Orwell

In the winter of 1937, George Orwell fought on the front of the Alcubierre mountain range (Huesca). Years passed and he promised: “If I ever return to Spain, I firmly promise to have a coffee in Huesca.” The same Orwell who fought in the trenches and bled on the Aragonese front, the writer of ‘Homage to Catalonia’, never drank that damn coffee because he died before. Eighty years later, Huesca served him the cup with a tribute: a bronze bas-relief raised in the Miguel Servet park. It didn’t last long. Early Thursday morning, a week ago, the bronze disappeared. They tore it from its pedestal and only the sandstone remains. It’s been a week and it still doesn’t show up. One of the most beautiful tributes has been desecrated to the father of the great dystopias, from ‘Animal Farm’ (1945) and ‘1984’ (1949). Because this is a robbery of collective memory. The historian Víctor Pardo defines it harshly, as “an absolutely despicable and condemnable act.” Together with the Orwell Society, they mobilized the social bases, got the money and raised 15,000 euros, with bonuses and shares of 10 euros. More than 500 people contributed and made the proposal a reality. This was just two years ago. The sculpture only cost about 8,000 euros but, in total, about 25,000 were raised. So the surplus was used to build commemorative plaques and other efforts. They commissioned it at the end of 2023. On May 19, 2024, it was inaugurated and now no one knows where it is. Who has it been? When writing against tyrannies and authoritarianisms, anyone might think that this is a political robbery. The Orwell Society, as a literary society and charity registered in the United Kingdom since 2011, claims to have no political affiliation. The latest local reading It was organized in the Castle of Montearagónnear the place where George Orwell was wounded. However, there is no claim from extremist groups. After all, we are talking about an anarchist. That’s why Pardo has nipped speculation in the bud: the motive for the crime smells like pure junk, a theft that seeks to be sold by weight: bronze is paid for at 6 euros per kg and 120 kg is more than 700 euros for free. A handful of dirty bills at some junkyard sale in some suburban junkyard. A warm relationship in a cold winter. Orwell set foot in Huesca in 1937, with an Aragonese winter that froze the bones of the militiamen. Fascist bullets whistled from the enemy trenches and the rebellious side controlled the city. POUM volunteers surrounded the perimeter and Orwell watched the domes from afar. He dreamed of final victory and having hot coffee, a very simple wish. The Francoist bullet pierced his neck weeks later and he almost bled to death. He survived by pure miracle. He left Spain months late, narrowly fleeing his own supposed Soviet comrades. So the monument represented an enormous civil triumph. The work of Javier Sauras was nestled in the green lung of the Aragonese city with great affection. “It is stealing a bronze sculpture that represents a historical figure from the universal literature of the 20th century (…). It is robbing the citizens of Huesca of an artistic and heritage work,” bellows Víctor Pardo, who complains of a certain institutional apathy. Scrap and silence. The work, which belongs to the municipal heritage – that is, the citizens gave it to the City Council after paying for it out of their own pockets – has not been pursued either. No one has issued announcements and the City Council filed a simple routine complaint at the police station. The Citizen Collective found out by chance and no one issued an apology to Sauras or Orwell’s family. The son, Richard Blair, who applauded excitedly at the inauguration alongside Quentin Kopp, president of the association, has not received news from the “Ministry of Truth.” Like the almost two-ton sculpture of Eduardo Chillida – stolen in Getafe, They ended up selling it for just 30 euros in a scrapyard in San Martín de la Vega to be melted, the fate of Orwell’s plate does not seem to aspire to a good ending. And it would be a real shame if Orwell’s melancholy face died definitively under a miserable scrap metal blowtorch, honestly. Images | DiscoverHuesca In Xataka | A Millennium Falcon next to a 17th century staff: an occupied house uncovers the stolen treasure in La Rioja