University of Bristol Department of Historical Studies Best undergraduate dissertations of 2016 Dan Kier History as a Battleground’: The Spanish Civil War, Nationalist Visual Sources, and the Manipulation of History for Political Purpose. The Department of Historical Studies at the University of Bristol is com- mitted to the advancement of historical knowledge and understanding, and to research of the highest order. Our undergraduates are part of that en- deavour. Since 2009, the Department has published the best of the annual disserta- tions produced by our final year undergraduates in recognition of the ex- cellent research work being undertaken by our students. This was one of the best of this year’s final year undergraduate disserta- tions. Please note: this dissertation is published in the state it was submitted for examination. Thus the author has not been able to correct errors and/or departures from departmental guidelines for the presentation of dissertations (e.g. in the formatting of its footnotes and bibliography). © The author, 2016 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the prior permission in writing of the author, or as expressly permitted by law. All citations of this work must be properly acknowledged. HIST33101 UG DISSERTATION 65548 HISTORY AS A ‘BATTLEGROUND’: The Spanish Civil War, Nationalist Visual Sources, and the Manipulation of History for Political Purpose. Fig. 1. (Above) Fig. 2 (Below) 1 HIST33101 UG DISSERTATION 65548 CONTENTS List of Illustrations.................................................................................................................3 Introduction............................................................................................................................5 Posters.....................................................................................................................................13 Artwork..................................................................................................................................25 Photography...........................................................................................................................32 Conclusions............................................................................................................................42 Bibliography..........................................................................................................................44 2 HIST33101 UG DISSERTATION 65548 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1. Anon., ‘Desfile de la Victoria. Franco saluda en la tribuna, tras la imposición de la laureada y la banda’ (Madrid, 19 May 1939) in Imágenes inéditas de La Guerra Civil: 1936- 1939, 182. Fig. 2. Jesús Lozano, ‘Carlist troops leaving Teruel after its conquest’ (Teruel, Feb. 1938) in Images of the Spanish Civil War, 149. Fig. 3. Anon., ‘Sisters of Mercy Arrive to Help Feed Hungry Residents of Madrid’ (Madrid, Apr. 1939) in ‘Shots of War: Photojournalism during the Spanish Civil War’. Fig. 4. Anon., ‘Al Tercio’ (N.D.) in ‘Spanish Civil War: Nationalist faction’. Fig. 5. Servicio Nacional de Propaganda, ‘Ya Presentimos el Amanecer en la Alegria de Nuestras Entrañas’ (1938-9) in España Eterna. Fig. 6. Anon., ‘Ante Dios nunca serás héroe anónimo’ (1938) in ‘Spanish Civil War: Nationalist faction’. Fig. 7. Anon., ‘Reinaré en España: Una, Grade, Libre’ (1939) in ‘Spanish Civil War: Nationalist faction’. Fig. 8. Anon., ‘Las niñas de hoy y las mujeres de mañana: Unidas sin distinción de clases’, (1936-9) in Images of the Spanish Civil War, 167. Fig. 9. Auxilio Social, ‘Por la Madre y el Hijo, Por una España Mejor’ (1937) in Historia de España: Vol. XIII, La época de Franco, 14. 3 HIST33101 UG DISSERTATION 65548 Fig. 10. Carlos Sáenz de Tejada, ‘Cara al Sol con la camisa nueva’, Canción de la Falange, Image 1 (1940) in ‘Spanish Civil War Posters: Nationalist’. Fig. 11. Carlos Sáenz de Tejada, ‘Formaré junto a mis compañeros que hacen guardia sobre los luceros; impasible el ademán, y están presentes en nuestro afán’, Canción de la Falange, Image 4 (1940) in ‘Spanish Civil War Posters: Nationalist’. Fig. 12. Carlos Sáenz de Tejada, ‘Volverá a reír la primavera, que por cielo, tierra, y mar se espera’, Canción de la Falange, Image 8 (1940) in ‘Spanish Civil War Posters: Nationalist’. Fig. 13. Anon., ‘El nombre del Jefe. Por dos veces. La triple repetición del ritmo binario Fran- co, en el primer Desfile de la Victoria en Madrid’ (May 1939) in Arte del franquismo. Fig. 14. Jalón Ángel, ‘El Generalísimo Franco’ (1939) in Forjadores de Imperio: Edición Popular. Fig. 15. Anon., ‘Misa de campaña en el frente’ (1938) in Historia de la cruzada Española: Vol. VIII, 53. Fig. 16. Agencia Keystone, ‘Oficiales procedentes en la escuela de Burgos tenían la obligación de fomento al Generalisimo y assistir de una misa especial antes de salir con al frente’ (1938) in Guerra y Revolución en España 1936-1939, Vol. III: Cambio de Rumbo, 278. Fig. 17. Anon., ‘Mujeres con peineta y mantilla celebran la entrada de los Nacionales en Madrid’, (Madrid, 29 Mar. 1939) in Imágenes inéditas de La Guerra Civil: 1936-1939, 177. 4 HIST33101 UG DISSERTATION 65548 INTRODUCTION The First Casualty of War is Truth Habits undulating, a superfluity of nuns atop a mounted platform raise their arms in greeting to a crowd gathering on the city streets, excited spectators smiling in recognition of a joyous or special occasion. However, this scene is made disturbing for the modern viewer by the prominence of the fascist salute among those present. This contrast between a site of social celebration and a gesture representing a totalitarian ideology thus alters the image’s meaning, made explicit by its caption: ‘Sisters of Mercy arrive to help feed hungry residents of Madrid’. The underlying message of this photograph – taken after the 1939 fall of the Republican capital, at the conclusion of the Spanish Civil War – is one of triumphalist elation, signifying the dominance of the Nationalist State’s values: military force, extreme political views, and Christianity. These values are interlinked by the figures of the nuns, whose raised position connotes the confluence of these beliefs within the ruling Nationalist ideology and its overall hegemony. More tangibly, moreover, the nuns’ mere physical presence in a formerly secular city denotes the Nationalist army’s subjugation of any rival principles. Yet this image’s celebratory tone conceals the naturalisation of an extreme imbalance of political and socio-economic power, implicit in the comparison between grinning ‘holy’ conquerors and a ‘hungry’ subordinated population. Inherent within this contrast of forces, then, was a highly partisan presentation of events, designed to justify and glorify the Nationalist cause with the ultimate political goal of securing their rule. Images such as this were thus part of a wider process of symbolic power accumulation – what Bourdieu calls the capacity to 5 HIST33101 UG DISSERTATION 65548 ‘constitute the given’ – attempted by the Nationalist State through the use of propaganda materials.1 Fig. 3. ‘Sisters of Mercy Arrive to Help Feed Hungry Residents of Madrid’. Propaganda and the Spanish Civil War Through the deployment of numerous similar images, the Nationalist regime sought to emphasise and maintain its political and ideological supremacy over its subject Spanish audience. Produced and disseminated in the form of postcards, stamps, and pamphlets, as well as adorning newspapers, official exhibitions, and public places, these images performed what Miriam Basilio cogently identifies as a dual coercive and persuasive function.2 Propaganda – ‘a process of deliberate manipulation and seduction… by “emotional possession”’ – was in this 1 Pierre Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power (Cambridge, 1991), 163-202. 2 Miriam M. Basilio, Visual Propaganda, Exhibitions, and the Spanish Civil War (Farnham, 2013), 1-9, 127-217. 6 HIST33101 UG DISSERTATION 65548 sense utilised as an affective manipulator and repressive tool, evoking passionate feelings regarding a mutual Spanish heritage while also intimidating dissenters into quiescent obedience.3 However, although academic research into the use of propaganda throughout the Spanish Civil War is already substantial, there is insufficient Anglophonic work available, with a particular analytical deficiency regarding the visuality of the Nationalist cause.4 Francoist messages are instead typically associated with the ‘spoken or printed word’, an absence which is especially problematic when considering the importance of visual materials in influencing a largely illiterate general population.5 Such a disparity of historiographical focus – disregarding the visual sources produced outside the Republican camp – is perplexing, as both sides utilised them extensively for the purposes of state legitimation and identity-formation by indoctrinatory mimesis.6 As an instrument to present their respective ideological views – reduced to single values or simple concepts to facilitate their comprehension – these pictorial depictions were indispensable, and consequently merit greater historiographical study. This dissertation seeks to address this issue, reviewing a selection of visual sources that I argue constitute a coherent system of Nationalist propaganda. 3 Herbert Blumer, ‘The Mass, The Public and Public Opinion’ in Bernard Berelson and Morris Janowitz (eds.), Reader in Public Opinion and Communication (New York,