Bio-Pic/Death Story: Emilio Martínez-Lázaro's Las 13 rosas

Abstract

Emilio Martínez-Lázaro's Las 13 rosas is a bio-pic that relates the lives and deaths of thirteen young women from Madrid who were executed at the end of the Spanish Civil War. The film represents the culmination of myriad narratives that Linhard calls their ‘death story’. The film has four parts, which depict their life at the end of the war, their arrest and torture, their incarceration, and their execution. This final segment of the narrative shows that it seems to have a dual trajectory. On the one hand, there are various elements that underscore the principal concept of the film: to preserve their historical memory. On the other hand, there are elements that seem to diminish the impact of the dramatic events. The film's historical memory thus walks the fine line between the ‘pacto del olvido’ and denunciation.

Notes

¹There is some dispute as to whether all thirteen were executed on 5 August or if two of the women were killed two days later. According to García Blanco-Cicerón, ‘entre los fusilados había once mujeres, pero la oposición socialista y comunista las designó como las trece rosas, añadiendo al primitivo número de ejecutadas aquel día dos que lo fueron posteriormente: Palmira Soto y Ana [no sabemos su apellido]’ (Jacobo García Blanco-Cicerón, ‘Asesinato legal [5 de agosto de 1939]. Las “Trece Rosas” ’, Historia 16, 10:106 [1985], 11–29 [p. 11]).

³Custen, Bio/pics, 2, 221–22, 6.

²George F. Custen, Bio/pics. How Hollywood Constructed Public History (New Brunswick: Rutgers U. P., 1992), 11–29 (p. 4).

⁴‘Drama Documentary’, <http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/1103146/index.html> (accessed 23/11/2008).

⁵See analyses of these sources and cultural productions in Tabea Alexa Linhard, ‘The Death Story of the “Trece Rosas” ’, Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, 3:2 (2002), 187–202, and Virginia Guarinos, ‘Ramos de rosas rojas: memoria audiovisual y género’, Quaderns de Cine, 3 (2008), 91–103. Guarinos (94) also notes that in 2005 the dance troupe Arrieritos performed a flamenco dance programme entitled ‘Trece rosas’. Carlos Fonseca, author of Trece rosas rojas, was historical consultant for the film. Fonseca based his historical account on myriad previous historical works, newspaper articles, archival documents, letters, as well as personal interviews. Sometimes, however, elements of the film come from other sources: for example, the exchanging of articles of clothing shortly before their death in order to bring good luck is not in Fonseca's narrative, but in Jesús Ferrero's novel, Las trece rosas (Madrid: Siruela, 2003), 148.

⁶Hayden White, ‘Historiography and Historiophoty’, American Historical Review, 93:5 (1988), 1193–99 (p. 1193). Sorlin believes that ‘Emotion and sensitivity, which are central to social relationships cannot but briefly and inadequately be expressed on paper, whereas films, by mixing sounds and pictures, by creating a highly emotional rhythm of editing, merge the spectators inside what is happening and get them to participate in the (supposed) feelings of the screened people’ (Pierre Sorlin, ‘Historical Films as Tools for Historians’, in Image as Artifact. The Historical Analysis of Film and Television, ed. John E. O'Connor [Malabar: Robert E. Krieger, 1990], 42–68 [p. 49]). This comment applies to many emotional scenes in the film, such as the chapel scene in which the women write their final letters.

⁷The director sees the structure of the film a bit differently: ‘La narración está dividida en tres partes. La primera es el final de la guerra y la entrada de las tropas de Franco en Madrid. La segunda, las detenciones sucesivas de nuestros personajes. La tercera, la cárcel’ (Emilio Martínez-Lázaro, ‘Las 13 rosas: notas del director’, <http://www.lahiguera.net/cinemania/pelicula/2766/comentario.php> [accessed 18/11/2008]). I maintain that the nucleus of their story—when they are taken out of prison to be executed—merits a section by itself.

⁸Linhard, ‘The Death Story’, 188. ‘The expression “death story” is a conscious play on two terms: “War Story”, as defined by miriam cooke [sic], and “life story”, commonly used in the field of oral history’ (188). ‘Deaths, once narrated as a text, critically interrupt—and at the same time, engage in a dialogue with—dominant discourse. Like the study of life stories, the study of “death stories” involves recognizing contradictions and conflicts between dominant myths, narratives and themes and alternatives and resistances to these. Death stories always operate in the terrain of the counterhegemonic’ (189–90).

⁹Eye-witness Antonia García notes that while the women were in the chapel, ‘cantaron canciones revolucionarias’ (Fernanda Romeu Alfaro, El silencio roto: mujeres contra el franquismo [Oviedo: Gráficas Suma, 1994], 40), and that when they left the prison, ‘[s]e fueron cantando […] Lo último que cantaron las condenadas antes de quedarse sin la compañía de sus amigas fue “Joven Guardia” ’ (García Blanco-Cicerón, ‘Asesinato’, 21–22), which Martínez-Lázaro's film includes during the ride to the cemetery.

¹⁰Julia's address to the firing squad (‘Vosotros no sois hombres. No tenéis corazón. No tenéis alma. Si tuviérais, no estaríais aquí’) is reminiscent of Laurencia's famous speech at the beginning of Act III of Lope de Vega's Fuenteovejuna, but without the same positive consequences.

¹³Carlos Fonseca, Trece rosas rojas (Barcelona: RBA, 2005), 237.

¹¹All quotes from the film are from Emilio Martínez-Lázaro, Las 13 rosas (2007), Madrid, Enrique Cerezo Producciones Cinematográficas, S.A., Pedro Costa Cerezo Producciones Cinematográficas, S.A.

¹²Guarinos, ‘Ramos de rosas rojas’, 101.

¹⁴Tomasa Cuevas, Cárcel de mujeres (Barcelona: Siroco, 1980), 20.

¹⁵The portrayal of the cold-blooded murder of the civil guard, his daughter, and his driver is another. Fonseca's portrayal of Castro paints her as cold-blooded: ‘ “El que derrama sangre, con sangre debe morir”, había dicho Carmen Castro a las internas cuando las hermanas Guerra Basanta, Manuela y Teresa, fueron fusiladas dos meses antes, en junio, y se inició con ellas la ejecución de rojas’ (Fonseca, Trece rosas rojas, 241).

¹⁶García Blanco-Cicerón, ‘Asesinato’, 19. Linhard, ‘The Death Story’, 198, cites this testimony from José Manuel Sabín's book Prisión y muerte en la España de la postguerra (Madrid: Anaya & Mario Muchnik: 1996), 263, but he, in turn, takes it from García Blanco-Cicerón's article. This testimony continues: ‘El primer domingo después de los fusilamientos dedicó su homilía a los bienaventurados que padecen hambre y sed de justicia. Las presas se pusieron en pie y comenzaron a patear’ (García Blanco-Cicerón, ‘Asesinato’, 19).

¹⁷Ferrero, Las trece rosas, 191–99.

¹⁸García Blanco-Cicerón, ‘Asesinato’, 24.

¹⁹Romeu Alfaro, El silencio roto, 40.

²⁰Linhard, ‘The Death Story’, 195.

²¹Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, Pasionaria y los siete enanitos (Madrid: Planeta, 1997), 186–87.

²²Vázquez Montalbán, Pasionaria, 187. One witness notes that the Teresian order was ‘una orden que iban [sic] vestidas de seglar’ and that this woman, who was a government employee (funcionaria) ‘[n]os dijo cómo murieron. Una de ellas dijo: “Viva la revolución, que no muero” ’ (Cuevas, Cárcel, 82).

²³Linhard, ‘The Death Story’, 196.

²⁴García Blanco-Cicerón, ‘Asesinato’, 23.

²⁵According to Agripina Moreno, one of the victims, Mary, was the daughter of a Civil Guard in the firing squad, and when the leader of the squad realized it, another guard took his place (Vázquez Montalbán, Pasionaria, 187).

²⁶Guarinos observes that ‘la película ahorra al espectador la visión sangrienta del fusilamiento, más detallado en la novela’ (‘Ramos de rosas rojas’, 96) and she notes that in the latter, ‘quedan grabados en la retina del lector […] el relato del fusilamiento y los tiros de gracia cuando dos de ellas no mueren a la primera’ (101).

²⁷García Blanco-Cicerón, ‘Asesinato’, 24.

²⁸Vázquez Montalbán, Pasionaria, 187.

²⁹Fonseca, Trece rosas rojas, 243. Fonseca also notes that ‘[a]lgunos textos memorialísticos señalan que fue Blanca Brisac quien no murió con la primera descarga y fue rematada con el tiro de gracia’ (243). Ferrero's novel (197–98) portrays both women as survivors of the initial discharge.

³⁰Tereixa Constenla, ‘Historias bélicas de niños viejos’, El País 27 March 2009, <http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/Historias/belicas/ninos/viejos/elpepucul/20090327elpepicul_1/Tes> (accessed 27/3/2009).

³¹Custen, Bio/pics, 8, notes that ‘[u]nlike other films, almost all biopics are prefaced by written or spoken declarations that assert the realities of their narratives’. Here the declaration appears at the end of the film: ‘El 5 de agosto de 1939, en las tapias del Cementerio del Este de Madrid, fueron fusilados 43 hombres y 13 mujeres, casi todas ellas menores de edad, a las que se recuerda como “LAS 13 ROSAS”. Los documentos y cartas citadas en la película están históricamente contrastados’. Fernanda Romeu Alfaro, in her El silencio roto, includes photocopies and transcriptions of three of Julia Conesa's letters (280–85), including the final letter, which concludes with the gripping words: ‘Que mi nombre no se borre en la historia’ (285). Carlos Fonseca's Trece rosas rojas includes the transcription of letters (as well as photocopies of the manuscripts) by Dionisia Manzanero, Julia Conesa, and Blanca Brisac (275–99).

³²Martínez-Lázaro, ‘Las 13 rosas: notas del director’.

³³Martínez-Lázaro, ‘Las 13 rosas: notas del director’.

³⁵Sorlin, ‘Historical Films’, 43.

³⁴John E. O'Connor, ‘The Moving Image as a Representation of History’, in Image as Artifact, ed. O'Connor, 27–41 (p. 30).

³⁷Teresa Vilarós, El mono del desencanto. Una crítica cultural de la transición española (Madrid: Siglo XXI, 1998), 13.

³⁶However, we agree with Lee that ‘the question of historical accuracy, accuracy in detail as well as fidelity to the spirit of events, cannot be avoided in material which claims to be based on fact’ (Patricia Ann Lee, ‘Teaching Film and Television As Interpreters of History’, Image as Artifact, ed. O'Connor, 96–107 [p. 101]).

³⁸Custen, Bio/pics, 11.

³⁹Jorge Salas, ‘Políticas de la memoria y política cultural en el “cine de la democracia” ’, Afuera. Estudios de Crítica Cultural, 2:2 (2007), <http://www.revistaafuera.com/NumAnteriores/pagina.php?seccion=Articulos&page=02.Articulos.Jorge.Sala.htm&idautor=35> (accessed 14/1/2009).

⁴⁰Guarinos, ‘Ramos de rosas rojas’, 94.

⁴¹Linhard, ‘The Death Story’, 190.

⁴²Jim Sharpe notes that Edward Thompson coined this term in an article in The Times Literary Supplement in 1966. See ‘History from Below’, New Perspectives on Historical Writing, ed. Peter Burke, 2^nd ed. (University Park: Penn State U. P., 2001), 25–42 (p. 26). This concept contrasts with the traditional notion of ‘history from above, in the sense that it has always concentrated on the great deeds of great men, statesmen, generals, or occasionally churchmen […] [and deals with] the views of ordinary people and with their experience of social change’ (Peter Burke, ‘Overture. The New History: Its Past and Its Future’, in New Perspectives on Historical Writing, ed. Burke, 1–24 [p. 3]).

⁴³Custen, Bio/pics, 7. According to the Ministerio de Cultura, 861,934 saw this film in theatres; thousands more, such as this writer, have seen it on dvd (Ministerio de Cultura: Base de datos de películas calificadas, Las trece rosas. <http://www.mcu.es/bbddpeliculas/buscarDetallePeliculas.do?brscgi_DOCN=000041526&brscgi_BCSID=55869b09&language=es&prev_layout=bbddpeliculasResultado&layout=bbddpeliculasDetalle> [accessed 15/12/2008]).