When I make posts with related with war I hope that people remember how many atrocities were made in the name of wars, by politics, religion or revenge. I’m against wars, I hate them. Millions of unknown innocents died in wars and, of course, famous people that fight for their ideals. On the Spanish Civil War the first name that I remember is Federico García Lorca, a great writer, whose works I appreciate a lot, specially his poetry books. He was murdered by Nationalist partisans at the age of 38 at the beginning of that war. He is also remembered as a painter, pianist, and composer.
In war times art still be produced, most of the times for propaganda of the both sides. I think that is very important preserve those materials ’cause they are the registry of art, culture, history, society of some era, they keep the memory of other times alive and are the documents of how people can be manipulated by images and texts. When you work with images you start to discern the other meanings implicit on them. The propaganda and advertisement are very good to manipulate images, distort the reality or create another one.
Propaganda posters are always a great example of how to sell an idea using an images, words, colours and design (the position of each icon is very important). El Burlador posted two links with collections of posters from the Spanish Civil War: Carteles de la Guerra Civil and Carteles GCE.
At the UCSD Mandeville Special Collections Library has Southworth Spanish Civil War collection with 3 fantastic sessions. They Still Draw Pictures – A collection of over 600 drawings made during the Spanish Civil War by Spanish children both in Spain and in refugee centers in France; Shots of War: Photojournalism During the Spanish Civil War; and The Visual Front – Posters of the Spanish Civil War, an excellent exhibition. Plus: Spanish Civil War: Dreams and Nightmares, with extracts from some interviews with International Brigade veterans.
Update: Roberto suggested on more link, Himnos y Canciones de la Guerra Civil – hymns and songs from the Spanish Civil War as MP3.
bibi, can i add a link for this post?
if you want to get some songs sang by the naitonalist and Loyalist in the Spanish Civil War, go to…
http://www.guerracivil1936.galeon.com/canciones.htm
It is a very good archive of mp3 songs of this time. And plus there are versions who were generaly produced at the time.
There are very interesting propaganda songs
Updated. Thanks for the link Roberto.
Si te olvideis de donde vienes, nuca sabras adonde vas. Hoy dia, la juventud tienen poco conocimiento de la historia. Regresare aqui con mis nietos….para que escuchen; y en el proceso, sean concientes de esta antigua lucha pivotal.El precio de la Libertad es la Vigilancia Eterna.
Bibi-
Here is another link:
http://www.deathinelvalle.com
Great documentary about an American woman investigating the assasination of her grandfather by Franco’s Civil Guard in the aftermath of the War. More and more is being learned every day as Franco’s mass graves are uncovered.
Bibi,
Yes!!!! I saw this movie about a woman filmmaker investigating her grandfather’s murder under Franco. My cousin in Spain told me about it and i got the dvd It’s pretty powerful – especially when she confronts “el guardia civil” who killed her grandfather! i chewed half my fingers off.
It is SOO sad that in 2006 in Spain there is still no justice for Franco’s VICTIMS!
Marivi
Hi Bibi,
The Spanish Civil War is a topic that really interests me. I see Lorca as a representation of how innocents are crushed by the war machine like “butterflies under a wheel”.
This war is another example of a “forgotten war”, but we can thank many artists for reminding us about it. Works like Picasso’s painting “Guernica”, Ken Loach’s film “Land and Freedom” and Carlos Saura’s film “Ay, Carmela!” help remind us. I agree wholeheartedly with Alana’s comments – it is so important that we never forget.