To commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Civil War, José Ángel Mañas recreates in Zenda, day by day in this section, what happened in 1936, perhaps the most pivotal year in Spain’s recent history.
Sunday, August 23, 1936: The doubts of a CNT member
Taking advantage of the Modelo fire, they released many common prisoners. I had Raquelita nearby. You can’t imagine how she rallied them. She shouted that they would pay off their debt to society if they embraced the Republic’s cause and fought fascism. It gave me goosebumps. The rest you won’t like, Pepe.
—Dilo —dijo
Pepe Mañas.
—They mounted machine guns on the nearby terraces and swept the yards. Then the men from the Bellas Artes Cheka arrived and organized tribunals. By night, they had the men from the first gallery down, while the militiamen prepared to execute them and debated how best to use the bullets. At some point Pozas, who is minister of the Interior, and the directors-general of Security and Prisons appeared, and they did nothing to stop it. In the end, a tribunal was set up in the central area of the Modelo. They executed a few ringleaders who remained prisoners: Fernando Primo de Rivera, the brother of José Antonio, Ruiz de Alda and Melquíades Álvarez, the politician…
—No less.
—Then they paraded their corpses through the courtyard, so they could be seen. Those were the Motorized unit: they have been furious since the deaths of Condés and Cuenca at the front. And in the morning they kept the rest in the courtyard, standing firm, without water or bread, with the sun beating down. Some militiaman tossed pieces of bread to them from the guard post and then shot at them, laughing. Among the dead were Captain Fanjul, his son, and General Villegas. All the leaders of the uprising in Madrid have been executed.
—They are fascists. You should be glad —ironized Mañas. But it was the first time he felt Ángel Navarrete so weighed down.
—But not like that, Pepe. Even Indalecio Prieto has come to confront the Modelo Committee, and he has said, more or less, that with what happened we have just lost the war! He thinks about the international repercussions… This wasn’t what I had in mind, I don’t know… Do you know what it reminds me of? The wars against the bosses of the anarcho-syndicalists, and what the other day Pestaña said that killing does not bring justice. You can kill ten, a hundred, a thousand fascists, but not all… And if killing does not bring justice nor console us, nor end exploitation, I don’t know… Because there are those who kill for ideals, but there are those who do it for money or revenge or even pleasure…, and there are more of them all the time. I’m telling you, Pepe, because you aren’t in the organization. But this is the first time I think that perhaps, and I say perhaps only, we may be mistaken.
The plurality included the anarchists, those who had always opposed the CNT getting involved in politics and parliamentary activity, those who fully rejected the pacifist premises of pestañismo. It was the first time a breach opened in the formerly monolithic confidence in direct action held by his friend.
All the entries of 1936 day by day
Interview with José Ángel Mañas about 1936 day by day