Jorge Farragut: The great Spanish hero of the 18th century that nobody knows

«We are Spanish, not British. They have no right to be here. We have nothing to do with them. We are Spanish! Menorca has been Spanish for a lifetime, ”says Ferrer exclaims his colleagues, who try to convince him that his contempt for the United Kingdom is not fair. They tell him that “the peasants, menestral and commercial are very happy with the English”, that “trade with the Mediterranean is good” and that “our city also benefits from their presence.” To try to calm him down, they add: “We are neither Spaniards nor English, we are Menorchins.” But he sentenced: «Well, I am Spanish. And a lot. I hope Carlos III enters war against those people and gives them their deserved ».

From that moment on, Jaume the Spanish begin to call him. Few pages later, he changes his name for his Spanish translation, Jaime, and starts a long trip through Spain and America with the sole objective of killing Daniel Wolf. He is the English lieutenant who accused them of smuggling and ordered them, in Chesme, to hit the enemy to exploit his small Menorcan ship, loaded with gunpowder, phosphorus and other flammable materials. A suicidal mission that ends the life of his father, the brave captain Cesc Ferrer, and that immerses him in a spiral of revenge.

The most striking of ‘El Español’ (Grijalbo), however, is that Jaime Ferrer is inspired by the figure of Jorge Farragut, a real character who participated in some of the most relevant episodes of Spanish and American history of the 18th century and that, however, nobody knows. «I met him by chance in an article written by a Menorcan and began to investigate. I immediately discovered that it was a jewel, the personified adventure. A man who was born in the British Menorca in 1755, but who declared himself Spanish despite the fact that there was better than in the rest of Spain, ”explains Molist.

From Madrid to Havana

Framed in “that fascinating moment in which the Spanish Empire reached its greatest extension,” the novel takes place for events as relevant as the Esquilache riot, the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain, the aforementioned battle of Chesme and, above all, the American War of Independence, where Farragut became one of his great heroes. His baptism of fire occurred in the siege of Savannah in 1779 and then became nothing less than the link between the King of Spain and the US revolutionaries, taking care of providing them weapons. “History books seem to have forgotten this important fact,” the author told ABC in Cádiz, one of the stages of this novel of adventures, love and trips that also passes through Turkey, Menorca, Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Havana and the besieged city of Charleston.

«Although all his surroundings was against,” Molist continues, “Farragut declared himself Spanish to fight the British. He threw himself for them! That was the motivation that led him to the other side of the Atlantic to fight with the independentists. I am aware that if English reads the novel, it will not sit well, but as long as I wrote it I remembered Horatio Hornblower, a fictional character [creado por Cecil Scott Forester en 1937] starring a dozen novels [en las que narra su vida como oficial de la Marina Real Británica durante las guerras napoleónicas]. In them he comments on the Spaniards who do not like anything, like ‘they are brave but they are always late to everything.’ So, if now I put the English badly, they will end up, ”acknowledges the author between laughs.

Molist says that, by continuing to investigate, he found out that Jorge Farragut was the father of David Farragut, the great hero of the next American conflict, the secession war, and the first admiral of the naval history of the United States. «I found it curious, because if you see the life of Jorge Farragut, it is much more interesting than that of his son David, but it is the latter who has a lot of streets and monuments dedicated in that country. They have even given their name to a town, while their father, nothing. That is why I dedicate the novel, because it gives me courage. We should be proud of their exploits and, nevertheless, we have completely forgotten it, ”warns the winner of the Fernando Lara Prize for ‘Song of Blood and Gold’ (Planet, 2018) and the Alfonso X Historical Novel Award for ‘The Wise for’ The Hidden Queen ‘(Planet, 2007).

Historical characters

In ‘El Español’ – whose title they recommended not to put because “in a country where some do not want to be Spanish and others want to be more than anyone, it is a provocation” – the fictional characters mix with the historical ones. For example, Joaquín de Eleta, the confessor bishop of Carlos III and general inquisitor of Spain, who condemns another of the main characters eight years of forced labor in the Gaditano Arsenal of the Carraca we visited with the author; Sinibald de Mas, first pilot of the Cartagena Pilotna School and promoter of the Nautical School of Barcelona; Luis de Unzaga, Spanish governor of the provinces of Luisian Carlos III Before the separatists and personal friend of George Washington, in whose house he died.

«I don’t like periods in which Spain was in decline. That is because, during the four years I lived with my family between Cincinnati and Los Angeles working as a commercial, they also called me ‘Spanish’. That was the moment I started defending Spain to death. That is why I like to write about the brilliant periods of our history, those of which I can feel proud. And that does not always happen, ”Molist justifies.