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Wednesday, July 9, 2014

The Falange did not kill Lorca

Sorry, I had to get that off my chest. The Falange was one right-wing group among many others at the beginning of the Civil War. Franco was not a member of it, though later he folded it back into his own movimiento in order to control it. Franco, ideologically, was a Monarchist, although he never restored the monarchy except by a posthumously executed decree.

The man who arrested Lorca, Ramón Ruiz Alonso, was a Falange reject, and Lorca was hiding in the home of his own Falangist friends, the Rosales family. It could have been Ruiz Alonso's resentment against the Falange that helped to get Lorca killed.

I have no love for the Falange, a Spanish Fascist organization founded by José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the son of a dictator in power in the 20s. I do have a certain love, or respect, for historical accuracy. Not even Franco killed Lorca, if we must be precise. He was not the general in charge of Andalusia, at the time.

Of course, later on, in the war, the entire conflict was seen internationally and to some extent internally as one between communists and fascists. At the beginning of the war, though, there were numerous political factions on the right, the left, and the center. Falangists, Carlists, Anarchists, Socialists, Communists, other Monarchists, and even some liberal Republicans.

You're welcome.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I still have trouble getting the students past the typical "the bad guys killed him" response. "The Falange killed him" would actually be a step in a good direction. :-)

Jonathan said...

Well, the "bad guys" is not very specific, but it is not inaccurate either, so is it really an improvement? At least it would show that they have heard of the Falange.

el curioso impertinente said...

He started out as a member of Acción Popular, a conservative, Catholic political party that was folded into Gil Robles' CEDA. He was a parliamentary "diputado" for Granada representing Granada between 1933 and 1936, but lost his seat just a couple of months before the coup. In 1937 he published a book called Corporativismo. He was the leader of one of the "escuadras negras" operating in Granada during the first weeks of the war. As far as I can see, he had his own particular blend of extreme right-wing views, and was probably, in addition, something of a "resentido".