MOCK INTERNAL ASSESSMENT

“ To what extent did the social situation of Galicia change due to the Spanish Civil War from
1936 to 39?”

“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only
one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a
source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear."

Harry S. Truman

Manuel Francisco Lamela Gómez

Word Count: 2339 words

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TABLE OF CONTENT:

Section 1: Identification and Evaluation of Sources……………3

Section 2: Investigation…..……………………………………….5

Section 3: Reflection……………………………………………..9

Bibliography..……………………………………………………..11

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Section 1: Identification and evaluation of sources

The following investigation will proceed to research the question: To what extent did the social
situation of Galicia change due to the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 39?”

​ .15 about modern and

The first source is an article published in the journal ​Historia social n
contemporary history. It was published by the Foundation Institute of Social History (Fundación
Instituto de Historia Social) and written by Lourenzo Fernández Prieto, an important Galician
historian. The second source used in this investigation is another article written in 2009 by
Carlos París, a professor emeritus It was published in the book ​La república y la cultura: paz,
​ his book is an article collection from papers presented at the conference​ “Days
guerra y exilio. T
of Spanish Republic,” held at the Autonomous University of Madrid during the years 2003-2008.

The origin of the first source is one of its greatest values. The writer of this source leads a
project that studies the repression of Franco regime in Galicia and the article is supported by the
History Institute, giving this source more trustworthiness. Therefore, this source is really
valuable for the study of recent history in Galicia because its specialization in the Civil War or
the Second Republic. However, there is a sixty years time gap between the period that is being
studied and the date of publication which is a limitation of the source. The purpose is to share a
reflection about the topics treated during the I Congress of Contemporary History in Salamanca.
Therefore, the purpose will include different perspectives that appeared during this congress,
which is one the values. At the same time, these perspectives can be different because they are
not being shared in a primary source, which is one of the limitations of the source. Focusing in
the content, this source shows the repression and destruction of Galician farmer’s corporate.
Since Galicia has been a region mostly agricultural, the deterioration of these corporations is
going to generate a social change. This is the biggest value of the content because it gives a
really significant perspective to analyse the period. Moreover, there are primary sources within
the article that can also be analysed independently.

The origin of the second source used in this investigation is another article written by Carlos
París published in the book ​La república y la cultura: paz, guerra y exilio (2009). T​ his book is
an article collection about ​the “Days of spanish republic” which were celebrated in the
Autonomous University of Madrid during the years 2003-2008. Also, it was written by a
professor emeritus, which supports, the valuable background of the source. The purpose of this
source is to show the situation of culture and education during the Second Republic. Therefore
it is really valuable because it gives a perspective of two of the main factors that determine the
social situation of a region before the Civil War, the factor of change that this research is
focused on. However, it has some limitations because the article is focused in Spain as a whole
and not only in the region of Galicia. Therefore, some of the information will not be completely

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accurate for this area. Finally, the content of the source gives us educational information and
reforms of that period, as the number of schools that were built or the change in the grades.
This primary information gives a big value to the source because it can be analysed
independently.

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Section 2: Investigation

The Second Republic (1931-1936), was a period of time in which Spain went through
five years of successful development. Nonetheless, 1936 was a year of change.
Francisco Franco led a coup d'etat that would turn Spain into a dictatorship that would
last 40 years (1936-1976).​ Thus, the political, economic, and social situation suffered a
huge setback.

In the present investigation, I am going to draw from the methodologies of social history
to try to understand how the social structure of Galicia changed with a change of political
regime. In the tradition of such historians as E.P. Thompson and Eric Hobsbawm, an
approach rooted in social history seeks to turn attention to the interplay between
political, social, and cultural factors. Moreover, it focuses on how changes affect large
groups of ordinary people rather than merely on elites and institutions. For this reason, it
is a suitable approach to fully account for the changes in Galician society after the Civil
War. In particular, this essay will argue that the ideological change produced by the
repression of the Franco regime caused deep changes to forms of association in Galicia,
atomizing society and reducing labour, cultural, and educational associations. In this
sense, the ideological change was reflected both at the cultural and social levels.

After the implementation of the dictatorship, Galician artistic and cultural life experienced
a profound deterioration. Galicia suffered a strong repression since the start of Spanish
Civil War. From a geographical perspective, Galicia was like a mousetrap surrounded by
Salazar regimen in the south and Franco regimen in the east. One of the first big
consequences of this repression was the killing of 5561 people, mostly teachers, lawyers
and people involved in the defence of the Republic and legality. Therefore, the Franco
regime started with violent measures against those who held opposing views. As Ramón
Villares described this period, it was “a sordide war”, one that targeted ideals by
targeting those who espoused them. Therefore, the repression and the lack of opposition
had a great significance in the social change produced in Galicia during the period,
because it created a collective sense of fear that would last for many years. Such fear is
reflected in one of the sources, the article of Lourenzo Fernández Prieto, according to
whom “the repression modified social attitudes with respect to institutions, so that
agrarian associations for example came to be seen as dangerous social diseases”. In
this sense, a social historical approach reveals how changes in the mentalities of the
population had practical effects since, as we shall now see, the fear of associationalism
led to a marked decrease in the strength of associations.

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The disarticulation of the farmer’s corporate that Galicia experimented during 1936-42
was moderately significant in the social change because it produced a step back in the
sense of community and association. During the first years of the repression, the radical
mistrust to association was well-explained through one of the safety instructions of the
period: “to associate is dangerous”. This shows the different repression that Galicia
suffered and as the historian Lourenzo López says: “it isn’t neither physical nor affects
public figures known or highlighted professional level but it affects society”. In source A,
it’s shown that during the years of the second republic 221 agrarian societies were
created while during 1936-1942 only 17 were created, as it’s shown in the graphic
below. Moreover, 70% of agrarian societies registered in 1936 were dissolved in this
same year because they were related with the republic. After 1940, the control over
these associations increased through several checks to their executive boards.
Therefore, the repression to these organizational forms created a change in the ideology
and the society from a sense of collectiveness to a big fear to associate. This fear lasted
in Galicia for many years and also implied a rejection of Galician identity to avoid
repercussions from the government.

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There was a big control over the national identity and culture in Galicia that was
significant to a moderate extent because it could imply a revolution and also it was
against the ideology of the dictator. This change was more drastic because during the
Second Republic the culture of Galicia revived. ​In 1916 ​Irmandades da fala​ were
created. This association fought for the identity and social status of Galicia. In terms of
national historiography, at the beginning of the second Republic, Galicia was trying to
get its Autonomy Statute. Therefore, this period revitalized Galician culture and language
having a huge breakthrough from the previous era. However, as part of the project of
national centralism of the Franco regime, many of these regional cultural institutions
were shut down, further contributing to the trend towards a more atomized society that
we have been describing. Hence, this repression led to a depreciation of Galician culture
and language, in such a way that people became less confident with their own identity.

There was a change in the educational system of the regime that had a great
significance because of the objective from the dictator to avoid any attempt of revolution
by indoctrinating people through top-down educational policies. This change was also
motivated by the idea of breaking with all the reforms that happened during the Second
Republic. ​Manuel Azaña, one of the presidents during the Second Republic said “public
education should be the symbol of the Republic”. This quote shows the importance of
the education in this period. Some of the more important education reforms were the
creation of 16000 schools from 1931-33 and the equality between teachers of different
genders. Turning to a subaltern perspective, Benita, a teacher in this period, said that
“​The women earn the same money as the men and they were really well seen. In
general, teachers were really valued in towns”. Furthermore, the education was really
based again in the sense of association and cooperation. ​However, Franco was
opposed to these ideas. Therefore, ​he established a hard persecution to the teachers of
the Second Republic prohibiting them to teach and murdering a huge number of them.
Therefore, to restrict this freedom and halt a hypothetical revolution, Franco’s regime
decided to oppress educational institutions, furthering the trend towards a general
dismantling of cultural and social institutions during the period.

This investigation concludes that the Civil War supposed a social change in Galician
situation to a great extent due to the repression, especially with a big change in their
ideology. While most accounts focus on political change at the upper levels, this study
has drawn from a social historical methodology, including the uses of statistics and
attention to social and cultural factors, to show that there were deep changes in the
social structure as well. This period had consequences on most of the population
because as Lourenzo Fernández, an important Galician historian focused on the study
of the subaltern perspective of this conflict, has said “Most combatants are not militaries,
neither political leaders, but rather ordinary people who live the war in a family context,
like most of the population”. Social history bases its research in topics as language,
identity, education or culture and during this essay it was argued that there was a big

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change in most of these factors implying a change in the social situation. To conclude,
dictatorship regimen try to unify these concepts mentioned before, to restrict the freedom
of the people who live in that area and, therefore, to be able to control them. This
oppression has consequences that last in that community for years and sometimes,
even though the dictatorship is over, the ideology remains.

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Section 3: Reflection

The investigation done about the social consequences of the Civil War in the situation of
Galicia allowed me to understand how the policies of an authoritarian states affect the
social structure and the mentality of ordinary people. I acquired significant understanding
of the way that the repression is exercised during a dictatorship. During the process, I
became aware of many of the problems that historians face when they are trying to
analyse and investigate one period.

First of all, I realised that it's hard to find objective primary sources on any topic, since
most of them will not only describe events but also seek to present a specific position,
especially when the topic is as sensitive as that of a civil war. While statistics and hard
data might appear more reliable, I realized that they also present some problems. The
statistics on numbers of associations that I presented might seem more objective than
statements from actors from the period, but they also might have certain biases. For
instance, they might not have reflected accurately the number of associations actually in
place, given that there is a chance many of those associations kept operating but just
beyond the control of the regime.

Focusing on the methodology used, social history can present some problems of biases,
even if it is own definition, because is analysing such an abstract concept as society is.
Moreover, the sources used for this historiography, as it was explained are likely to be
biased. Therefore, one of the biggest challenge of the investigation was contrasting
different sources to try to get different perspectives.

I also realized that current policies and laws can shape our perspectives of the past.
Governments in Galicia after the dictatorship had politicians of Franco’s government,
which has limited the range of sources available. While historians can supply some
information at the moment, because they have the thoughts about people who lived in
that period, it is hard to find official statistics and data, especially classified documents
from politicians who are still active.

With regards to personal testimony, I have realized that it is hard to use such materials
because people might be scared to share them after living in the repression or might
have suffered profund traumas that alter their perception.

Finally, I realised that some of the social consequences are still affecting our society
today. I realised that our ideology is still affected sometimes because of this war and
dictatorship. Moreover, one topical subject nowadays in Spain is historic memory, since
many people lost relatives during this period and they do not know where they are.

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Therefore, I thought about the importance of the people when we are studying and how
sometimes we just limitate to study events without realising of the huge number of
people that were affected. The investigation and the learning process allowed me to
improve research methods, understand the situation of historians when they are
researching one topic and developing my understanding about the consequences of
repression and lack of freedom in society.

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Bibliography:

Carlos París. ​Educación y cultura en la segunda república ​(2008) Taken from:

http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra/educacion-y-cultura-en-la-segunda-republica-849811/

Prieto, Lourenzo Fernández. “Represión Franquista y Desarticulación Social En Galicia. La

Destrucción De La Organización Societaria Campesina. 1936-1942.” Historia Social, no. 15,
1993, pp. 49–65. JSTOR, JSTOR, w ​ ww.jstor.org/stable/40340321

Thompson, John Patrick. “The Civil War in Galiza, the Uncovering of the Common Graves, and
Civil War Novels as Counter-Discourses of Imposed Oblivion.” Iberoamericana (2001-), vol. 5, no.
18, 2005, pp. 75–82. JSTOR, JSTOR, w ​ ww.jstor.org/stable/41675743

Thompson, John Patrick. “Reimaginando La Nación Gallega a Través De La Segunda República

y El Trauma Del Fascismo.” Confluencia, vol. 29, no. 1, 2013, pp. 56–68. JSTOR, JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/43490005

Documentary. La república de los maestros. Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjommbxQSU

Documentary. Memoria recobrada. Galicia, la tempestad del 36”. Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHr1ePKH_w4&t=135

Eiroa San Francisco, Matilde PhD. The Spanish Civil War: Topics and Debates of a Valid Past.
http://www.belvedere-meridionale.hu/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/01_Eiroa_2016_03.pdf

Lozano Seijas, Claudio.La educación republicana, 1931-1936 .A​ licante : Biblioteca Virtual Miguel
de Cervantes, 2017
http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra/la-educacion-republicana-1931-1936-849634/

Lloyd, Christopher. “The Methodologies of Social History: A Critical Survey and Defense of
Structurism.” History and Theory, vol. 30, no. 2, 1991, pp. 180–219. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/2505539.

Smith, Mark M. “Making Sense of Social History.” Journal of Social History, vol. 37, no. 1, 2003,
pp. 165–186. JSTOR, w​ ww.jstor.org/stable/3790322.​

From Social History to the History of Society, E. Hobsbawm. Daedalus, 1971.

LOSADA, PEPA et al. "Lourenzo Fernández Prieto: Agora Temos Unha Idea Bastante
Deformada Do Que Foi A Guerra Civil." La Voz de Galicia. N. p., 2018. Web. 2 May 2019.

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