The Politics of Mourning: State Spectacles and Small Circles of Sorrow

In the first part of this chapter, I review key instances in 1939 of big-budget public spectacles, that filled the streets of Spain with millions of postwar citizens who were expected to follow the party lines delineated by the new regime, beginning with the April Holy Week and ending with the November transfer and reinterment of the remains of the martyred Spanish fascist founder, José Antonio Primo de Rivera. In all cases, the Spanish public reenacted the new performative language and behaviors mandated by the Nuevo Estado: saluting and shouting their support for the Caudillo, while shedding tears and singing the fascist hymn, “Cara al Sol,” for those who made the ultimate sacrifice, in the name of God, country, and the new order. Subsequently, in the second part of this chapter, I analyze the flip side of these official performances of Francoist mourning and memory, by examining the attitudes and actions of the war’s losers that are related to such visual portrayals of crucifixion and sacrifice; spectacles of political loyalty; and burials for the dead. But in the case of these “enemies” of the new State, their performances will not emerge from the garlanded places of victory, but rather from the most inhumane, shadowy corners of history engendered by a relentless apparatus of State violence.