BarcelonaThe date with Enric Calpena (Barcelona, 1960) is in a bar in Barcelona’s Raval. On the way, he remembers that Barça fans are in Canaletes because the newspaper’s headquarters were just above it La Rambla, where they reported the results. He explains that the plaque on two streets that mentions the foundation of Barça is not exactly where the Solé gym was in 1899 and recalls the murder of the Sugar Boy. Recovering the history of Catalonia has become his passion, and this has led him to write books like At war (Group 62, 2023), where he chronicles the vicissitudes of Barça during the Civil War.
It draws a lot of attention that you define yourself as a person who does not like football.
— It’s true, it’s absolutely true. My father was from Espanyol and some years when we were not short of money he made me a member, but I don’t like football.
But you have written this book, ideal for those of us who do like football. How do you get here? ¿Through the figure of Gamper, to whom you already dedicated the book The first captain (2020)?
— It’s a project that I don’t know if I’ll finish, which tries to explain the history of Catalonia through novels using one of the elements that seem to me key to explaining the history of the 20th century: Barça. All Western societies have many things that define them. One of the keys is the media, for example. Or the new role of women. And another would also be the emergence of sport as a mass phenomenon. With football, if you focus on Barça, you can see it. It starts with Gamper when you see how society is beginning to recognize a different political alternative. It is no coincidence that the Regionalist League appeared at that time. Barcelona, from 1918, begins to define itself clearly as Catalanist, because society already is. It is a society that has the most revolutionary elements as well as others that are more reactionary, but which is unified in the sense that Catalonia must be something else compared to what the Spanish state is. It is no coincidence that Barça as an institution was attacked during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera.
The modern history of Catalonia can be explained with Barça’s directives…
— Initially, they are foreigners who come here and fall in love with Catalonia. Then, bourgeois Catalans. All this is progressing. At the time of the dictatorship, from 1925, they were Catalans linked to the dictatorship, therefore, they became part of the regime. During the Republic they were journalists, like Josep Sunyol himself. After the Republic we have the direct intervention of the State. After the Marquis of the House of Asta, the Francoist Catalan bourgeoisie will arrive.
Many come from textiles.
– Yes. And so we arrive at the Di Stefano case, which would be the third novel of the project. It is the moment when the Francoist Catalan bourgeoisie realizes that it has a problem. Either she is Catalan or she is Francoist. Because if he is Catalan, they won’t let him sign a player like Di Stefano. And they call them that. Some, like the Güells, become Madridites altogether. Others don’t. And the fourth novel, which I don’t think I’ll get to do, is Cruyff’s arrival at Barça, which represents a transition.
In your books can we sense a certain influence of the great American or British storytellers who have told the history of their society through sport, using baseball or boxing?
— Yes, what happens is that it is not so much a strictly literary influence, but simply that journalists must have an immense curiosity about reality. We are always attentive to what is happening, to the little fashions, the little changes, whether they are transcendent or not. And that’s why I saw clearly that the 20th and 21st centuries cannot be explained without football. Making a fool of yourself by ignoring it is ridiculous. It’s like explaining the 19th century without bullfighting. I don’t like bulls at all, I find them horrible, but it’s clear that people were excited about bulls. Now it’s the same with football.
At the beginning of the Civil War, the president of Barça, Josep Suñol i Garriga, is murdered by the Francoists. Many managers disappear, there is a power vacuum and doubts about what will happen at the club. In the book, you vindicate characters such as Rossend Calvet, the secretary of the board who will do everything to save the club, or the legendary grandfather Torres, who looked after the Barça pitch.
— Yes, there is a background in this novel, which would be the feeling that we always end up remembering the events through very prominent characters, but that there are a multitude of characters that have their importance at the time and that no one highlights them. This is a novel of unremarkable characters, let’s say. Both Calvet, Àngel Mur, and grandfather Torres, who are the three main protagonists of the book, are people who are not remembered, except in very specific circles. From the war it is known that they killed Sunyol and the saving tour in Mexico, little else. The Civil War is full of forgotten heroes, also within Barça.
How did you work on the book? How do you maintain the balance between rigor and the possibility of fictionalizing dialogue from the 1930s?
— Naturally, you have to put imagination into it. I have worked with archives, newspaper archives and talking with historians and journalists who have worked on the subject such as Frederic Porta, Josep Maria Solé i Sabaté, Toni Strubel, Xavier García Luque, Jordi Finestres… He thinks that the New York Times he talked about Barça’s presence during the 1937 tour, which was initially only in Mexico and extended to the United States. The local press was surprised to see how Barça dragged 6,000 people onto the pitch. In a magazine of the Hebrew community, it is explained that Jews in Orthodox clothing went to see a Barça match against a local Jewish team. It’s a crazy image, this one. Then the same Calvet family helped me with anecdotes. I have also used notebooks. When I talk about the Fets de Maig, I do so with the memories of Jaume Miravitlles, who remembered the blood mixing with the rain when they shot at the anarchists from a UGT premises on Carrer Princesa.
The figure of Calvet is fascinating. The club’s headquarters ends up in pieces under the Italian bombs, many players want to leave… the club almost disappears.
— I was interested in this tension that had to be experienced. The Barça workers, as must have happened everywhere, had a double dilemma. The first was knowing who would win the war and the second, as simple as thinking what would happen to them if Barça disappeared. In other words, they wanted to save the club because of the love they had for it, but also to save their jobs.
Speaking of saving, you address a little-known topic such as the fact that many people were hidden in the Corts stadium, in the first months of the war, to save them from the anarchists.
— The subject is little known. There has been talk of nuns, for example, who allegedly hid in the Corts stadium. Afterwards, Soler y Sabaté himself told me that maybe yes, but it is not clear. It is not known which Barça managers would have done it or who those people were, but it seems that they spent a few days there, hidden, before leaving.
And in the end, the Corts stadium itself ended up being the stage for the match between Barça and Athletic Club de Bilbao, organized by the Francoists to show that they had won and that they forced the players to do the fascist salute.
— The photograph is very sad. They take the Catalan and Basque teams, significant. At Athletic, the only player who had gone to war with the national team was Gorostiza, who was an alcoholic. The rest must have been children aged 14 or 15. They say they were juveniles, but I think they were younger. That’s why they lose 9 to 0, they were creatures. And Barça had few players left, so they looked for others who were Catalan and pro-Franco, who had played for other clubs, to complete the team. For the Francoist authorities, sports were very important. They realize the importance of controlling the masses, of keeping them distracted. That is why the Franco regime paid a lot of attention to sports, with significant gestures like that 1939 match.
Again, it is well proven that sport and politics go hand in hand.
— Clearly, sport has many layers. Think of Madrid. Without the politics, it would still win, as they have a good structure. But it has an obvious political charge. Think of the famous box office of the Bernabéu, where all the powers meet. It is clear that Madrid has connotations that are not accidental. Barça tries and fails, at the beginning of the century. He can’t do it because it’s Barça, he can’t do it. It can’t get it because it’s a Catalan team. If you are close to power and you see that getting close to it is good for you, what do you do?
In your project to explain Catalonia with Barça, wouldn’t Josep Samitier have a book?
— Perhaps, he was a character. He played on two sides, a man who leaves for Madrid and returns to Barça. I find it fascinating. In addition, he was one of the few who made Franco laugh. When he went to see her, he would break protocol and hug her. People were scared thinking that Franco would punish him, but the dictator laughed. He is the man who discovers that it is necessary to sign Kubala and Di Stefano, he had a very good eye. It has never been clear that he was Francoist. I would say he was an upstart, one of those who get close to those in charge.
I don’t want to burden you with work, but a fifth book could be… Piqué?
— No, it’s already too recent. In fact, I already have doubts, many doubts, with the subject of Cruyff, because there are too many people alive who experienced it. In fact, I have other ideas for novels a little away from the world of sports. I’m thinking of novels focused on a more distant past.