Unforgotten, unforgiven -- Spanish society

Boes
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Unforgotten, unforgiven -- Spanish society

Postby Boes » 2008-11-14, 11:06

I recently saw a TV series called 'In Europa', which is a 'popular history' show based on the book (and presented by) Dutch author Geert Mak, and deals with the events of the 20th century in Europe. Episode 12 dealt with the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and I was just ... well, shocked I guess.

Not because of how the war came to be and such, but because of the social impact it still has on everyday Spanish life ... and how it's not discussed or even spoken off. This was somewhat surprising as the Spanish to me always came across as a rather open people, could some of the Spaniards here care to tell more about this?

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Re: Unforgotten, unforgiven -- Spanish society

Postby loqu » 2008-11-14, 11:14

Boes wrote:I recently saw a TV series called 'In Europa', which is a 'popular history' show based on the book (and presented by) Dutch author Geert Mak, and deals with the events of the 20th century in Europe. Episode 12 dealt with the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and I was just ... well, shocked I guess.

Not because of how the war came to be and such, but because of the social impact it still has on everyday Spanish life ... and how it's not discussed or even spoken off. This was somewhat surprising as the Spanish to me always came across as a rather open people, could some of the Spaniards here care to tell more about this?


Spanish Civil War is not discussed or spoken of? I think that's rather incorrect. In fact there is an open debate going on now about a law that the government wants to approve about honouring the dead republicans during war. And trust me, people love debating about this in forums and such.

Anyway it's not strange to hear about how the grandparents of anyone fought at war, were imprisoned or the like. No, it's not a big secret impolite topic or a taboo, at least in my experience.
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Re: Unforgotten, unforgiven -- Spanish society

Postby Levo » 2008-11-14, 13:28

I remember once we sat down with friends, ran out of jokes and somehow started speaking about the times of our grandparents, and everyone had a horrifying story. (World War II, Occupation of the Red Army...) And masses of the people surviving these are still alive. And there are only a very few countries in the world which lacks such tragedies. There was a big war, a totalitarian system everywhere and many living people still carry these memories. If you bethink yourselves about it, it's weird. We are lucky that we are living now. And now I am still speaking only in the names of those living in countries where the situation is basically calm.

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Re: Unforgotten, unforgiven -- Spanish society

Postby sa wulfs » 2008-11-14, 20:54

I agree with loqu. I don't see how we could talk more about it without someone claiming Spanish society is obsessed with the Civil War. :lol:

Granted, one side of this debate loqu mentioned says the State should leave the whole mess for the history classes and move on (I'm probably unfairly simplifying things here), but that's not the only position on this debate.
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Re: Unforgotten, unforgiven -- Spanish society

Postby Boes » 2008-11-14, 22:35

sa wulfs wrote:I agree with loqu. I don't see how we could talk more about it without someone claiming Spanish society is obsessed with the Civil War. :lol:

Granted, one side of this debate loqu mentioned says the State should leave the whole mess for the history classes and move on (I'm probably unfairly simplifying things here)


I remember a former minister of Franco saying in the episode "the Spanish people should forget everything and move on. What is done is done, it should not be remembered."

The show then continued to interview a man in his 30s looking for the remains of his grandfather, followed by the remembrance of thousands of Franco supporters (2007) near Franco's (still intact) shrine/temple... it was just odd.


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