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THE CAUDILLO
A Charismatic Dictator
Charismatic rule has long been neglected and ridiculed, but apparently it has deep roots and becomes a powerful stimulus once the proper psychological and social conditions are set. The Leader’s charismatic power is not a mere phantasm – none can doubt that millions believe in it.
Franz Neumann, Behemoth (1942)
The Conversion of Franco to Caudillo: A Complex Process in the Context of Civil War
‘Francisco Franco, Caudillo of Spain by the grace of God.’ As noted in the introduction to this book, these words formed the inscription that encircled a very recognizable image on the back of Spanish coins minted after December 1946, unanimously approved by the Cortes and published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado as the ‘Law of 18 December on the Establishment of a New Monetary System’.1
It was not the first time, nor the last, that General Francisco Franco Bahamonde received an official and public honour of the kind normally reserved for Spanish royalty; ‘the currency is an expression of sovereignty’, as Franco himself pronounced on 20 January 1939, a few months before his definitive victory in the Civil War.2 Nor was it the only time that a state agency and an official document accorded him the title ‘Caudillo of Spain’ to define the supreme political authority and the main institutional office he had held since his ‘exaltation’ to the head of state on 1 October 1936.
At that crucial time for the regime, in the Capitanía General (General Headquarters) in Burgos, Franco had been transferred ‘all the powers of the state’ which had been assumed on 24 July 1936 by the Junta de Defensa Nacional, the collegiate body of command created by the rebel generals to transform an only partly successful military insurrection in half of Spain into a civil war. The dictatorial nature of the interim political solution had been undisputed and recognized as the only model known and appreciated by the rebel leaders: the dictatorship of General Miguel Primo de Rivera (1923–30). Franco himself, in statements to the Portuguese press on 13 August 1936, had used the concept and technocratic formulas of that political example:
The Military Directorate will call together those elements presumed necessary to achieve the projected enterprise in the shortest time. Its administration will be in charge of technical and not political elements, as we try, and succeed, in completely transforming the structure of Spain. […] The military dictatorship will seek to promote those who deserve it by their ability and [because] their technical preparation offers the most promise.3
The explanatory statement of the decree that transformed Franco into the personal and individual representative of the only effective and dictatorial power prevailing in insurgent Spain highlighted ‘the desirability of concentrating everything in a single power which will lead the final victory and the establishment, consolidation and development of the new state’. For this reason, his comrades in arms agreed to his appointment as ‘head of the government of the Spanish state’ (a political-administrative function) and ‘Generalissimo of the national forces of land, sea and air’ and ‘general chief of army operations’ (a strategic military role), with the addition of the full personal assumption of ‘all the powers of the new state’.4 The words of Franco on receiving this transfer of powers from the military junta left no doubt that he was well aware of the immense authority that he received and of its original military provenance:
My general, general chiefs of the junta: You can be proud; you received a shattered Spain and you deliver to me a Spain united in a grand and unanimous ideal. Victory is on our side. You put Spain in my hands and I will not tremble, my hand will always remain steady. I will raise the country to its highest or die trying. I want your cooperation. The Junta de Defensa Nacional will remain at my side.5
It should be emphasized that the first legal provisions that served as a basis for the wide political authority assumed by Franco did not include any mention of ‘caudillo’, but only his status as ‘head of state’, ‘head of the government of the state’, ‘supreme commander (Generalissimo)’ and ‘general chief of the armies’. In fact, the first formal and legal public use of that title of leadership came almost a year later, when the Boletín Oficial del Estado of 28 September 1937 published a crucial order by the president of the Junta Técnica del Estado (the civil administration that Franco had created to assume the powers of the junta of Burgos). In it, official status was granted to the ‘Fiesta Nacional del Caudillo’, which became a compulsory commemoration for the duration of the Francoist regime:
The next 1 October will be the first anniversary of the historic moment on which by the grace of God and true will of Spain, assuming the highest powers, was solemnly proclaimed Head of State and Supreme Commander of the National Armies of land, sea and air, His Excellency, Sr. General D. Francisco Franco Bahamonde, National Head of the Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las JONS and Caudillo of the Movement to save Spain.
Subsequently, a second chance to endorse the legal status of ‘caudillo’ was offered by the publication of the decree of 31 July 1939 which contained the ‘Estatutos de Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las JONS’ (Statutes of the Falange Party). In this text, which sanctioned the single party formed in April 1937 by the compulsory merger of all right-wing forces into an ‘inspirational militant movement and the founding stone of the Spanish state’, Article 46 defined the role:
The national head of the Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las JONS, Supreme Caudillo of the Movement, is the personification of all its values and honours. As author of the historic era when Spain took the opportunity to realize its destiny and with it the hopes of the Movement, the leader assumes full and absolute authority. The leader answers to God and history.6
The third time that Franco was attributed the title of ‘caudillo’ came in a disposition of 21 May 1941 which allocated ‘the respective responsibilities of the senior leaders’ of the National Movement and expressly confirmed his ‘caudillaje and leadership’. Article 3 read: ‘The appointments of staff and command posts […] will be made in the name of the Caudillo by the president of the Junta Política and at the request of the secretary general, with the signature of both.’ Given that both positions were, according to the statutes, appointed, designated and separated ‘freely’ by the national leader and caudillo, the arrangement was seen as a mere reaffirmation of his sovereign and constituent power.7
The fourth and decisive occasion that verifed the judicial and political status of Franco as ‘caudillo’ came with the proclamation of the ‘Ley de Sucesión en la Jefatura del Estado’ of 26 July 1947, approved by the Francoist Cortes and put to a national referendum (under the prevalent limits of freedom of expression), supposedly giving him the support of 82 per cent of the electorate. In it, Article 1 converted Spain into a ‘monarchy’ but gave its lifetime ‘leadership’ to a ‘caudillo’, who was also de facto regent and entitled to choose his successor ‘as king or regent’ – always with the potential to revoke his choice if necessary:
Article 1. Spain, as a political unit, is a Catholic, social and representative state which, according to tradition, declares itself a monarchy.
Article 2. The head of state corresponds to the caudillo of Spain and the Crusade, Generalissimo of the Armed Forces, D. Francisco Franco Bahamonde.8
Perhaps the last official public use of the legal-political term ‘caudillo’ took place on Franco’s death, early in the morning of 20 November 1975. That same day, a decree rapidly approved by the government provided for three days of official mourning in the country, with the following explanatory statement:
Upon the death of the head of state, caudillo of Spain and Generalissimo of the Armed Forces, His Excellency Señor Don Francisco Franco Bahamonde, the convening of the Cortes and the Consejo del Reino for a joint session will be held on the 22nd, to receive the oath prescribed in the Ley de Sucesión en la Jefatura del Estado.9
Leaving aside the formal legal sphere, the evolution in the lexicon of pop
ular language and the media of the title of ‘caudillo’ (soon in upper case and always in the singular) as an expression of the highest power in the state living in the person of Franco should also be recognized. It is clear it was used much earlier than its conversion into an official title in the September 1937 order instituting the ‘Fiesta Nacional del Caudillo’. In fact, the word was in circulation from 1 October 1936, largely as part of a press and propaganda campaign aimed at projecting the political figure of Franco to the forefront of the insurgent side and above the rest of the rebel generals.10
Thus, for example, on the same day, 1 October 1936, the Galician newspaper El Eco de Santiago presented Franco as the ‘illustrious general’ named by the Junta de Defensa Nacional as ‘head of the government of the state’ and ‘Generalissimo of the armed forces’, but added the title of ‘caudillo’, invested upon him for his ‘extraordinary courage’ and for being ‘one of the most glorious [names] of the African Army’. The next day, 2 October, the monarchist newspaper Abc (in its Seville edition) reported on the assumption of full powers by the ‘head of the new Spanish state’, calling him a ‘caudillo that has all the powers of the state’ and is the ‘founder of the new fatherland’. A few weeks later all the press in the insurgent zone bore on their covers some form of the compulsory instructions: ‘One Fatherland. One State. One Caudillo’ (for example, La Gaceta Regional, Salamanca, 5 November 1936). Other forms of it were: ‘Una Patria. Un Estado. Un Caudillo. Una Patria: España. Un Caudillo: Franco’ (El Heraldo de Aragón, Zaragoza, 24 February 1937), or ‘Una Patria: España; Un Estado Nacionalsindicalista; Un Caudillo: Franco’ (El Telegrama del Rif, Melilla, 30 April 1937). It is hardly necessary to recall that this triple rally cry was a translation of the famous formula used by the German National Socialists since the beginning of the 1930s: ‘Ein Volk! Ein Reich! Ein Führer!’ (One People! One Empire! One Leader!)11
The promotion of Franco as Caudillo of Spain by the grace of God (and/or any combination of: ‘of the Crusade’, ‘of the Victory’, ‘of the Empire’, ‘of neutrality’, ‘of peace’, ‘of the faith’, ‘of the fatherland’, ‘of the new Spain’) was not only channelled by the written press.12 The rest of the news media and propaganda of the time, albeit less widespread (radio, movie newsreels, posters, postage stamps, later television, etc.) also participated in this cult of the charismatic personality of Franco with all its vigour and respective power. In this regard, one should remember the template designed in 1937 that enabled the painted reproduction of the image of Franco in a military cap on walls throughout Spain above a laudatory text that said: ‘Franco. Caudillo of God and fatherland. The first victor in the world of Bolshevism on the battlefield.’ There were also poetic eulogies to raise his profile, circulated in their thousands during the war and after. Probably none was as famous and widespread as the bombastic sonnet by Manuel Machado of 1939 entitled ‘¡Bienvenido Capitán!’ (Welcome Captain!):
De tu soberbia campaña,
Caudillo noble y valiente,
ha surgido nuevamente
una grande y libre España.
(From your superb campaign,
Caudillo noble and brave,
has emerged again,
a great and free Spain.)13
Formal education also contributed to the mythology of the Caudillo through several channels: the official portrait in the classrooms, mentions in textbooks, rituals and public ceremonies of respect. A good example of this propaganda in education was the reference to Franco in the Catecismo patriótico español (The Spanish Patriotic Catechism), a book declared a ‘text for schools’ by order of the National Education Ministry in January 1939. It was the work of the Dominican friar Albino González Menéndez-Reigada (bishop of Tenerife in 1924 and of Córdoba in 1946). In its pages, children were told that the Spanish state was ‘under the supreme authority of the Caudillo, Generalissimo Franco’ and that he was ‘the embodiment of the country and has the power from God to govern us’.14 Several years later, in 1953, one of the regular school encyclopedias (for those pupils between 10 and 12 years old) reiterated everything a Spanish child should know about the subject in an equally catechism-like way: ‘What is the state? It is the nation organized for the fulfilment of its purposes. The Spanish state has a leader, who is Caudillo Franco.’15 And still in 1964 ten-year-old schoolchildren were taught the meaning of the ‘Day of the Caudillo’ by a comprehensive political-ideological explanation in tune with the foundations of the regime:
On 1 October 1936, Franco was elected head of state and caudillo of Spain in Burgos. Since then, he has devoted his entire life and his knowledge to the fatherland and if during the War of Liberation he won brilliant military victories, the arrival of peace has brought no less resonant political triumphs. In gratitude for his services, we promise him on this day our commitment and love.16
The conclusion that can be drawn from both popular and official public uses of the term ‘caudillo’ in reference to Franco is very evident: what started as a mere propaganda term came to accompany his official and formal status as ‘head of state’ and ‘Generalissimo’, and very soon, in less than a year, it eventually superseded those words to specify a superior and inclusive leadership which denoted the complete concentration of all state powers in one person without temporal limitations. Ramón Serrano Suñer stressed that process of personal assumption of full power in his speech of 18 July 1938, when he condemned with sarcasm the liberal premise of a separation of powers: ‘Civil power! Military power! Here there is but one single power, total, indivisible and sacred of a united Spain!’17
The Italian jurist Giovanni Mammucari well appreciated in 1955 that the progressive transformation carried out between October 1936 and September 1937 would be sanctioned by the Ley de Sucesión of 1947 in a very precise and thorough manner:
The Caudillo, therefore, is head of state in Spain and, at the same time, head of the government, supreme commander of all the forces of land, sea and air, as well as head of the single party, the Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las JONS, also called the ‘Movement’. […] The Caudillo is not elected, nor is he confirmed and much less can he be removed, there is no other power above him.18
The conclusion of a much later study by another jurist should also be remembered. Juan Ferrando Badía stated in 1984, almost ten years after the end of the Francoist regime:
The figure of the Caudillo was the crucial institution of the regime because he embodied the supreme institution of the political hierarchy, not only in the order of representation, but also in the exercise of power. The features that characterized the head of the Spanish authoritarian state were the following:
1. Personal exaltation of the leader and his identification with the so-called historical destiny of his people.
2. Full power concentrated in his hands.
3. Absence of an institutional control of his leadership: as the head of state, Franco was only answerable before God and history.19
To sum up, in his capacity as leader, Franco expressly concentrated plenitudo potestatis (full state power) and exercised the highest state authority, combining executive, legislative, judicial power – in short, sovereign and constituent functions without discrimination and at the same time – for his lifetime and without the possibility of removal. As pointed out by José Zafra Valverde, a jurist in open sympathy with Franco and his regime: ‘Without assuming the title of king or similar, Franco was a sovereign monarch, rather than a nominal, courtly and ceremonial monarch. His office was the dux populi, as in the biblical origins of the monarchy.’20 In a speech in Valladolid in October 1960, Franco himself defined his leadership as being ‘command’ and ‘captaincy’ with a clear and rounded profile:
The captaincy calls and requires perfect synchronization with the most profound and legitimate rhythm of the time in which we live, looking clearly into the future and at the same time with a capacity to renounce easy success, an abiding love for the solidly established and far-reaching enterprise
, serenity and firmness in adverse circumstances, fidelity to principles and incorruptible willingness to serve. 21
Certainly, Franco never entertained the possibility of abandoning his position, for reasons he gave a couple of months after that statement, in his message at the end of 1960 to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of his exaltation to the role of head of state:
Who receives the honour and accepts the weight of supreme leadership [caudillaje] at no time can legitimately accept relief or rest. It must consume his existence at the forefront of the founding enterprise that was called for by the voice and the commitment of his people, rooting and perfecting the whole system.22
Consequently, throughout the whole Franco era, the personal figure of the Caudillo was the object of veneration and exaltation officially consecrated and cultivated, reproduced in public spaces (with memorials, monuments, street names, official ceremonies, civil rituals, etc.) and in social activities (community festivals, commemorations, temporary milestones, etc.) with both his comprehensive effective power and his legal authority unquestioned and of providential origin. In the face of this situation, one has to wonder: how and when did the word ‘caudillo’ come to denote all those personal prerogatives of Franco and by what processes, channels and means?
Etymology and Uses of ‘Caudillo’ Before the Civil War
Even though the etymology of the word is obscure and debated, it seems clear that in the Spanish language the word caudillo could only derive from two possible sources. On the one hand, one might consider that it comes from the Latin word caput (head) via its derivatives capdellus or capitellus, as it was used in late Latin and the early Middle Ages, meaning ‘ringleader’ or ‘war lord’ (similarly, dux – ‘leader’ or ‘guide’ – in Italian derived into condottiero or duce). On the other hand, some authors suggest that it could derive directly from an expression of early Castilian Spanish that translated the Arabic word cadí (plural: cadíes) in the sense of ‘the one who decides’, a figure typical in the Muslim judiciary who assumes not only judicial powers but also legal and executive functions. In both cases, the term suggests a leader, someone who is put in charge of others and directs and leads, mainly (but not only) in warfare and military operations. That is to say: a conductor of armed forces and one who commands these and other crowds.23
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