The last spanish hero between the indifference of Defense and the forgetfulness of means dies

[Antonio Prieto]

Please see

http://www.elmanifiesto.com/articulos.asp?idarticulo=1130

This is a electronic translation

He was general Esteban, the last one Honored

The Laureate Cross of San Fernando is the Highest Spanish military decoration. It was created by Cortes of Cadiz in 1811. The last honored horseman alive was the general lieutenant Adolfo Esteban Ascensi?n, that finishes passing away in the most complete forgetfulness on the part of mass media and official instances. The minister of Defense was not in the burial. Either no institutional representation of the State. All the countries honor their heroes, independently of the political circumstances in that they were decorated. Normally it is considered that it compensates form leaves from the cultural and political heap of a nation. Spain, reason why sees itself, is different.

By Diego de Arcaya

The general lieutenant Adolfo Esteban Ascensi?n was buried days ago Christian in an intimate and familiar act in the cemetery of Santo Angel of Guarda de Segovia, which they attended a good number of friends and companions and where they were made notice some clamorous absences, beginning by the one of Jose Antonio Alonso, Minister of Defense.

General Esteban was the last horseman of the Military order of San Fernando that was with life. The Real Order of San Fernando, well-known popularly like the honored one, was created by Cortes of Cadiz in 1811 and distinguishes the heroic conducts in feats of arms. To general Esteban to him it was granted being cavalry captain, by his gallant defense of the position of the Mines, in the front of Biscay, happened fact the 27 of May of 1937, when its swarm was attacked by very superior enemy forces in number and, exhausted the ammunition, it knew to reject them machete in hand.

No mass media of national diffusion have become echo of the news. Not even ABC, where the family presented the death by means of one esquela, has dedicated a single line to the subject. Disdain, ignorance, deliberate ninguneo? The case is that in times in which so many informative spaces are filled with frivolous and insustanciales the news, when not openly stupid, silence on the death of the military veteran is everything a symptom of desmemoria historical and the mediatic triviality in which a long time ago we were installed.

Why they serve the decorations?

We have always thought that the prizes and distinctions wisely administered constitute a powerful instrument of social cohesion. The honor that reports has moved from immemorial time to the men and the towns to fulfill severity his stricter obligations. And the visible recognition that implies can encourage, in those who do not have them, the perfection yearning and the will superadores. For that reason they have existed, and they exist, in all the political regimes, independently of its particular ideological direction.

Spain counts on a varied heap of orders and decorations, some of very old and prestigious them, who comprise by own right of the legal and iconogr?fico patrimony of all. And the Real and Military Order of San Fernando can be said that, along with the Insigne Order of the Tois?n de Oro, figure to the front of the roster of all of them. But unlike which it happens in other nations of our cultural and historical surroundings, where this class of traditions is respected and dealt with certain seriousness and honor, in our country the same it gives to belong to a chivalrous corporation that sinks its roots in the Average Age that to be member of a brotherhood with gastronomical and verbeneros aims.

Trasfondo that sublies in this lamentable episode of social amnesia which we are examinee is of more pierced depth and would deserve a lengthy analysis. Thus, the proliferation in the last decades of decorations without a clear inspirador criterion and without the successive Governments of the Monarchy have worried to spread between the citizens and the institutions of the State a premial culture that within the framework explains the true reason of being of the honorary distinctions of a democratic society and the characteristics and peculiarities of each one of them.

This way the present dripping of imposition of decorations on the part of the most different politicians and in the most many-colored places is explained, where the solemn rite as institutional ceremony is often supplanted by a putting in scene to the purest Hollywood style - spoiled words and atuendos, self-assured scenery and corporal gestures -, and any reference to Corona like phons honorum systematically silenced.

Although the Real and Military Order of San Fernando is not extinguished formally with the death of the last one honored, because the Ministry of Defense, thanks to a decision of legal engineering, is going it to maintain in operation incorporating in its sine to the military distinguished with others you compensate of smaller category, the certain thing is that with the death of general Esteban an ancestry of servants of the arms disappears that knew to make of their lives a conduct style, of resignation and spirit of sacrifice today in frank declivity in our Armed Forces. By the others, although with the Regulation of the Order in the hand it is theoretically possible that they can grant itself in the future new honored, the military have very assumed the fact that in these times of asymmetric conflicts and paranoicas preventive wars will be actually impossible to credit the heroic value in the battlefield.

To the aim you can rest peacefully, my general, after a total life of sense. Although the majority has not found out, History has reserved the honor to you to be the last representative of a confraternidad of chosen. Surely that at the moment you will be sharing the formation with the army of angels with swords that the Paradise guards.

[Guest Rick Research]

The rejection of a people's history due to the... petulance ... of the moment will have serious consequences. Without a past, no nation has a future-- something that those who believe that THEIR "today" will last forever always find out... too late.

Valor is something that even in a political cause transcends politics. Valor in the service of ANY State is "political." The air each of us is now breathing is "political."

Dishonoring the brave diminishes the ordinary.

Sadly, we all live in an age where the sub-ordinary are in charge, everywhere.

[James Clark]

This is also bad timing. The Spanish parliament has just passed a "law on historical memory" that essentially outlaws anything that might be seen as making the Nationalists or Franco regime look in any way positive.

While the cult of Franco has been pretty much been dealt with for some time now, the new law goes a bit further. They're looking at whether all sorts of street names need to be changed if they relate to anyone or anything that people might feel a bit uncomfortable about. The "Street of the Fallen of the Blue Division" still exists but is one that's under discussion.

Edited November 24, 2007 by James Clark

[Jacques]

Unfortunatly It seems that such voluntary lack of interest happen within each European countries.

jacques

[Ulsterman]

Ever read Orwell? He warned about the misuses of history by those who wish to shape "progress".