So I guess the long and short of it is that after WWII and the defeat of Mussolini and Hitler, the US’s relationship with Spain was … complicated. Catholics seem a little too comfortable with fascism, too. And I have heard the tale many times (including from an archivist who would have known) that a mid-1930s yearbook from one of our fine Catholic high schools was dedicated to Francisco Franco. In Cincinnati, where I grew up, there is a replica of the statue of Romulus and Remus at the entrance to one of our parks, a gift to the people of Cincinnati from Mussolini. This is key, of course, because the US has always been more comfortable with fascism than communism. I mean, sure, I knew about the Spanish Civil War, seen as a dress rehearsal for WWII, the Falange versus Republicans, and I remember that the Soviet Union supported the Republican forces against the fascists. The Fountains of Silence is set in Spain, 1957, and it revealed to me how unaware I was of the oppressive fascist regime that existed in Spain until the death of Generalissimo Francisco Franco in 1975. I thought I knew my European history pretty well, but a YA novel just showed me a glaring gap in my knowledge. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I have a PhD in history, specializing in the USSR, and back in the day, I taught courses like Western Civ and the 20th Century.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |