Word: montalvo
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Spanish Civil War, the mountain resort village of Cercedilla (current pop. 4,000), 35 miles north of Madrid, suffered its share of Nationalist vengeance. Some Republican sympathizers were imprisoned and a few were shot, while many more fled to exile. One of those never accounted for was Protasio Montalvo, the Socialist mayor of Cercedilla during part of the war. For years villagers wondered whether he had died fighting on some distant front or had been a victim of mass executions after the war or perhaps had taken up a new life in exile...
...Montalvo explained that he went into hiding to escape the "justice" being meted out by Franco's forces For the first few years he lived on the dirt floor his house among the chickens and rabbits. Later, assisted by his son Andrés, he constructed more livable quarters in the cellar. He amused himself by feeding bread crumbs to sparrows on the windowsill and teaching tricks to several generations of dogs in the household. He read voraciously, and claimed to be fully aware of Spain's recent advances toward democracy. His wife Josefa, dressed in widow...
...Montalvo's secret was shared by his wife, two daughters and son, and a brother and sister; three other brothers died without even knowing what had become of him. In all his years of hiding Montalvo left the house only three times, on secret visits to Madrid doctors who knew nothing of his past, for treatment ol an ulcer and muscle paralysis...
...Young. Why had he waited so long? Said Montalvo, with tears in his eyes: "I wanted to come out of hiding before, but only now did I think it was. safe. The Nationalists shot my brother-in-law dead, and my family told me of friends who disappeared or were shot. I had to hide...
...friends and young relatives tearfully embraced the frail old man last week hardly able to believe that he was still alive. Most of Cercedilla's villagers however, are too young to remember the war, and to them Montalvo's reappearance was strange and almost incomprehensible, part of a Spanish past they never knew. Said Mayor Enrique Espinosa, who was born a month after Montalvo's ordeal began: "I embraced him and told him we all are glad to have him back among us, and he just kept saying Gracias, gracias, gracias.' We will never know what...