Image
Loyal Men and Women
Item Details
Exhibit: The Civil War in Galicia
Source:
Date Created: 1936-04
Type: Photograph
Extent: 1 item
43.37097, -8.39594
Source:
Terra e Memoria, fondo Nomes e Voces-Histagra (Suárez Ferrín), nº 5007 0052 0001
Date Created: 1936-04
Type: Photograph
Extent: 1 item
43.37097, -8.39594
The photograph captures perfectly what the coup of 1936 meant: who executed it and against whom it was directed. But above all, it explains the when and the how.
If you look at it without any background information, the photo, taken in April 1936, can be confusing. The common, powerful but completely false narrative could lead you to believe that it was taken in July, when A Coruña, the headquarters of the 8th Organic Division, had become one of the bulwarks of the coup against the Republic and the place of departure of the columns that set out for Ribadeo and Oviedo, the Portuguese border, and the Pass of the Lions heading for Madrid. But that powerful narrative does not come from those who appear in the photo, but to those who murdered them.
On the left is the city’s mayor, Alfredo Suárez Ferrín, of the Republican Left party, who was accused of military rebellion and murder4ed on 31 August. His family kept the photograph and donated it to the Names and Voices project. Next to hi mis General Enrique Salcedo Molinuevo, commander of the 8th Organic Division, who was tried for treason along with his second in command, General Rogelio Caridad Pita of the 15th Infantry Brigade. Both were murdered in the San Felipe Castle o 9 November, the day after the rebels launched their final offensive against Madrid.
Standing between the two generals is Juana Capdevielle, the 31-year-old director of the Humanities Library of the Central University. She left the civil government building where she lived with her husband, Francisco Pérez Carballo, the civil governor, before the assault, but was found in the house of Friends and murdered on 18 August. Her body appeared near de Rábade (Lugo) on the highway to Madrid. She had been shot in the chest and the head. Civil Governor Pérez Carballo is in the right-hand corner. The 26-year-old was also a lawyer and university professor. He was shot on 24 July, along with the commander and captain of the forces who helped him resist the attack on 20 July.
The photo shows the group of authorities who presided over the military parade on the fifth anniversary of the proclamation of the Republic on 14 April 1936 in Coruña. Some of the men who carried out the coup are in the back row.
LFP