Radio España Independiente, La Pirenaica: the Voice of the Victims of the Franco Regime

Sociology Study, October 2014, Vol. 4, No. 10, 859‐868 D doi: 10.17265/2159‐5526/2014.10.004 DAVID PUBLISHING Radio España Independiente, La Pirenaica: The Voice of the Victims of the Franco Regime Armand Balsebrea, Rosario Fontovaa Abstract Radio España Independiente (REI) (1941‐1977), La Pirenaica, was the repository for the public remembrance of the victims of the Franco regime, through letters that its listeners regularly sent to the broadcaster’s headquarters in Bucharest. A study of the 15,500 letters contained in the Spanish Communist Party’s (PCE) Historical Archive in Madrid confirms this broadcaster’s major role in the construction of the mythical symbolic image of the anti‐Franco movement. Beyond their function as propaganda instruments of the PCE, La Pirenaica’s letters reveal the radio station’s role as a vehicle for the expression of public solidarity and ideological and cultural resistance. La Pirenaica was the voice of the defeated after the Spanish Civil War, and was their confidante and advisor. La Pirenaica’s letters are the chronicle of the horror that anti‐Franco society suffered and endured in Spain. Keywords Radio España Independiente (REI), Radio Pirenaica, Franco regime, letters from radio listeners, Spanish Communist Party (PCE) Radio España Independiente (REI) was the following the outbreak of the colonial war in Angola broadcaster of propaganda for the Spanish Communist and the first mobilisations of the trade unions Party (PCE), created in Moscow in 1941 during the campaigning for an eight-hour day . But in similar first bombardments of the Russian capital by German fashion to La Pirenaica, the Portuguese felt that, airplanes. REI was a clandestine radio station, despite the interference, the sound was coming from popularly known as La Pirenaica. Legend had it that much closer, and believed that Radio Portugal Libre the station was located on the other side of the was being broadcast from “Serra da Estrela”. La Pyrenees, just to the north of Spain. But throughout Pirenaica’s slogan was: “Radio España Independiente, most of its existence, the voices on REI were aired the only Spanish broadcaster not censored by Franco”. from studios in Bucharest. Its headquarters were Radio Portugal Libre opened its broadcasts by located in the Romanian capital from 1955 to 1977, announcing that “Radio Portugal Libre is speaking, the year when it closed down following the the Portuguese broadcaster at the service of the people, constitution in Madrid of the first parliament of the democratic era, a year and a half after the death of the a dictator Francisco Franco. Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain Bucharest was also the home of Radio Portugal Correspondent Author: Libre, the Portuguese Communist Party’s broadcaster. Armand Balsebre, Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Campus de Bellaterra, 08197 Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain It was created two decades after La Pirenaica, in 1962, E‐mail: [email protected] 860 Sociology Study 4(10) of democracy, and of national independence”. non-communist. These were the victims of the Franco The two clandestine broadcasters, who fought regime, mainly members of the Spanish Republican against the Salazar Dictatorship in Portugal and the movement that was defeated in the civil war and that Franco Dictatorship in Spain, were shrouded by many had suffered the hardships of post-war repression. myths and legends. One of these claimed that the The current research, based on an analysis of the listeners’ letters that were read out live by La content of the 15,500 letters, has created a profile of Pirenaica’s announcers were actually invented by the the audience who listened to the channel on a daily radio station’s own editors. The exaggerated basis and has established a classification of the communist propaganda on some of the programmes, problems suffered by Spanish anti-Franco society, especially when they spoke of the imminent end of the which certifies the public impact achieved by this dictatorship, contaminated many other issues, such as powerful PCE propaganda instrument among the the true identity of the people who had written those Spanish population. letters. The myth of the invented letter would also The authors believe that this study will make new frequently lead to underestimation of La Pirenaica’s contributions to the historiography of the media and of real communicative and political impact on Spanish the Franco regime, confirming the theory that “history” society. and “historical memory” positively feed upon each A study of the 15,500 letters deposited in the other. Radio, due to its status as the main popular Pirenaica Letters Archive (FCP) in the PCE Historical medium, constitutes an extraordinary historical source; Archive (AHPCE) can conclude today that the legend especially because of the peculiar way that this of the invented letters was false. The letters, mainly medium has always been able to achieve a certain manuscripts, really were written by thousands and symbolic representation of a majority sector of society. thousands of listeners from different places in Spain, The ritual of communicative interaction that occurs on as well as Spaniards that had emigrated or were in a daily basis through radio is represented in La exile, and for whom La Pirenaica was the only means Pirenaica’s letters. by which their lamentations concerning the dictatorship could be heard. And a second conclusion THE VOICES OF LA PIRENAICA is that these 15,500 letters, mostly dated to the 1960s, are only a small part of the thousands and thousands La Pirenaica’s editorial team was originally formed that were sent but never reached Bucharest. Political by reporters and PCE political chiefs that worked vigilance, in collusion with the mail service, prevented extensively on propaganda projects during the Spanish many letters from ever getting to their destination. The Civil War (1936-1939). After the war, they were third conclusion is evident: La Pirenaica, although exiled to Moscow and recruited there to join the staff clandestine, and which people were fined or of REI or for Spanish language broadcasts on Radio imprisoned for listening to, was veritable mass media Moscow. In the second phase, especially from the in the 1960s, comparable in importance at the time to 1960s, the La Pirenaica editorial team drew from Radio Nacional de España or Cadena SER. Given all communist militants that had been forced to flee from the lies that were told on Radio Nacional, La Spain to avoid new arrests and imprisonments. This Pirenaica’s listeners dubbed their channel Radio second generation of younger professionals had not Verdad (Radio Truth). La Pirenaica managed to fought in the civil war and were ideologically raised in spread its anti-Franco message to a large amount of the context of the destalinization initiated by Nikita the Spanish population, both communist and Khrushchev in 1956. Balsebre and Fontova 861 Of the different voices heard on La Pirenaica, we Mujer, where she performed extraordinary educational have chosen two representative figures, both women, work. In Franco’s Spain, where the Catholic Church who acquired the sentimental and political status of exerted abusive and reactionary control over women’s popular icons of the anti-Franco movement. Pilar customs and ideas, Pilar Aragón spoke of Aragón was the voice of the letters written to La contraception, of their right to have the children they Pirenaica. Dolores Ibárruri, Pasionaria, the founder of could raise or the need to be educated in order not to the radio station and the leader of the PCE was the become dependent on men. On Página de la Mujer, indisputable mentor for the channel’s listeners. the heroines, the role models, were Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova and the leader of the Asturian Pilar Aragón mining union, Tina Pérez. The presenter made most of Josefina López Sanmartín (1919-1989) chose the any matter of concern, such as increases in the costs of pseudonym Pilar Aragón when working as a journalist goods and services, to stimulate political awareness and presenter for REI. She was very young when she among her listeners, most of whom were housewives joined the communist youth, and was exiled in 1939 or working women with no hope of ever entering along with other cadres of the party and sought refuge higher education. The letters read by the popular in the Soviet Union. In Moscow, she obtained a presenter included an abundance of anti-American degree in Slavic Studies, and was appointed as a statements and vice versa (i.e., in favour of presenter on La Pirenaica in 1943, where she worked Khrushchev) as a very basic and often sentimental in the Moscow and Bucharest branches until her echo of the political arguments used in her editorials. definitive return to Spain in 1969. In the early 1980s, Pilar Aragón became extraordinarily popular in she left the communist party to join the Partido Spain, where listeners considered the clandestine Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE) (Spanish Socialist channel to be a guaranteed source of truthful Worker’s Party), and became a socialist senator for information about domestic and international affairs. Castellon in 1987. The “voice of La Pirenaica” must have been a With her grave but warm voice, perfect diction, comfort for the station’s audience, the people that had and energetic tone, Pilar Aragón was the lady who been so humiliated and aggrieved by the Franco read out the letters that arrived in Bucharest to be regime, as well as being a call for them to join the included in the Correo de la Pirenaica (La Pirenaica ranks of the PCE. Pilar Aragón’s life was also Mail) show. She also fronted the Página de la Mujer associated with the successive ruptures that befell the (Woman’s Page) and Charlas Femeninas (Female core of the PCE and the tension caused by the Chats) shows.

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