Quick (Personal) Note on 23F
Forty years ago today, Spain came frighteningly close to losing its democracy. On February 23rd, 1981, the Congress of Deputies in Madrid was in the process of swearing in a new Prime Minister, when an armed insurgent force of officers from the Guardia Civil burst into the congressional chambers, firing shots and forcing elected officials to cower behind their benches. At the same time, co-conspirators ordered tanks into the streets in Valencia, establishing a state of emergency and trying to force King Juan Carlos I to establish peace by accepting an unelected provisional government.
The coup was led by Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tejero, a rightwing blowhard who had already served a short sentence for plotting to overthrow the government three years before. It was egged on by rightwing media, which openly called for an insurrection. Why? Because a certain portion of the country feared socialism and communism, hated the messiness and unpredictability of democracy, and resented the cultural freedom — feminism, gay rights, the movida — that had blossomed after the death of Franco. They looked backwards to actual fascism as a remedy for the perils of equality. While members of the Guardia Civil held the Spanish parliament captive, armed civilians flooded the building to support the insurgents, and outside, a group of supporters sang the Falangist anthem “Cara al sol.”
I have a personal connection to the events of February 23rd. My parents had lived in Spain since 1977, when my dad, a naval officer, was stationed there shortly after their wedding. Though they had rented a house for years in Puerto de Santa María, at the time they were living on the US naval base in Rota, near Cádiz. The night of the coup, my dad, a lawyer, was trying a case on a ship somewhere in the Mediterranean. My mom had left me with a babysitter while she went out to eat with some girlfriends in town. I was a toddler.
Once the coup was started, the Navy base locked down, and my mom wasn’t allowed back. Furious, she had the base’s guards call every ranking officer in Rota. Eventually, it was an actual admiral who relented and forced the guards to let her enter. Not because my mom was well-connected (my dad was just a lieutenant), but because she was so determined.
When I was a kid and heard this story, I didn’t understand the anxiety and anger she must have felt then. Now that I’m a parent I do. But, maybe because this story figured so largely in my family’s mythology, I’ve always been fascinated by the moment. How could a country that my parents loved so much flirt with such catastrophic violence? How could a free, democratic people come so close to a return to authoritarianism?
The Spanish coup of 1981 failed for a variety of reasons: because the King refused to support it, because members of the military — though largely supportive of Francoism — decided to stand behind the country’s constitution. The public, which saw video from the congressional chambers the next day, was inspired by the three lawmakers (General Gutierrez Mellado, Santiago Carrillo, and Adolfo Suárez) who stood up to Tejero, even as gunshots were filling the room. But, as with our own attempted insurrection, the 23rd of February made Spaniards realize just how many people given power by the people were eager to undermine the people’s right to choose who has power.
The lesson I’ve always taken from 23F is that authoritarianism, or fascistic tendencies, never run far below the surface, even in contemporary democracies. Without drawing too pat a comparison between post-Franco Spain and the contemporary US, I also think it’s worth echoing Jeet Heer’s observation that the US capitol invaders include direct descendants— both figurative and literal — from some of Franco’s biggest American supporters.
And pictures of Lt. Col. Tejero holding a gun behind the speaker’s dais in the Congress of Deputies, or lawmakers hiding under their seats, hit differently after seeing zip-tie guy, and Q-Shaman, and reading American lawmakers’ accounts of barricading themselves in their offices.
…
NOTE: You can read the Guardian’s 1981 coverage of the coup attempt here. And, because cameras were rolling during the scheduled vote, you can watch footage of the invasion. I also recommend Javier Cercas’s gripping, thorough account of the event, Anatomy of a Moment.
