The SGAE rescues the historical memory of its retaliated partners

“We have not done this research to enter the debate of historical memory, we have done it to know what we are, what we were, what happened to our partners and, above all, to know the dimension of the enormous loss that all that supposed for Spanish culture,” he said Antonio OnettiPresident of the entity. «We as an entity do not enter into the political debate, we do not fall into this polarization that seems to condemn us all to be in favor and constantly against everything. We are with democracy, with human rights and with our authors, ”Onetti insisted. There are no equidistancies or flags in this work, the president of the SGAE came to say, because García Lorca and Muñoz Seca were not the only ones. The exhibition – in the Palacio de Longoria until April 22 – and the book document the lives of those who, dedicated to theater, music, zarzuela or cinema, faced jail, exile, murder or persecution “for their ideas or simply for being who they were.”

Among the names that emerge in ‘Angels and Demons’ highlight figures such as Melchor Rodríguezknown as the ‘Red Ángel’, an anarchist who, as a special prison delegate in 1936, saved more than 13,000 prisoners by demanding that no transfer would be made without his signature, facing even his own comrades of the CNT and the FAI, who labeled him as a traitor. In December 36 he arrested a crowd that sought revenge for a Francoist bombing in the Alcalá de Henares prison. He saved 1,532 inmates, including key figures of the future Franco regime such as Muñoz Grande, Serrano Suñer, or the journalist Bobby Deglané. It also stands out Joaquín Dicenta Alonsofounder of the Authors Union, who managed to make many creators work during the first years of the war. “This research reveals how the authors protected each other, regardless of their side,” explains Onetti, both in the first bars of war and in the postwar period.

The SGAE, founded in 1932 as the Federation of Authors Associations, was born in a moment of cultural effervescence: the student residence, the pedagogical missions and the barraca marked the pulse of the Republic. But war changed everything. “The outbreak of the civil war leads to the socialization of the theaters, in the hands of the unions, and initially the doctrinal works and a very ideologized theater multiply, such as the one proposed by Alberti and María Teresa León at the Teatro de la Zarzuela.” But the commercial theater, which hung the posters of ‘There are no tickets’, remained alive, with works by authors like Muñoz Seca. “They concluded that they had to re -schedule works by those authors so that the theaters were filled.” The SGAE also fractured: the UGT collectivized the headquarters of Madrid, while the rebels created a parallel version in La Coruña. With the Franco victory, the Falange took control and began a purification process.

The book and exposure detail the multiple punishments imposed after 1939, after having dusted files, forgotten letters and purification files. There were summary judgments, such as those faced by some authors; Others opted for exile. Those sentenced to prison saw their copyright confiscated, an economic blow that joined the seclusion. Among the 25 authors cited in the route, figure Adela AnayaAuthor of the Hymn ’14 of April ‘, which was disabled for positions of responsibility despite having been refined favorably. There were sentences of thirty, twenty and twelve for having collaborated with the Republican cause. There were also cases of rectification of sentences, raising the disqualifications, as happened to Manuel Manteca. Exile, described in this work as “the greatest intellectual bleeding of our history”, took figures such as Luis Cernuda, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Antonio Machado and Max Aub.

Among the half million people who left Spain, there were also numerous creators. The women suffered a double ostracism. Writers such as María Disárraga, Matilde Muñoz Barbieri and Mercè Rodoreda; Compositors such as Rosa García Ascot, María Teresa Prieto and María Rodrigo; filmmakers like Margarita Alexandre; choreographers as Encarnación López Júlvez, known as ‘La Argentinita’; And dancers like Carmen Amaya, “they have remained on the banks of history, when they have not been directly ignored or even stigmatized.” They were abandoned for their assignment to defeated Spain and, in addition, because they are women, the exhibition points out, which seeks to rescue them from oblivion or stigma.

María Luz González PeñaDirector of the Documentation and Archive Center (CEDOA) and one of the project coordinators, summarizes the work deployed with two appointments: Manuel Azaña’s, “who wins, loses Spain”, and that of Melchor Rodríguez, “you can die for ideas, but not kill for them.” This investigation, Onetti added, “puts us the mirror in front of what we were, what we are and what we want to be.”