Why is it important to remember who the father of the Spanish Falange was?

GironaRafael Sánchez Mazas (Madrid, 1894-1966) is a fundamental figure for understanding contemporary Spanish history. An intellectual, politician, and writer, he was a founding member of the Falange, a minister under Franco, and the main ideologue of Spanish National Catholic fascism. The protagonist of a life worthy of a film, full of adventures and pivotal moments, in January 1939 he was saved from being shot by Republican troops at the sanctuary of Santa María del Collell (Garrotxa). This episode made his fortune, and in 2001, the Girona writer Javier Cercas revived it, with a varying dose of fiction, for the plot of his novel. famous novel Soldiers of Salamis.

However, beyond this fleeting literary appearance, the figure of Sánchez Mazas is practically unknown today. Taurus has just published a very extensive biography. The only one left pending on the great figures of this historical period. A compilation of texts and articles from the period. Of course, the study by Maximiliano Fuentes, who ideologically is the antithesis of Sánchez Mazas, is by no means an apologetic or nostalgic text, but rather an objective work on the history of Spain that, in a subtle way, offers many keys to understanding the course of the present: the last century, which is now once again at the center of debate; there are many parallels with that interwar period in which Hitler emerged," explains Fuentes.

Inspired by Mussolini

The book follows a chronological thread, from Sánchez Mazas's early years as a chronicler in Morocco and Mussolini's Italy to his return to Spain, the founding of the Falange with Primo de Rivera and his role during the dictatorship, including his adventures during the Civil War. In 1936, he was arrested by Republican forces, passed through prisons, the Chilean embassy, and labor camps, until he was finally taken to Collell, where he was to be executed. However, as Cercas recounts, he escaped with three deserting soldiers to a farmhouse in Cornellà de Terri.

During his stay in Italy, Mazas laid the foundations of his Falangist paradigm: an authoritarian regime, deeply monarchical, fundamentalist, and ideologically linked to the Church. "Spanish fascism cannot be understood without that Catholic component. The same cannot be said of German Nazism or French fascism," Fuentes notes. Based on these principles, Mazas underpinned the rise of the leader —he was one of the promoters of that myth—and then Franco kept him close to power as a symbol of continuity of the Falangist movement.

Fascism and Catholicism, inseparable principles

However, in private, Mazas makes some criticisms of the regime, especially in recent years, when he experienced a tendency to open his mind somewhat: "He had a great concern for communism, the Cold War, and above all, for the ideas of Christian democracy, since for him they represented the ultimate betrayal. Catholicism could not be democratic; authoritarianism," explains the scholar. These are deductions that, admittedly, are not without contradictions: "He was a deep Catholic and a defender of egalitarian ideals in some texts, but at the same time he participated in a brutally repressive regime. He also wrote valuable literary texts, but he also signed proclamations in which he defended the murder of Catalans and Basques," Fuente certifies.

Vox and Sánchez Mazas

Beyond the interest in this specific period, the biography is interesting because it projects a host of resonances, which, more or less evidently, speak to the current rise of the far right, with hate speech toward difference and minorities. "We have many parties that, while not strictly fascist—because they don't have militias, don't resort to physical violence, and aren't a single party—do have common traits with fascism, such as the defense of a cultural battle, the traditional family model, the Catholic religion as an identity, and ultranationalism. In Spain, moreover, in the near future, moreover, symbolic imperialism, claiming the Catholic Monarchs or Don Pelayo. And, in Catalonia, the Catalan Alliance doesn't appeal to specific values, but rather focuses on anti-immigration rhetoric," argues Maximiliano Fuentes. And he warns: "They don't all have to dress up as fascists to be dangerous; the danger is the same in terms of intensity, only the way it unfolds changes."

And that is why Sánchez Mazas's biography, in a context like the current one, works as a wake-up call and a warning to sailors, not only because of its erudite exercise of historical memory, but also because of its ability to create links with current events: "We have had twenty years of very intense memory policies that are most in tune with extreme right-wing discourse; that means that something has been done wrong.