SPANISH
During the last five years, the finding of The Mexican Suitcase (a real trove containing 4,500 original black and white negatives exposed by Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, David Seymour Chim and Fred Stein) and the discoveries by elrectanguloenlamano.blogspot.com of new pictures made by Capa whose authorship and location was unknown till now and belonging to his two remarkable reportages The Harangue to the Militiamen Before the Combat in Finca de Villa Alicia (around 1 km in the southwest of Cerro Muriano village) and The Refugees of Cerro Muriano Fleeing from the Village Because of the Bombing by Francoist Aviation (encompassing images of families made by the Cortijo of Villa Alicia and who are escaping northbound, along with other more ones taken in different stretches of the Córdoba-Almorchón railways located between the north outskirts of Cerro Muriano, the Obejo Train Station and El Vacar have enabled more than three quarters of a century after the events to more deeply and thoroughly grasp the details of the two aforementioned amazing photographic essays made in Córdoba province (Andalusia) and which undoubtedly currently stand out by their own merits within the cream and most important of his image production throughout his professional career as a photojournalist, as well as being rather meaningful pictures that stem from Robert Capa´s baptism as a war photographer, which took place in Córdoba during the first week of September of 1936, in the heat of Spanish Civil War.
Thus, in my
viewpoint it is really astounding the fact that Robert Capa´s figure hasn´t
only lost a shred of interest in the media and editorial scopes, but has also
turned into an almost inexhaustible source of findings imbued with very strong
emotional, photojournalistic, historical and humane sides regarding their stay
in Córdoba province during the Spanish Civil War and whose main characters
should be Capa and Taro, who were at the adequate places and moments, risking
their lives in a number of stages, as has been proved by
elrectanguloenlamano.blogspot.com, since both of them were a lot of times very
near the front line where combats were taking place (particularly in the Villa
Alicia estate at midday and in Las Malagueñas Hill during the evening and
night) and the refugees, innocent humble people who had to hastily walk away
with their clothes on their backs and the personal belongings they could save
in makeshift bundles, leaving behind their dwells for which they had worked from
dawn to dusk for a lot of years.
After some new
trips to the area between the old Obejo Train Station and El Vacar village
during July and August of 2013 and 2014, elrectanguloenlamano.blogspot.com has
been able to find the exact location of two more pictures of refugees made by
Capa on September 5, 1936.
A) The first one is
an image appearing on upper half of one of the pages of the Death in the Making
Book from 1938.
The caption of that page states that the persons appearing in the picture are refugees fleeing from Málaga to Almería across the road bordering the coast, and that they´re walking 150 miles under a brutal sun.
The caption of that page states that the persons appearing in the picture are refugees fleeing from Málaga to Almería across the road bordering the coast, and that they´re walking 150 miles under a brutal sun.
But it is not
true.
Perhaps there
was an error by Jay Allen (whom Capa entrusted the translation of both his pictures and some of Gerda Taro also illustrating the book, whose design was made by Andre Kerstez) regarding the location of the text accompanying the image. Besides, Capa and Taro got pictures of the refugees coming from Málaga very near Almería and in Almería city, but they couldn´t arrive previously to photograph the escape from Málaga to Almería of approximately 150,000 persons across the coastal road and during which they were attacked by Italian and German aircraft and Francoist naval artillery on February 8, 9, 10 and 11, 1937.
Whatever it may
be, it´s an image in which appear a total of eleven persons ( a family father,
a family woman, a mature woman, four boys -being roughly between 4 and 14
years old- , a baby in arms and three girls - being approximately between 7 and
12 years old- ).
The action
visible in the picture didn´t take place in February of 1937.
It happened on
September 5, 1936.
They are
inhabitants of Cerro Muriano hastily walking away from the bombing of the
village by the Francoist aircraft, which was intensified between around
15:00-15:30 h in the afternoon of September 5, 1936.
But this photograph wasn´t made in Cerro Muriano or its surroundings.
It was made by
Capa in the area of Campo Alto, at approximately 4,6 km from El Vacar (Córdoba) on September 5, 1936
between around 17:30 h and 17:45 h in the afternoon, after an exceedingly hard
trek of 10 km in full sunlight (with a temperature around 36º C) made by the
people appearing in the image, who had started the flight from Cerro Muriano
between 15:00-15:30 h in the afternoon.
I could discover it thanks to a previous picture to this, made by Capa
approximately half a kilometer behind, next to the same Córdoba-Almorchón railways and in which can
be seen filling the whole frame four persons (the young family mother with her
baby in armas, her elder daughter and his husband wearing black clothes and
beret, who is taking some blankets on his right shoulder to sleep rough during
the night) also visible in the far left area of the just located picture,
beside the telegraph pole.
© Robert Capa / ICP New York
Spot of the Córdoba-Almorchón railways in Campo Alto area, placed at a distance of approximately 10 km from Cerro Muriano and in which Capa got the picture just located by elrectanguloenlamano.blogspot.com near El Vacar village (Córdoba). This track, one of the most beautiful in Spain, equipped with steam locomotives driven trains, with some stretches of wonderful landscapes, specially between Cerro Muriano and Córdoba and El Vacar and La Alhondiguilla, stopped being used as a passenger means of transport in 1974 and as a goods one during late eighties, so the lines are currently mostly full of very abundant and thick vegetation made up by large thorny plants and medium size chaparros trees on both sides, the heat is unbearable and enhanced by the burning rails, and making comparative pictures of the area with respect to 1936 ( a time in which the line was fully operational) becomes very difficult, because the areas on both sides of the track were uncluttered, without big brambles and chaparros, the barbed wire visible in the background didn´t exist and there are many more trees presently than then. In this case, the massive presence of leafy and overgrown chaparros and high spiny plants with hard and sharp branches next to the rails, made impossible to make a horizontal picture showing the right descending area of the hill along with the horizon zone on the left of the image, as it is seen in the photograph made by Capa.
Spot of the Córdoba-Almorchón railways in Campo Alto area, placed at a distance of approximately 10 km from Cerro Muriano and in which Capa got the picture just located by elrectanguloenlamano.blogspot.com near El Vacar village (Córdoba). This track, one of the most beautiful in Spain, equipped with steam locomotives driven trains, with some stretches of wonderful landscapes, specially between Cerro Muriano and Córdoba and El Vacar and La Alhondiguilla, stopped being used as a passenger means of transport in 1974 and as a goods one during late eighties, so the lines are currently mostly full of very abundant and thick vegetation made up by large thorny plants and medium size chaparros trees on both sides, the heat is unbearable and enhanced by the burning rails, and making comparative pictures of the area with respect to 1936 ( a time in which the line was fully operational) becomes very difficult, because the areas on both sides of the track were uncluttered, without big brambles and chaparros, the barbed wire visible in the background didn´t exist and there are many more trees presently than then. In this case, the massive presence of leafy and overgrown chaparros and high spiny plants with hard and sharp branches next to the rails, made impossible to make a horizontal picture showing the right descending area of the hill along with the horizon zone on the left of the image, as it is seen in the photograph made by Capa.
Panoramic
photograph of the stretch of the old road N-432a in the area of Campo Alto, near El Vacar and adjacent to the
spot (wholly concealed by the very plentiful vegetation and chaparros trees
nowadays surrounding the lines) by the Córdoba-Almorchón railway (partially
visible in this image) located in the background, behind the rail signal and
from which Capa made the picture appearing on the upper half of one of the
Death in the Making book pages.
The hill visible on the right of this colour image is the same appearing on the right of Capa´s image.
Because of the smaller size in the photograph of the six persons (from a total of eleven) appearing on far left of the image of the page of Death in the Making book, which was reproduced by the editorial in New York in 1938 from a far superior quality vintage copy made by Csiki Weisz in Paris in 1937, we decided to examine the image with a Schneider Kreuznach 10x aspheric optimized for visualization of pictures made with 35 mm cameras, trying to analyze specific areas of the photographs the best we could.
© Robert Capa / ICP New York
And there´s no doubt that the young woman holding her baby in arms (with a mature woman taking a basket appearing in front of her in the just located picture) and wearing a white apron - the bombing of Cerro Muriano surprised its inhabitants at lunch time- is the same person taking her baby in arms who appears in the already known picture made by Capa approximately 1 km behind next to another spot of the Córdoba-Almorchón railway in the area of Campo Alto and whose exact location of picture taking by Capa was discovered by elrectanguloenlamano.blogspot.com two years ago.
Because of the smaller size in the photograph of the six persons (from a total of eleven) appearing on far left of the image of the page of Death in the Making book, which was reproduced by the editorial in New York in 1938 from a far superior quality vintage copy made by Csiki Weisz in Paris in 1937, we decided to examine the image with a Schneider Kreuznach 10x aspheric optimized for visualization of pictures made with 35 mm cameras, trying to analyze specific areas of the photographs the best we could.
And there´s no doubt that the young woman holding her baby in arms (with a mature woman taking a basket appearing in front of her in the just located picture) and wearing a white apron - the bombing of Cerro Muriano surprised its inhabitants at lunch time- is the same person taking her baby in arms who appears in the already known picture made by Capa approximately 1 km behind next to another spot of the Córdoba-Almorchón railway in the area of Campo Alto and whose exact location of picture taking by Capa was discovered by elrectanguloenlamano.blogspot.com two years ago.
And the family
father clad in black attire and beret (husband of the woman holding her baby in
arms) is also the same person, as happens with the around seven years old elder
daughter of the couple, appearing between them in both photographs.
In this just located picture is also noteworthy the presence of an approximately four or five years old child who appears on far left of the image, just behind the family father and who is almost 100% certainly a son of his and the woman holding the baby in her arms, which adds information to the previous image and enables to know that the couple has three children instead of two as was believed.
In this image
appears a track span of the Córdoba-Almorchón railway being around 1,5 km from
El Vacar. 78 years ago, the 11 persons appearing in the photograph made by Capa
approximately half a kilometer behind this image, kept on their very long hike across
the left area by the track, which acted for the refugees at every moment as a reference
northbound way towards El Vacar and Villaharta. The heat in this area in July,
August and September, though not reaching the levels of Cordoba City (which
often has four or five more degrees of temperature than the area between Cerro
Muriano and El Vacar) is scorching, frequently between 36º C and 39º C, with a
high risk of dehydratation and sunstroke if one is not well equipped with water
and beret or straw hat for the head, and advancing on foot turns into a highly
wearisome experience.
Entrance to El Vacar village, located at a distance of 11 km from Cerro Muriano and where the refugees arrived on September 5, 1936, after a dreadful forced trek in broad daylight in which the families suffered very much while simultaneously striving after managing to walk up to here and help the old men and women of the village, with a number of moments of real anguish and despair being brought about, as well as being aware that many of them would have to sleep outdoors with the blankets they were taking, as it happened. But the ordeal didn´t finish here, because following it they had to do a new very harsh hike of 10 km up to Villaharte, under appalling conditions, with a high percentage of them suffering from cramps and huge fatigue, along with the few remaining quantities of food and water.
In this just located picture is also noteworthy the presence of an approximately four or five years old child who appears on far left of the image, just behind the family father and who is almost 100% certainly a son of his and the woman holding the baby in her arms, which adds information to the previous image and enables to know that the couple has three children instead of two as was believed.
On the other
hand, on comparing both images we have observed an interesting fact:
In the previous
picture made by Capa 1 km behind, in the area of Campo Alto, and in which only
four persons appear (the mother with her baby in arms, the approximayely seven
years old elder daughter and the father wearing black attire and beret who is
taking some blankets on his right shoulder), the elder daughter and the father
are looking at Capa while the photojournalist gets the picture, but in the just
located picture ( in which appear a total of 11 persons) very near El Vacar,
there are five people looking at their right (from right to left of the image
the second child of the group - being around 9 years old - , the approximately
12 years old girl walking behind him, the roughly 10 years old girl advancing
just behind her, the young mother taking her baby in arms and the elder girl of
the couple on the left of the image).
But they are not
looking at Capa. They are staring at Bob´s left while he presses the shutter
release button of his Leica II (Model D) with Leitz Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 lens.
Something is really
attracting the attention of these five persons, who in spite of their huge
fatigue and being sweating profusely, are gazing at somebody on Capa´s left.
I do believe
that they are looking at Gerda Taro, a very pretty woman with a rather showy
blonde hair, who is (out of image) very near Bob at the moment, on his left,
and who always became the center of
attention wherever she was.
After being
photographed by Capa for the last time at around 2 km from El Vacar, the
inhabitants of Cerro Muriano (a village placed at a distance of 10 km from the
location in which Capa gets his last picture of refugees) go on their gruesome
march on foot towards El Vacar village, ruptured by the exhaustion, sweat, fear
and the huge grief of having been bound to leave their homes and hometown.
Entrance to El Vacar village, located at a distance of 11 km from Cerro Muriano and where the refugees arrived on September 5, 1936, after a dreadful forced trek in broad daylight in which the families suffered very much while simultaneously striving after managing to walk up to here and help the old men and women of the village, with a number of moments of real anguish and despair being brought about, as well as being aware that many of them would have to sleep outdoors with the blankets they were taking, as it happened. But the ordeal didn´t finish here, because following it they had to do a new very harsh hike of 10 km up to Villaharte, under appalling conditions, with a high percentage of them suffering from cramps and huge fatigue, along with the few remaining quantities of food and water.
B) Updating August 17th, 2015.-
Picture appearing just under the previous image, in the lower half of the same page of Death in The Making book and likewise located between Málaga and Almería by the common caption.
Picture appearing just under the previous image, in the lower half of the same page of Death in The Making book and likewise located between Málaga and Almería by the common caption.
But that information is also wrong, because this picture was not made by Capa between Málaga and Almería.
In the image appear four persons: a young man wearing clear shirt and trousers, dark jacket and beret and who is taking on his back hanging from his neck a little exhausted child that can´t walk more, while he grabs with his left arm the right arm of the woman advancing next to him (probably his mother, utterly clad in black and with a dark coif and a handkerchief around her neck) to help her walk, while on far right of the image can be seen an around ten years old girl advancing near them and also northbound.
This picture was not made in Cerro Muriano or its surroundings either, but around 8 kilometers from that village and approximately 3 kilometers from El Vacar, beside the stretch of Córdoba-Almorchón railways going between the Casa del Ronquillo Alto in the east and the Cortijo del Chirinero in the west, and was captured by Capa on September 5, 1936, at roughly 17:00 h.
This picture was not made in Cerro Muriano or its surroundings either, but around 8 kilometers from that village and approximately 3 kilometers from El Vacar, beside the stretch of Córdoba-Almorchón railways going between the Casa del Ronquillo Alto in the east and the Cortijo del Chirinero in the west, and was captured by Capa on September 5, 1936, at roughly 17:00 h.
Discovery of the location of this picture: José Manuel Serrano Esparza in August 2015.
The people
appearing in it are inhabitants of Cerro Muriano escaping from the bombing of
the village by Francoist aircraft, increased from around 15:00 h in the
afternoon of that day. They have walked more than 8 km, under a scorching sun, since they left Cerro Muriano.
In the original 35 mm black and white negative, the left arm and right foot of the young girl appear complete.
© Text and Indicated Photos: José Manuel Serrano Esparza
Inscribed in the Territorial Registry of the Intellectual Property of Madrid.
