20-N

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20-N is a symbolic abbreviation used to denote the date of death of two of the best known and controversial figures in 20th-century Spanish history. The first date, 20 November 1936, near the end of the first year of the Spanish Civil War, marks the execution in Alicante of 33-year-old José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of the nationalist party, Falange Española [Spanish Phalanx], who became extolled as a cult figure during the years of post-Civil War Estado Español [Spanish State] led by Francisco Franco. In a startling coincidence, the same day also proved to be fatal to Primo de Rivera's political opposite, 40-year-old Buenaventura Durruti, a key leader of Spain's two largest anarchist organizations, Federación Anarquista Ibérica [Iberian Anarchist Federation] and the anarcho-syndicalist trade union Confederación Nacional del Trabajo [National Confederation of Labor]. Durruti's death occurred, according to his chauffeur, in the midst of distant gunfire in Madrid.

The second date, 39 years later, is 20 November 1975, when Generalissimo Franco himself - aged 82, and having ruled Spain for close to four decades as its caudillo (Spanish for leader) - died following a lengthy illness. The date continues to be commemorated by far-right groups which mark it by organizing public demonstrations.

The Spanish general election on November 20, 2011 coincided with the 75th anniversary of de Rivera's execution.

References

• Payne, Stanley G. (1961) Falange. A History of Spanish Fascism. Stanford University Press.
• Thomas, Hugh. "The Hero in the Empty Room: Jose Antonio and Spanish Fascism," Journal of Contemporary History (1966) 1#1 pp. 174–182 in JSTOR
• Velarde Fuertes, Juan. "José Antonio y la economía" Grafite ediciones. ISBN 84-96281-10-8
• Hugh Thomas The Spanish Civil War. Middlesex, England: Penguin Books Ltd., 1965.
• Emma Goldman Durruti is Dead, Yet Living (1936).
• Antony Beevor The Spanish Civil War (1982).
• Abel Paz Durruti in the Spanish Revolution, Translated by Chuck W. Morse, AK Press, 2007. ISBN 1-904859-50-X.
• Pedro de Paz The Man Who Killed Durruti Read and Noir (2005).
• Hans Magnus Enzensberger The Short Summer of Anarchy: Life and Death of Buenaventura Durruti (1972) (originally: Der kurze Sommer der Anarchie: Buenaventura Durrutis Leben und Tod).
• Collective work Buenaventura Durruti, a double CD nato, (1996).

External links

• Plataforma2003.org
• Recent book by Ángel Luis Sánchez Marín
• Recent article about his thought in the context of the times.
• 20-N at Find a Grave
• Buenaventura Durruti in the Spanish Revolution. Biopic by Paco Rios based on the book by Abel Paz
• Biography of Buenaventura Durruti at libcom.org history.
• Buenaventura Durruti at the Anarchist Encyclopedia.
• The first days of the Spanish Revolution, Durruti & the Durruti column... (often misspelled as Durutti) at The Daily Bleed.
• Website about Buenaventura Durruti
• 20-N at Find a Grave