References To The Spanish Civil War
"Spanish Bombs" praises the heroism of Republicans – who ranged from centrists to revolutionary anarchists and communists – in the Spanish Civil War, a major conflict that devastated Spain from July 17, 1936 to April 1, 1939 and ended in the victory for the Nationalists. It should also be noted that several thousand foreigners fought in this pre-World War II war, mainly the International Brigades supporting the "leftist" group, while Hitler and Mussolini gave military and financial support to the Nationalists. The Nationalists ranged from centrists to Carlists and fascists- under the leadership of Francisco Franco, who ruled Spain for the next 36 years. Many locations and people associated with the Spanish Civil War are mentioned in the song lyrics. Andalucia was one of the first regions of Spain to be overtaken by Franco's National faction in 1936. The Costa Brava in the Republican stronghold of Catalonia contained ports important to the Republican effort. Federico García Lorca, (referred to in the song as Federico Lorca), was a well-known poet from Andalucia who was killed by a firing squad during the war. The Guardia Civil (or "Civil Guard") is a military police force under the control of both the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Defence of Spain.
The line "They sang The Red Flag, they wore the black one" contains references to both the red flag as a symbol of socialism and the socialist anthem The Red Flag, as well as the black flag of the anarchists. The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), the Anarcho-syndicalist labour union, also flew the red and black flag of anarchist-communism.
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Famous quotes containing the words spanish civil war, civil war, spanish, civil and/or war:
“Stiller ... took part in the Spanish Civil War ... It is not clear what impelled him to this military gesture. Probably many factors were combined—a rather romantic Communism, such as was common among bourgeois intellectuals at that time.”
—Max Frisch (1911–1991)
“The United States is just now the oldest country in the world, there always is an oldest country and she is it, it is she who is the mother of the twentieth century civilization. She began to feel herself as it just after the Civil War. And so it is a country the right age to have been born in and the wrong age to live in.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“It’s like a jumble of huts in a jungle somewhere. I don’t understand how you can live there. It’s really, completely dead. Walk along the street, there’s nothing moving. I’ve lived in small Spanish fishing villages which were literally sunny all day long everyday of the week, but they weren’t as boring as Los Angeles.”
—Truman Capote (1924–1984)
“There is reason in the distinction of civil and uncivil. The manners are sometimes so rough a rind that we doubt whether they cover any core or sap-wood at all.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Then think I thus: sith such repair,
So long time war of valiant men,
Was all to win a lady fair,
Shall I not learn to suffer then,
And think my life well spent to be,
Serving a worthier wight than she?”
—Henry Howard, Earl Of Surrey (1517?–1547)