Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Franco's "victory"

I had a long think before I decided to put this link on the blog; do I really want to give Franco more attention than he already orchestrated for himself over all those decades..?
It is a beautiful piece of historical documentation though, this film, and everyone watching it in their right minds knows what the fascist salud stood for, the Nazi supporters celebrating the victory over the Republic alongside Franco and the 100's, 1000's of people along the road showing, shouting their affection to the "Caudillo de España, por la gracia de Dios" (Leader of Spain, by the Grace of God).
And yes, many many berets. Interestingly, many of these berets came from Boinas Elosegui, like the many berets that were used by the Army of the Republic, the International Brigaders, the members of the POUM and various Anarchist groups.
And these days, yes, they are sold to both sides of the political spectrum; the leftist intellectuals, old activists and hippies like myself, artists of all colour and background and the old Carlists who still don their red berets proudly.

The beret seems to survive all the turmoil that associates with the beret.

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