Bunuel_Luis_My_Last_Breath

The Civil War (1936-1939) 169in Calanda." As you can imagine, the declaration was received withutter stupefaction, and the only consequence was that a few womenwere harassed in the streets. No one seemed to know what free lovemeant, and when the women refused to comply with the decree, thehecklers let them go on their way with no complaints. To jump fromthe perfect rigidity of Catholicism to something called free love wasno easy feat; the entire town was in a state of total confusion. Inorder to restore order, in people's minds more than anywhere else,Mantecon, the governor of Aragbn, made an extemporaneous speechone day from the balcony of our house in which he declared that freelove was an absurdity and that we had other, more serious things tothink about, like a civil war.By the time Franco's troops neared Calanda, the Republicansympathizers in the town had long since fled. Those who stayed togreet the Falangists had nothing to worry about. Yet if I can believea Lazarist father who came to see me in New York, about a hundredpeople in Calanda were executed, so fierce was the Fascists' desire toremove any possible Republican contamination.My sister Conchita was arrested in Saragossa after Republicanplanes had bombed the city (in fact, a bomb fell on the roof of thebasilica without exploding, which gave the church an unparalleledopportunity to talk about miracles), and my brother-in-law, an armyofficer, was accused of having been involved in the incident. Ironically,he was in a Republican jail at that very moment. Conchitawas finally released, but not before a very close brush with execution.(The Lazarist father who came to New York brought me theportrait Dali had painted of me during our years at the Residencia.After he told me what had happened in Calanda, he said to meearnestly, "Whatever you do, don't go back there!" I had no desirewhatsoever to go back, and many years were to pass before I did infact return.)In 1936, the voices of the Spanish people were heard for the firsttime in their history; and, instinctively, the first thing they attackedwas the Church, followed by the great landowners-their two ancient