Nancy mentions it’s Linny’s birthday month and also the apt month for Shadow of the Wind, since March is a windy month. Linda shares that she loves the wind which makes Nancy think she should live in Nebraska, a state known for its wind. Linny and Nancy welcome Dr. Sara Brenneis to the front porch to discuss The Shadow of the Wind. Sara is a professor of Spanish at Amherst. Her research centers around Spain’s role in World War II and the impact of fiction on postwar Spain. Specific to our book this month, The Shadow of the Wind, she has studied the implication of this novel on Spain’s collective historical understanding of itself.
Sara tells us she became interested in pursuing Spanish and Spanish culture as an academic career when we did a study abroad during her Junior year in college in Madrid. She loved it and wanted to figure out a way to continue to explore the culture and share it with others. She was especially interested in the post-fascist regime which was a fascinating culture. She had studied Spanish in middle school and high school in Madison, Wisconsin, who were big influences and led her to major in Spanish in college. Sara says when she did her study abroad program there were fewer English speakers than there are now, so it really honed her Spanish skills.
Nancy admits that neither Linny or she knew much about Spain during and after World War II. She wondered whether that is typical of Americans. Sara assures us that isn’t unusual and most people knew Franco from the running gags on Saturday Night Live in the 1970s. Although the US wasn’t directly involved, and was neutral in face, there were Americans who traveled to Spain (especially the east coast) who fought and died in the fight against fascism.
Nancy notes that it seems its only been since the 1990s that Americans have started to visit Spain. Sara agrees saying the 1990s were an inflection point, but notes there were visitors to Spain during the Franco regime, wearing their bikinis on the beach, while Spaniards weren’t able to do that themselves because of the strict moral codes.
Sara gives us a short lesson, at a junior high level for Linny who was taking notes, of its turbulent history during the 20th century and the establishment of Francoist Spain. We learned during Spain’s Second Republic that women gained many, many rights that Franco rolled back. There were lots of people unhappy with the weakening of their power, especially the military, the church and the upper class. In 1936, a group of military generals rose up against the democratically elected government and started the Spanish Civil War that lasted for three years. The international community didn’t really get too involved, except Germany and Italy helped the fascists out. Guernica, of course, is a infamous example of the Nazi’s testing their military muscle, this, against a small Basque town on market day. Franco was the only leader until his death in 1975, and put the Catholic Church front in center, with moral and religious strictures. The 1940s was a desperate time with bombed out communities, unemployment, starvation, and retribution to those who fought against Franco.
Linda notes that every character in this book has secrets. Sara agrees that during this time Barcelona was staunchly in support of the democratic republic and it had been heavily bombed. After the war, there were people informing on the neighbors, secret police, and secret resisters. It was a period where there was a large military and police presence to tamp down on any resistance. After the end of WWII, resistors hoped the Allies would help them get rid of the fascists, but of course, that did not happen. Sara tells us there was a lot of corruption and lawlessness during this time period, especially because there is a sense of vengeance. There were concentration camps in Spain to imprison political opponents of the dictator. If you weren’t going to church, wearing the right clothes, and speaking the approved language, you might be thrown into prison, lose your job, or worse. Linny mentions this helps her understand the lack of tolerance toward the baker, which was part of government oversight, not just police run amok. Sara said you simply could not be openly gay. You had to be married by the church. Out of wedlock pregnancies was a serious moral transgression that stained the reputation of the entire family. Your livelihood relied on following these codes. Fermin, on the other hand, is completely tolerant, which would have been very different. Sara says the book shows us the underground resistance based on their actions. Barcelona remains today a progressive city.
Nancy asks Sara about the book burnings in Spain at the time and her take on whether the Cemetery of Lost Books might be symbolic of that. Sara says intellectuals, teachers, artists left, if they could, when the fascist took over. To her, the Cemetery of Lost Books is the loss of all that lost intellectual richness. Authors could not write in Catalan. Censors removed any references to the war or against the government. Nancy notes that Daniel’s family’s bookstore also represents this loss of creative output.
Nancy notes many of Julian’s wealthy school friends end up seeing both their wealth and status evaporate. One of Julian’s chums, Miguel, despises and purposely fritters away his father’s wealth because he believes it was a fortune tainted by war-mongering. The Aldaya family also falls from its high stature. Sara tells us Barcelona was an industrial center where fortunes were made and where there was a definite upper class who were Francoists. It was pretty common that the children might not have the same political beliefs and who rejected the moral strictures and who were part of the 1960’s protests, outright and how they lived their lives. Tourism becomes a big economic driver, particularly when Barcelona hosts the Olympic Games which led to a huge tourism boom.
Sara tells us that during the time period of this book, the lives of women were pretty bleak. Women were housewives responsible for taking care of their families. They had to get permission from their husband or father to work outside the home or to get a passport. They were forced to take classes on how to be a good housekeeper. They were expected to be very pious and to make sure their families were also. Linda says this makes her see the women in the book in an entirely different light, as they would have been very brave. Nancy says this makes her think, especially, of Nouria who would have been a countercultural character. Sara notes gay women would have to find a partner to allow them to live that rigid life, too. It was an oppressive time to be a woman.
The Aldaya mansion, named the Angel of Mist, felt like a character itself to Linda. It disintegrates during the book which feels like a metaphor for Spain. Sara loves the rotting feeling of the city and the whole gothic feel of the book. That noir is part of a Spanish tradition. We laugh that Barcelona is on the Mediterranean Sea and not as rainy as the book implies, but represents the darkness of the times. The author uses actual parts of the city, including a plaza where resistors were executed during the Spanish Civil War where you can still see the bullet holes.
Sara tells us the Catholic Church is still prominent, but not anywhere like it was during the dictatorship. People observe Catholic holidays, but young people do not tend to go to church anywhere close to as often as their parents would have. During the Spanish Civil War, the Vatican was an outward supporter of Franco because he promised to give them prominence, which he delivered on. Three pillars held up Franco society: the miliary, the church, and the wealthy. Franco lived ostentatiously, but married and went to Mass with his wife dressed in black. Outwardly, he observed the faith and expected others to, as well.
Nancy notes it was a miniseries about the Holocaust in the 1980s that caused German children to ask their parents about what they did during WWII and which led to a national reckoning of the country with its past. Sara tells us this book played a similar role in Spain because it came out at in important moment when people started to investigate the hundreds or thousands of mass graves and asking for answers. This book is a conversation starter. First person memories can fade and people claim the dictatorship wasn’t that bad. That’s revisionist. It was an oppressed country and people were killed. The novel is a way to think about that in today’s terms. The Civil War isn’t taught as much as it should be, Sara thinks, but popular books are a great way to dive into the history.
During her sabbatical in Spain, Sara is working on Spaniards deported to Nazi concentration camps as political prisoners. She wants to tell these stories so people inside and outside of Spain know about this history.
