Virginia Cowles writes affectionately about the Spaniards she met in this warts and all extract from Looking for Trouble.
”Do not imagine that hardship and suffering had tamed the natural high spirits of the Spaniard. Bitter trials had drawn them together and the atmosphere was quick and friendly. Everyone was camarada and everyone was fighting the Fascists. I took a great liking to the Spanish people; temperamentally, they were as quick and changing as the country they lived in, with its great mountains and its arid plateaux, its bitter cold and its tropical heat. If they cried one day they laughed the next.
Even in their darkest hours they retained a sense of humour and a zest for living. Anyone who travelled through the country could scarcely fail to be shocked by the miserable living conditions in the villages. The houses were dilapidated and filthy, and often there were no sanitary arrangements of any kind. Children with sores on their faces and bodies sprawled in the dust like animals. I soon began to understand the grievance against the Church, for in many of these villages cathedral spires rose splendidly over scenes of unforgettable squalor – spires fashioned by the money of the peasants.
The hospitality of the poor was touching. They welcomed visitors eagerly and insisted on sharing whatever food and wine they had in the house. If you offered them payment, they were offended. Their spirits were exuberant and they took a passionate interest in the lighter side of life. One day I visited a small village about forty miles outside Madrid with Sydney Franklin, the American bullfighter. One of the peasants had seen him fight in Seville and the word spread through the village like wildfire. People stared at him admiringly and children tagged after him when he walked down the road; the mayor of the village came out to shake his hand and made him promise that when the war was over he would come back and put on a show for them.
I think it was this natural buoyancy of spirit that kept the morale in Madrid so high during the long months of bombardment and semi-starvation. Their courage did not consist in bearing their burden patiently, but in ignoring it.” (Looking for Trouble, Virginia Cowles)
Eviva Espana! Was a war cry in the Spanish War but only the Nationalists/Phalangists used it. Sort of thing the defenders of the Alcazar would bellow at the attacking Loyalists. One of the few sieges in modern history that actually had an official cigarette break so that the garrison could get some tobacco and women and children could be evacuated under ambassadorial supervision. Women and children refused to go. Siege continued till Franco came over the hills weeks later. Eviva Espania grande y unido was his particular take as Miss Coales herself might have acknowledged.
Oh dear! I didn’t mean to show bias.