2023-04-19 01:14:42
The way in which each civilization kills and tortures its own and others, compatriots and enemies, says much more about that people than five hundred sociology books put together. The limit to inflict pain is set by the imagination of the human being and his culture. “Without a doubt the most devious methods are oriental inventions. For example, impaling someone on the stem of a bamboo is absolutely twisted because it takes several days to go through the body…”, says Juan Eslava Galán, who has just published ‘A garrote vil’ (Arzalia Ediciones) together with anthropologist Isabel Castro Latorre. A work that demystifies the history of executions and pain from the beginnings of humanity to the Ukrainian War.
The journey of terror ranges from crucifixion, impalement or the hundred Chinese cuts to the most sophisticated techniques, but just as delirious, of the CIA and the ‘scientists’ of the 21st century. A set of atrocities that fascinate as much as they disgust. Violence attracts human beings and makes them want to look askance even when they cover our eyes. «You just have to see that, when they warn on television that the images they are going to show are very harsh, people automatically stay glued to the television. There is a morbid element that we all carry inside. Any action movie means that, from the time we are little, we are witnessing executions, death, strangulation and physical disasters. We attend daily with pleasure because that also belongs to the human soul,” warns the co-author of ‘The vile garrote’ (Arzalia).
Among the topics that the book combats is that of the Spanish Inquisition as an unlimited gallery of horrors. «It turns out that the torture cabinet of the Spanish Inquisition was very simple and was not applied massively, as they often want us to believe in literature and cinema. The Germans and even other inquisitions that existed at that time in Europe invented much more sophisticated things,” he says. slava gallantwho remembers that the Holy Office He drew up a record of the torture session reflecting absolutely everything. Improvisation was not accepted.
The culprit for the emergence of so many myths about religious torture lies with the imagination and literature. Many of the instruments that are considered medieval, such as the chastity belt or the iron lady, really belong to the perverted imagination of 19th century Victorian (and Puritan) society. Sex and pain mix there in a terrible dance. «The Victorian morbid invents particularly in what refers to the inquisition and the torture of the Spaniards. Data is taken out of context and what was done in other countries at the same time is not considered. Of the torture museums, which are relatively cheap to build and I myself have visited all over Europe, I would tell you that 99% of the instruments on display there are perfectly fake”, he explains.
a spanish legend
Of this type of black tourism, what most attracts the attention of foreign museums to the famous writer of the saga ‘The Story Told for Exceptions’ is that there is never a lack of a vile Spanish brand club in their windows. “The vile club was surely invented in its mechanical meaning in the 16th centurybut it was in the 18th century when its use was raised in a pious way to lighten the executions and that they were not so painful, nor so long, “considers one of the authors of ‘A vile garrote’.
While the French invented the guillotine for a clean, direct and flawless execution and the English, hanging, the garrote was the Spanish version of an instant death that, despite its large number of errors, won the worst legend. possible. «What happens is that, unfortunately, in the same way that the guillotine and the long gallows have practically no failures, the garrote has many because it depends on a human element that is the executioner and the good conditions of the apparatus. But it was not established to torture the prisoner, but for the opposite: to alleviate his death, “he points out.
Photograph of the scaffold of the four executed after the Jerez Events of 1892 by vile garrote.
The executioners were poorly paid (approximately they had the salary of an unskilled worker), they used to come in a terrible state to do their work and hardly received training. The older ones were in charge of teaching the new ones, which created a huge problem with the last executions of Tarragona, in March 1974, when years had passed since the last one. «The execution was something absolutely terrible and the executioners did not know the most elementary thing. In Spain, four unfortunate executioners have been executed, usually criminals who arrived drunk and took advantage of that to earn a salary. Very laid-back people, very down to earth, in contrast, for example, with the English, who tried to pass off as elegant people and gave themselves a certain tone for being executors of His Majesty”, explains Eslava Galán, emphasizing the “great difference that there is between the mentality of the two peoples”.
“In Spain four unfortunate executioners have been executioners, usually criminals who arrived drunk and took advantage of that to have a salary”
Executioners or victims, the Spanish generally carry a reputation for being violent by nature and history. If we talk about the conquest of America, the story focuses on its violence; if the 20th century is mentioned, one thinks only of the civil War and in Franco’s repression, and if the conversation drifts into any other period, they talk about Cainism and the rural brutality of the Spanish of all times. “We are not a particularly violent people. What happens is that we have had against the invention of the printing press in the Netherlands that spread very negative publicity throughout Europe. And then also the fact that we suppressed the name of the Inquisition very late. That has given us a very bad image.”
The death penalty is eradicated in democratic Europe, but there is always the danger that society, instead of evolving, loses humanity. Could executions return to the Old Continent? “I hope that never happens again. It is statistically proven that the death penalty does not lead to a decrease in crime. After all, the death penalty is a kind of social revenge. And I believe that the towns that recover it are simply towns that are more backward”, defended the writer about a violence that only feeds more violence.
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