integridad de la Fe Católica en los alumnos (34).

The interest could have not been clearer about utilization of literature during the victory of the rightists. As we can see form the above quote the teachers had to pay close attention to books and authors that had inmoral values according to the dogma of the new regime. For some reason if the student got hold of such a book, the job of the teacher was to explain the negative character and how it is irrelevant for their merit and their moral

cxv formation. As a result, we can state that literature was utilized as an instrument of patriotic- moral reproduction, because the students were only introduced to literature that teaches them moral and Catholic values and not literature that provokes danger and contradiction to what has been taught by the teachers.

cxvi Chapter 4

Manipulative use of Poema de Mío Cid

4.1. La España del Cid; a Fascist Interpretation of the Cid’s Figure?

The Cid Campeador is a figure with a long literary life which has lived in songs, dramas, operas, poetry, and novels, and more importantly, intellectual and politica debates

(Galván 1). There is no doubt that the Cid’s figure has been constantly used in relation to the

Spanish Civil War. During this time period, there were two ideological positions taken towards the Cid’s history: fascistic and republican. The republicans, from their perspective, identify with the Cid as an epic hero because they were unjustly exiled much like the Cid was by his King. On the other hand, the Fascists consider the Cid’s figure an identical and direct reflection of the dictator Franco. To make such an interpretation valid, the nationalists strongly emphasized the Cid’s fidelity towards his authority. In order to explore the adoption of the Cid by Phalangist ideology, we will examine La España del Cid by Ramón Menéndez

Pidal.

Menéndez Pidal’s work established the Cid’s position at the beginning of the 20th

Century in the cultural scene. When one referred to the Cid, automatically one was talking about the epic poem—not the other literary works written during the 15th to 18th Century about the Cid’s figure. Not only did the poem highlight a magnificent hero, it also demonstrated great cultural value. In fact, thanks to Menéndez Pidal, the epic poem gained national treasure status. The Cid’s historic figure, as represented in La España del Cid, allowed the Cid to form part of what Spain represented, according to the nationalist dogma: idyllic, distant, centralized and perfect (Jȩnsdȩtti 210). When referring to the Cid, there were also discussions of Spain’s history. After the Civil War, the national group, together with the

cxvii dictator Franco, needed to manipulate the image of the Cid as a way to enter into the hearts of the people.

The fascist image of the Cid was born out of Menéndez Pidal’s La España del Cid from 1929. The book was published during Primo de Rivera’s last year of dictatorship, a time where the nation was divided by the tension between social classes. As a critic, María Eugenia

Lacarra believes that La España del Cid was proposed to cure the evil of the Spanish society towards the end of the twenties, and that Menéndez Pidal anticipated a military caudillo as a solution to the national situation. “Menéndez Pidal ofrece a sus conciudadanos una lección de conformidad al Estado y de acatamiento a la autoridad” (98). She argues that Menéndez

Pidal’s final intention, despite his reasoning, was to write a fascist piece of work. And without a doubt, many critics share the same perspective as Lacarra.

It is important to point out that La España del Cid appeared seven years before the

Spanish Civil War. The pro-national tone of the piece obligates the reader to see the difference between nationalism and patriotism, and its relation with fascism. Maurizio Viroli in Por amor a la patria indicates that nationalism and patriotism cannot be used as synonyms.

While patriots’ principals focus on the republic and free lifestyle, the nationalists predominantly focus on spirit unification and the culture within society (16). Viroli points out that these concepts are quite difficult to explain, but when a nation encounters a moral and political crisis, it is probable that the patriotic or the national language utilized will reach the so called Gramsci’s cultural hegemony. Such language dictates a fight for unification and a centralization of the nation following the rules of the leader. When Menéndez Pidal wrote this book, Spain was also going through a political and moral crisis. If we follow Viroli’s

cxviii thinking, it appears that Menéndez Pidal’s approach was simply to unify and centralize the nation and the only ones that heard his voice were the Phalangists.

It would be a paradox to affirm that Menéndez Pidal was in favor of the Phalangists when we already know his collaboration with the Institituto Libre de Enseñanza, a democratic organization, which was against all dogma and extremely progressive during the twenties. His vital trajectory also reveals that he does not take part in the political life of Spain. Also, he does not act except for when he defends the Royal Academy, the university or his center for investigation. La España del Cid has a more extensive dissemination because the author’s purpose was to expand his audience; therefore, his book was not read by an academic public.

There is a misalignment between the impact of the book on the Spanish society and the explicit purpose of the author. In the prologue he states, “Trato de exponer en este libro un cuadro general de España en el siglo XI que se desarrolla en torno a la figura del Campeador”

(1-2). Here the history of the 11th Century only becomes the history of the heroic figure. A human being is now converted in the nation’s historic axis where the author intends to filter and revive the memory of the Cid who “está entre nosotros muy necesitado de renovación”

(3). Miguel Alonso Báquer believes that Menéndez Pidal realized that there was a crisis of models. And as a result, he wrote La España del Cid, becoming the only one to focus on history rather than literature. In 1908, he purified the manuscript of the epic poem. Later, in

1929, he wanted to reconquer the real history of the life of the Cid. He successfully brings the

Cid back to life, but the question is if he really wanted to do so.

As we have seen from the previous quote, Menéndez Pidal uses first person plural when he states that the Cid is “between us” and makes his Spanish reader an accomplice. By reading Ramón Menéndez Pidal, su vida y su tiempo by Joaquín Pérez Villanueva, it is

cxix difficult to see a rebel or a manipulative mind. His patriotic love is expressed by reading and writing about medieval literature. What inspired Menéndez Pidal to write La España del Cid was the need to fight against the so called cidophobia that was detected in previous works by other historians. He tried to break the concept of cidophobia in order to influence public opinion. In order to achieve this, he turns his focus on the scholars as well as his fellow countrymen. He turns to the Spanish nation because it is the “esencia del pueblo a que pertenecemos” (8). He also states that the historic memories can “robustecer aquella trabazón de los espíritus-el alma colectiva-, inspiradora de la cohesión social” and helps to lead the

“debilidad actual del espíritu colectivo” (8). La España del Cid does not concentrate on the epic poem, but covers the Cid’s entire life as well as the historic period of his time. Another intent that Menéndez Pidal truly wanted was to cure divided Spain by publishing another edition of the same book in a very crucial year—1939. In this specific prologue he states, “Por conveniencias editoriales suprimo en la segunda edición española de este libro, las notas y apéndices. Sin embargo, el texto va más documentado y, en consecuencia documentado” (10).

The above quote sounds as if he wanted to reach a wider, less sophisticated audience during a very desperate moment. Lacarra states, “Menéndez Pidal se va a valer de un género de la literatura científica, la historia, para mostrar a sus coetáneos cuáles son sus verdaderos modelos por lo tanto sus verdaderos intereses” (99). La España del Cid is a logical continuation of Menéndez Pidal’s work. He previously had established the literary canon about the sources of the Cid, making the epic poem even more valuable for its antiquity as well as its literary and linguistic curiosity. Now the identity of the Spanish society was found in the Middle Ages. He established a literary hierarchy, presenting other literary works about the Cid inferior. These works, even though ideological, never reached the Spanish audience.

cxx La España del Cid captures the audience because Menéndez Pidal concentrates his studies on the historic figure of the Cid and the historiography that surrounded him. With his work, he turns his attention to a wider audience using seductive speech. He corrects reconquests, the true story about the hero represented by foreign writers, and accordingly with the national spirit. As mentioned before, Menéndez Pidal cleaned up the medieval manuscript of comments that were made throughout the centuries. Then, with La España del Cid, he purifies the historical image of the Cid in accordance with the idyllic and monumental hero.

According to Jónsdóttir, Menéndez Pidal recuperates and castellaniza the true history of the

Cid because he doubts foreign veracity based on sources written by “enemigos de la religion cristiana” (215). His first intention is to tell the 11th - Century history of Spain because it was

“el siglo de nuestra historia más rico en momentos más decisivos” and that the figure and the history of the Cid remain the historical epicenter of that time (1-2).

In continuation, we will see the image that Menéndez Pidal projects of the Cid. He provides an answer to all of the negative representations about the hero that have appeared from other historical critics. Menéndez Pidal removes all the negativity towards the Cid, representing him in a superlative light without any tolerance of criticism.

Menéndez Pidal says that out of the Cid he constructed a “monumento de papel,” and denounces any negligence that the Spanish society has towards the hero:

Ni siguiera hemos laborado el recurdo material de un monumento público dedicado al héroe; todo el bronce que había lo hemos gastado en glorificar a generales y ministros, personajes casi impersonales de la obra estatal” (4).

Menéndez Pidal values the creation of such a monument which can control the collective memory of the Spanish people. Besides, without these monuments made of paper, he states that the world will not know the major facts and biography of the Cid (5). In order to

cxxi achieve his goals he takes a look at the facts about the Cid from Arabic historians and interprets them free of cidophobia. Menéndez Pidal claims that, “Ben Alcama no suele ser un historiador embustero, pero sí de media verdad” (4). This type of language is common and it manipulates the reader. He accuses Alcama of having omitted the history that was not beneficial for the Arabic interest and that the figure of the Cid is depicted satirically,

“codicioso, grande al prometedor y chico al cumplir” (4). Menéndez Pidal argues that in the work of the Arabic historian, everything that is glorious is discarded:

Esa visión ideal de la vida del Cid era cosa imposible, y por el contrario, en España da ahora sus principales frutos la incomprensión por las cosas de la Edad Media que había dominado en Europa durante el siglo XVIII. (43)

On the other hand, the national spirit of Menéndez Pidal is also expressed through the language. He talks about national and nation in the 11th Century as if they were common terms used during that time. It is noticeable that when he talks about the fight against the

Moorish king Almanzor affirming, “Almanzor había formado dos bandas contra las fuerzas nacionales” (80). In other words, the nacionales are obviously the Christians or better said the

Castilians. We further encounter the concept of nationalism in the following excerpt:

El Cid, con los defectos que pudiera tener, no dejaba por eso de ser excelente cristiano, campeador de la fe y de la independencia nacional, caballero honrado por todos y sobre todos, y no un aventurero sin fe ni patria; bueno fuera que estos hipercrítos conociesen el Fuero viejo de Castilla para que supiesen que si el Cid combatió a su soberano fue en uso de un perfecto derecho, expresamente reconocido por esa compilación legal. (25)

In this quote, he applies the concept of nation to the Spanish medieval reality and perceives Castile as a nation that fights for its independence from Islam. Also, the author’s rhetoric is notable. He does not negate the fact that the Cid had defects, but they have nothing to do with his conduct of being a good Christian fighting for his faith. And, if it can be proven

cxxii that to fight against the king, there is also a legal explanation. By means of law, he illustrates the justification that almost required the Cid to go against his king. For Menéndez Pidal, it is important to emphasize the Cid’s right to engage in war with his King. He insists on this and mentions the example of when Gónzalo de Asturias was exiled by King Alfonso VII. He went to Portugal where he prepared himself for a war against his King (37). Because of all these, he states that the Cid’s behavior was impeccable, and that contemporary criticism is mistaken because it does not have the historical knowledge to understand the circumstances.

In the following page of his book, Menéndez Pidal again mentions la naciȩn española.

With his accord with Dozy, he not only perceives an attack to the Cid’s personality as well as the nation because, according to him, when representing a hero unfavorably it also attacks the nation’s pride. According to Menéndez Pidal, Dozy’s intentions were, “a descubrir puntos de vista desfavorables al héroe de la nación española, estudiando tras Ben Bassam and Ben

Alcama” and other Arabic or Christian historians (26-27).

There are moments where Menéndez Pidal’s comments parallels those of his opponents. An example of this is when he discusses if the Cid really burnt churches:

Una propiedad de esta clase no es de esperar que en la Guerra pudiese ser más respetada que otras cualquier riqueza del enemigo. Pero, en fin, nada sabemos que el Cid hay hecho con las iglesias, no hay motivos para asegurar la veracidad de la acusación de Berenguer, ni menos para extenderla, diciendo que el Cid atropelló un gran número de iglesias. (39)

Even though he does not believe what Berenguer states, if it were the case, it can all be justified as part of war if necessary. Something similar happens with the cruelty of the Cid who supposedly was burning his prisoners and afterwards throwing them to the dogs. He questions Dozy’s interpretation, but finally admits the fact that there are pathological incidents in all wars.

cxxiii It is precisely the indecision that La España del Cid covers by giving a convincing tone. He takes out the inappropriate facts of the Cid. However, when other historians write about them he considers them invalid accusations. The fascinating part is how he minimizes all that might affect the public’s opinion of the Cid. In order to cover the supposed cruelty of the Cid, he generalizes about the cruelty of the Middle Ages, not specifically about the Cid. It is not difficult to think that the colorful style of Menéndez Pidal depicts a dictatorial ideology.

Instead of feeling assaulted by such extreme ideology from a foreign historian, Menéndez

Pidal makes the reader knowledgeable about Muslim culture, its complexity and sophistication. The common point of national writers is to bring out the hegemony of the enemies. He gives a complex image of the Moors and reveals the depth of the society.

Systematically, he contaminates his reader with his academic conclusions and in this way he makes him an accomplice.

Menéndez Pidal’s relations with the Muslims are complex and problematic. He is conscious that to a certain point he talks about his people. On one hand, deep in his writing, there is a wish to represent his nation as a super race that is composed of Arabic knowledge and science. And, on the other hand, he represents the political and religious strength of the

Spanish society. The weakness of the Arabs, according to Menéndez Pidal, is “la gran debilidad del espíritu islámico y una casi carencia de sentido político y militar” (91).

The information that Menéndez Pidal portrays about the Cid’s figure, reflects an in- depth comprehension of the reader. Instead of giving them information about the epic poem, he talks about the society, something that interests the common reader. He gives information about the number of the people that lived during the time of the Cid, the relationship between the Arabs and the Moors, the social classes and the peculiar situation of the Cid as a little

cxxiv child. He underlines the fact that the real power comes from God. For example, he explains how the king was responsible to marry the children of the nobles (92-110). The king’s actions are difficult to be understood by the modern reader and, as a result, they are explained by giving historical reasons. For instance, the king had the right to exile anyone he wanted from his kingdom.

One of the central episodes in the works that highlights the Cid’s life is the conflict between him and his future father-in-law. In these works, Rodrigo kills the father of Jimena

Gómez, Gómez de Gormaz. Once this happens, she pleads in front of the king to get married to the killer. Such stories present a wrong image of their marriage because from the epic poem, the reader discerns that they have a great respect for each other. In order to eliminate such a perception, Menéndez Pidal states that the Cid married Jimena Díaz, not Jimena

Gómez (136). He explains that when the Cid gave coins to Jimena as a symbol of security, he stated, “pro decoro de su hermosura y por el virginal connubio” (235).

But Menéndez Pidal does not ignore the history of the Christians by explaining a less exemplary relation between the children of King Fernando after his death. When Fernando divided his kingdom, he also divided the parias44 between his children when the tributes were a source of important income. Furthermore, the king commended his daughters Urraca and

Elvira not to marry but take care of the monasteries in the three kingdoms. In the sharing process, Sancho got Castillo, Galicia to García and León to Alfonso. Sancho was not happy with the division. The brothers started to betray and compete with one another. For instance,

Urraca and Alfono had an incestuous relationship and he considered her as queen. The relationship between the brothers was cruel. It is a story full of curiosity that easily draws the

44 Tribute paid by one prince to another.

cxxv attention of the reader. If the royal family had the right to act this way, vassals like the Cid were presented with more integrity.

It is like a detective story when reading about the Cid fighting on the side of Mutamin, the powerful Moorish king of Zaragoza. He received the Cid well and gave him many responsibilities. The rival brother Lérida looked for help from the count of Barcelona to fight against his brother. Later, in the kingdom of Almenar, there is a fight between the two rival groups of the two brothers. The count is incarcerated just like in the epic poem. The return of the Cid to Zaragoza is incredible and well paid (303-305). Even though he gave his services to a Moorish king, according to Menéndez Pidal his heart was always with the king of Castile:

Y hasta qué punto no era un servicio mercenario el del Cid, sino una intervención de carácter castellano, lo indica la aventura del emperador Alfonso en el castillo de Rueda, la cual muestra como los intereses castellanos estaban siempre atendidos por parte del Campeador. (315).

In continuation, there is a very complicated action. The Christian King Alfonso is betrayed in the kingdom of Zaragoza. The Cid goes there and offers his help. The Christian

King accepts it but as they are returning to Castile, the king becomes jealous of the Cid and decides to leave him in Moorish land. The Cid resides there, even two years after King

Mutamin’s death.

La España del Cid invites contradictory interpretations in accordance with the ideology of each reader or the epoque. Was the Cid really a mercenary or a faithful servant to his king? Was he unjustly exiled? How can the Phalangist as well as the Republicans identify with the hero? Luis Galván argues that the poem is not seen in its totality, because its reception varies depending on political, literary, and even personal views. As a result, the Cid becomes “el esforzado caballero castellano, el guerrero impetuoso, en quien encarna el sentimiento cristiano” (264). So, it is not surprising to see some different dominant

cxxvi characteristics throughout the centuries, i.e., bravery, fidelity, religion, obedience, linguistic, poetic, etc.

4.2. The Reception of La España del Cid

La España del Cid was appreciated by academics as well as politicians of the country.

It was seen as a valuable historic source that revealed the protagonist of the epic poem as a national hero and treasure. In the eyes of Antonio Ballesteros-Berettá in “Ramón Menédez

Pidal, La España del Cid, “Creemos hallarnos frente a una de las obras más ponderadas que ha producido la erudición moderna…Difícil es que nuevos hallazgos desvirtúen, en lo esencial, la silueta histórica del Cid. (29) According to him, Menéndez Pidal cleaned up the

Cid and produces a work that all Spanish people can understand. In the process he destroyed

Dozy’s concept, which was accepted by many of the historians. (27)45

According to Ballesteros, intellectually, Menéndez Pidal won the war against Dozy the same way the Christians won the war against the Moors. Menéndez Pidal’s book was approved by the Royal Academy of History. It is important to mention that La España del Cid came out when the model for the fascist ideology was developing and it is not surprising that the Cid was selected as dominant model and an exemplary citizen that the Spaniards could follow. By making him a dominant figure he was associated with the general Franco. By such comparison, it provoked imperial aspirations for the General to expend his territory further and to exchange the Muslims of the time of the Cid for the communists. Eventhough the Cid was unjustly exiled; he still obeyed his King, a message that was spreading rapidly in all of the social apparatus, including the school. Especially, this book opened the eyes of the military, and this interest was intensified between the years of 1940 and 1960. A good

45 For more details see Luis Galván. El Poema del Cid en España, 1779-1936: recepción, meditación, historia de la filología (p. 158-72).

cxxvii testimony of this is the article “La ética del Cid y la pedagogía mililtar contemporánea,” by

Miguel Alonso Báquer, published in 1969, the year Menéndez Pidal died. As the title indicates, the author expresses disappointment because the Spanish thinkers of the generation were not capable of establishing a model figure for the military men and the Spanish populace

(23).

According to him, the only person that was able to cure the model crises of that time was Menéndez Pidal, who with his book makes the figure of the Cid very powerful, despite the fact that he had his own defects. Obviously, he is writing for all Spanish men because he paints the same picture as in Historia Roderici; a hero blessed with strength, who is a trustworthy vassal, who loves his family, among other positive representations. He accepts the fact that the book inspired military men and that military writings about the Cid increased between 1940 and 1960, but he does not directly state that Menéndez Pidal’s purpose was a fascist one. The most important theme that was taken out of the book was that of obedience.

Furthermore, with the boom of Cid’s image, there was an intense interest in the last remains of the Cid. From 1102, the Cid’s remains had been moved approximately fourteen times (Gárate Córdoba 177). In modern times, doctors have investigated the skeletons of the

Cid and Jimena. According to Gárate Córdoba, in Las huellas del Cid, they supposedly opened the Cid’s tomb and concluded the following:

Por la longitud de uno de los fémures, de los correspondientes al Cid, se deduce positivamente que la talla de éste no fue inferior a 1,700 mts. Y por el tamaño de una de sus clavículas, se puede sospechar que era de gran amplitud su caja tórica. (164)

At this stage, the reader could picture the Cid’s real physical image. However, it was not the end of the story or the memory of the Cid. In 1962, Joseph Lorton in Lyon supposedly had three bones of the hero. The story goes that one of three drunken military men from

cxxviii Naples took the bones while they were vandalizing the Cid’s grave in 1809, later passing them on to his grandsons (191-92). The top story about the Cid’s bones is when Menéndez

Pidal received the remains of the Cid for his ninetieth birthday.

Unfortunately, the bones do not provide a vivid picture of a hero such as the

Campeador. A statue brings the hero back to life, and this was what the national group wanted to do in Burgos. With an image in bronze, the Spanish people had the Cid in its presence constantly. In Burgos, there is a fountain called Via Cidiana. It was designed by the architect

Fernando Chueca, but the figure of the Cid is not there. In a footnote, Gárate Córdoba, in his book, states that it is a pity that Menéndez Pidal is not alive, because “tendría el pedestal que propone un ilustre cidiano burgalés, formado por cinco tomos gigantes y macizos, los del

Cantar de Mío Cid and La España del Cid” (220). Authors who have written about Gárate

Córdoba’s assumption agree with his statement. Later, the equestrian statue of the Cid in

Burgos was identified with fascist ideology. In 1954, the foundation of the bronze statue was finished, but it was not inaugurated until 1955 when the commemoration of the Cid was celebrated. The journalist José María Zagazaga explains this situation in the following matter:

El prototipo de la lealtad y del agendrado nacionalismo español, y hasta existió un político que llevaba con uno de sus postulados-en la propaganda electoral-la de honor en un monumento escultórico a quien, como el caballo de Vivar, es una figura gigantesca, mundial, que se sale fuera de la órbita hispana para ser recordado con admiración como héroe inmarcesible, legendario, pero sobre cuya autencidad no cabe la menor duda (5).

When the time came for the monument to be started, the sculptor Juan Cristóbal was hired for the building. He also received help from Menéndez Pidal who accessorized the hero

cxxix and this way, “desfiló por el estudio en la calle Londres y …contemplaba la estatua en silencio. Luego, hablaba lentamente e indicaba una leve modificación, que

Juan Cristóbal realizaba sin vacilar” (Gárate Córdoba 245).

The work of the ambitious sculptor was not an easy because as he was finishing the monument, the Cid’s hand felt off, after his leg and the tail of his horse. It caused so much frustration that Menéndez Pidal, who at that time was director of the Royal Academy, consoled him with the following words:

!Ánimo, Cristóbal, no hay que deprimirse! Usted hará otra nuevamente, más bella y perfecta aún, si cabe, que la que se ha derrumbado. ¡Hay que volver a empezar, y con el gran estudio que ha realizado, le servirá de boceto, la estatua caída! (Gárate Córdoba 246)

The process of the statue became an attraction for many writers, artists, militaries, diplomats, and some ministries. They passed by the statue to follow the work and always gave positive feedback. The statue drew so much attention that critics from Italy compared it with the masterpieces of Donatello and Verrocchio. The Italian critics always returned satisfied.

The above mentioned journalist concludes his article as follows, “y Burgos va a tributar un homenaje a la memoria de Rodrigo, hombre providencial que salvó de la oriental invasión a

España el Todopoderoso para sus altísimos insignios.” (5)

This specific statue of the hero is the one that has enjoyed the most prestige. It has its position in the community of Burgos, and according to Garáte Córdoba, the monument talks to every person that passes by, talks to the tourist about the heroic figure with “su florida barba, el mando flotante y el brazo tendido, empuñando la Tizona en además de ataque o de iniciar empresa, la eterna empresa hispaníca” (215). Garáte Córdoba thinks that no other statue of the Cid is authentic and he considers the others as mediocre as for example the one from San Pedro de Cardeña (215). According to the author, the Cid from the above sculptors,

cxxx “es un Cid masculino, arrogante y juvenil, de gran vigor y propiedad hisórica” (216). The author states that even the Cid’s horse Babieca is in accordance with the idea that Menéndez

Pidal presented in the book.

The expansion of monuments dedicated to the Cid even spread to the village of Vivar.

In 1963 in Vivar a statue was inaugurated that represented the Cid as a young warrior. Besides the inauguration of the monument in Vivar and the production of the film, another important spectacle for Franco was the cidian commemoration celebrated in Burgos in 1955. The now called Caudillo Francisco Franco had the honor of chairing the event celebrated from July 22 to August 2. On Saturday, July 23, there was a church mass in memory of the hundred masses that the Cid promised to the Abbot in San Pedro de Cardeña. It was said that he was the savior of Christianity from the Moors. During the mass, the mayor of Burgos gave the dictator seven keys and stated:

Excelencia: Dignaos tomar estas llaves, representación de aquellas siete llaves con las cuales simbólicamente quiso cerrarse el sepulcro del Cid; sepulcro de Rodrigo Días de Vivar que los burgaleses y buenos españoles mantuvieron con su lealtad abierto en su corazón (López Mata 22).

On the same day of the mass, the monument was inaugurated. According to Gárate

Córdoba, Francisco Franco, the modern caudillo, put a crown on the Cid’s statue and it is the best example of the Phalangist appropriation of the hero. Between the Cid and Franco, there was a certain parallelism and Franco took advantage of this to convert himself, like the Cid, into a national heroic figure. The speech that Franco gave on this occasion is of a great interest because he identified with the hero, stating that they had a lot in common. During the

Civil War, Franco had his principal venue in Burgos. He finished in Valencia with a victory— the same way in which the Cid’s men conquered Valencia. In his speech he states that Spain had returned to the human values that the Cid had represented; the Christian virtues that Ruy

cxxxi Díaz personified. He is truly looking at himself in the mirror because it is the image that projects of himself to the Spanish society. He continues:

Es por esto que, hoy como intérprete fiel que sois del sentir español, queremos señor, que como Caudillo de hogaño, saquéis a nuestro Caudillo de antaño Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar del olvido, del desdén y del menosprecio; y abierto su sepulcro, con las siete llaves por medio de las cuales, simbólica pero inútilmente, se quiso encerrar, para siempre, su memoria, vuelva su recuerdo a ser norte de ideales, espejo de conductas, temple de ánimos, ejemplo de heroísmos. (López Mata 28)

The ceremony finished with a poetically satisfactory vision. Hundreds of doves were left free with fragments of the epic poem in their beaks. As the doves were set free, military troops started to march in the streets of Burgos.

This same day, there was also a celebration of the Juegos Florales, honoring the Cid via a poetry reading contest. The first award went to Antonio Sada de Qunto, a student of the

Company of Christ for his poem called “El trote de Babieca:”

¿Los concones, Babieca…? ¡Son ellos, son los hombres Giraldas sobre el barro de cada choza viva…! ¡Pisad, pisad rabiosos, herejes de Babieca; aplastad sin congoja, como en lagar de agraces, esos racimos yertos de sangre endurecida…!!

¡Todo es otro! ¡es destierro!, ¿no lo notas?.. ¡si lo notas, Babieca, porque veo tus zancas como cuatro muñoses remando controla el aire, como brazos de náufrago, temblorosos y flácidos, en medio de la errática percepción de las cosas…! “¡¡Castilla!! ¿Esto es Castilla?... ¡No sabes lo que dices!

¡¡Castilla de ojos garzos, allí queda!!... ¡Tu madre y tu madrastra a un tiempo!... ¡La que parió un suspiro eternamente grande y se formó amazona de todas las conquistas…! Pero tú te la llevas hincada en ese polvo que te afea las ancas, en este triste oriente de tu sudor desierto…!

…¡Galopas y galopas, pero… ¿adónde Babieca…?

cxxxii ¿Qué comezón pungente desazona tus cascos?... ¡…Te espolea Castilla, ¿no es eso? ¡¡Ya te entiendo…!! ¡¡Vocación trascendente la de tus cuatro álamos, que inoculas la savia de tu blanca inocencia a cada palmo nuevo de gleba que conocen…!! ¡Es el alma de Castilla –la que contigo huye- fraccionada en mil átomos de tu sangre madura, quien va desparramando el aliento imanente que la hierve en su seno de Leona y de Madre…!

¡¡ Adiós, adiós Babieca – Castilla maridada con un hambre de espíritu y un sueño de ambiciones-; da el salto decisivo, la inmediata pirueta que trasforme su ruta en la estrella de Oriente, vigia de esta raza amasada en tu seno…!! (6-11)

This poem is about the Cid’s horse Babieca who, together with the Cid, in the first part of the poem leaves Castile at the request of the King. It is an exhortation to the horse running through the fields of the exiled land. The horse is personified and the constant running can be seen as symbol of strength as the Cid conquered lands. Exile was a recurrent theme in this poetic competition. The award for the composition on a historic theme composition was won by Leopoldo Luis for the poem “Desterrado.” Here is a part of the poem:

Burgos le vio aquél día partir para Levante a la lívida luz de la alborada. Toda Castilla estuvo con ansiedad de amante en las dulces pupilas de Jimena asomada.

Toda Castilla desde San Pedro de Cardeña hecha un alba de llanto y en flor de despedida. Partir siempre es la sombra de una muerte pequeña porque el que parte deja siempre un poco de vida.

El tronco de Castilla se pobló de anchas ramas conforme el desterrada, el Cid, por litorales de sol bajó blandiendo las plateadas llamas de se acero, sumando cabalgadas triunfales.

Sus manos ofrecían ramas de patria nueva, cosechaban el fruto de una patria desnuda. Como si al cabalgar condujese una esteva

cxxxiii Y esparciera en los surcos la semillina menuda.

Desde sus manos como una dulce paloma levantaba su vuelo la patria apenas hecha. Se ensanchaba su nombre en cada loma y crecía su tierra en cada fecha.

Para dejar de serlo, el desterrado hizo brotar la patria de la tierra bajo sus pies, dejó su amor sembrado en el ardido campo de la guerra.

En hacerse la patria empresa de los hombres. Los frutos y las bestias, los ríos, les ayudan. Dios les da luz. Pero los duros nombres y sus exactos límites, los hombres los desnudan. Rodrigo, el desterrado, en traje de centella, vestido de relámpago guerrero, iluminȩ su patria con la brillante estrella del amor, la justicia y el acero.

Burgos lo vio otro día regresar de Levante volver el corazȩn que la semilla encierra, e hombros de sus mesnadas, mortalmente flotante, entre el polvo y la gloria entre el cielo y la tierra.

Fue el desterrado un forjador de la patria: Encina y rosa. Tierra: duro solar de huesos Que nos cimientan. Amorosa patria Que nos viste la gloria de sus besos.

Una zarza encendida fue Rodrigo, el desterrado, viva zarza ardiente prendiendo el joven fuego que llevaba consigo de una intuida España adolescente.

Tierra nos trajo su destierro de hombre, su ejemplo: hueso y alma de la España primera, y ahora nos llega al evocar su nombre el olor de la Patria en primavera. (12-14)

This poem was especially interesting and rewarding for the Phalangists because the author describes them as receiving the Cid with open arms as he was exiled. The poem shows an optimistic imagination and constantly evokes the fertile land. The reconquests of the hero

cxxxiv are compared to the branches that come from the trunk of Castile. These new branches of the

New State grow out of the hands of the Cid. From those same hands, he raises “su vuelo la patria apenas hecha.” It is a country that grows and gives fruit, thanks to the love and the hard work of the Cid. The labor of making this new country is extended to the landscape, the animals, and the fruit. In other words, all participate into this new creation. More importantly, the poem converts Castile in a symbol for the entire country.

Three days after the Juegos Florales, a cidian parade was celebrated. This event reached the heights of the syncretism between the Cid and the Christian faith because it was a procession, very similar to those of Holy Week. On the streets, there were carriages, each one representing a scene from the life of Rodrigo de Vivar. The parade was followed by music, trumpets, and bagpipes. All the displays were positive, including victory in battle and religious devotions. Obviously, the parade of the Cid is directed to the people, and at the end it appeared that the history of the Cid in reality is the history of Spain.

All these events mostly taken from Menéndez Pidal’s La España del Cid, are what the

Spanish society learned about the model that the dictator is using in their New State. The figure of the Cid is overly used and abused during this period, but it was a way to return to tradition and manipulate the masses. Without even reading any books, Spanish society was overwhelmed by visual pictures as a means of bringing the hero back to life. The point of these events was to be proud of the hero, of what he did for his country and establish him as the model example for those who wanted to save their country. He is represented as the sole creator of Spain, the same way that Franco was portrayed. As we have seen, Franco, in his speech, compared himself to the Cid; an attitude that Spanish society learned and which was transmitted in the educational system. Using such a political and historical model was nothing

cxxxv new. Instead of making his own model for hegemony of the new State, he used the Cid as a model of how the Spanish people were to act.

4.3. Poema de Mío Cid from Eco’s Perspective

Ramón Menéndez Pidal spent forty years of his life researching the origins of the

Poema de Mío Cid. Originally, he espoused an individualistic theory that medieval epic poems are exclusive works of one individual at a specific moment. Since Menéndez Pidal asserted the originality of the Poema de Mío Cid, educational authorities felt that he worked

46 to find the real truth of the Spanish epic poem. The point of interest here is that the significance for the Spanish educational system was that the Cid historically existed and formed part of the curriculum of the new schools. To the educational authorities, it did not matter that Menéndez Pidal was constantly reevaluating his theories. They used the date of

1104 he had established for composing the Poema de Mío Cid because it chronologically fitted the Cid’s life and gave the poem historical authority.

Keeping this in mind, the most glorified and cited text in classical literature during the

Franquist educational system was Poema de Mío Cid. The medieval figure was omnipresent in the schools and also served as a heroic, parallel picture for the image of the dictator Franco.

From the very beginning, the first new stamps minted in the New State represented the Cid and the Catholic Kings, Fernando and Isabel. In 1940, the Eighth Centenary of the Poem was celebrated. In 1944 and 1946, the first three volumes of Ramón Menéndez Pidal’s Cantar de

Mío Cid were re-edited, and in the same year, the second edition of the second volume appeared by the same critic. The heoic figure was represented, and especially accentuated in

46 This is explained in 1994 by Alan Deyermond in La literatura perdida de la Edad Media castellana, and in 1992 by Thomas Montgomery in Medieval Spanish Epic.

cxxxvi classes, as one of the best literary works that expressed the national spirit. The epic poem became part of the literary canon. José Rogerio Sánches in Lengua y literatura española cuarto curso, points out that this epic poem expresses an “aspiración religiosa, moral, social y política” (151). Menéndez Pidal insisted on the epic poem’s national value. Religious figures, such as Heramano Orizana, considered the poem to be inserted in school curriculum because it contained valuable examples of fidelity and love, of generous and effusive friendship, of absolute fidelity to King and to their Christian Faith. Cayuela Arturo in Humanidades clásicas affirmed that the Poema de Mío Cid and the primitive romances, “masculinizan el gusto estético (…) y comunican afición a todo lo sanamente fuerte y majestuosamente sencillo,… una excelente medicina para contrarrestar las dolencias de ahora” (616).

The above aspects imply that the epic poem was seen only from one perspective, as beneficial for the New State-- a reception also seen by Luis Galván throughout the centuries.

From his investigation, we can see that the epic poem during any period was seen in its totality. The dominant elements of the epic reflect either the literary or political period of that specific époque. The new ministry of education utilized parts of Poema de Mío Cid, as the model for the Spanish hero, the strong, valiant person who was able to fight against the Moors and the Arabs. Again, heroic and religious perspective of the epic poem was accentuated by

Nationalist critics in order to enforce a traditional, patriotic, heroic and religious image in the psyche of the Spanish youth--an aspect already seen in the reception of the epic poem. The usage of specific fragments of Poema de Mío Cid was intentionally designed to fulfill the outcome and the image of the New State and the dictator. Following Eco’s notion, it can be implied that Franco paralyzed all other inconvenient components of the epic poem because they did not serve his purpose.

cxxxvii The Poema de Mío Cid is divided into three cantares: “Destierro del Cid,” “Las bodas de las hijas del Cid, and “La afrenta de Corpes.” Many of the important elements within the epic poem were not stressed in the classrooms or textbooks; such as the cruelty and sufferings that his two daughters, Elvira and Sol, experienced at the hands of the Infants of Carrión. Also missing from the textbooks was the fact that while the Cid was in exile, Jimena was a strong, valiant wife and mother who took care of the property and her daughters. Marjorie Ratcliffe in Jimena: a Woman in Spanish Literature underlines the role of medieval wife along these lines:

Jimena Díaz’s main role in life was to be a wife and mother. In the Middle Ages, mothers had great authority and influence because of the father’s frequent absence. During their early years, children were raised with virtually no fatherly presence. (17)

In the educational apparatus these elements were not given the same importance they were given in the poem’s plot. Even though Jimena, Elvira and Sol, are supportive figures, the Cid is a hero not only because of his victorious battles against the enemies and his acquired territory, but also because of the affectionate love he demonstrated towards his family. This aspect can be seen from the very beginning when he expresses a real love for his wife and daughters, an aspect rarely included during the nationalist period of reinterpretation.

This love has nothing in common with what was seen in literature beyond the Pyrenees, usually referred to as “courtly love.” As Menéndez Pidal states in El torno al Poema de Mío

Cid: “no hay en el Poema el menor asomo de galantería frívola y corruptora” (55). The Cid’s feelings are those of a man for his wife, they are freely and publicly declared. His words are heartfelt and his actions openly demonstrative. He is a hero who also sheds tears, and he showed it while embracing his daughters before going into exile.

Enclino las manos [el de] la barba velida,

cxxxviii a las sus fijas en braço’ las prendia, legolas al coraçon ca mucho las queria. Lora de los ojos, tan fuerte mientre suspira:. (154)

He reminds his wife that, despite their marriage vows, she must remain behind:

!Ya doña Ximena la mi muggier tan complida, commo a la mi alma yo tengo vos queria! Ya lo vedes que partir nos emos en vida, yo ire e vos fincaredes remanida. (154)

The pain of their separation is clear to all viewers and is graphically conveyed in the poem:

El Çid a doña Ximena iva a abraçar, doña Ximena al Çid la manol va besar, lorando de los oios que non sabe que se far. Y el a las niñas torno las a catar: ‘A Dios vos acomiendo, fijas, e a la mugier e al Padre spirital; agora nos partimos, Dios sabe el ajuntar.’ Lorando de los ojos que non viestes atal, Asis parten unos d’otros commo la uña de la carne. (158)

Another example of this is when the Cid, after winning the battle against the Moors in

Valencia, “grand alegria es entre todos essos christianos con mio Çid Ruy Diaz el que en buen ora nascio” (190), wanted to share his happiness with his wife and daughters, who were residing in Castile. He sends his right-hand man Minaya Albar Fañez to transmit the following message to them:

Enbiare por ellas, e vos sabed el mensage: la mugier de mio Cid es sus fijas las infantes de guisa iran por ellas que a gran ondra vernan a estas tierras estrañas que nos pudiemos ganar. (192)47

47 All of the quotes from the original poem come from Colin Smith’s edition cited in our bibliography.

cxxxix José Rogerio Sánchez in his textbook from 1945, Lengua y literatura española cuarto curso, briefly mentions the Infants of Carrión and the Cid’s daughters when explaining the Poema de

Mío Cid. This is the case when the Cid is content because of his victories and the marriage of his two daughters to the infants, “… cuando nos presenta la aventura del Cid, honrado por su rey, a causa de sus prodigiosas victorias; cuando le vemos rodeado de su amante familia, o solicitadas en matrimonio sus hijas por los infantes de Carrión” (163). On the contrary, this is only the positive part of the story. The epic poem is filled with many negative perspectives; negative from the point of view that the Franquist regime is trying to impose on the poem. For instance, when the Infants of Carrión, hear the message from Minaya Alvar Fañez about the

Cid’s victories, they convey their plan:

Aqui entraron en fabla los iffantes de Carrion: ‘Muchos creçen las nuevas de mio Çid el Campeador; bien casariemos con sus fijas pora huebos de pro. … Non la osariemos acometer nos esta razon; ¡mio Çid es de Bivar e nos de los condes de Carrion! (195)

This was only the beginning of the infants’ plan. In order to gain bienes from the Cid, they had to marry Elvira and Sol. When the Cid and Jimena sent their daughters with Don

Diego and Don Fernando to the tierras de Carrión, they were brutally beaten. Even though the Author gives the two daughters a voice in the epic poem as a way to convince the infants otherwise, it does not help because they are persistent in their brutal plan and, after the incident with the lion, they are ashamed of their weakness:

Lo que ruegan las dueña non les ha ningun pro. Essora les conpieçan a dar los ifanted de Carrion,

cxl con las espuelas agudas don ellas an mal sabor ronpien las camisas e las carnes a ellas amas a dos; limpia salie la sangre sobre los çiclatones. Ya lo sienten ellas en los sos corazones. (….) Tanto las majaron que sin cosimente son, sangrientas en las camisas e todos los çiclatones. Cansados son de ferir ellos amos a dos ensayandos amos qual dara mejores colpes. (243)

The Infants of Carrión play a major role in the poem. As we have seen from the school programs, the students were taught to have moral and Catholic values: to love and fight for their country, to be honest and clean in their souls. On the contrary, the Infants of

Carrión did not reflect this picture because they were selfish individuals and unsuccessfully fought for their fame and fortune. They were weak individuals who used the two daughters for material gain. Besides, the school program was designed to promote spiritual gain and not material gain. As a result, such episodes did not appear in Franco’s new educational system in establishing what Spanish and Catholic men should be.

The focus on the beginning of the epic poem is constant in Historia de España, a textbook approved by MEN under the sanction of 21-VI-1960. Here, the story of “El Cid

Campeador” is introduced by illustrations and descriptions:

cxli cxlii From the above illustrations, we can see that from the very beginning, the positive image of the Cid as a husband and father is emphasized, “El Cid se despide de Jimena al partir el destierro. Abraza con la destra a su esposa y con la otra mano acarica a sus hija” (85). After this episode, the student is introduced to the victory in Valencia, “Modelo del caballero valiente y patriota, el Cid recibe las llaves de Valencia, tomada a los moros, y de la que será gobernador” (85). In the final illustrations, he comments about the death of the Campeador,

“Entre los objetos que poseemos del Cid Campeador, es digno de mención su cofre, que se conserva en la capital burgalesa” (85). The student’s assignment under “Ejercicio XV” is to observe the illustrations and discuss the Cid Campeador (84). The assignment automatically guides their interpretation of the illustration.

The focus of the first part of Poema de Mío Cid is further omnipresent in the textbook,

Lengua y literatura española by José Rogerio Sánchez. When explaining the importance of the epic poem, he directs the reader’s attention to the first part:

Nos es desconocido el autor de Mío Cid y aun la fecha de su composición, que se viene a fijar hacia fines del siglo XII. No le poseemos completo; tal como le conservamos, comienza el poema en el momento en que el Cid es desterrado de orden del rey Alfonso. Para cumplir su destierro, el héroe pasa por Burgos, ciudad que encuentra hostil, porque Alfonso había prohibido que se le diera alojamiento. De allí marcha a despedirse de su mujer y de sus hijas, en San Pedro de Cardeña. (163)

Nationalist critics made sure that the city of Burgos was mentioned as it is in the classical text. Franco always wanted to demonstrate to the public that, just like the Cid, he also had his first seat of power in Burgos during the Civil War. To make even stronger the parallelism between him and the Cid, he emphasizes how the Civil War ended in Valencia with the victory of the Nationalist Party just as the Cid’s men achieved their greatest military victory with their conquest of Valencia. The epic poem describes this glorious event:

cxliii Ya lo vee el Çid que del rey non avie graçia. Partios de la puerta, por Burgos aguijava, lego a Santa Maria, luego descavalga, finco los inojos, de coraçon rogava. (146)

As explained by Ernesto Giménez Caballero, Burgos was also an important place for Franco. Just like the Cid, Franco left from the same town in order to fight for the independence and the unity of his country:

Pues, como Cid, (Franco) salió de Burgos para combatir a los invasores rojos u orientales: amando su hogar a su religión, y peleando por la unidad y la independencia de su patria (…) también recorrieron el mismo camino: la línea del Duero, donde estuvo el frente de Soria y de Guadalajara en la guerra civil española de 1936-1939.” (30-1)

As we can see, very small details are utilized in order to establish the comparison of these two important figures after the Spanish Civil War. Given the fact that parts of the poem are eliminated, the new regime had to find small details in the epic poem that coincidently fit

Franco’s agenda. José Rogerio Sánchez judges the poema as follows:

Cantar más antiguo que sobre un Caudillo nacional-El Cid-se conoce en España. Tipo ideal de Caudillo español y del Caudillo americano. Del héroe nacional, por su Guerra contra los invasores orientales de nuestra Patria; por su lealtad a la suprema jerarquía de España; por el cariño a su mujer y a sus hijas, a su hogar y por el pan y la justicia que repartía a sus servidores y soldados. (10)

This same notion can be seen in the above-mentioned history book by Edelvives.

From the beginning, the students made the connection between the Cid and the

Generalisímo: Fue (el Cid) alférez, o sea, generalisímo de las tropas de Sancho II. Más tarde exigió con gallardo ademán al rey Alfonso VII juramento de que no había participado en el asesinato de aquél. Este acto de valentía le atrajo cierta aversión del monarca y, poco después, el destierro. (79)

When we read the classical text, we clearly see that it does not refer to the Cid as

Generalísimo. Again, this is more proof that the terminology utilized during the 20th Century

cxliv in Spain puts the medieval poem into the conceptual categories and context of the Franquist

Spain. In fact many times Franco is referred to as Campeador, and as Cid.

We encounter another example of such a fascist ideological parallelism in the book El florido pensil by Andrés Sopeña Monsalve. In one lesson, we find the title “El Cid ha vuelto,” where there is a clear comparison made between the two important captains in medieval and in XX-century in Spain (202). The Cid is effectively reincarnated in Francisco Franco. First, the heroism of the Cid is so valiant that, “se ha cansado y se cansarán nunca nuestras mejores obras literarias de pregonar las hazañas y virtudes de Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar” (51). The parallelism between these two protagonists is historical because the text states that Spain had to drive the Moors out of Spain during the reconquest just as Franco had to get rid of communism. Thanks to the fact that Spain had the Cid and Franco, Spain was saved on two occasions (52). In his autobiography, Franco stressed personal virtues as well his virtues in the battle field. His assent in the military hierarchy is presented in a same way as the Cid in

Poema de Mío Cid giving the military powers as he expands in Castile. Given the circumstances in Spain in 1936, there was no other remedy except, “salvar a nuestra Patria por el sendero de las armas” (54). The propaganda and the demagoguery used to promote a heroe of the 20th Century are seen in the following example:

Un día estaba estudiando el frente, mezclando entre soldados, y Hacía tanto frío por la ventisca, que se acercó a una chabola para Calentarse. El soldado que guardaba una lumbre no le reconoció, pues Sólo llevaba una estrella de alférez, y le dijo: “Si quieres calentarte, vete Fuera a coger leña”, cosa que al momento, obediente… realizó Franciso FRANCO. (55)

This story probably had the intention to touch the reader and make him see how exemplary the Caudillo was. After the “salvation” of Spain and the triumph of

Franco’s forces at the end of the Civil War. The text concludes, “!ARRIBA ESPAÑA!

cxlv España está, pues, reconquistada. El Cid ha vuelto” (55).

In Eco’s terms the New State was using and reinterpreting only appropriate elements of the poem as a way to attract the attention of the young Spaniards.

The Franquist educational system understood itself, paradoxically, in Marxist terms. It is a superstructure of the society, one that works in a coherent connection with the basic structure (the relations of production). This educational system was supported by the bourgeoisie who owned the means of production; but, at the same time, the educational

system supporteds, intellectually, the relations of production that originated it.

Franquist schools taught students to think that the Generalísimo was good, because he defeated the “others” (the communists), as the Cid defeated the Moors. These Franquist schools reproduced the material state of affairs and the relations of production. The analogy established between Franco and the Cid was convenient, but only for a determined sector of the society: the bourgeoisie favored Franco.

We also encounter a connection between these two Spanish heroes within two different periods in the poem Romance del Rey Don Rodrigo, by Federico Urrutia, found in the Enciclopedia Álvarez. As he prepares for battle, the Cid, hears the voice of his mother asking “¿Por qué te vas a la guerra?” and he answers, “!Madre la Patria me llama!” (262). The

Cid is a great warrior and, for the love of his country he is content and strong to fight. The poem continues:

El Cid-lucero de hierro- por el cielo cabalgaba, con una espada de fuego en fraguas del Sol forgada. En el Cerro de los Angles, que los ángeles guardaban, han fusilado a Jesús,

cxlvi ¡y las piedras se desgranan! Pero no te asustes, madre, ¡toda Castilla está en armas! Madrid se ve ya muy cerca! ¿No oyes?: ¡Franco! ¡Arriba España! (262)

The goal of the poet is not only to transmit the heroic persective of the Cid, but also to compare and utilize it for the patriotic perspective. We see words such as patria, which is one of the dogmas for the future of the country. Also, the poet found a place to utilize the famous grito that was heard in every corner of the country, which according to Franco, was the

“promesa para el futuro” and not “propósito partidista” (306). As we can see, the students were constantly reintroduced to the same topics and aspects so they would remember the importance of this connection. The reception of the epic hero is brought to life during

Franco’s regime, but only to fulfill the Nationalist agenda.

Despite the fact that only certain parts of the Poema de Mío Cid were used in the

National education system, those episodes are manipulatively adjusted in order to fulfill the dogma of the educational system. This notion is vivid in a text that enjoyed great success during Franco’s regime, El Cid y la niña, by Antonio Onievas. In the classical text, the Cid encounters a nine-year-old girl who explains that, the night before, the entire town received the king’s letter advising the citizens to close their doors to the Cid; the consequences were atrocious:

Convidar le ien de grado mas ninguno non osava; el rey don Alfonsso tanto avie la grand saña, antes de la noche en Burgos del entro su carta con grand recabdo e fuerte mientre sellada, que a mio Çid Ruy Diaz que nadi nol diesse(n) posada, e aquel que gela diesse sopiesse-vera palabra- que perderie los averes e mas los ojos de la cara e aun demas los cuertopos e las almas. (Anonymous 146)

cxlvii Before we analyze the re-produced version of the episode between the girl and the

Cid, we read the scene as written in the poem:

Los de mio Çid a altas vozes laman, los de dentro non les quieren tornar palabra. Aguijo mio Çid, a la puerta se legava, saco el pie del estribera, una ferida dava; non se abre la puerta ca bien era çerrada. Una niña de nuez años a ojos se parava: ‘!Ya Campeador en buen ora çinxiestes espada! El rey lo ha vedado, anoch del entro su carta con grant recabdo e fuerte mientre sellada. Non vos osariemos abrir nin coger por nada; si non, perderiemos los averes e las casas e demas los ojos de las caras. Çid, en el nuestro mal vos non ganades nada; mas ¡el Criador vos vala con todas sus virtudes santas!’ Esto la niña dixo e tornos pora su casa. (Anonymous 145)

The students dis not read this version of the Cid’s conversation with the nine year old girl but rather were introduced to it in the following narrative:

Serían como las dos de la tarde. El casco de hierro, calentado por el sol, le quemaba las sienes y se lo quitó; peor entonces sentía como si se le derritieran los sesos. Volvió a ponérselo. Se moría de sed y buscó agua… No la había; los pozos y los arroyos estaban secos. No le quedaba más remedio que pedirla en el primer pueblo que encontrase. (Onievas 28)

So far, if we observe what has happened to the Cid before the episode with the nine- year-old girl, we discover that the epic hero realized, with tears in his eyes, the reason for such an injustice were his enemies, “!Grado a ti, señor, padre que estas en alto! ¡Esto me an buelto mios enemigos malos” (145). Once he goes through Burgos, everyone wanted to see the great hero, eventhough they were not allowed to say anything despite the fact that they were feeling great pain:

Exien lo ver mugieres e varones, burgueses e burgesad por las siniestras son,

cxlviii plorando de los ojos tanto avien el dolor. De las sus bucas todos dizian una razon: ‘!Dios, que buen vassalo! ¡Si óbviese buen señor!’ (Anonymous 145)

In the classical text, we do not see what the Cid was wearing, what time it was or the fact that he was in search of water because he was dying of thirst. The re-interpreted text continues:

Al fin descubrió uno en la lejanía. El Cid caminaba, caminaba, y parecía que el pueblo se alejaba cada vez más. Ya no podía resistir la sed. Tenía la boca enjuta, los labios hinchados y la lengua como un pedazo de cuero reseco. Más de dos horas tardó en llegar al pueblo. Los vecinos, como siempre, al verle aparecer, se guarecieron en sus casas y echaron los cerrojos. Cuando el Cid llegó a la primera casa, no se veía alma humana por aquellos contornos. Don Rodrigo se quitó el casco y con el golpeó la puerta ‘Ábranme, por claridad; ábranme, que me muero.’ Nadie respondió. Volvió a golpear… ‘Por amor de Dios, abran la puerta a un caminante.’ Tampoco contestaron Aun llamó por tercera vez… Entonces se descorrió el cerrojo por dentro, abrióse la puerta ya apareció una niña. Niña, ¿Cómo te llama? María, para servir a Dios y… Ahí se detuvo; no podía servir al Cid. (Onievas 29-30)

From here, we can see that the name of this girl is María, which we do not find in the classical text. Her name has religious connotations, referring to the Virgin Mary, a religious figure also omnipresent in the national educational period. Furthermore, the girl knew that she was not supposed to talk to the hero, but after she mentions her name she realizes that her duty is to serve to God. In the original episode, the girl only speaks in a monologue with absolutely no conversation between the two. On the other hand, the conversation continues in this re-written episode:

Éste dijo, con palabras cansadas; María, hija mía… Tengo la boca ardiendo; me muero de sed.

cxlix No he encontrado agua en todo el camino. Dame un poco, por caridad. María repuso: No puedo, señor. ¿Es que no tienes? Sí, tengo dos tinajas llenas; pero nuestro rey Don Alfonso nos tiene mandado que no os demos agua ni sal. ¿El rey ha mandado eso? Sí, señor. Y si bebéis de mi agua yo seré condenada a muerte. ¿Dónde están tus padres? Están trillando en la era Don Rodrigo descendió de su caballo y se sentó en un poyo, junto a la casa, cubriéndose el rostro con las manos. Luego alzó los ojos y preguntó a la niña: - ¿Sabes quién soy? - Con este traje de guerra no podéis ser otro que don Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar. - ¿Y me crees culpable? - Yo no sé nada, señor. - No lo soy, María. No me des agua si no quieres, aunque me siento desfallecer de sed. Yo tengo dos niñas como tú, mas jovencitas todavía, y si vieran a tus padres muriendo de fatiga, a falta de agua les darías sus lágrimas par calmar sus sufrimientos. ¿Cómo se llaman vuestras hijas? Una se llama Elvira; la otra se llama Sol. ¡Hijas mías! – clamó don Rodrigo, volviendo a hundir el rostro entre sus manos. Cuando, al cabo de un rato, irguió la cabeza, vio que María estaba a su lado con una ancha escudilla rebosante de agua fresca. Los ojos del caballero brillaron como ante una fascinación ¿Qué es esto, hija mía? Agua- repuso la muchacha-. He entrado en la casa para traérosla. El Cid tomó la escudilla entre sus manos. -¿Cómo te atreves a dármela? - Porque os morís de sed y a mí me sobra el agua. -Pero te pueden condenar a muerte. Los ojos de María se llenaron de llanto y contestó: Ya lo sé, señor, pero no me importa. También vuestras hijas harían lo mismo con mis padres. Don Rodrigo veía aquella agua purísima ante sus labios, agrietados y sedientos. También veía los ojos llorosos de la niña resignada a morir, y

cl entonces… Entonces inclinó la escudilla y derramó el agua por el suelo. Gracias, María, gracias. Le devolvió la vasija, le dio un beso en la frente y montó en su caballo. Y se alejó bajo el sol espantoso que caía como una oleada ardiente sobre la inmensa llanura de Castilla. (Onievas 30-33)

From the original text, there is no physical contact between the girl and the Cid; he never kisses her on the forehead, nor thanks her for anything. Once the girl finished her monologue, she automatically goes inside her house, as seen in the classical text.

Furthermore, we encounter the names of the Cid’s daughters Elvira and Sol in this episode, which is not the case in the original text. We learn their names in the second cantar when the preparations for the wedding takes place. In the first cantar of the epic poem only the name of his wife, Jimena, is mentioned and the daughters are simply referred to as, “fijas,” “vuestras fijas,” “mis fijas” (154).

This episode was the one repeated most in textbooks in the forties. It serves as an example of the recreation and reinterpretation of certain episodes from the first part of the epic poem. In Eco´s terminology, such a reading of the poem is a use, not an interpretation; a pro-Franco and pro-National use, which can be seen as a mischievous and biased reading. In the “use”, as we have already seen, the text is read beyond its original intentions. In this case, the author of the rewritten text is a “user”, someone who manipulates the text to justify his political-ideological positions. La antología de textos castellanos by José Rogelio Sánchez underscores this aspect along these lines:

Aun la vida de Cid tiene (…) una especial oportunidad española ahora, época de desaliento entre nosotros, en que el escepticismo ahoga los sentimientos de solidaridad y la insolidaridad alimenta el escepticismo. Contra esta debilidad actual del espíritu colectivo pudieron servir de reacción todos los grandes recuerdos históricos que más nos hacen intimar con la esencia del pueblo al

cli que pertenecemos y que más puedenrobustecer aquella trabazón de los espíritus- el alma colectiva -, inspirada de la cohesión social. (93-98)

The above statement opened the door for teachers to talk about the parallelism between the Cid and Franco. Rogelio Sánchez presents an apocaliptic and educational version of the epic poem: “La ruta del Cid es la profecía de los destinos de la España medular:

Castilla. Por eso su habla había de llegar a ser, fatalmente, la lengua nacional. La realidad histórica supera en grandeza a la fantasía del poeta” (98).

It is essential to see what Franco had to say about the importance of the Cid in Spanish society:

El Cid es el espíritu de España, y suele ser en la estrechez y no en la opulencia cuando surgen estas grandes figuras. Las riquezas envilecen y desnatularizan lo mismo a los pueblos que a los hombres; así pudo llegarse a la monstruosidad que hace unos momentos recordaba de alardear de cerrar con siete llaves el sepulcro del Cid, al gran miedo a que saliese de su tumba y se encarnase en las nuevas generaciones, que surgiese de nuevo el pueblo recio y viril de Santa Gadea y no el dócil de los trepadores cortesanos y negociantes. Este ha sido el espíritu de la Cruzada y del movimiento, el despertador a las nuevas generaciones. Sabiendo que hemos de morir, prefiero la muerte gloriosa… (125)

The influence of the dictator was omnipresent in the minds of all who were following in his footsteps, as well as those that were educated during his governance. In order to build a nation from an ideological level, he had to portray the great military image that he had of the

Cid. As we have seen, the choosing of the Cid’s figure is not just a coincidence. His political model is rooted in the fantasies of a glorious nation, one that Franco wanted to build in the

20th Century by copying historical events and heroes who once united and centralized the nation. In order to meet such an inspirational and historical model, he took parts of the history of the Cid and found details of the glorious events of the hero that correspond parallelly with his events of the Civil War. He constructed monuments and organized events in Burgos, a

clii very important place for both of them, and delivered speeches in which he directly compared himself to the heroic figure. Using such an example, he conveys to the Spanish public that he wanted to unite them as one nation—one without province or language boundaries.

Obviously, this is heard by all and at the end it is implemented into the primary school textbooks from which the students have to learn. In this way, Franco created a new generation that was going to easily respond to his political and historic model of creating again a new glorious nation in the 20th Century.

4.4. The Interpretation of the Cid in the Textbooks

Textbooks are a great weapon to maintain civility and install the official ideology of the State. The virtues promoted in Nationalists textbooks were loyalty, love for the country, obedience and bravery. All of the books underline that the Cid was never defeated by the

Moors and that they were very afraid of him; a feeling that the young children understood well. With such introduction, the Cid’s image played on children’s emotions and psychological immaturity.

The primary school textbooks of the Franquist period were the so-called

Enciclopedias. They covered various aspects of general education, such as catechism, history, language, and mathematics. One of the most popular Enciclopedias, as we have seen before, was the Enciclopedia Álvarez. In one edition of the Enciclopedia for 3rd grade, there is a section dedicated to literature, where the Poema de Mío Cid appears. The book gives an assignment that states:

Lectura: El Poema del Cid, autor anónimo, fue compuesto por el año 1140 y es la más antigua composición castellana que se conserva. Consta de 3.775 versos, en los que se refiere la vida y hazañas del Cid Campeador. Lee el siguiente fragmento y observa las grandes diferencias entre el castellano primitivo y el actual.

cliii The fragment is as follows:

Mío Cid Ruy Díaz por Burgos entone en fue campana sessaenta pondones; exien lo vier mugieres e varones, burgueses e burguesas, por siniestras sone, plorando de los ojos, tanto avien de dolore, de sus bocas todos dizían una razone: “!Dios, qué buen basallo, si óbviese buen señore!” (108)

The author demonstrates how the Spanish people expressed their compassion for the hero’s plight. The narrator interrupts the student with the famous twentieth verse from the epic poem that is often discussed during the period.

As we have seen previously, during this period, emphasis is given to the Cid as a character but not to the epic poem. In the Enciclopedia, the author does not profoundly go into the poem, and even the Cid. The discussion about the Cid is interrupted when the author starts to discuss the plural form of the nouns. In the next page, we encounter a passage about

Alfonso el Sabio. In order to demonstrate the previous grammar point, a portion written by

Alfonso X and another portion from the Poema de Mío Cid are represented.

Agustín Serrano de Haro was an inspector for the primary school as well as a textbook author, as we have already seen in Yo soy Español. This encyclopedia stresses the Cid’s heroism and the fear that the Arabs had of him. It states, “los generales árabes estaban a sus

órdenes, y hasta diez reyes moros llegaron a pagarle tribute” (132). But the Cid never had forgotten about his King because he never went against his orders, eventhough he had unjustly punished him. Obedience is a virtue mentioned in almost all of the textbooks since the ideological dogma teaches its citizens to obey their own caudillo. These virtues are fundamental because the Cid had them in abundance, “de las que prestan fiereza para la

cliv guerra y de las que hace deslizar las que hacen deslizar las lágrimas por el rostro: la fortaleza y el amor. Y sobre todo la fe en Dios” (133).

Another variation of the Cid’s representation is found in an encyclopedia of 1942-

Enciclopedia educative, grado tercero by Juan Ruíz Romero. It carries a seal to demonstrate that it was approved from the Ministry of Education. The part dedicated to the Cid is found in lesson 16. The material is represented in numerical order to facilitate memorization by the students:

1. El Cid Campeador fue un extraordinario caudillo cristiano que vivió en Tiempos del rey Alfonso VI, y que se llamaba Don Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar. 2. El Cid Campeador hizo jurar al rey Don Alfonso VI en Santa Badea de Burgos que no había tenido parte en la muerte de su hermano Don Sancho; por lo cual el Rey, en venganza, le desterró de sus dominios. El Cid a pesar de todo siempre se conservó fiel a su Rey, quien al fin lo perdonó. 3. El Cid Campeador hizo grandes conquistas a los árabes. (324)

The author mentions the epic poem, but again does not go into depth. For instance, all of the authors mention that the Moors are the enemies, but fail to reveal that the Cid was at times allies with Moors. The author refers to the Cid as a caudillo in order to create an association between him and General Franco. Again, the values emphasized are Christianity, honesty, bravery and fidelity towards one’s king. The textbook Enciclopedia Textos, grado

II, whoso author is anonymous affirms that:

No creáis que Cid sea el nombre verdadero de este gran héroe castellano. Se llamaba Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, y le decían el Cid, que es lo mismo que Señor, Retador o Batallador, porque era el Campeón de la guerra en su tiempo y nadie podía vencerle. Desterrado por el rey Alfonso VI, porque le calumniaron, se fue solo con unos pocos guerreros leales, a pelear contra los moros, venciéndoles siempre y conquistándoles al fin la la ciudad de Valencia. El generoso Cid envió entonces las llaves de la la ciudad a Alfonso VI, para indicarle que olvidaba el mal que le había hecho, y que quería ser su súbdito. Le temían tanto los moros, que se cuenta que después de muerto ganó una batalla, pues al verle sobre su caballo, los moros huyeron llenos de terror. Es famoso el nombre de su

clv caballo Babieca y el de sus espadas Tizona y Colada. Sus restos mortales descansan en Burgos (299).

The text is informally written in second person plural, so that the author can talk directly to the student. The initial emphasis falls on the Cid’s value as a warrior. He was a victim of rumors and, because of it; he went to fight without mentioning the reason behind it.

It mentions that he fought against the Moors as if that is sufficient information to justify the state of war. Again, he comes across as brave soldier of whom the Moors were afraid. It is not explained why the king pardons the Cid.

Even though the Cid was the exemplary hero for male students, the primary role for female students was to engender the regime’s beliefs in their children. In the Enciclopedia

Elemental edited in 1954 by the Femenine Section of the F.E.T and J.O.N.S., in Madrid the prologue by Pilar Primo de Rivera states:

Lo que nosotros nos encomienda la Falange es llevar el conocimiento de nuestras verdades a todas las mujeres, no para que sean ellas las que organicen la política, sino para que lleguen a amar las ideas y puedan transitrlas a las generaciones venideras. (5)

Clearly, women should not take part in politics but they should educate their children with the correct ideology. Women were taught that the Cid was an exemplary citizen that

“hace triunfar las nuevas aspiraciones castellanas que iban a traer la España moderna” (240).

Including, “va más de prisa que su Patria” (240).

In these textbooks, we have seen different representations of the Cid. In general terms, all of this information comes from one source. The Campeador is represented as a historic figure whose life was represented in a way that is parallel with some historical facts of their dictator Francisco Franco. The principal emphasis is on the life of the Cid and sometimes the

clvi epic poem is mentioned as a national treasure, even though is not looked at in its totality. The lessons of these books instructed children the ideology of the state.

4.5 .The Forgotten Role of Jimena within the Franquist Educational System

Menéndez Pidal explained that the Poema de Mío Cid was the product of a functionally illiterate society, wishing to preserve its history by song or recitation. This genre was, by necessity, simple and episodic. He further explains in Reliquias de la poesía española, that it was simple because the juglar had to recite in front of a primitive audience. It was episodic because the singers relied on improvisation and repetition, as an aide-mémoire to the performers. The epic poet’s chief tool is action combined with indications of gesture or moral qualities used to give characters delineation. Due to these circumstances, and as explained by Marjorie Ratcliffe in Jimena: a Woman in Spanish Literature:

Undoubtedly, the medieval narrator held his audience spell-bound with stories of battle, minute descriptions of booty, conquest, glory and wonder. It must be assumed that the element of human interest was also felt by both the poet and his audience. (25)

In contrast to the later literature, the epic tradition emphasized personality development, the role of women in matrimonial love, political life, questions of honor, family pride, and courtly intrigue. In the words of Margaret Ratcliffe:

Women were important enough in daily life to deserve an important role in literature, a role which would reflect the changes in literary styles and tastes, but, most importantly, a role realistic in terms of the social values of the people of medieval Spain. (26)

Since wars were recurrent during the feudal period, it was normal for a woman to have many responsibilities because her husband was absent for a long period of time. While he was in war, the wife was representative of the household and she was the one who was in charge

clvii of the family and house. Lucy Sponsler in Women in the Medieval Spanish Epic and Lyric

Tradition explains that ladies of the minor nobility settled disputes among the servants or peasants, supervised bread-baking, weaving, candle-making, and meat curing (1). Since their husbands were in the battle fields, some women for entertainment played the harp and sang troubadour songs. Also, they sometimes had the right to go and help the poor. Furthermore, bourgeois women sometimes had specific trades. There were teachers, embroiderers, weavers or merchants who helped in their husband’s stores.

On the other hand, peasant women did not find themselves in the same situation.

Their ultimate goal was to get married even though she and her husband had to pay the lord not only gifts but the traditional droit du seigneur. Besides this, the peasant woman also had to bake bread using the oven of her lord. In return she had to give him a fixed proportion of the loaves as an exchange. Obviously the lord had dominance over the peasants and the same requirement were made when pressing grapes and milling flour. Furthermore, the peasant husband made sure that he was superior in comparison to his wife. Although the noblewoman was certainly freer than the peasant woman, there is a similarity in the attitude of their husbands toward them. Just like the peasant women, the noblewoman was also expected to pay attention to her husband when he was at home. Another duty was to make sure that when his guests come to make them feel as welcomed as possible and sometimes she even had to undress and give a bath to the male guests (Sponsler 3).

To a certain point the noble lady was left to her own devices when her husband was away, as it is the case of Jimena. On the other hand, she often resembled a servant because she was expected to keep things in constant readiness for his arrival and to serve him when that time came. The view that woman waited to serve man while he was out doing much more

clviii active things can be substantiated through a comparison of types of education they received.

Lower class women remained illiterate and among the upper classes a girl received little more education. The princess, for example, was taught to read Latin, to write in a Romance tongue, to do arithmetic, to know the various herbs used to cure wounds and to sing and play an instrument, in many cases to entertain her husband. For the young prince, on the other hand, the emphasis was on war and tournament skills along with falconry and other hunting methods. As Sponster explains, girls were taught how to eat and drink properly, to chew anise or fennel for bad breath, to drink wine to improve skin tone, to walk calmly, and to keep their eyelids low when conversing. This sort of education indicates that woman was thought of as a passive creature of comfort and pleasure for men, as someone to be admired for her habits, appearance, and talents rather than for deeds she might do. The extent to which a woman could inherit and rule over property provides a further indication of the way she was regarded by dominant male society. Since fiefs tended to become hereditary, a lord naturally hoped for a vassal to have sons, for others the heir to the fiefs might be a grandparent or a woman, neither of whom was capable of providing the lord with military service. It was in the interest of a lord to marry off a widow or young orphan daughter of his vassal quickly in order to have a man to rule the fief and serve him in battle. Needless to say this often resulted in unhappy or premature marriages. Women rarely had the chance to choose their own husband, because marriages were arranged primarily with political, social, or economical consideration in mind.

If women did not marry people but rather lands or titles, it is not surprising that their emotional needs often led them to a secret love life such as is portrayed in courtly love lyrics.

Though a woman might marry and move into the household of her husband’s family, her own relatives continued to feel responsibility for her welfare and would protect her in case of harsh

clix treatment by her husband. This brings to mind developments in the Poema de Mío Cid. For instance, Rodrigo automatically sends envy to his daughters when they are disgraced by their husbands. The seven centuries of Arab domination influenced Spanish woman-hood perhaps more than any other single factor. Though Arab women were forbidden by Moslem law to marry Christian men, intermarriage between Arab invaders and Christen women as well as forced concubinage and slavery brought some Christian women into a polygamous family situation. The harem was a movement of activity while the husband was out, but a silence was enforced whenever he was at home; a wife was considered a humble servant who talked to her husband with respect. When guests were expected, the husband received them in rooms apart from the women, whose presence was not requested-quite in contrast to northern Spain where women were expected to receive guests and make them feel at home. In the harem, however, a wife’s activities were so rigidly controlled that she was allowed outside only once or twice a month. When she did venture forth she had to cover herself entirely, with the exception of her eyes, in order to avoid contact with the opposite sex. Why this should be necessary is not clear in view of the fact that Arab men were permitted four wives of their own (purchased often with the aid of a matchmaker); furthermore they were allowed to have female slaves who did house-work and also partook of the husbands’ bed (5). Also, a man could divorce any wife three times but a discontented wife had to appear before a judge and, often, buy her way out of an unsatisfactory marriage. Thus, among the Arabs of Spain women were considered a man’s possession and were kept in seclusion as much as possible.

They were seen mainly as instruments of comfort and amusement for men. This is the reason why they spent many hours in their baths, putting perfumes on, or brushing their long hair with ivory combs. They used all sorts of cosmetics and chewed gum to sweeten their

clx breath. They wore brightly colored veils and luxuriant silk wraps. Intellectual life, nonetheless, was not complete restricted. There were women who wrote poetry, especially of an erotic and satiric nature. With the advent of schools and the study of law, medico, and astronomy in Muslim Spain between the 8th and 12thcentury, women were encouraged to study and often became secretaries and scribes. All in all, though, it does appear that the

Hispano-Moslem women led a confined existence and that in men’s eyes the ideal life was to be surrounded by innumerable women who retained their youthful, sensuous beauty and neglected their minds.

One tends to conclude that in the north the life of Christian women and the attitude of men toward them form a contrast to the situation in the south. In this region, she was forced to be a strong, hardworking, long-suffering being because of the constant insecurity of wartime life. One must suspect an element of Christian bias about women who lived in a more severe climate and was constantly being forced from her home and having to do without material pleasures. Yet this particular contrast might be more a result of religious differences between the two sections of the peninsula. Broader implications about the difference in attitude toward women between the two societies stem from the fact that while in the kingdoms of northern medieval Spain women reigned as queens, such could never be the case in Arab territory. To this day in Spain one notices possible effects of different cultures in north and south. Sponster argues that the life-style in the north is certainly more vigorous than that in the south-whether because of climate or because of the contrasts between the customs of north and south during the formative years.

When reading the Poema de Mío Cid one can notice nothing surprising in its depiction of the relationship between men and women. Jimena and Rodrigo are deeply in love and

clxi happily married. Through the pages of the poem, Jimena emerges as an ideal wife, whose deep respect, love, and obedience to her husband stimulate the admiration of the poet and the reader. Epithets such as “mugger ondrada” or “menbrada” continually indicate that the medieval poet respects Jimena’s prudence and understanding, her virtue and moral qualities.

There is a certain formality in the relationship of Jimena and Rodrigo as portrayed in the poem. Rather than being frivolous, their love is deep and more covert. Rarely is emotion shown by an embrace, but their love is shown by words of mutual respect. The fact that

Jimena consistently kneels before Rodrigo when greeting him reflects a control of outward emotions and a preference for privacy in expressing conjugal love. There is no doubt of their mutual admiration as seen from the scene of separation in the convent. Jimena pronounces a long and beautiful prayer for her husband and the Cid illustrates equally his sadness at having to leave a woman to whom he is devoted: “Ya doña Ximena, la mi muggier tan complida/Commo a la mie alma yo tanto vos queria” (278-79).

Jimena Díaz’s main role in life was to be a wife and mother, but she also had great authority due to Cid’s absence. Her role is strictly supportive, revolving around the central figure of the chivalric hero. Jimena was necessary in the Cid’s depiction as a way to contrast his stature of being superior in strength, courage and deeds. She was needed as a partner, to fill the role of wife and mother. As an agent of passive virtue, she was needed as an addition to his active virtue. The Cid is not only an ideal knight, due to his strong capacity as a warrior, but he is also made greater by the presence of an ideal spouse. The responsibility he bears for the well-being and future of his wife and daughters trigger his efforts. They are the external manifestations of his social status. Through him, the family has become poor and dishonored.

clxii In exile, his overriding concern was to regain land, wealth and honor in order to restore his female dependents to their previous status. Ratcliffe outlines this aspect along these lines:

Because women in the medieval world reflected the social position of their fathers and husbands, in the story of the Cid, his wife and two daughters are both the victims of his ill fortune and the symbols of his good luck. Although secondary to the Cid, these women are the mainstay of his virtue, the motivating force behind return to power and recognition. (27)

Jimena, unlike her husband, is not openly affectionate. Ratcliffe argues that she is a presence, necessary to the plot. Jimena is the person of the family who has to maintain stability between the emotions of her two daughters and her husband. She is the mediator and she is the model of the medieval mother. With the exception of kissing the Cid’s hand, a symbol of respective love, as we observer her role in the poem, she is represented as a very strong person who maintains the stability of her family. Upon hearing of their departure for

Valencia, her only reaction is to accept her fate: “el Criador lo mande” (196). She does not express joy in anticipation of rejoining her husband. In Valencia, she expresses her happiness by showing gratitude for his efforts as she reports to their daughters:

‘!Merçed, Campeador en buen ora çinxiestes espada! Sacada me avedes de muchas verguenças malas; afe me aquí, señor, yo[e] vuestras fijas amas, con Dios e con vusco buenas son e criadas.” (203)

On the contrary, when the Cid conquered Valencia, the first, and only, request of King

Alfonso was the permission to reunite his family. Hearing of their impending arrival, he is truly pleased, “plógol de coraçon e tornós a alegrar” (201). He begins to make elaborate plans for their reception. He wants to be seen at the peak of his power and strength, to redeem the defeated man who left them at Cardeña:

a la puerta de Valençia, do en so salvo estava, delante su mugier e de sus fijos querié tener las armas. …

clxiii vistiós el sobregonel; luenga trahe la barba; ensiéllanle a Baviera, coberturas le echavan, mio Çid salió sobrel, e armas de fueste tomava. (202)

He can barely contain his pride in his achievements, all of which were gained for their benefit:

‘Vos [doña Ximena] querida muggier e ondrada, e amas mis fijas mi coraçon e mi alma, entrad conmigo en Valençia la casa, en esta heredad, que vos yo he ganada.” (203)

If we observe the above examples, it appears that the author is reversing the roles of the protagonists because emotionally the Cid is more expressive and sensitive and Jimena is cold. This scene portrays the Cid as an emotional person.

If we observe Jimena, with her two daughters, she is also emotionally reserved. When the girls are returned to her after their nightmarish treatment at the hands of the Infants of

Carrión, there are no oaths, tears or emotions. Jimena does not react, she is passive. She neither cries out for the revenge for her daughters’ suffering, nor does she attend the courts or the trial by battle just as she did not accompany Rodrigo into exile.

Nevertheless, she has a great presence in the poem and without her the Cid is not complete as a warrior or person. As we have observed in the textbooks, none of the above information about Jimena is revealed or is only briefly mentioned. Spanish youth were aware that the Spanish hero, the Cid, had a wife and two daughters but beyond that point not much more appears in the textbooks. The epic poem is not about all goodness and prosperity, but as we have seen, it involves betrayal, loss of wealth, and sadness. However, these aspects were not pointed out to the students nor included in their curriculum and their classrooms.

Such negation is understood when following Franco’s model of the educational system. As we have seen in chapter two, the woman’s role was not crucial in the school

clxiv because her position was inside the house and she was not allowed to express political opinions or participate in any political process. Boys and girls had different rules, which were stressed from the very beginning of their school career. If Jimena was represented as a strong woman who took the role of her husband while he was absent such a portrayal would not correspond with the rules of the Female Phalangist Organization. Women are not supposed to be strong or capable of performing the husband’s duties. Therefore, only representing the Cid as the valiant hero who fights for his country and at the same time loves his wife and two daughters; it is a better representation of the Nationalist ideological dogma. Despite the fact that Jimena also demonstrates a strong and valiant character in the original epic poem, during this time in Spain, these positive characteristics were forgotten by the National education system.

clxv 4.6. The Forgotten Role of the Cid’s Daughters and the Infants of Carrión in the

Franquist Educational System

(Clissold 177)

Stephen Clissold, in In Search of the Cid, points out the cruelty and the personal interest of the Infants of Carrión toward Elvira and Sol, the Cid’s daughters. Nationalist authors liked to express the story of the Cid through pictures as seen in the earlier part of this chapter, but we have not encountered any illustration such as the one above in the textbooks during the Franco dictatorship. Students were taught about the story of the Cid, and they were aware that there were two daughters that the Cid loved and cherished but we have no versions which include their mistreatment at the hands of their husbands. The Infants of Carrión are portrayed as cowards, but their characterization is minimal since the central focus was on the

Cid, his love for God, his heroism, and his love for his country.

clxvi As Clissold explains, the Infants of Carrión were two brothers, nobles at King

Alfonso’s court. They were successors to the lands of Carrión, and scions of the family of the

Beni-Gómez, who had given many famous counts to Castille (170). In the classical text, their presence is revealed when Álvar Fáñez arrived from Valencia with a gift of two hundred horses. From this point on, they are intrigued by the prospects of gaining material goods.

Because the Cid became wealthy after his exile, their goal was to marry his two daughters and obtain part of this wealth. In order for their plan to work, they begged King Alfonso to favor their requests. The King sent a message through Álvar Fáñez and Pedro Bermúdez that it was his wish that the Cid give his daughters to the brothers. Due to the fact that the Cid was always loyal to his King, after pondering for a long time, the epic hero agreed to the marriage.

After the wedding guests had gone, the two brothers remained at the Cid’s court in Valencia for two years.

After this two-year period, we find in the third cantar, one day, when the Cid was asleep on his couch, a lion broke loose from the cage. The Cid’s vassals gathered around the couch to protect their Lord, but his sons-in-law were frightened and ran off. Fernando crawled under the couch to escape, while Diego fled from the chamber shouting, “!Non vere Carrión!”

(227), and hid behind the wine-press. The Cid was aroused by all this uproar, seized the lion by its mane, and pushed him back into the cage, to the great wonder of all who beheld him.

The Cid then called for his sons-in-law, but they could not be found, “Mio Çid por sos yernos/ demando e no los fallo/ mager los estan lamando/ ninguno non responde” (228). When at last they were brought to him, the brothers were so pale and trembling that the whole court burst out laughing at them until the Cid managed to calm them down. The Infants of Carrión were deeply mortified and ashamed. Out of shame, they took part in the battle against King Bucar,

clxvii an enemy of the Cid, but luckily they were protected by the vassals of Cid. When the war was over, the rejoicing in Valencia was great because of the victory and the immense spoils which were taken. The brothers were especially happy because their share came out to four thousand marks, enough to keep them rich until the end of their lives. Once they had obtained wealth from the Cid, they wanted to put an end to the ridicule over the affair with the lion. Their plan was to tell the Cid that their wish was to show their new wives their noble heritage, but once they were beyond their father’s protection, they knew what they were going to do with them.

With this plan in mind, the brothers asked the Cid for leave in order to return to

Carrión. The Cid overwhelmed them with many presents, and even gave them his priceless swords, Tizón and Colada, and asked his sons-in-law to cherish their wives. At this time,

Doña Sol and Doña Elvira knelt before their father and begged him not to forget them in the land of Carrión. The Cid and doña Jimena kissed them and gave them their blessing, but the

Cid did not have a good feeling about their departure. As a result, he hired his nephew Félix

Muñoz to ride after them and return to tell him how the journey went. When they came to the oak forest of Corpes, not far from San Estebán, in a shady glen and springs, the Infants of

Carrión commanded that their tents be pitched. That night they rested holding their wives in their arms, giving an appearance of matrimonial devotion.

The next morning, they sent their servants ahead with the baggage and remained alone with their wives, planning to fulfill their plot for revenge. The Infants of Carrión informed

Elvira and Sol that their plan was to mock them in the wild woods and abandon them. They told them they would never see their wedding portion in the lands of Carrión and that this was revenge for the shame of the lion. Diego and Fernando then stripped them of their furs and mantles and left them naked except for their shifts and silken skirts. They then seized their

clxviii heavy thongs of leather with spurs on them. When the Cid’s daughters saw what they would do they pleaded not to cruelly misuse them but the brothers set about their work, flaying them mercilessly with the sharp spurs and heavy thongs of leather, cutting through shifts and tender flesh, and staining their silken skirts with fresh blood:

Lo que ruegan las dueñas non les ha ningun pro. Essora les conpieçan a dar los infantes de Carrion, con las espuelas agudas don ellas an mal sabor ronpien las camisas e las carnes a ellas amas a dos; limpia salie la sangre sobre los çiclatones. Ya lo sienten ella en los sos corazones. (243)

The brothers flogged them until they were senseless and their garments soaked in blood. Each strived to outdo the other, and they cease only when they can strike no more.

Doña Elvira and doña Sol are speechless now and are left for dead in the forests of Corpes.

The infants take up their mantles and furs and leave them lying there senseless, as prey to the wild beasts. They show off, as they ride through the forest saying to the sisters:

‘De nuestros casamientos agora somos vengados; non las deviemos tomar por varraganas si non fuésemos rogados, pues nuestras parejas non eran pora en braços. ¡La desondra del leon assis ira vengando!’ (244)

The point of importance here is the fact that in the Spanish classroom the students did not hear about the graphic and vivid explanation of the mistreatment of Elvira and Sol, nor were they introduced to the acts that the Infants of Carrión performed, not only against Elvira and Sol, but also against the Cid. As far as our investigation goes, these aspects are omitted from the classroom. Despite the Cid’s representation as a national hero, his character cannot be complete without his daughters. They are the characters that help him to conquer because they give him a reason to further his conquest and so that he may be reunited with them. They are very important characters in the poem because they are represented as victims in the hands

clxix of the infants, but such violent representation did not fit into the dogma of the state, so it was easier to just ignore and not teach it to the youth. Nationalist dogma opted for the positive

Christian representation of the Spanish man, and if the Infants of Carrión were taught they would be seen as threats to this indomitable image of the Cid.

clxx Conclusion

As we have seen from previous investigations, the reception of the Spanish epic poem differs depending on the literary theories or the political approaches of that specific time. The epic poem also was used as a source of manipulation especially in the primary schools in order to transmit ideological dogma to the Spanish youth. During the Spanish Post-Civil War period, the primary element of Franco’s agenda was not to open new schools but to change and install new educational laws according to his moral and Catholic doctrine, deriving from medieval times. From the very beginning of his dictatorship the installment of the new educational system focused mainly on the elementary level because it was the easiest way to produce a new generation that was going to learn and follow his ideological principles. These ideological principals that dominated Spanish society during Franco’s regime are not his own invention, but are copied from previous historical models. As we have indicated, the most important historical event that Franco used for the establishment of his dogma was the notion of nation building through reproduction of the relations of production. With this concept he wanted to unify the country just like in the period to the fifteenth century. At this time, Spain was freed from the Moors who invaded and occupied it for seven centuries. In order to unify and centralize the country he wanted to eliminate the division of its different linguistic groups but most importantly he wanted to establish religious orthodoxy as did the Catholic Kings in the Middle Ages. As we have seen, Franco’s focus was the historical aspects from the period of 1042 and on. This is the period when the heroic figure of the Cid rises during the Middle

Ages, and in modern times, it has dictated the history of Medieval Spain. Franco’s antique model spurred the interest in the origins and the authenticity of the Spanish person and society. In order to reach his ideological belief, he utilized the heroic and historical figures of

clxxi the Cid and of the Reyes Católicos among others. The expulsion of the Moors from Spain marked the beginning of the imperial Spain of the Reyes Católicos. Since they formed an empire that was unique, centralized, pure and Catholic in the Middle Ages and that conquered the world, it appeared, without any doubt, as a definite model for Franco to follow. He used the fame and power of a once strong nation as a source of manipulation. Keeping these elements in mind, Franco wanted to bring Spain back to life under his leadership and with such an achievement gain power over the entire nation. He wanted to make Spain unique without existence of regional distinctions and that was clear when he prohibited the use or teaching of Catalonian and Basque language in the schools of these regions. This is of a great importance but even more importantly is the fact that he specifically focused on historical and heroic figures that actually played a role in achieving a strong and unique empire. He used these figures to a satisfactory level for his image. The heroic figure of the Cid was appropriated in order to reach the masses. Everything that was considered myth about the Cid was converted into reality. The Catholic hero of Spain who helped the nation get rid of the

Moors and the Arabs was the perfect figure to use. Unfortunately, this was only part of the picture of the epic poem. As our investigation has shown, parts of the epic poem which would have triggered a problematic response were never mentioned.

The educational system was a superstructure of the society, one superstructure that works in a coherent connection with the basic structure (the relations of production). This educational system was supported by the bourgeoisie that owned the means of production; but, at the same time, we can say that the educational system supports, intellectually, the relations of production that originated it. These Franquist schools reproduced the relations of

clxxii production, as Althusser would say. This concept was the way to ensure the continuity of the regime and to repress any possible ideological opposition from the nation’s future citizens.

The teaching of literature and selection of literary pieces were carefully chosen. As a result, many gaps from the Spanish literary canon existed during this period. The Generations of ‘98 and ‘27 among others were erased from the Spanish literary canon; instead Franco’s educational system used Medieval Spanish texts in order to make an ideological relationship between the medieval texts and his 20th century ideological system: the Reconquista. Spanish medieval texts dealt with the lost parts of its territory from their enemies, the Moors and the

Arabs. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel lead Spain in the recuperation of the kingdom of

Granada reign, in 1492. Spain was unified totally after the recuperation of Granada, but at least the enemies were expelled from the Peninsula. In medieval texts the Reconquista is represented in religious and Christian tones. In modern times, Franco revived the idea of

Christian Spain to give the New Spain its conservative religion. There is a re-appropriation realized by the Franquist regime by rewriting medieval texts in a 20th century political context.

The Poema de Mío Cid during this period is brought back to life and for the first time it constitutes part of the Spanish literary canon. Marcelino Menéndez Pidal wrote new editions of La España del Cid and it served as a basis for the school curriculum. The new

Spanish educational system elevated the heroic figure of the Cid to the standards of the new ideological and political doctrine. The Cid (el Caudillo) was now compared in a parallel relation with the new dictator Franco (el Caudillo). Franco was a hero who just like el Cid fought against the enemies to free his country, his family, and most importantly, God. We can say that the heroic perspective of the Cid was overly used in the society and in the schools,

clxxiii but the problem with this was the fact that only appropriate parts were used and taught to the students, parts that fitted the political and ideological dogma. This is not an interpretation but a use (following Eco’s notions) of the classical epic poem Poema de Mío Cid.

The new ministry of education, appointed by the dictator, contracted its own intellectuals, writers, authors, illustrators, to publish books that portrayed their values. Among them were Antonio Álvarez, Lluis Vives, Serrano de Harro and Edelvives. Now Spanish literature was re-interpreted and re-written for the 20th- century context by authors who were individually hired by Franco. Students were also taught literature from magazines, newspapers, dictations, and political messages, sometimes even written by Francisco Franco.

For example, it was common to see the transformation of Little Red Riding Hood to Little

Blue Riding Hood because the color red was the symbol of the Republican government and the color blue was now the symbol of the Nationalists. Anything that had a hint of the

Republican government was erased.

In our dissertation, we have studied the representation of the Poema de Mío Cid from the textbooks that the elementary students were taught from during this period. We found that the heroic and religious perspective of the epic poem was accentuated by Nationalist critics in order to enforce a traditional, patriotic, heroic and religious image in the psyche of the

Spanish youth. The usage of specific fragments of Poema de Mío Cid was intentionally designed to fulfill the outcome and the image of the New State and the dictator. Following

Eco’s notion, it can be implied that Franco paralyzed all other inconvenient components of the epic poem because they did not serve his purpose. The figure of the Cid in the classical text cannot move, cannot exist, and cannot function without the other elements, parts, characters and events. As far as our investigation goes, Spanish youth were not introduced to topics that

clxxiv exist in the original epic poem, such as the cruelty of Spanish men, abuse, strength of women, among others that were negative for Franco’s agenda.

From what we have observed, the main focus that the writers of Franco’s time was to introduce only the first part of the poem, el destierro. Students read many stories and poems about these episodes but the problem was the fact that they were also altered. There was a common comparison between el Cid and Franco. Franco was referred to as Campeador and

Cid as Generalísimo. Again, this is another proof that the terminology utilized during the 20th-

Century in Spain fits the medieval poem into the conceptual categories and the context of the

Franquist Spain.

Jimena has a great presence in the poem and without her the Cid is not a complete warrior or person. Spanish youth were aware that the Cid, had a wife and daughters but, beyond that point, not much more appears in the textbooks. The epic poem is not about all goodness and prosperity, but as we have seen, it involves betrayal, loss of wealth, and sadness.

The same is true for the Cid’s daughters, Elvira and Sol. Their mistreatment is nowhere seen in the textbooks. In the Spanish classroom the students did not hear about the graphic and vivid explanation of the mistreatment of Elvira and Sol, nor were they introduced to the acts that the Infants of Carrión performed not only to Elvira and Sol, but also to the Cid.

These aspects are omitted from the textbooks; aspects that make the epic poem more fruitful, interesting and diverse in themes, events and characters. Franco’s educational system paralyzed these aspects and with such a paralyzation of the Poema de Mío Cid was nationally celebrated and used despite the fact that it was not conveyed nor interpreted in its entirety.

clxxv These materials and textbooks obviously did not portray the entire reality, and even when reality was portrayed it was altered. Franco had all this in mind when forming the new laws in the Spanish school apparatus. He was trying to produce a force, a generation that was going to be easily controlled in the establishment of his dogma. The Spanish dictator tried to install his moral and religious doctrine by different means and he performed this duty successfully. Given the above, our final conclusion is that Poema de Mio Cid was glorified in the classrooms but in a way that the New State wanted to glorify it.

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