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My parents who belonged to that Spanish-speaking
generation would talk occasionally about la guerra civil before the
onset of the war in Europe in 1939. It was in the papers (Tribune
and Herald), on radio (KZRH), and newsreels before the cartoons and
feature film. The images of civilian dead in the streets of Madrid
after an air raid are still vivid in my memory. I was then in grade
school in Paco.
On Sundays I would hear Mass with
the family at San Marcelino church where I saw young Spanish/mestizos
in scout uniforms (whom my mother called “falanghe”) giving the
fascist salute. I learned later about the support that the church,
Catholic schools, and oligarchic families (whom Frankie Jose
portrays in his novel Sins) gave to Generalissmo Franco who defeated
the Republicans and ruled Spain for 40 years as dictator. Renato
Constantino wrote about their parades in Manila before the Pacific
war.
Following la guerra civil in the
media, I read a news item about Filipinos (some Philippine
Constabulary men) volunteering to fight in Spain, on whose
side—Republican or Franco’s—I can’t recall.
Years later, I would meet one who
volunteered on the side of Franco—Don Luis Gonzalez who migrated
to Canada during martial law. He and family arrived in Montreal at
the same time that we did. Despite our political differences, they
became good friends. Don Luis said that as a young man in the
Tabacalera community in Marquez de Comillas (close to San Marcelino
church), he volunteered along with other mestizos to fight on the
side of Franco. At the front he met the generalissimo who was
pleased to see Filipinos in his army. Don Luis recalled how bravely
captured communists (fighting on the Republican side) faced the
firing squad—perhaps with clenched fists or singing the
Internationale.
Sometime ago the Spanish
ambassador told me that the Casino Español on T. M. Kalaw Street
has put up a plaque listing the names of Filipino volunteers who
fought in the civil war. The other day I visited the Casino Español
and the adjoining Instituto Cervantes and asked about the plaque but
none of those I asked knew. Perhaps I should do a more diligent
search.
Anyhow I found an unexpected
source, the first volume of the history of Partido Komunista ng
Pilipinas (Communism in the Philippines: The PKP, 1996) apparently
based on the manuscript written by Celia Mariano and William
Pomeroy. Both now in their 90s, they have lived in London since they
were released in 1962. Pomeroy, an ex-GI, was my classmate in
American literature. In prison he wrote The Forest, an account of
two years and the “long march” in the Sierra Madre. Celia
Mariano finished her BS degree in U.P. before the war, joined the
PKP in 1940, and the Huks during the war. Both were captured in
1952.
According to Andreu Castells in
Las Brigadas Internacionales de la Guerra en Espana, the total
number of Filipinos in the Republican ranks was at least sixteen,
one of whom was killed and four injured. But according to one
volunteer, Pedro Penino, who was able to return to the Philippines,
there were around fifty Filipinos (“pure Filipinos” and “mestizos”)
who joined the International Brigade as well as the Spanish
Republican Army and Militia.
In a 1938 interview with the
Spanish weekly Union, Penino said that among the “pure
Filipinos” who fought in defense of the Spanish Republic were a
certain Claro, a political commissar, in a Mixed Brigade; a Colonel
Santiago (from Tondo) and someone surnamed Mendoza who both held
high positions in the general staff of General Jose Miaja of the
Republican Army; someone surnamed Manuel; and another militia man in
Valencia who claimed to be related to Commonwealth president Quezon.
Apparently there is no record of
anyone leaving the Philippines for Spain directly. Most of the
Filipinos who served in the Republican ranks either left from the US
or Mexico or were already in Spain when the war began. Most of the
volunteers were not heard of again. With the defeat of the
Republican forces, Franco’s falangists herded thousands of
prisoners in camps where many were executed or died of hardships.
Penino who was with the US
Abraham Lincoln Battalion fought for a year in Madrid. On his way
back to the States in 1938, he was denied re-entry and forced to
return to the Philippines, sick and penniless. He joined the PKP,
helped train Huk fighters in Tanay in early 1942, and became active
in the underground network in Manila-Rizal. He was killed by the
Japanese in Tanque area near where we used to live in San Jorge,
Paco .
(To be continued)
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