Concha Espina, a prominent novelist, shares her harrowing experience of confinement during the Spanish Civil War, highlighting the horrors she witnessed.
In the summer of 1936, Concha Espina returned to her hometown of Luzmela, Cantabria, seeking a peaceful retreat to write away from the chaos in Madrid. However, with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War on July 18, her tranquil oasis turned into a nightmare. The militias of the Popular Front confined the celebrated novelist and Nobel Prize candidate to her home, which was pillaged and invaded by unwanted guests. The attempts made by the Red Cross and the French government to rescue her failed, forcing Espina to endure 13 months of captivity alongside her daughter, sister, and two young granddaughters. During this time, she narrowly escaped death after being paraded through the cheka in Santander.
