page_title: Sofía Casanova
section_title: Casanova towards the Republic and the Civil War
hierarchical_section_title: Sofía Casanova / Casanova towards the Republic and the Civil War
caption_attribution_description: Español: Sofía Casanova hace el saúdo franquista rodeada de seus nietos en su casa de Polonia en 1938 Galego: Sofía Casanova fai o saúdo franquista arrodeada dos seus netos na súa casa de Polonia no 1938 English: Spanish writer Sofía Casanova and her grandsons demonstrate support for the Nationalist faction during the Civil War in Spain; photo taken some time in 1936-1939 in Poznań.
context_page_description: Sofía Casanova was a poet, novelist, and journalist, the first Spanish woman to become a permanent correspondent in a foreign country and a war correspondent. She was a cultured woman, well known in the literary circles of the time. In her work she highlighted the human aspect of her chronicles as a correspondent for the newspaper ABC in Poland and Russia, where she reported on the suffering of the civilian population during the wars she covered, adding literary value. Her activity throughout Europe allowed her to experience events such as the First World War, the fall of Czarist Russia, the emergence of the Bolshevik regime, and the Second World War. She wrote for newspapers such as ABC, La Época, El Liberal, and El Imparcial, for the magazine Galicia, for other Galician publications, and for the international press, such as the Gazeta Polska and the New York Times. Of Catholic and monarchical convictions in the Spanish Civil War, she joined the Francoist ranks. Her long life allowed her to leave behind a broad collection of writings covering all literary genres.
context_section_description: In 1931 she witnessed the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic, with the conviction that what happened to her while living in Russia in 1917 was going to happen in her own country. With the closure of the newspaper ABC, she lost her job for a few months. This fact made her hate the Republicans, a feeling that increased until in 1936 she wrote one of the last articles of her collaboration with the newspaper: "Mirando a Rusia" (Looking to Russia).
  At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War Casanova lived in Warsaw; she almost immediately declared herself in favor of the Nationalists and together with her daughters and grandchildren participated in a number of events supposed to support the cause among the Poles. With the Madrid headquarters of ABC seized by the Republicans, she kept sending correspondence from Poland to the competitive, Nationalist-held Sevilla headquarters of the daily. In her contributions she clearly sided with the Nationalist faction and hailed the Crusade, lambasting the Republicans as "hordes which lost the right to call themselves humans and which should rather be dealt with by zoology". In return, the Republican press mocked her as sort of a plague, which descended upon Poland.
  Casanova visited Spain between October and December 1938. She twice met Francisco Franco, first in Burgos and then in La Coruna. Caudillo gave her his family photograph with personal dedication. She has also signed a homage address of "Galician women" to the generalissimo. In December of that year she declared to La Voz de Galicia on the occasion of her departure to Warsaw that she was convinced that the coup d'état provoked by an army sector would bring moments of development and splendor to Spain. It is also the year in which she visited La Coruña and her village for the last time.
  According to some scholars, the position enjoyed by Casanova in the world of letters was used by Francoist Spain. One author plays down her support for the Nationalists by claiming that she "let herself be carried away, perhaps with good will, by the advice of some friends", all resulting from her experiences during the past, including these related to the Bolshevik Revolution. Also another Casanova's biographer underlines the weight of her experiences of 1917-1920 and suggests that they prevented the old lady from noticing the genuine nature of "the army, which cracked down on just claims of own people and left them in the pool of blood". One more scholar claims that her support for Franco is "difficult to comprehend"; he eventually notes that the key to understanding Casanova's position is noting her concept of peace, reportedly rooted in classical anthropology. However, because of her stand during the Civil War, a historian of literature with no reservations counts Casanova - dubbed also an anti-semite - among the Spanish representatives of "literatura fascista".
caption: Sofía Casanova gives the Francoist salute surrounded by her grandchildren at her house in Poland in 1938
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