Review of The Songs of the Cádiz Carnival during the Second Republic

Abstract

Looking into affective topics such as historical memories often starts with a very personal story. It was not the case with Santiago Morello, whose curiosity inspired him to research social history and historical memories of Cádiz. Thus he managed to remain objective when answering a simple WHY question. Moreno grew up in Spanish Andalusia and had a first-hand experience of what education is like when there is no consensus on local history — important topics tend to be avoided. As a researcher, Santiago Moreno took a special interest in the repressed participants of the carnival and the prohibition of the carnival in 1937: he defended a thesis, published a collection of carnival-related songs, and produced a documentary Murieron Cantado. The book under review is his latest work on the topic. Moreno posits that sensitive issues of local history should find a wider audience via diverse channels. For this purpose, he initiated thematic excursions, including Cádiz and the Banned Carnival. Today carnival in Cádiz is one of the biggest in Spain, and as of 2021 is being considered to be included in the UNESCO Convention on the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage. The reviewed book comes out as a separate volume in the series of historical records of the Province of Cádiz and presents a unique collection of carnival songs. The first part of the book gives an overview of the historical context, the social background and even managerial and financial aspects of holding a carnival. Lyrics are analyzed in terms of their reflection of the social agenda of the time taking into consideration the censorship. The texts presented in the second half of the book come from different origins since few of them were preserved in the official archives. The author believes is that carnival rests upon enthusiasts who take part in it for generations. During the Civil War, especially after Cádiz was taken over, many of them had to destroy their collections of songs for fear of oppression and a great number of valuable documents were lost. Moreno’s work is a precious yet not comprehensive source for culture studies: the collection includes songs of 94 out of 108 participants of the carnival in 1932–1936. Some of the songs were not submitted to censors, many others were never recorded. Nevertheless, the book will be of interest to specialists in cultural studies, history and folklore, and those fond of the carnival.