Soldiers of Salamina (Soldados de Salamina)

SOLDIERS OF SALAMINA

What motivates a character?

What moves him?

What does he pursue?

Sometimes not even he knows.

Characters in novels

have something in common with normal people.

They're alive but don't know what makes them live.

Nobody knows what makes them live.

Bye.

- Let me help you. - No, that's okay.

It's no trouble.

Are you new?

Yes, I started this semester.

So did you, right?

It's your first year as a teacher.

Is it so obvious?

Well, in a good way...

- And that accent? - Mexican,

though my grandfather was Basque, from Alkiza.

- See you around. - Bye.

I just sent you the review of that book.

How did you rate it? People like blood.

Everybody seems to write better than I do.

Eating your leaves again?

Want some?

Healthy food doesn't agree with me. Hey,

we're doing a Civil War special. Send me something of yours...

- Something personal. - Not the Civil War again!

You women are all the same. No interest in the past.

You sound like my father. He suffers from senile dementia.

You must introduce us... A thousand words, okay?

The Civil War...

AN ESSENTIAL SECRET

He's worse at night. He thinks he's back in his village, walking.

We had to tie him to his bed last night. For his own safety.

Now let's do it properly.

Pick a card.

This is a really good one, connected to your health!

And with the gold, what a combination!

- My daughter. - Hello. We're just finishing.

- Carry on. - You don't need to pay me

now.

Excuse me, can you come outside a minute?

Yes, sure.

Who the hell are you?

I...

Get out. Who let you in here anyway?

- Well... - Go and find

someone less defenceless.

I'll be back later, okay?

I'm in a bit of a hurry right now.

Why don't you read me something?

Something of mine in today's paper?

Yes, yes.

''It is hard to imagine the years

prior to the Civil War. They say writers used to meet in cafes.

That right-wing writers mixed

with left-wing ones.

But all that changed with the war. ''

What war?

''Of all the wartime stories, that of the poet Antonio Machado

is one of the saddest. On the night

of 22nd January 1939,

four days before Franco took Barcelona,

Machado and his family set out for the French border in a convoy.

Five days later,

under pouring rain, they crossed

the border and left Spain

forever.

A month later, Machado died in Collioure.

His mother

outlived him by 3 days. In Antonio's

pocket, his brother Jose found some notes

with lines from what was

possibly the first verse of his last poem,

'These azure days and this childhood sun.'

His brother the poet Manuel learned of his death from the foreign press.

The two were more than brothers.

They were close friends.

The 18th July uprising surprised Manuel in Burgos. He stayed there,

a sympathizer of Franco.

As soon as he heard of Antonio's death, he obtained a safe-conduct

and crossing a war-torn Spain,

went to Collioure.

There he was told that his mother had also died. At the cemetery

he visited his mother's and Antonio's graves

and probably met up with Jose.

They talked.

Two days later he returned to Burgos.

At the same time, in the Collell church, in northern Catalonia,

another poet, Rafael Sanchez Matas, faced a firing squad.

A close friend of Jose Antonio, and founder of the fascist Falange party.

Mazas'fortunes in the war are shrouded in mystery. 130

He was arrested in Barcelona early in 1938,

but when Franco arrived there he was moved to the Collell,

near the French border.

There he faced a firing squad

in what was a mass and probably chaotic execution.

The war was near its end and the Republicans fled to the Pyrenees,

so they may not have known he was

one of the Falange's founders

and a friend of Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera.

In the confusion Sanchez Mazas ran off,

and managed to hide in a hollow in the forest.

It is said that a Republican soldier searching the area found him,

that the two looked at each other,

and then another Republican soldier called out,

'Is he there?'

Without taking his eyes off Sanchez Mazas, the man called back,

'There's no one here. '

Then he turned around and walked away.

We shall never know who it was that saved Sanchez Mazas' life

or what went through his mind at that moment.

Or what Jose and Manuel Machado said

in front of their mother's and brother's graves.

In both may lie some essential secret

of the Spanish Civil War. ''

''How dare you compare the great poet Machado with a fascist writer

like Sanchez Mazas? ''

''Another article about 'national reconciliation'? Go to hell. ''

''Sanchez Mazas wasn't the only one to survive the firing squad

at the Collell.

A man named Pascual also escaped and later wrote a book about it.

It's out of print but I can get you a copy.

Miguel Aguirre. ''

Miguel Aguirre.

I hadn't thought how we'd

- recognise each other. - You're famous for your book.

I've read it.

Was it you?

Typical ''coming-on-age'' book.

The sex scenes were very graphic as I recall.

Have you written anything since?

I'm having

the rabbit. Some people wait for the other to order

- then ask for the same. - Just a salad.

- House red? - Fine.

I imagined a bored old guy who spends all his time writing to newspapers.

No, at the moment I'm only potentially that.

I liked your article. I thought this might interest you.

- ''I was killed by the Reds''? - Fascist stuff,

but don't worry. It quotes Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera's,

''It has always been

a squad of soldiers that has saved civilization. '' Published

in September 1981. No coincidence.

Remember February that year.

Other soldiers tried to ''save civilization. ''

Everybody freeze!

But the book's good and describes the execution.

The guy was actually there.

The last days of the war.

The Collell church had been turned into a jail.

There must have been 1,000 prisoners there, all from

- cells in Barcelona. - Did the ones who shot him

- know who he was? - Yes.

They chose prominent fascists.

Infiltrators, lawyers, financiers, priests...

Who gave the order?

What?

To have them executed?

Pascual says a man named Monroy, who ran the prison.

Fire!

Maybe...

but other possibilities exist.

Such as?

Lister. Now he

led the 5th Corps

of the Ebro Army... or what was left of it.

They withdrew to the border

and considered a last stand in Catalonia.

Lister was obsessed with acting as if the war wasn't lost.

So he gave the order?

The one sure thing is that they knew they were executing Sanchez Mazas.

Surviving that and hiding in the forest.

It's like something out of a novel.

The war's full of such stories.

Do you know that forest?

It was full of people.

Escape groups, people who'd run away or deserted...

Not a bad place to hide or look for help.

And Sanchez Mazas found help.

The ''Forest Friends. ''

- The ''Forest Friends''? - That's what

he called the three Republican Army deserters who helped him.

I know the son of one.

- Really? - I do.

Jaume Figueras.

From Cornella del Terri. He could tell you more.

That's for sure. Want his phone number?

Do you want it?

Jaume Figueras' number.

Call him.

- Thanks for everything. - Bye.

Return the umbrella some other time.

Thanks.

How will you use all this?

I don't know.

I thought you were writing a novel.

I don't write novels any more.