09/11/2020

Memories of Resistance by Shirley Mangini González

Memories of Resistance by Shirley Mangini González – Women’s Voices from the Spanish Civil War – is another book I read for my studies. Well, the book promised a lot, with lots of quotes from biographies, letters, diaries, and oral testimonies. It was a huge let down though, which is a shame, as the chapter on prisons was fascinating and raw and wonderful.

So, first of all, the book has an incredible left-wing bias, so much that at least one testimony is presented out of context and wrong (I refer to Pilar’s words, the leader of the women’s fascist movement). Besides this, which was starting to get annoying as I want to read the facts not the author’s political views, there were some inaccuracies. She makes a mess of the start of the civil war, saying that “in response to the murder of Calvo Sotelo, an Assault Guard lieutenant, Jose Castillo, was murdered by his own colleagues”. Again, not true, Castillo was murdered by the Falange, and, in retaliation, the Assault Guards (sounds off, but in fact these were supposed to guard the Republic) arrested and executed Sotelo (leader of one of the opposition parties), on the following day. The government arrested falangists, but none of the guards were arrested. The rebellion started a few days after that. It is a bit complicated, but imagine what happened if, in retaliation, the guys from MI5 would execute the leader of the Lib Dem? Pretty much that is what happened in Spain.

I wanted to read an analysis with plenty of quotes, but, instead, I can only use some quotes and I will double-check if these are correct anyway. If you are studying the period, skip this book and read other things instead. She gives out long quotes by other historians (2-3 sentences), which is pretty poorly for an undergraduate essay, albeit a book. I am surprised issues like these turned up in a book published by Yale University Press. I wish I knew how the book was before I started reading it (or buying it).