A New Image for a Tourist City During the Early Years of the Franco Regime
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
La Città Altra Storia e immagine della diversità urbana: luoghi e paesaggi dei privilegi e del benessere, dell’isolamento, del disagio, della multiculturalità A new image for a tourist city during the early years of the Franco regime. San Sebastián, 1936-1945 CARLOS LARRINAGA University of Granada Abstract A few months after the end of the Civil War (1936-1939), General Franco visited San Sebastián for the first time. From that point onwards, he spent almost all his holidays in the city, just as the Royal Family had done until 1931. During these decades, San Sebastián had become the capital of elite tourism. But the liberal atmosphere now was replaced by the predominant national-Catholicism of the time. Moreover, a new urban iconography and scenography served the dictatorship’s propaganda. Pochi mesi dopo la fine della guerra civile (1936-1939), il generale Franco visitò San Sebastián per la prima volta. Da quel momento in poi trascorse quasi tutte le sue vacanze in città, proprio come aveva fatto la famiglia reale fino al 1931. Durante questi decenni, San Sebastián era diventata la capitale del turismo d’élite. Ma l’atmosfera liberale era ormai sostituita dal predominante nazional-cattolicesimo del tempo. Inoltre una nuova iconografia e scenografia urbana era funzionale alla propaganda della dittatura. Keywords New image, tourism, Franco regimen. Nuova immagine, turismo, regime franchista. Introduction A few months after the end of the Civil War, on July 10, 1939, General Franco, the new Head of State, visited San Sebastián for the first time. From that point onwards, he spent almost all his holidays in the city, just as the Royal Family had done from the 19th century until the proclamation of the Second Republic in 1931. During these decades, San Sebastián had become the capital of elite tourism, although from the 1920s onwards, a certain unprecedented popularisation occurred, mainly a great boom in Mediterranean tourist destinations (the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Levante) when the option of the sun and sea was becoming increasingly powerful. Franco’s presence in San Sebastián meant that this city was promoted to elite tourism while less affluent social groups and foreign tourists preferred the Mediterranean coast. Thanks to this, San Sebastián managed to maintain its tourist industry although with a very different image from previous years. In 1947 the Gran Casino was converted into the new Town Hall as gambling had been prohibited from 1924 onwards. The liberal atmosphere that had prevailed in the city was now replaced by the 103 A new image for a tourist city during the early years of the Franco regime. San Sebastián, 1936-1945 CARLOS LARRINAGA predominant national-Catholicism of the time. All this went hand in hand with new urban iconography and scenography to serve the dictatorship’s propaganda*. 1. The war years (1936-1939): the rearguard summer The Spanish Civil War broke out in the middle of the tourist season, on July 18, 1936, when General Franco’s supporters took up arms against the Republic’s legitimate authorities. Just as in previous summers, the forecast in San Sebastián was good although naturally there was concern for the serious political and social tension which had been around since the controversial elections in February when the Popular Front (a coalition of parties from the Left) won. Many holiday-makers left the city. Some of the wealthiest managed to cross the border to take refuge in the Basque country [Sada 2009]. Nevertheless, there were also some families who had no choice but to stay in the city, so they were severely affected by not having sufficient financial resources [Sada 2007, 196]. Naturally, the outlook for August was thwarted and several hotels were partially occupied by the Popular Front commanders as hospitals to care for wounded fighters. Still, despite some very serious episodes of violence, the war lasted until September 13 in San Sebastián when the latter fell into the hands of Franco’s supporters. The 86,000 inhabitants in 1934 fell to just over 44,000, the rest being away [Barruso 1999, 107; Barruso 1996]. Already under Franco’s command, San Sebastián was soon distant from the battle lines and from the direct impact of the war, which did not end until April 1939. During those years, it was a rearguard city that served, to a large extent, as a refuge for many people close to the new Franco regime who fled the areas controlled by the Republic’s defenders. Many arrived from Catalonia and Madrid, with many journalists, entrepreneurs, businessmen and diplomats. The city could thus recover its vital course: its commercial and industrial trade (which had remained practically intact despite the problem of the supply of raw materials), its tourist activity, with the influx of customers to the season’s hotels, cafés and shows or its recreational activity, with the reopening of cinemas, theatres and organisation of bullfights. Despite the fact people had been executed and exiled, San Sebastián recovered its 1940 population to over 100,000 inhabitants. What it did not recover however was the liberal climate that had characterised the city since the 19th century, when it actually became one of the most important bastions of liberalism in Spain. This environment was replaced by one of war, whereby the victors imposed their rules and control. A regime dominated by controls, complaints, aggression, fines and detention prevailed [Luengo 2016, 239-240]. In short, an atmosphere of repression against any suspect of opposition to new ones [Barruso 1999, 105-107]. It should also be noted that, during these years, when Spain was divided into two camps, a new institutional structure began in the area controlled by the Franco regime. On September 29, 1936 Franco was appointed the Head of Government by some high military officers of the Rebel faction. On October 3, the Junta Técnica del Estado (State Technical Board) was created. This consisted of seven committees, ultimately subject to Franco’s opinion and based in Burgos. This institution survived until the first Government was formed on January 30, 1938 and lasted until August 9, 1939. The National Tourism Service (SNT in Spanish) was created by an Act on January 30, 1938, dependant on the Ministry of Interior. However, the Act of December 29, 1938 merged the Ministries of Interior and Public Order into one, the Ministry of Governing, from which the SNT now depended. The journalist Luis A. Bolín, (a * This work forms part of the project HAR2017-82679-C2-1-P, financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness and FEDER Funds (European Union). I would like to thank Pedro Barruso for his comments. 104 La Città Altra Storia e immagine della diversità urbana: luoghi e paesaggi dei privilegi e del benessere, dell’isolamento, del disagio, della multiculturalità convinced Franco supporter and an accomplished propagandist from Malaga) was appointed head of the SNT. Bolín moved to San Sebastián where the SNT was installed until the end of the war when the SNT, (which became the General Directorate of Tourism with the Act of August 8, 1939), moved definitively to Madrid [Correyero 2005, 58-59]. Despite the war’s persistence in other areas of Spain, in San Sebastián certain activity already existed in the summer of 1937. By this we mean the summer in a rearguard city whereby the new authorities imposed some new norms, such as, for example, the absence of cabarets, the suppression of all dances, the closing of the establishments at one o’clock in the morning and a more rigorous regulation to access the beach, especially as regards clothing [El Diario Vasco, 3-8-1937, 1]. On July 1, pelota season opened at the Frontón Moderno and by the middle of that month, advertisements for hotels, restaurants, spas and theatre performances abounded in the local press. Also that summer there were several bullfights, including the traditional one of August 15. Nevertheless, according to the testimony of a beach life guard, the number of swimmers had reduced to a third as compared to the good years [El Diario Vasco, 11-8-1937, 8]. Still, an article published in El Duende de Zaragoza about frivolity in San Sebastián, led to a controversy with the Permanent Municipal Commission and the local press, which the newspaper was forced to rectify1. If Burgos was the official capital during the war years and Saragossa was the military city, San Sebastián was a place of peace, solidarity and placidness. It was a city of well-being, sometimes misinterpreted as frivolity. Nothing could have been further from the truth: due to its geographical situation, it was presented as the prelude to liberated Spain, like a great element of seduction and propaganda [El Diario Vasco, 5-5-1939, 6]. Even combatants of every rank and weapon of Franco’s army made the most of their licence in San Sebastián, so the number of uniformed personnel increased considerably. Not in vain and in mid-August 1937, the Descanso del Soldado (a R&R retreat for military personnel) was inaugurated in the former Gran Casino [El Diario Vasco, 17-8- 1937, 8]. 2. From the liberal spirit to the introduction of authoritarianism and national- Catholicism If San Sebastián had been characterised for decades for one thing, it had been because, as a primarily commercial and, to a lesser extent, industrial location, many of its inhabitants embraced liberal ideology (as opposed to traditionalism), represented since the first decades of the 19th century in the Spanish case by Carlism, derived from Don Carlos, the uncle of Queen Isabel II. In fact, during the two Carlist wars that ravaged much of Spain during this century, San Sebastián always remained faithful to the liberal cause.