Honouring the Defenders of the Republic
摘要
Rehabilitating the Second Spanish Republic as a positive democratic heritage also meant paying homage to those outside Spain who defended the Republic against the insurgent forces of nationalism. Whereas the republican discourse during and after the Civil War was critical of the Western politics of non-intervention in the conflict, the politics of memory of the first municipal governments in Madrid opted for a more conciliatory way of dealing with the subject. This approach consisted in honouring those who—going against the mainstream—did support the Second Republic and republicans during or in the aftermath of the Civil War. This chapter traces this process by analysing memorials to Mexico’s president Lázaro Cárdenas, the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, and the International Brigades.