Ghosts of Spain

By Carlos Pranger

Books on Spain have become a common sight in many bookshops in Britain. The offer and quality are variable, but once in a while there is a work that stands out for the depth of its knowledge and understanding. Giles Tremlett, The Guardian newspaper’s Madrid correspondent, is also the author of Ghosts of Spain (Faber and Faber, 2006); the record of a foreign journalist’s travels through a country that is still dealing with its recent past.

Aiming at the English reader who wants to know more about Spain, this work is a mixture of history, news chronicle, travel writing and social portrait. With an ironic and humorous tone, together with a sharp analysis of what he has lived and seen as a journalist, Giles Tremlett has written one of the most interesting recent books on contemporary Spain.

Ghosts of Spain begins with the mass graves and the repression during and after the Spanish Civil War, passing through the history of ETA and reviewing elements in the Spanish character which are reflected in a love of fiestas, of modern architecture and the consumption of cocaine. Giles Tremlett is always present as a commentator, but the real protagonist is Spain, or the various ‘Spains’ in all their differences, with the ever present ghost of its history in the background.

I met Tremlett for an interview in Madrid. Tall, athletic and elegantly attired, his Spanish is excellent and he feels integrated into Madrid life. He first came to Spain 28 years ago. “I visited Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. I wanted to learn Spanish. I was then interested in other cultures, in writing and in learning languages,” he said. “I returned to Spain in 1991 to write about the Olympics, although I didn’t expect to be still living here 20 years later.”

Giles Tremlett can’t be considered a prototype of a travel writer on Spain, although the country did exert an attraction and made him want to write about it, but his approach is different: he investigates the variety of cultures and the different sensibilities that live side by side in the same country. “I wrote Voces Vascas (Basque Voices) about the Basque problem,” Tremlett said. “This work together with my journalism made me reflect on what is hidden beneath the surface of Spain, the hidden side of a country that always seems to put on a front of amusement and Fiesta.”

In recent years, Spanish society has been divided in the debate over the treatment of the victims of Franco’s dictatorship. The first three chapters of Ghosts of Spain get to the point of this controversial subject. Tremlett doesn’t mince his words and analyses the existence of innumerable mass graves around the country and the thousands of people buried in them with a highly critical eye. “I don’t feel an expat. My children are Spanish, I have paid enough taxes and I think that I have been here long enough to know what I am writing about. Repression by Franco’s dictatorship had already been a subject of many of my articles and I saw how people were demanding to know what had happened. Although I am a journalist I got involved and probably the main reason for this book is to answer why there are so many discrepancies as regards the interpretation of Spanish history and how it is that the wounds of the Spanish Civil War have not closed.”

There are hundreds of books published every year on the Spanish Civil War and the repression, which still cause wild reactions in the Spanish people. “My book has been a great success in Britain, but not so much in Spain, although it has caused some reaction. I think that Spain’s recent past has not been dealt with and the Civil War is still there,” he said. “With the ‘pacto del olvido’ there hasn’t been an ethical debate and the recovery from Franco’s dictatorship has been a sort of leap in the dark.”

“Spain is reconsidering its recent past,” he continued, “and the debate over historical memory and the exhumation of mass graves is positive because they are part of the history of the country. The more history is known the better. You see, during the Transición (the transition to democracy) there were great sacrifices, but on one side more than the other and now that side is making its own claims for dignity.”

“Spain has not been the only country that has suffered totalitarism, but it is one of the few that has not really washed its dirty linen.The younger generation who did not participate in the transition to democracy want to know what happened. Wounds are cured when they are talked over,” he concluded. “You can’t hold history down.”

Ghosts of Spain is not only a book about the Civil War, Franco and repression, it is a book that looks at many facets of contemporary Spain such as tourism, immigration, architecture, flamenco, corruption and terrorism.

“I have an outsider’s viewpoint which is a privilege that allows you to write with no burden. Spain is country where people demand a right to have fun; to enjoy life. It is a dynamic country living with a desperate desire for progress, but this can sometimes be a negative running away. The Spaniards have an expression: ‘mucho ruido y pocas nueces’ – noise that drowns the melody (or a lot of noise and little substance). Sometimes the noise doesn’t allow you to see in depth.”

“Maybe it is that energy which makes Spaniards consume more cocaine than other Europeans, visit brothels or donate organs. But the strange thing is that in spite of being so forthright they have kept silent over the terrors of the Spanish Civil War and Franco’s dictatorship,” he pointed out. “It is amazing that Spanish companies have bought out British ones; that we have Spanish banks all around the world and there is also the phenomenon of Zara, but there is always a ghost in the background overlooking the present.”

Tremlett talks not only about Spain’s past and present, he also assesses the country’s future. “It matters to me because it may be my children’s future,” he continued. “One of the great challenges will be when Spaniards find out if they are racists or not. In scarcely 10 years, 10 per cent of the population has become composed of immigrants. The economic situation has been flamboyant, but now the economy has slowed down. We are at the beginning of a great crisis and Spaniards and immigrants will probably have to compete for jobs.”

As he walked me to the nearest tube station we talked about his future plans. “I have had a sabbatical year from The Guardian and I have been writing my second book, a biography about Catalina de Aragon, the daughter of the Catholic Kings, who went to live in England, which is mainly about how 16th century Spain adapted to England. I will continue writing about Spain, but I don’t want to give lessons.”

Later in the hotel that same night, while re-reading passages of Ghosts of Spain, I thought how Tremlett had joined the prestigious group of established writers on Spanish affairs such as Gerald Brenan and Laurie Lee, and contemporaries Michael Jacobs and Chris Stewart. I look forward to his next work which will almost certainly take a new and refreshing look at Spanish history - and perhaps at some of its older ghosts.