They killed a journalist, the black historian of ’34’

Why they killed Luis de Sirval was one of the testimonies of that period; A sharp chronicle of Ignatius Carral will try to reconstruct the events that ended his colleague’s life. He wrote it a year after Sirval’s death, and the Renacimiento publishing house has recently republished it as part of the ‘Espuela de plata’ collection.

Understood as a nonfiction novel, the book is a violent and criminal chronicle of October ’34, a brilliant exercise in journalism and an illuminating document of the political contradictions that ensnared the Republic in its final days.

This is emphasized in the preface by José Luis García Martín, the critic responsible for the edition: “The Civil War came, and the death of a journalist was followed by many deaths, countless crimes, and the political profitability of his cause ended. Leftists who tried to gain all possible political benefits from a crime committed by the government after the war, de Lerroux tried to escape with impunity, but they forgot about him. After all, he was killed during the Republic period, and it was the Republic officials who tried to hide or distort the facts. “After the Civil War, it was difficult to explain that the Republic for which the losers had fought had also reached a fascist phase.”

Luis de Sirval had made his name in Madrid journalism at that time from the pages of ‘La Libertad’, where the parliamentary records were integrated into this volume. Republished in “Traces of components”, two years ago, by Renacimiento. The political pressures the newspaper was subjected to and the censorship Sirval was subjected to led him to leave the editorial office and establish a news agency called ‘Agencia Sirval’. There he became a businessman and wrote some of the best writers of the period: Alomar, Albornoz, Araquistain, Marcelino Domingo, Pérez de Ayala…

Realizing that what was happening in Asturias required a look at conflicting facts, he traveled himself to tell everything through his agency. His announcement to media subscribers regarding his services made his intentions known: “Revolt of Asturias. Fifteen days of war under the red flag. Today we begin to publish under this title the exciting report carried out by our colleague Sirval on the terrain that was a bloody battlefield in Asturias. “The reader knows the abundance of telegraphic information we have provided him with about the terrible days of Asturia, but he lacked the direct, vivid impression that we now offer him, in short, the impartial and true account of what happened.”

As Ignacio Carral points out in his history, “Readers who followed Sirval’s report actually could not contain their emotions when they read the brief reference that the newspapers were able to give about his death; and the news would tell them a lot.” It was more about what was going on in Asturias than anything Sirval could tell them without press censorship.

Sirval goes to the area and gets off the train. He wants to know firsthand what happened in the early days of the revolution and the repression that followed. He talks to witnesses, passes through Campomanes, Vega del Rey, Pola de Lena and sets off on foot towards Mieres.

In his first article in the newspaper (of which he published two) he writes: “Pajares. The beautiful Asturian port with its snowy hills is the first station of danger. From now on the train will travel with infinite caution. All the bridges have been exposed to so much dynamite, none have collapsed but their bases have been completely removed, at the entrance of each You have to stop and pass slowly to check whether the train sinks under its weight.All the passengers gathered in front of the windows and watched the dangerous experience.

Sirval continued to ask and found some Tercio soldiers who gave him news of some cases of repression by their first and last names. Executions by a Bulgarian lieutenant in Oviedo. These notes, which were nothing more than a few notes in Sirval’s pocket, are particularly notable today because they involve the murder of Aída Lafuente.

Carral’s book is accompanied in this edition by a pamphlet “We Accuse! Murder of Luis de Sirval” published by his friends and colleagues. Those last notes that would cost him his life are also reproduced, along with other types of material, such as the story of the events coming from the mouths of Asturian comrades such as Ovidio Gondi, who shared with him the last hours he spent alive in the dungeon:

“Daída Peña, 16 years old, Lieutenant Dimitri Ivan Ivanoff was shot. St. Peter’s Church. They shot all 7 of them. Sergeant Vázquez escaped at 3.60.”

When Sirval arrived in Oviedo, he stayed at Casa Flora on Fruela Street. There, at a dinner party, he participated in a discussion with other parishioners; here he denied the atrocities attributed to the miners and instead told the story of the shootings for which he said he had evidence. When this comment reached the ears of the authorities, they eventually ended up with Sirval’s bones in Santa Clara and then at the police station where they went to look for him to kill him.

Carral develops the story as it was first made public and masks the names and items with strange data. He then recreates, expands and novelizes the death that Sirval did not foresee coming and resists with great resilience. “They confuse me, they confuse me, I assure you I didn’t do anything.”Seconds before six shots were fired.