Manuel Cortés Quero

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Manuel Cortés Quero (* 1906 ; † 1991 ) was a Spanish socialist and mayor who became known under the name "The Mole of Mijas " because he hid in his own house for 30 years after the end of the Spanish Civil War .

Life

The trained hairdresser was the last republican mayor of the Andalusian town of Mijas in the province of Malaga from March 3 to November 23, 1936 . After the civil war, under the regime of the dictator Franco , Cortés feared imprisonment and torture, so on April 17, 1939, he hid in a small cavity in his own house. He actually only wanted to hide for a few months, but then stayed in hiding for 30 years. During this time his wife Juliana and his daughter Maria moved with him and built a new, larger hiding place for him in the new house. On March 28, 1969, Cortés heard on the radio about a general amnesty with which Franco pardoned his political opponents and left his hiding place. The then mayor of Mijas, Miguel González Berral, accompanied him to the headquarters of the Franco Civil Guard , where Cortés was confirmed that he was free.

Two books have been written about Cortés' unusual life: The British journalist Ronald Fraser spoke to Cortés and other citizens of Mijas. In 1972 he wrote "In Hiding: The Life of Manuel Cortés" and thus set a milestone in the modern discussion about the historical method of oral history . Manu Leguineche and Jesús Torbado published "Los topos" ("The Moles") in 1977. In 2012 the partly animated documentary film “30 años de oscuridad, la historia de un encierro que duró demasiado” by Manuel H. Martin (German title: “Half a life in hiding”) was made. On the one hand, Salman Rushdie saw parallels to his own fate as an “invisible person” and, on the other hand, compared Cortés with Rip van Winkle .

The historical-ethnological museum of the city of Mijas contains a replica of the staircase hiding place in which Cortés lived.

literature

  • Ronald Fraser : In Hiding: The Life of Manuel Cortes. Pantheon Books, New York 1972. (New edition: Allen Lane, London 2010, ISBN 978-1-84467-596-8 )
    • Ronald Fraser: In hiding. German by Teja Schwaner. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1972, ISBN 3-499-25029-2 .
  • Ronald Fraser: Mijas. República, guerra y Franquismo en un pueblo andaluz. Bosch, Barcelona 1985, ISBN 84-85855-32-9 .
  • Manu Leguineche, Jesús Torbado: Los Topos - The Moles. How Republicans Survived Franco Spain. Krüger, Frankfurt am Main 1979, ISBN 3-8105-2004-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ WDR page on the documentary about Cortés , accessed on March 17, 2014.
  2. ↑ Review of “In Hiding: The Life of Manuel Cortés” , accessed on March 17, 2014. Title of the German translation: Im Versteck
  3. ^ Entry in the International Movie Database , accessed on March 17, 2014.
  4. ^ Salman Rushdie: Joseph Anton. The autobiography Book Guild Gutenberg, p. 331 f.
  5. ↑ Spanish-language homepage of the city of Mijas ( Memento of the original from March 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed March 17, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mijas.es
  6. ↑ 30 años de oscuridad. Retrieved February 19, 2020 .
  7. ↑ La trinchera infinita. Retrieved February 19, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Cortés Quero, Manuel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish socialist and mayor
DATE OF BIRTH 1906
DATE OF DEATH 1991