Manuel Hedilla - Autobiography Controversy

Autobiography Controversy

A controversial episode grew up near the end of his life when Hedilla hired pro-Falange journalist Maximiano Garcia Venero to write his memoirs. The volume that they produced gave a somewhat critical interpretation of Franco during the civil war and, under pressure from the government, Hedilla decided against publishing. Garcia Venero then sought to have the volume published outside Spain by the leftist Ruedo Ibérico, a publisher controlled by the Revolutionary Antifascist Patriotic Front (FRAP) and the book appeared in 1967 under the title La Falange en la guerra de España: la Unificación y Hedilla. However given that the publisher was avowedly left-wing a companion volume by Herbert R. Southworth, highly critical of Hedilla, appeared simultaneously. Garcia Venero and his subject fell out over the issue with Hedilla bringing a lawsuit and the writer publishing a new book in Spain in 1970 that was much more critical of Hedilla. By 1972 Hedilla's heirs, who gained ownership of the original manuscripts in the court case, were allowed to publish it and other writings under the title Testamento politico de Manuel Hedilla.