Remember Me: A Spanish Civil War Novel
Mario Escobar, author of WWII historical novels Auschwitz Lullaby and Children of the Stars, returns with an original tale exploring a little-known sidenote to the brutal and bloody Spanish Civil War.
In the summer of 1936, a military uprising of Spanish Nationalists against the standing Republican government precipitated the devasting Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939. This three-year conflagration divided Spanish society, ripping families apart with none so vulnerable as the children. Remember Me fictionalizes the “Children of Morelia,” a historical event during which some 460 children were sent from Spain to Mexico to wait out the war in safety. The novel follows the heartrending experiences of thirteen-year-old Marco Alcalde and his younger sisters, Isabel and Ana, after their Leftist parents send them off to Morelia, to escape the ravages of Franco’s fascist soldiers.
Marco is a sensitive and dutiful young boy thrust into the role of protecting his sisters in a foreign land at turns both welcoming and violent. However, Escobar fails to do justice to Isabel and Ana, as they come off as mere wards of their heroic brother with no agency of their own. But Escobar paces the story well as the children encounter increasing hardships and wrenching twists of fate, eventually returning to a war-scarred homeland they barely recognize. Will the Alcalde family be reunited after three years of interminable separation and suffering?
Remember Me is a bittersweet story with saccharine overtones, penned with obvious regard for the memory of the Children of Morelia. However, one wishes for more three-dimensional characterizations of all three Alcalde children, as well as the other children they befriend along the way. This quibble aside, Escobar’s latest novel is sure to delight fans of his previous books, which all shine a light on the heroism and endurance of children in wartime.
