Early Life
Mola was born in Placetas, Cuba - at that time a Spanish province - where his father, an army officer, was stationed. He enrolled in the Infantry Academy of Toledo in 1907. He served in Spain's colonial war in Morocco where he received the Medalla Militar Individual, and became an authority on military affairs. By 1927 he was a Brigadier-general.
Mola was made Director General of Security in 1930. This was a political post and his conservative anti-democratic views made him unpopular with opposition liberal and socialist politicians. When the left-wing Popular Front government was elected in February 1936 Mola was made military governor of Pamplona in Navarre, which the government regarded as a backwater. But the area was a center of Carlist activity and Mola himself secretly collaborated with the movement.
Read more about this topic: Emilio Mola
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“[In early adolescence] she becomes acutely aware of herself as a being perceived by others, judged by others, though she herself is the harshest judge, quick to list her physical flaws, quick to undervalue and under-rate herself not only in terms of physical appearance but across a wide range of talents, capacities and even social status, whereas boys of the same age will cite their abilities, their talents and their social status pretty accurately.”
—Terri Apter (20th century)
“We are all of us resigned to death: it’s life we aren’t resigned to.”
—Graham Greene (1904–1991)