They will remember your name, of Lorenzo Silva

I recently spoke about Javier Cercas's novel, «The monarch of the shadows«, In which we were told the vicissitudes of a young military man named Manuel Mena. The thematic coincidence with this new work by Lorenzo Silva make one clear will of the writers to bring to light the intrahistory of the armed conflict that confronted half Spain with the other half.

As in any war or tragic event, the moment always comes when fiction, literature in this case, begins to participate in this process of assimilation of what not so long ago was a drama for so many people. The authors' commitment to the truth of what happened reaches the most real part, the one that has survived to this day through testimonies, much more reliable than the war reports, the propaganda and the immediate proclamations of the victors.

In "They will remember your name" everything starts from a singular event, one of those that does not transcend but that can change the course of a war and of History. On July 19, 1936, in Barcelona, ​​the military uprising seemed set to turn into a glorious step toward the overthrow of the Republic. However, the military put in arms did not manage to seize power in the county capital.

The story glances over aspects that seem accessory but were really very relevant in the defeat of the rebels. General Aranguren, at the head of the Civil Guard, opposed the uprising of the army. With the opposition of Aranguren, the arrival from Mallorca of the army general, Goded, did not translate into that coup for the final triumph in Catalonia.

Aranguren dragged with him other army corps that supported him in defense of the Republic and in a few days the revolts ended in a republican victory.

Aranguren personified the most hero among heroes, the one who appears rebellious before a chain of command. A hero is one who overcomes his fears by defending what he believes. Aragunren believed in the Republic as the legally constituted system of government.

It was the law for someone to put black on white not only what happened in those days, but also the most personal aspect that the author has sought from the character in question. Fiction surpasses reality, in this case by making known what reality has covered in oblivion. Perhaps the title of the novel is a gesture of admiration proper to Lorenzo Silva. It would be reasonable, since, immersed in the knowledge of his person, he has come to know his deepest motivations, his convictions to go against the current in what was presaged a lost war.

You can now buy They will remember your name, the latest novel by Lorenzo Silva here: