Blog 6 Requiem por un campesino espanol

I think that the problems in Spain during the 19th century is very interesting. The fight between the nationalists and republicans for political power created a lot of tension throughout the country. I like how the 2nd republic was fighting for better rights for the people and created the constitution which gave more rights to the people such as legal divorce, universal sufferage for everyone, land redistribution, workplace rights, and dissolving religious orders and the confiscation of property. I think it is important that the church does not have control over everything and the workers have better rights and are able to attain land. With the political change back to the rebels, I think that it confused many of the people because the ideas of each side are so different. I like Requiem por un campesino espanol because it shows the effect the changes had on a pueblo. It gives you a better idea of what the people were experiencing and how some people like Paco rose up to help the people and take advantage of the rights they were given. I found that the flashbacks made the book confusing because the point of view and time was constantly changing. The idea of memory is very interesting as we have discussed in class. When people retell memories, they can make the stories different than they actually were sometimes to feel better about themselves or to avoid admitting something bad they have done. You can see this in the story with mosen Millan and his retelling of the death of Paco. I liked how the story showed Paco as a person who organized the people to stand up against those who wanted to oppress them. I wish that the constiution had stayed as the law instead of being taken away from the people two years later. I think the left wing party had won again in 1936 because the people realized what the right wings were capable of and the negative effects they had on many lives of the people.