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Alfonso Rodríguez Castelao

(1886-1950)

Regarding the armed conflict, Frente Popular published ten prints by the Galician artist Alfonso Rodríguez Castelao (1886-1950) between 1937 and 1938. The series of prints were also exhibited from October 24 to November 5, 1938, in the Delphie Studies room, off Fifth Avenue in New York.A note published on July 19, 1937, in the newspaper reported that to commemorate the first anniversary of the "Great Spanish Revolution," the Galicia Mártir [collection of stamps] was reproduced in installments, published by the Ministry of Propaganda of the Spanish Government." SHC printed 11,000 copies of the bound collection to collect aid funds for the Spanish people. In Frente Popular , the full-page prints were accompanied by descriptive text. With dark lines, the artist portrayed militiamen protecting the Republic and the people's freedom and condemned the lack of rifles. Also, he drew Galician mothers mourning their dead.The text accompanying the print "The Just Prayer," published in May 1937, states that the "poor little girl speaks to Christ. She implores him. Why do you allow them to kill, burn, and steal in your name, holy rascal? Our beloved land is soaked in blood. Along all the paths of beautiful Galicia, the bodies of men and women lie torn to pieces."

Isabel Behm on Castelao

The text accompanying the drawing states that "This would be Spain" is the title of this print by Castelao. The drawing of the devil is considered "the most faithful interpretation of the aims of human regression, which inspires that entire spectrum of military men, priests, and capitalists, who have created a God for themselves to better subjugate the starving multitudes."When rifles were missing. The image published on November 4, 1938, recalls the first months of the war, when the people halted "the march of the military" but were short of rifles. The governor is accused of not having provided the people with weapons that could have stopped "the beast."Freedom Plan. The print, published in November 1938, depicts a militiaman defending freedom. The text accuses the Falange and those who failed to produce even a pin of wanting to "deprive of every vestige of liberty, justice, and rights those who, from the cradle to the grave, had no other pleasure than to work constantly, tasting all the dregs of bitterness, to maintain a state imposed in the name of God and the Fatherland!" The text, by Castelao, also denounces that in Galicia "the wives and daughters of workers, republicans, and masons were paraded in their underwear, barefoot, with their hair cut short... only to be shot later, most of them." The text ends by stating, "Those who died defending the dignity of the home will be avenged by those who preferred to seek the paths of freedom, to return...!"Castelao's print "Viejo Federal", published on December 9, 1938 in Frente Popular , Castelao explains that it is dedicated to the liberals of yesteryear that he has seen take to the streets of Madrid to defend freedom.The print "Here remains a rifle!" published on December 16, 1938, recalls the lack of weapons suffered by the Spanish people in defending the Republic. The accompanying text, written by Félix Martí Ibáñez, states that the people took to the streets unarmed and "fell, shot by the hundreds, but their numerical superiority allowed them to achieve their objective... rifles in the hands of the enemy! Imagine, reader, how many died before reaching a rifle!" The text concludes, "Every man with a moderately developed sensitivity feels satisfaction at the hour of death, of having increased for his children the wealth of human happiness bequeathed to him by their parents... Here remains a rifle! to defend the dignity of the people through the generations."

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