Art Amidst Conflict: Instituto Cervantes Unveils Exhibition On Spanish Civil War Drawings

(MENAFN- Jordan Times) AMMAN - On Sunday, the Spanish cultural centre, Instituto Cervantes in Amman, launched an exhibition that will last until September 12th. The exhibition showcases drawings that depict the Political contexts of the Spanish Civil War, which occurred between 1936 and 1939. These artworks were created by Luis Sarabia, who personally witnessed the final phase of the war and the collapse of the Republican army.

His sketches highlight the plight of ordinary people caught between warring parties, as well as the ports and cities where fighting occurred. The focal point is the port of Cartagena, in Murcia, south-eastern Spain.

Born in Madrid in 1910 to a family of sailors, Sarabia's life was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War, leading him to join the Republican army. Even before the conflict, he had demonstrated artistic talent by creating a sketchbook dedicated to his fiancée. His visual depiction of the Cartagena uprising serves as a historical document of these dramatic days.

For his drawings, Sarabia used pencil and sanguine, signing each piece and adding a descriptive text describing for each sketch. He drew hospitals, the port, shelters, the coastal batteries, soldiers, civilians and their daily hardships.

“The so-called 'Casadista coup' was a coup d'état triggered on March 5, 1939, led by Colonel Segismundo Casado, head of the Republican Central Army, in collaboration with Franco's espionage networks and the Fifth Column in Madrid. This coup overthrew the Republican government of the socialist prime minister Juan Negrín, who intended to resist while awaiting for the imminent outbreak of a world war in Europe, which was already seen as something inevitable. Despite the desperate situation of the Spanish Republic following the fall of Catalonia to the hands of the fascists in early February 1939, Negrín's government hoped that, once the war would have been declared by France and the UK against Nazi Germany, the balance of forces in this international arena would have prevented their imminent defeat, and would have gained the military and political support that the European democracies had denied the Spanish Republic for years,” Ignacio Arce explained.

Arce is a co-curator of the exhibition. He continued,“This betrayal and abandonment of the Spanish Republic was partly the result of Daladier's and Chamberlain's policy of 'appeasement' towards Hitler. They accepted the annexation of Austria first, and of the Czech Sudeten region later, by Hitler, through the embarrassing Munich Agreement [labelled by the Czechs as 'Mnichovská zrada' [The Munich Betrayal] that showed the cowardice and lack of decision of the United Kingdom and France in the face of Nazi Germany.”

The international order created after the WW1 and the Versailles Conference was shattered and it was a matter of time when the new, more destructive war will start. The Spanish Civil War was a prelude for WW2 and it was a training ground for Nazi Germany and fascist Italy.

The Cartagena Uprising was actually the first act of the“Casadista” rebellion against Negrín's government and it was a civil war within the civil war.

It was carried out by soldiers and sailors from the Cartagena naval base and broke out on March 4, 1939, two days before Casado's coup (and a month before the end of the Spanish Civil War), Arce continued, noting that the uprising that had been planned and orchestrated by the“Casadistas” as the first act of their coup, with the intention of controlling the fleet in order to negotiate a conditional surrender to the Francoists.

“However, this uprising became almost from the beginning, a rebellion led by the pro-fascist military members integrated into the Fifth Column, who intended to hand over the base and the Republican fleet anchored there to the rebel side, depriving the Republicans of any instrument of resistance or negotiation [or even escape],” Arce elaborate, adding that the admiral of the fleet, Buiza, had already threatened PM Negrín on February 16 with the desertion of the entire Republican fleet if his policy of resistance at all costs was not put to an end.

Negrín was fully aware that General Franco sought only the unconditional surrender and that also meant certain death for prominent members of the Republican government and military forces, while Casado still thought that there was a room for negotiation with Franco.

Cartagena, a port of 100 000 inhabitants prior to the civil war, constantly suffered from air raids which motivated Republicans to build shelters for civilians.

“Cartagena was one of the cities hardest hit by the fascist aviation: In total, the city would be bombed by Nazi [the German Condor Legion] and fascist [the Italian Regia Aeronautica] aviation 117 times during the war,” Arce highlighted.

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