Critique on Liberalist Society Order in 1930s Spain

Spain Liberalism

Women like me take tremendous pleasure in sharing our voices and the songs of our hearts. However, it is with great regret that I am forced to undertake this task of telling you my traumatic tale. All my freedom has been stripped from me I am alone, my husband is dead, and my children are being raised by his murderers -- who most likely will become mine, too. But it is my duty as a citizen of Spain, and of a humble worker dedicated to the values embedded in the only movement that has enabled the empowerment of the people: the Frente Popular.

I now seek to warn my children, or their children, or their children's children, of the dangers inherent in greed and corruption that underwrite too many political movements. I hope that when this letter is unearthed that our lives were not lost in vain. We of the Frente Popular value social order, social justice, and the common good. Both liberalism and conservatives have proven to us that they are just two sides to the same corrupt coin.

Now hear me. Our great constitution La Pepa was penned in 1812 to impart greater liberties and freedoms than we once had. However, and this is why I am here, La Pepa ushered in an era of social turmoil and chaos throughout the peninsula. Capitalists, landowners, and liberals: these were the new monarchs. Power and wealth have always been inextricably linked, which is why people like us have fought so hard to bring knowledge and power to the people. After all, were it not for the socialist values of Casa del Pueblo, I would not be writing you this letter today! I would lack even the basic impetus with which to feel like my voice mattered enough to write.

Marx recognized that genuine social, economic, and political empowerment come from owning the means of production. When the poor cannot own the means of production via the capitalist framework, due to our position low on the social ladder, it makes sense to undertake land reforms the likes of which were supported by Frente Popular and democratically welcomed in the election of 1936.

The capitalists could not handle the economic betterment of the poor. Whether as a measure of class warfare or not, the Liberalists sought to undermine the very source of our income. The Liberalists stole the land from beneath our feet, my children! My great-grandfather tilled this soil. His sweat is embedded in this soil as surely as every ant, worm, and spider.

And then, because they stink of Liberal greed, the Villachicas bought their way into the title of Marquis, and sold their very soul. I warn you, my children, I warn you against the allure of Liberalism and god forbid, any neo-liberal manifestation it might have later on. The free market looks brilliant on paper, but look now what it has done to me.

It is with great sincerity that I write so that Spain may understand why we perished so brutally at the hands of Falange, our rights stripped from us along with our land and dignity. For the weaknesses of the Liberals were precisely what allowed the brutality of the conservatives to gain power, stronghold, and ultimately, footing in the form of the bloody coup! And who knows when or how this might end! For no matter what they say, the sword is deadlier than the pen.