On a recent return visit to Barcelona I was able to follow in the footprints of George Orwell and see many of the places he brought to life in his memoir of the Spanish Civil War “Homage to Catalonia”.   Orwell joined one of the many militias that formed in the early days of the war, fought in Aragon (within sight of Zaragoza, another city I know and love) and returned to Barcelona just in time for the battles between the Anarchist and Communist militias.  For three days, he patrolled the domed roof of a movie theater (the Poliorama) held by the Communists directly across the street from the Anarchist held Cafe Moka.

Since there was coffee involved, the Cafe Moka was my first stop where I visited a shrine to him in the basement floor, and enjoyed a coffee on the Rambla while looking up at the domes and imagining Orwell aiming a rifle at me in those difficult years of 1937.

The horrors of the Spanish Civil War were quickly overcome by the much worse horrors of World War II.  Spain largely sat out of the war because it was simply exhausted: there were almost no fighting men left, there was no money for armaments etc, Franco was executing 1000 loyalists (the losing side) each month.  Spain was where the fascists learned to bring war directly to civilian populations. Most notably Guernica in Northern Spain, made famous by Barcelona native son Pablo Picasso.  Not so well known is Plaça Sant Felip Neri which Mussolini bombed, with 142 casualties.  Today it houses a children’s preschool but the marks of that day are still preserved on the walls behind the playing children.