The ‘Einaudi libel’: A battle of translations in the Cold War

Fruela Fernández

doi:10.12807/ti.11222.2020.a02

Abstract

This article takes as its starting point the Francoist ban of the songbook Canti della Nuova Resistenza Spagnola (Songs of the New Spanish Resistance, 1962) and the subsequent press campaign against its publisher (Giulio Einaudi) and compilers (the musicians Sergio Liberovici, Michele Straniero, and Margot Galante Garrone). Placing the Canti at the heart of a wider propaganda battle between Francoism and Italian anti-Francoist forces in the early 1960s, this article carefully reconstructs a transnational and multilingual network of anthologies and hybrid publications in which translation played a decisive role. Thus, the article illuminates the contribution of translation to the propagandist strategies of Francoists and anti-Francoists, as well as the ideological and historical ‘narratives’ (in the sense proposed by Baker 2006) supported by these translation practices. Finally, the article shows how translation strategies played a central role in the articulation of opposing, yet mutually interdependent narratives in the battle between Francoists and anti-Francoists, which were based on radically different understandings of the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War.

Highlights

In January 1963, the Spanish Francoist government’s Dirección General de Información (Central Directorate for Information) issued a brief but stronglyworded statement forbidding Italian publisher Giulio Einaudi and musicians Sergio Liberovici, Michele Straniero, and Margot Galante Garrone from entering or staying in Spain
As I will show, translation strategies played a central role in the articulation of opposing, yet mutually interdependent narratives in the battle between Francoists and anti-Francoists, which were based on radically different understandings of the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War
Through the reconstruction of the context and strategies of this battle of translations between Francoist services and Italian anti-Francoists, it has been possible to understand the intense activity of both camps in the early 1960s

Summary

Introduction

In January 1963, the Spanish Francoist government’s Dirección General de Información (Central Directorate for Information) issued a brief but stronglyworded statement forbidding Italian publisher Giulio Einaudi (owner of the eponymous publishing house) and musicians Sergio Liberovici, Michele Straniero, and Margot Galante Garrone from entering or staying in Spain. The reason for this severe measure was Einaudi’s publication of a songbook entitled Canti della Nuova Resistenza Spagnola (Songs of the New Spanish Resistance, 1962), which contained a number of popular Spanish songs compiled, transcribed, and translated by Liberovici, Straniero and others during a fieldtrip to Spain in 1961. As I will show, translation strategies played a central role in the articulation of opposing, yet mutually interdependent narratives in the battle between Francoists and anti-Francoists, which were based on radically different understandings of the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War

Francoist Spain at a crossroads

Translating solidarity and resistance among Italian anti-Francoists

Translation as authority

Conclusion