#francoist spain

[victusinveritas]

[delpasado]

Spanish Archaeology under the Franco Regime

During the regime of Francisco Franco, Spanish archaeology, and the sciences as a whole, experienced a period of isolation, which allowed Franco to exercise a great amount of ideological control. While the fascist regimes of Nazi Germany and Italy relied on the misrepresentation of pre-historical archaeology to support their ideas of racial superiority, the Francoist regime affirmed it’s nationalist superiority with the theoretical reunification of the Spanish state under the Catholic Monarchs during the Middle Ages (Díaz-Andreu, 75). Spanish nationhood was understood as an imperialist project undertaken by the Catholic Monarchs, and Catholicism was understood to be its backbone. As with all fascist projects, attempts were made to “prove” or trace the origins of the Spanish state into the Bronze Age, or more commonly, the age of Rome, although these projects were largely owned by individual archaeologists, rather than the regime itself (Díaz-Andreu, 76). 

The Francoist regime’s apparent disinterest in archaeology did not prevent the field from being impacted by Francoist forces after the Civil War. Several archaeologists of prominence were killed in action during the fighting, made political prisoners, or fled from Spain during the war and refused to return. The Civil War led to the destruction of several regional archaeological institutes, as they were affiliated with ethno-national identities in Basque Country, Galicia, and Valencia (Díaz-Andreu, 76). As with most aspects of Spanish life during the post-Civil War Period, Madrid became the center of archaeological research and academic production, assisted by the destruction of regional institutions. The newly developed institutions in Madrid were quickly populated by Franciosts and falangists, the most notable being Julio Martínez Santa-Olalla. 

Martínez Santa-Olalla occupied the lead role of the Comisaría General de Excavaciones Arqueológicas, Franco’s new administrative body of Spanish archaeology, and served as the chair of Ethnology and Prehistory at the University of Madrid. Martínez Santa-Olalla’s position as head of the Comisaría General and Department Chair in Madrid, granted him broad control over a variety of publications, all of which espoused Francoist beliefs. Martínez Santa-Olalla had fought on behalf of Franco during the Civil War as part of the falangist faction (Díaz-Andreu, 77). He visited and was invited to several conferences and universities in Germany, and spent time visiting with Nazi-affliated professors of prehistory. Martínez Santa-Olalla even attended excavations led by the Schutzstaffel (SS), during their attempts to connect German prehistory to the Nazi mythos of Aryan excellence (Mederos Martin, 9). 

In addition to Martínez Santa-Olalla’s appointment, the directors of other departments and museums were quickly replaced with pro-Franco professionals, who worked to embed Spanish nationalist ideas into institutions that were once deeply committed to their regional identities. As these professionals worked to insert Francoist and fascist ideology into their works, post-Civil War Spanish archaeology became characterized by strong centralization and poor funding. Archaeology became a method by which fascists could support and endorse fascist ideas about human evolution, societies, and ethnography (Díaz-Andreu, 80).The evolution of Spanish archaeology into a vehicle for fascist ideology was only hampered by the Franco regime's preference for the Middle Ages, but it nonetheless dutifully occupied its role under the fascist government. 

The emphasis on prehistoric archaeology was no coincidence. Some archaeologists used their expertise to argue for a prehistoric unified Spain, in order to support the work of Franco to diminish ethno-nationalist movements and to encourage the superiority of a Spanish national identity. While the Franco regime spoke of a deep interest in the Middle Ages, their interest was more deeply rooted in self-interest, as the Francoist story of the Spanish Middle Ages was better adapted to support Spanish nationhood. For Francoists, the Spanish nation was created when the last Christion monarchs in the north began a series of conquests, pushing Muslim leaders further and further south. These efforts culminated in the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabel and Fernando, and their conquest of Granada, the last Muslim taifa. The story of conquest, or reconquest (reconquista) became a popularized method of understanding Spanish history and nationhood. Francoists were entirely uninterested with the Muslim kingdoms, which were present for the majority of Spain’s medieval history, and therefore, did not fund excavations or archaeological studies on the topic. For Spanish archaeologists, the prehistoric time was far more likely to receive funding or attention, whereas anything after the Islamic conquest in 711 was unprofitable (Valor and Gutiérrez, 6). 

Under the Franco regime, Spanish archaeology was heavily centralized and focused on Spanish prehistory, in order to support Francoist ideas of national identity. It remained isolated until the 1970s, when universities began expanding. More positions became available, allowing some new ideas and theoretical frameworks to be introduced, although no institutional changes occurred until after the end of the regime. The introduction of new perspectives was slow, as author Margarita Díaz-Andreu remarks in her 1993 article Theory and Ideology in Archaeology: Spanish Archaeology under the Franco regime, “We will still have to wait for Spanish archaeology to show an effective change in the theoretical field”.

Citations:

Díaz-Andreu, Margarita. “Theory and Ideology in Archaeology: Spanish Archaeology under the Franco Régime.” Antiquity 67, no. 254 (1993): 74–82. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00045075. (requires subscription)

Julio Martínez Santa-Olalla. (n.d.). Real Academia De La Historia. https://dbe.rah.es/biografias/27622/julio-martinez-santa-olalla

Mederos Martin, Alfredo. “The National-Socialist Mirage. The Relationship between Two Professors of Prehistory, Oswald Menghin and Julio Martínez Santa-Olalla (1935-1952).” Trabajos de Prehistoria 71, no. 2 (2014): 119–220. doi:10.3989/tp.2014.12131. (requires subscription)

Valor, M., & Gutiérrez, A. (2014). The study of Medieval Archaeology. In The Archaeology of Medieval Spain, 1100-1500. Equinox Publishing Ltd. (requires subscription)

[4eternal-life]

Eugeni Forcano  (Catalan/Spanish, 1926- 2018)

Exaltación franquista, catedral, Barcelona, 1963

https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/atrapar-la-vida-catching-life-eugeni-forcano

[yuri-alexseygaybitch]

Liberals live in another fucking universe

[nando161mando]

Anarchist anti-Francoist guerrilla Quico Sabaté firing a mortar loaded with propaganda leaflets over Barcelona in 1955.

[gatherexlovers]

just saw a tumblr post referring to pan's labyrinth as a WWII movie and while that might technically be true (set in 1944) its also set in spain therefore its a francoist spain movie before its a WWII movie. i know it might some dumb to most of you but its really not hsdfhs

[apas-95]

anarchy is like the most frustrating thing to argue against because anarchists fully lean into the 'not real communism' stereotype they project. with fascism you can use the examples of nazi germany, of francoist spain; with liberalism you can detail the myriad abuses of the USA; in defence of communism we can point to the successes of the USSR, PRC, et al; but when arguing with an anarchist you don't get to discuss the rail policies or banditry of Makhnovia, you don't get to discuss the industrial output of Aragon, you don't even get to discuss the broad lack of anarchist projects to discuss -- instead, it is demanded that you argue, in the realm of imagination, the anarchism that exists within the individual anarchist's head.

[useless-catalanfacts]

I have added English subtitles to this video posted by Helena Sotoca on Instagram. She's from Madrid (Spain) but has been living in Catalonia for 7 years. As she explained in another video, she didn't learn any Catalan the first 3 years she lived here, but then realised how she was imposing Spanish on her group of Catalan friends and how important it was for her friends to keep their language, so she learned it. She is very happy about this decision which has allowed her to integrate more in Catalan society and culture.

In this video, she gives her personal opinion on why languages are not only "a way to understand each other". This sentence is something that we speakers of discriminated languages have to hear all the time (in fact, I was reminded of this video a few days ago because @beautiful-basque-country got that comment). Many times, they'll say: "why are you so annoying about wanting to be able to speak your language? A language is only a tool to understand each other, so if you speak both [the local language and the imperial language], why not just always speak [the imperial language]?".

This mindset is what leads to language extermination. First of all, because it assumes that our languages are less worthy of existence and thus that the language's community is less worthy of existence. If I stop speaking my language, I stop being a part of me. If all my culture stops speaking our language, we stop existing. Language is deeply tied to culture, it's through language that we think and transmit our worldview, and there are many aspects of our culture and our landscape that we can only describe in our language, because only we have the specific words to describe it or because the translation loses nuance, context, and connotations. Remove language, and the rest of the culture will soon follow.

Secondly, it erases the reason why we speak the state's language, which is usually because of imposition through violence, and justifies this imposition because the imperial violence of the past that made the imperial language more widely spoken is now the reason why speakers of the imperial language deserve more rights than those who suffered the imposition.

But besides these more social reasons, I like how Helena explains her personal relation to the language in this video. She also shows us one of the reasons why it's so important to promote discriminated languages to be used in public (and not only hidden at home): when you meet someone speaking a language, you form a bond with them in that language and it can be difficult to change. Speakers of minoritized languages often meet each other in contexts in which they're socially pressured to speak the state's language, and so we find the situation where a group of friends who are all native speakers of the minoritized language will form a bond in the state's language. Thus, slowly, because of the state's language imposition in the public sphere (this is what the "speak the state language if there's even 1 person who might not speak the local language! Languages are only a tool for communication!" mindset pushes us to), the local language gets pushed aside more and more, until we can't have a normal life in it and the state's language imposition becomes absolute, and the local language dies, taking with it its culture, history, and connection to the land and ancestors.

With some work, it can be reversed. I've explained this before but I'll say it again because it's relevant. My parents met in Spanish, because they met in high school and back then speaking Catalan in schools was strictly forbidden and punished. They were speaking in Spanish even when they started dating, but they realised how absurd it was that two native Catalan speakers spoke Spanish to each other and how it was a result of Francoist policy. They decided they don't want Francoism to infiltrate our personal lives, so they made the effort and switched. Maintaining the language of their surroundings, their culture, their land, they became even closer. And, thanks to their decision, when I was born I had the luck of being a native speaker of the language too, because it's what we've always spoken at home. But they did it because they had a political antifascist conscience, many people don't think much about it and just go with what is easier. If they had done that, the language would have lost them and also me. Multiply this for how many people meet each other in settings where social pressure or social rules promote speaking the imperial language instead of the local one that is closer to their hearts.

So no, a language is not only a tool to understand each other. It's also what allows us to speak according to our own understanding of the world (instead of assimilating into another's worldview), it gives meaning to our surroundings (both nature, the names we give to places, etc), every word is an unbroken chain with all of those who came before us, it allows us to understand our ancestors whether that be through their writing or songs they passed down or legends, it's an integral part of the human relations we establish, and so much more. Every language is worth everything. Every language has the right to exist and to thrive.

[dramatic-dolphin]

calmed down a little now but i was still blinking back tears at the bus stop. holy shit guys. jesus fucking christ. watch the film 'the teacher who promised the sea' (2023).

coming out of the cinema like someone who is normal and definitely didn't start crying multiple times

[frereamour]

Isa frereamour's non-definitive gay incest book list

Here it is: a mix of stuff I've read and intend to read. Quality varies greatly. I'm omitting all examples of erotica because that doesn't interest me, even though many of these novels have sexual content. "But why isn't Game of Thrones, Flowers in the Attic etc here?" because I hate you and straight incest means nothing to me. The family relationship takes precedent over consanguinity. Random order.

BrotherBrother

The Carnivorous Lamb, Agustín Gomez Arcos - A classic, really romantic exploration of the relationship between the two brothers against the backdrop of Francoist Spain. You've read this, and probably reread it.

My Loose Thread, Dennis Cooper - Really intense and disquieting, typical of the author, although the relationship between the brothers is more central here than in other works where it's more peripheral. Recommend all oeuvre.

Not Forever, But For Now, Chuck Palahniuk- Some really interesting meditations on youth and growing out of being 'prey', but lost me in the end. We/us pronouns type brothers.

Querelle, Jean Genet - Thief, murderer, prostitute, brotherfucker. We all know and love Querelle. Movie good as well.

Gemini, Michel Tournier - Twincest, more we/us brothers. I have to be honest I stopped reading this because I started playing a video game, and by page 63 there still wasn't much in terms of incest. I want to finish it though. Jean Genet liked it.

The Power of the Dog, Thomas Savage - I asked my wife for recommendations and she mentioned the movie, which is based on this book. When I asked 'but wasn't it about the kid', she said 'no, it's about the brother, trust me'. I have watched neither movie nor read the book but I believe my baby.

Twins, Bari Wood - The book behind Dead Ringers. Twincest again. You also know this.

A God Against the Gods, Allen Drury - Details the power struggles of pharaoh Akhenaten to establish a monotheist religion in Egypt, the cult of the Solar Disc Aten, and his relationship with brother, lover and heir Smenkhara. Has a sequel.

The Winter Prince, Elizabeth Wein - This book keeps being recommended, one day I'll read it. The interest here are brothers Medraut and Lleu but there are other incestuous relationships (possibly mother-son? I don't care)

Brothers Bishop, by Bart Yates - To be honest this book is not very good but it does have an explicit relationship between the two brothers. Thanks Anon for the rec.

The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin - Another fav!! All the incest happens before the book starts, but it's a big part of the background of one of the characters. The characters in question are actually not men, but the book uses he/him pronouns for them and refers to them as brothers. Thanks for the rec Anon, I've been meaning to read this for ages, completely unrelated to incest content

On the Black Hill, Bruce Chatwin - About two twins who run a farm together for 80 years. This book doesn't have anything explicit about their relationship but it's a similar dynamic to The Power of the Dog so I thought it might fit. Thanks for the rec Anon!

Salvation Army by Abdellah Taïa - Moroccan coming-of-age autobiography where the author remembers being in love with his older brother. Thanks for the rec Anon!

Thorngale, Phoenix Mendoza - In their neglected, decaying family estate on the cliffs of the northern Cornish coast, two Anglo-Catholic brothers grow up in parasitic isolation during a time marked by the decay of English nobility. Thanks for the rec cardinalgoffredotedesco!

The Twelfth Transforming, Pauline Gedge - More Smenkhkare/Akhenaten. Thanks for the rec Anon!

Akhenaten, Dorothy Porter - More Smenkhkare/Akhenaten this time in a verse novel. Thanks for the rec Anon!

Doctrine of Labyrinths series, Sarah Monette - Follows two brothers across four fantasy novels, one of them is in love with the other. A father is also involved even though not prominently. Thanks for the rec Rochu!

chinese webnovels:

Brother, 人体骨架 - Really lovely exploration of a relationship between an older brother who is the caretaker for his disabled younger brother (the nature of his condition is kept vague, a severe form of autism, perhaps)

Flying Gulls Never Land, 回南雀 - Younger brother goes to prison for murder and now that he's out there's only one thing on his mind. Really fun read.

Wu Chang Jie, 水千丞 - One of my favourite xianxia novels due to how balls to the wall crazy the protagonist younger brother is. Plot is somehow secondary to him making his older brother fall in love with him again after a lifetime of uhm let's call it torture to keep things classy. Best translation by Corgi unfortunately not available.

Can't be left behind, 尤萨阿里塔 - This isn't usually my style, and the writing isn't that great, but, when I started reading this I couldn't put it down, which must mean something. Younger brother runs away to live with older brother after parents divorce. Other incest novel by same author being translated in the same website, don't care for it, but check it out.

DadSon

Nocturnes for the King of Naples, Edmund White - Epistolary style novel in which the narrator addresses an older lover who, it becomes apparent, is an idealized version of his father, with none of his predatory nature, but all the wealth.

Nuestra Parte de Noche, Mariana Enríquez - There sure is a lot of child sexual abuse happening around this father and son, sure wonder what that could all mean, considering their own turbulent relationship. Guess we'll never know.

Pages from Cold Point and other Stories, Paul Bowles - Only the title short story is incestuous as far as I know, and it was pretty bad. Father deals with homophobic population complaining about his son sleeping with all the men by sleeping with him himself.

The Familia Grande, Camille Kouchner - Speaking of bad. Account of how the author's brother was raped by their stepfather and how this affected her. However, really fun example of women in male dominated fields if we consider it from the "how can I make this about me" angle. The brother didn't even want her to publish the book!

Fire from Heaven, Mary Renault - First book in the Persian Boy trilogy, detailing Alexander the Great's life from childhood to young adulthood. Much has been written about his relationship with mother Olympias but uhm, that takes second stage to what he and his father were doing to each other. Father anxious to ensure his son will be sexually dominant when having sex with other men, while struggling with the conflicting desire to dominate him sexually. Tale as old as time.

The Spanish Gardener, A. J. Cronin - Intensely jealous and controlling father suspects son's and gardener's relationship isn't just friendly.

Lost Souls, Poppy Z. Brite - All kinds of fun things can happen when your dad is a vampire. I actually really like two other characters in this, fun book all around.

The Chosen, Ricardo Pinto - Fantasy trilogy that keeps showing up when I look for both gay and incest. I haven't started reading it yet, but the dad is introduced with 'his father's beautiful face' so I'm making an educated guess about the nature of the incest in this book, but not ruling out that the protagonist might end up with a cousin, in which case we all kill ourselves or something.

Warchild, Karin Lowachee - Scifi trilogy that deals with children/teens at once recruited to be prostitutes or child soldiers, and the similarities between the two. Each book has a different protagonist, but they're all connected. Recommend the three books, love this series.

Dream Boy, Jim Grimsley - Teen boy victim of father's abuse, finds comfort in relationship with classmate, but homophobia threatens his happiness.

Try, Dennis Cooper - Heavily features adoptive father(s)/son sexual abuse. Thank you, Neil for the rec.

Arturo's Island, Elsa Morante - The main character is a young boy who's painfully in love with his father and is extremely angry when his dad brings home a new bride. Thanks Anon for the rec.

Henry Henry, Allen Bratton - Reimagining of Shakespeare's Henriad, transposing the legend of Henry V's wayward youth into 21st-century Britain. Thanks for the rec, problematicvacationbrothers!

Edward, Edward, Lolah Burford - It is a haunting tale of a strange romance between a worldly and dissolute man, James Noel Holland, Earl of Tyne, and the golden-haired young Edward, his ward-or perhaps his son. Thanks for the rec, titleleaf!

The Dark, John McGahern - set in Ireland's rural north-west, and it focuses on an adolescent and his emerging sexuality, as seen through the lens of the strained and complex relationship he has with his father, Mahoney. Thanks for the rec Anon!

chinese webnovels:

Blossom by River Country, 孔恰 - Translation work ongoing, which is why I haven't read this, but makes me really wish I could read chinese because I have a feeling the prose in its original form would be great. Slave boy adopted by intransigent general who learns to love him.

Stars of Chaos (Sha Po Lang), priest - Orphan boy adopted by cold and distant general who spends a lot of time away, despite this the two grow closer over the years. There's also a war or something, and big machines.

Imperial Uncle, 大风刮过 - (uncle x nephew) I haven't read this, but I kept getting recommended, since it's the only uncle x nephew example I'm sticking it here, until a beautiful time comes when I have enough recs for an uncle x nephew section by itself.

SisterSister

Sharp Objects, Gillian Flynn - You've probably also read this. Also a good example of momdaughter but as I have nothing else for that category I'm leaving it here.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson - Another classic. There are people who know this is a book about incest, and there are people who are dumb as rocks.

Into the Forest, Jean Hegland - Two sisters together at the end of the world. Very slow at times, but I liked the claustrophobia. Didn't like the random guy who showed up to mess up the vibe.

The Blindness of the Heart, Julia Franck - This is a war novel across several generations, I'm putting it here from a specific rec, but my interest in reading it is very slim.

Bright Lines, Tanwi Nandini Islam - Another book from a rec, three girls across two continents who discover family secrets. Really scared that this is just cousincest but being very hopeful and crossing my fingers and leaving it here.

The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield - Gothic suspense novel. Several examples of incest, but the focus here is pair of twin girls + their sister whose identity is a mystery for much of the novel.

The Sinner, Petra Hammesfahr - Another rec by mia belissima moglie, she's going off what happened in the tv show, but I'm trusting that the show follows the book. A woman who would do everything for her sister.

Sisters, Daisy Johnson - This cover and synopsis are very suggestive, and yet I wonder. However goodreads shelves indicate I shouldn't. And yet I can't trust like that. Hopefully one of you can let me know for sure.

Cassandra at the Wedding, Dorothy Baker - One of my favs on this list! Cass is one of the best to every do it. She's gay, she's a twin, and she's pretty unashamedly in love with her sister. The book is about her sister's wedding which Cass, of course, tries to sabotage. Thanks for the rec Anon, I'm so hype for this one!

The Behaviour of Moths, Poppy Adams - From her lookout on the first floor, Ginny watches and waits for her younger sister to return to the crumbling mansion that was once their idyllic childhood home. Thanks for the rec Anon!

Honorable Mentions

Everything that is somehow adjacent, or in which gay incest isn't central but still shows up.

Nefando, Mónica Ojeda - Crazy good book that deals with themes of child sexual abuse and exploitation. Includes three siblings who have been abused by their father, the two girls and one boy are lovers as adults

Boys Alive, Pier Paolo Pasolini - Deals with the lives of destitute street boys in Rome, left to fend for themselves, many are neglected or abused by parents, all involved in petty theft and prostitution to some degree.

The Vampire Armand, Anne Rice - My favourite of the tvc books, and I think it's pretty easy to read Marius' relationship with Armand as well as the other boys as parental.

The Magician, Colm Tóibín - This is a loooong book and the incest is only nominal, which is why it's just an honorable mention. This is a novelization of the life of Thomas Mann, who wrote in his diaries that he was in love with his oldest son for a time. Thanks for the rec Anon

The Piano Teacher, Elfriede Jelinek - This book is absolutely wild in a lot of ways but one of the central themes is the protagonist trying to escape her domineering and possessive mother (who forces them to share a bed!). Thanks Anon for the rec!

Xenogenisis Trilogy, Octavia Butler - I hesitate to recommend this even though it's an amazing series. A lot of the incest is various brother/sister couples, but the two later books have a lot of characters who are a third gender (or not yet male or female) and there's a lot of general discussion of incest. Thanks for the rec Anon, I'll include it.

Out Of A Black Land, Kerry Greenwood - Novel set in ancient Egypt, with gay protagonists and where Smenkhkare/Akhenaten are background characters. Thanks for the rec Anon!

Patrick Melrose series, Edward St Aubyn - The titular character's sexual abuse at the hands of a father is present throughout the novels although not central. Thanks for the rec Anon!

[chainmail-butch]

Fascism is the political and economic arrangement that enables imperialism. It is not an ideology. It is a material process supported by any ideology that can be used to justify imperialism. That's why it's so hard to define.

If your benchmark for fascism is Nazi Germany or Francoist Spain then you will never find fascism in the modern world. Those states, and their material/ideological circumstances are extinct and will not reappear.

Do not define fascism by its ideology. Define it by what it does.

[deadhorsepress]

But then, one learns about Nazism in school. Even as an AP Euro student, I can’t recall learning much of anything about Francoist Spain or Fascist Italy, but the horrors of Nazi Germany still consume America’s attention. Pop history books about Nazis crowd library shelves. Countless fact-free torture-porn stories about the Holocaust like The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas are required reading. And all the same, when pressed to define “fascism,” your average American just starts describing their opponents. 

In spite of the popularity of fascism as a signifier, what it signifies isn’t clear. And that’s hardly the fault of the public education system. Even academics like Umberto Eco and Ian Kershaw have struggled to contain a definition to a few sentences, instead creating lists any nascent fascist can be measured against, like legal tests enshrined in statute. 

Lots of ink has been spilled measuring Trump against these lists. It’s useless. Academic definitions of “fascism” first must assume that “fascism” is coherent enough to be defined. If Mussolini’s rapid redefinition of his ideology into something that gelled better with Hitler’s proves anything, it’s incoherence.

[centrally-unplanned]

The money graph:

Many grains of salt on this one, since the methodology definitely biases towards the 'online' and dissident and there are limits to how you can adjust for that. It aligns with the qualitative evidence though, so I roughly believe it.

"Marrying your church into the state ruins the church" is one of those increasingly iron laws of modern politics - Francoist Spain had the same dynamic, rapidly accelerating the trendline of secularization. The logic makes sense - by becoming "the state" the church descends into the real & accountable; all of the mistakes of the Iranian government are errors of Islam itself, and the idea that your religious leaders are divinely inspired becomes laughable the eighth time they blunder on regulating the financial system. It is amusing though in that church-state marriage was far and away the method through which most major religions were spread to begin with; modernity flipped a switch and it went from huge asset to mortal liability.

Maybe not that much of a liability, everyone is secularizing after all; its just an impotent cure for that fundamental issue.

[litcest]

The Carnivorous Lamb, by Agustín Gómez-Arcos

L’Agneau carnivore (or 'The Carnivorous Lamb' in English) is a novel by Spanish author Agustín Gómez-Arcos, first published in 1975. The work was originally written in French, as Arcos had sought asylum in France during the Franco Dictatorship in Spain.

The novel is considered by many to be an allegory to Francoist Spain, and tells the story of two brothers who are in love with each other. It's a deeply romantic novel and I highly recommend it for those who enjoy poetic prose. I am also absolutely in love with the cover from the 1986 edition:

The book opens with Ignacio waiting for the return of Antonio, his older brother, who had been in a self imposed exile in the US for the past seven years, during which time he had gotten married, and was now returning to their family home in Spain. Ignacio had been living in France and their parents were dead, so the house had sat empty for a long time.

While Ignacio waits and cleans the houses, he recalls the memories of his childhood, of how he had been born with his eyes shut, and they remained shut for sixteen days, until they opened and saw Antonio, who had been watching and protecting Ignacio during that whole time.

Their mother, a deeply religious woman, comes to despise Ignacio for his temporary blindness, believing it to be the Devil's doing. And so, even after Ignacio opens his eyes, he is left in the care of five-years-old Antonio.

"He waited sixteen days to open his eyes! [...] Without hesitating, he looked straight at his brother, staring at him as if he were trying to hypnotize him. [...] He never looked at me. Or at his father either. His unblinking eyes were still locked on his brother's."

Sharing a room, Ignacio and Antonio grow up very close, with Ignacio admiring his older brother. When Antonio reaches puberty, the relationship between the brother starts to become more sexual as they explore Antonio's body together. The "smell of sulfur" becomes associated with their experimentations, as their mother claims that their shared room smells like when she orders the maid to exchange the stained sheets for new ones.

"I could feel Mother standing motionless behind me, like a cat about to pounce. I deliberately looked at my brother's undershorts, at the burning needle that had shot hot sulfur onto my belly for the first time the night before."

The "smell of sulfur" is not literal, serving as an allegory to represent the sinful nature of Ignacio and Antonio's relationship, as sulfur is associated with the Christian Hell and their mother was very Catholic. In fact, their relationship can be considered doubly sinful, as they are practicing both sodomy and incest. But their mother doesn't stop them, despite letting them know that she is aware of what they are doing, she can't be bothered to actually interfere in her son's life. As for their father, Carlos, he was absent, often locked in his office, not paying attention to his wife and children.

"Mother often blamed my passionate love for you on that absent God. She always suspected you of taking His place in my conscience."

Ignacio doesn't do much, not being allowed to live the house, and spends his days at home, waiting for Antonio to return from school so his older brother can give him his daily afternoon bath. When Antonio starts staying late in school to study, Ignacio feels betrayed, as if his brother was placing him in second place. When the maid tries to bathe him in Antonio's place, Ignacio begins to cry, causing their mother to say that she is "sure he prefers his brother's hands."

"On that very day, I finally understood that the bath my brother gave me every afternoon at exactly four o’clock wasn’t just my daily bath, strictly speaking, but a ritual strewn with caresses, ripe with still unnamed desires."

However, they continue their nightly ritual of laying in bed together, where Antonio and Ignacio played with each other's body until they came.

"Antonio panted like an animal as I moaned his name and clawed at the nape of his neck, and the room, the night, and everything disappeared in a whirlwind of uncontrollable love. We didn’t even realize when the orgasm burst out. It was a shaft of light I fell into, clinging to my brother with my arms, my legs, my nails, my teeth."

Since Ignacio is not enrolled in school, Antonio takes upon himself to teach his brother everything he learns in class.

"Just the same, my brother neglected neither his studies nor my education. From natural science, we went on to caresses, from breathlessness to multiplication. Never will I be able to untangle eroticism from the earliest things I learned. Two times two is four kisses, and so forth."

One day, while Antonio is at school and their mother is out of the house, Ignacio visits their father's office room. After some conversation, in which Ignacio lies about not knowing how to read, Ignacio kisses Carlos and then runs out of the room.

Apparently, Carlos gets more appalled by his son not knowing how to read than kissing him, and so he pressures the mother to hire a tutor, even though the mother doesn't feel the need for. During the conversation, which Ignacio overhears, the mother once more states that she knows that there's something going on between the boys.

"Your son Antonio is teaching him all sorts of things in the other room. Maybe more than he should. [...] How to read and write, for one thing. They’re always together. They are the only family unit in this house, the only couple … with all that entails."

"Mother was well aware of everything that happened between Antonio and me. She didn’t give a damn about our sexual relations, but she couldn’t stand the universe of love my brother sheltered me in. My insolent stare clearly told her that I didn’t consider myself abandoned by God."

Carlos, upon hearing this, ignores and goes back to work. Either way, they do hire a tutor, don Pepe, who is very strict and uses physical discipline to get Ignacio to comply. When Antonio learns that Pepe had used his cane to beat Ignacio's ass, Antonio gets furious. The next day, when don Pepe arrives, Antonio confronts the tutor and punches him, threatening to do worse if Pepe dares to touch Ignacio again.

"Man's body, if you've read the Gospel, is a temple. And that particular body, my brother's body, is my temple. I've worshipped there since I was ten, if you know what I mean"

Their mother sees the scene and, always trying to keep her role as proper lady, invites Pepe for tea to make up for her son's behaviour. Meanwhile, Antonio takes Ignacio back to their room and they have sex with the door completely open, with the intention to make a statement. After they are done, Antonio decides to go downstairs for their evening tea, dressingo only in a robe, with Ignacio following suit. In the parlor, they sit down with their mother and don Pepe, who was still on rest after the punch. They all made small talk and Antonio pulls out a cigarette, further showing his rebellion against his mothers authority.

"Casually smoking in front of Mother may have been my brother's way of saying that he had decided to fight parental authority and the ludicrous world she had enclosed the two of us in. It was obvious that he would never again submit to her insane tyranny of silence. Ever since coming home unexpectedly an hour before, Antonio had been raising the ante of his rebellion. No more submission. He was spreading the freedom he had won in his relations with me to the whole house, and - for all I knew - was already doing the same in the world outside."

Antonio also reveals his plans to become an engineer and further presses that Ignacio should be allowed to go to school and visit town. There's only one issue with Ignacio attending public school: he wasn't baptized. The mother then hurries to plan both a baptism and a confirmation ceremony for Ignacio so that it would be complete in time for the September semester. All is arranged quickly, and the mother asks that Antonio be Ignacio's godfather since she considers that "duty that arises from the social contract, which is more powerful than family love". And so, while the proper rites are being performed on Ignacio, Antonio was holding him from behind, and he takes the opportunist position to finger Ignacio's asshole.

"I felt we had just carried out a heroic action, one of our very first steps in subversion, and no one could point a finger at us. It was braver and sweeter than when we embraced alone in our room, and though the cold sweat on my forehead could have meant any number of things, only my brother and I really knew why it was there."

After it's done, Clara, the maid, suggests that she and Ignacio accompany Antonio on his walk to school, so that Ignacio can see the town. They walk around for a bit, before reaching the school, where Antonio kisses Ignacio goodbye (on the lips!) and heads inside.

"Finally, my brother said he couldn’t miss his other classes, kissed me on the lips (in front of everyone, the bastard!) and left us for his friends."

The priest starts coming everyday to give evangelization lessons to Ignacio, and also to make advances towards the boy, who rejects them in loyalty to Antonio. When it comes time for the first communion, the whole family (minus Carlos, the father) goes to the country house, alongside the priest. Ignacio and Antonio are placed in separate rooms, much to their dismay, and in the first nights, they have problems sleeping alone.

"My hands went to the places where I was used to feeling my brother's touch. They found nothing but a soft desert, and stiffened with tension, like lizard’s tails chopped off with a stick. In vain, my back searched for my brother's chest, belly, thighs, where it had always rested. At night, my body felt so cut off from my brother's I was sure it would stop working."

Before the communion, Ignacio must confess his sins to the priest, who lets Ignacio know that the mother had already told him of Ignacio and Antonio's closeness. Ignacio teases the priest while recounting his nights with his brother, causing the priest to have a hard on. The priest asks if Ignacio wants to see it, but Ignacio says that he doesn't, that the priest smells bad, while Antonio smells good.

During the communion, Antonio kisses Ignacio in front of the priest, making for a very awkward moment for their mother, but no one comments on it. After it's done, Antonio invites Ignacio for a walk on the farm, since it's their future property. Together they climb some hills and find a cave with a spring, where Antonio lays Ignacio down and penetrates him in the ass for the first time. They stay there for many hours, making love time after time, and confess their love for each other.

"Gradually, I noticed that his caresses had changed character, that his hands were trying to make me aware of what they were doing and of my own body's response. I was in the presence of someone new, a man who up to then had always kept his real desire in check, and was at last going to satisfy it in me."

While the brothers wait for school to start again, Antonio finally starts taking Ignacio to the town on the regular, despite their mother's disapproval. They don't bother keeping their relationship a secret, with Antonio flaunting it in front of everyone in town. Some people would throw disapproving glances at them, but mostly people stay quiet due to the family being very rich and influential. Or rather, having once been rich, as soon they would start to have financial troubles.

"Antonio went everywhere with me now, his arm draped around my shoulders, and didn't hesitate to kiss me in public whenever he felt like it, even if there were people around."

"Everything that went on between my brother and me was in the family, and the family is sacred."

One night, Ignacio spies as their parents have their anniversary dinner, and during that conversation, Carlos tells his wife that he thinks that "Tonio is sodomizing the boy". Their mother laughs, as she had already known of that for a long time and even had tried to tell Carlos about it, but he was absent from the family daily life that he hadn't seen it until then. Either way, the mother reassures Carlos that it's alright, comparing with how Carlos and her had had anal sex before their marriage (so that she would still be a virgin on the wedding day). She says that they shouldn't interfere, even going as far as saying "in giving birth to them, I was bringing into the world a hunger for life beyond the margins of normalcy", indicating that she had indeed come around to support her son's relationship.

In September school starts and Antonio busies himself studying for his degree, leaving Ignacio feeling lonely.

"There was still tenderness, of course, but it was as distracted as the look you give a landscape you know too well. It was as if he weren't seeing me anymore, even when he looked right at me."

Soon enough, however, Ignacio meets a classmate called Galdeano, and they start an affair. At home, Ignacio is still with Antonio, who continues to be distant due to his focus on studying engineering. Ignacio suspects that Antonio knows of Galdeano, and simply doesn't care, knowing that it's nothing serious. And indeed, it isn't, Ignacio is just keeping himself buzzy while Antonio studies.

"No one, not Galdeano, not any of the others, could compare with my brother Antonio in bed. That was his domain, and so was my body, where he expressed all his masculinity to perfection."

Then, for further tragedy, Carlos gets very sick and so their mother goes with abroad with him to try to get help from expert doctors. Carlos had cancer and the treatment is costly, forcing the family to sell painting and tapestries.

During this time, the brother's relationship falls into ruins, as Antonio can't bring himself to be intimate with Ignacio while their father is sick. One night, Antonio decides to move into another room, but his conviction doesn't lasts long and he quickly crawls back to Ignacio. Still, Ignacio marks this moment as the beginning of the end for them.

After Antonio graduates, he gets a job offer in Venezuela and accepts it. While he reassures Ignacio that he still loves him, Ignacio is upset and becomes distraught after his brother leaves. With only him and Clara in the house, he starts to get very lonely.

"There was no way I could sleep in our bed; "our" room had become a sounding-box that relentlessly echoed the obsessive memory of my brother's voice."

Soon after, Carlos dies. The family is forced to sell their city house and move to the country side. Now only three of them, Ignacio, his mother and Clara, they settle in a boring routine, doing only enough to survive. After a few months, Antonio sends a letter announcing his marriage to Evelyn, the daughter of the owner of company he works for. Ignacio freaks out, screaming and using the letter as toilet paper.

Even their mother is disappointed, writing in response that "you forgot too quickly that you were already married. So you are nothing but a traitor". Still depressed over the loss of Carlos, the mother dies. Not knowing what else to do, Ignacio leaves Spain, despite never having finished his studies.

He never answers any letters that Clara or Antonio sends him, living as a recluse until he gets the message announcing Antonio's return to Spain, which brings us back to the beginning of the book.

After days of Ignacio waiting for him, Antonio arrives in their childhood home along with Evelyn. Ignacio is glad to see him again, but is deeply jealous of Evelyn. For a while, the three live like that in the house, Antonio playing husband to Evelyn and Ignacio sulking in his room. Until Antonio can't hold himself anymore and reaches out to Ignacio, and they have sex once again.

"You cover me with your trembling body. And I don’t know if I am hearing your words from inside or outside. But I hear them. As I smother. Your lips race over my face in a panic, like hot compresses to break my fever. A fever from that abscess which is all of me, which has to burst once and for all."

"Your pajamas are getting too tight, so you take them off, and enter me. And there are no more words. At last, I know you have become my brother Antonio again."

When Evelyn goes to check on why Antonio is in his brother's room for so long, Antonio lies that Ignacio is sick and he needs to take care of him. He keeps repeating this line day after day, until finally Evelyn comes to the conclusion that her husband is cheating on her with his own brother and decides to leave back to the US. Antonio is not sad to see her go. Ignacio and Antonio go the country house and explore the hills where they had once had sex and they reaffirm their love for each other and their intend of being together despite what society thinks it's right or wrong.

"I love you because you're mine. I love you because I possess you. I love you because you need love. I love you because you're disorder, and I don't like order. I love you because when you look at me I feel like a hero, and always have. I especially love you because I've finally understood that I can't talk about my love to anyone else but you, and that's what real love is. Two beings who make up one solitude, one silence."

In the city, they find Clara, and she moves with them, as she had always had a motherly role in their lives as children and is now the only family they have left. She's also supportive of their relationship, telling Antonio she's glad that Evelyn went away, as "you only love once in your life, and you've already been in love for a long time".

Clara, who narrates the last chapter, then proudly presides over a (not-so-official) wedding for Antonio and Ignacio, and they celebrate their reunion, that will hopefully last forever.

"I asked them to stand side by side in front of me, and I asked the older one: 'Do you take your younger brother in marriage?' 'I do,' he answered, his eyes bluer than the night sky. I asked the little one: 'Do you take your older brother in marriage?' 'Yes,' he answered, his eyes deeper than the night sea."

[manessha545]

Cerro Lambare Monument, Asuncion, Paraguay: Lambare Hill, situated on the banks of the Paraguay River within Asunción's urban landscape in the Jukyty neighborhood, rises 136 meters above sea level. This volcanic rock formation is notable as the highest point in Asunción. At its peak rests the Victorious Peace Monument, reminiscent of Spain's Valley of the Fallen, commissioned after Paraguay's dictator Alfredo Stroessner encountered the Francoist structure. Wikipedia

[maxdibert]

I guess the fact that James and Lily joined the Order so young doesn’t seem all that heroic or extraordinary when your parents literally grew up under a fascist dictatorship where the death penalty existed simply for being involved in political matters, and yet as teenagers, they were part of clandestine groups, went to illegal protests, and took beatings from the political police. Like, what they did was basically just another Tuesday in 1970s Francoist Spain—with the difference that in Francoist Spain, not only could they kill you, but they could also condemn your entire family to a lifetime of social ostracism. Lol.