Editing Miguel de Unamuno (section)

==Confrontation with Millán Astray==
{{see also|José Millán-Astray#Confrontation with Unamuno}}
On 12 October 1936, the Spanish Civil War had been underway for just under three months; the celebration of [[Discovery of America]] had brought together a politically diverse crowd at the [[University of Salamanca]], including [[Enrique Pla y Deniel]], the Archbishop of Salamanca, and [[Carmen Polo|Carmen Polo Martínez-Valdés]], the wife of Franco, [[Africanist (Spain)|Africanist]] General [[José Millán Astray]] and Unamuno himself.

Unamuno had supported Franco's uprising because he believed it necessary to bring order to the anarchy created by the Popular Front, and that day he was representing General Franco in the event. By then the Republican Government had removed Unamuno from his perpetual rectory at the Salamanca University and the rebel government had restored him.

There are different versions of what occurred.

=== The Portillo/Thomas version ===
According to the British historian [[Hugh Thomas (writer)|Hugh Thomas]] in his ''[[Masterpiece|magnum opus]]'' ''[[The Spanish Civil War (book)|The Spanish Civil War]]'' (1961), the evening began with an impassioned speech by the [[Falangism|Falangist]] writer [[José María Pemán]]. After this, Professor Francisco Maldonado decried [[Catalonia]] and the [[Basque Country (greater region)|Basque Country]] as "cancers on the body of the nation," adding that "[[Fascism]], the healer of Spain, will know how to exterminate them, cutting into the live flesh, like a determined surgeon free from false sentimentalism."

From somewhere in the auditorium, someone cried out the [[Spanish Legion]]'s motto "''¡Viva la Muerte!''" [Long live death!]. As was his habit, Millán Astray, the founder and first commander of the Spanish Legion, responded with "''¡España!''" [Spain!]; the crowd replied with "''¡Una!''" [One!]. He repeated "''¡España!''"; the crowd then replied "''¡Grande!''" [Great!]. A third time, Millán Astray shouted "''¡España!''"; the crowd responded "''Libre!''" [Free!] This—Spain, one, great, and free—was a common Falangist cheer and would become a francoist motto thereafter. Later, a group of uniformed Falangists entered, [[Roman salute|saluting]] the portrait of Franco that hung on the wall.

Unamuno, who was presiding over the meeting, rose up slowly and addressed the crowd:
{{Blockquote|You are waiting for my words. You know me well, and know I cannot remain silent for long. Sometimes, to remain silent is to lie, since silence can be interpreted as assent. I want to comment on the so-called speech of Professor Maldonado, who is with us here. I will ignore the personal offence to the Basques and Catalans. I myself, as you know, was born in [[Bilbao]]. The Bishop,}}
Unamuno gestured to the Archbishop of Salamanca,
{{Blockquote|whether you like it or not, is Catalan, born in [[Barcelona]]. But now I have heard this insensitive and [[necrophilia|necrophilous]] oath, "''¡Viva la Muerte!''", and I, having spent my life writing [[paradox]]es that have provoked the ire of those who do not understand what I have written, and being an expert in this matter, find this ridiculous paradox repellent. General Millán Astray is a cripple. There is no need for us to say this with whispered tones. He is a war cripple. So was [[Miguel de Cervantes|Cervantes]]. But unfortunately, Spain today has too many cripples. And, if God does not help us, soon it will have very many more. It torments me to think that General Millán Astray could dictate the norms of the psychology of the masses. A cripple, who lacks the spiritual greatness of Cervantes, hopes to find relief by adding to the number of cripples around him.}}

Millán Astray responded: "Death to intelligence! Long live death!" provoking applause from the Falangists. Pemán, in an effort to calm the crowd, exclaimed "No! Long live intelligence! Death to the bad intellectuals!"

Unamuno continued: "This is the temple of intelligence, and I am its high priest. You are profaning its sacred domain. You will win ''[venceréis]'', because you have enough brute force. But you will not convince ''[pero no convenceréis]''. In order to convince it is necessary to persuade, and to persuade you will need something that you lack: reason and right in the struggle. I see it is useless to ask you to think of Spain. I have spoken." Millán Astray, controlling himself, shouted "Take the lady's arm!" Unamuno took Carmen Polo by the arm and left under her protection.

=== The Severiano Delgado version ===
In 2018, the details of Unamuno's speech were disputed by the historian Severiano Delgado, who argued that the account in a 1941 article by [[Luis Gabriel Portillo]] (who was not present at Salamanca) in the British magazine ''[[Horizon (British magazine)|Horizon]]'' may not have been an accurate representation of events.

Severiano Delgado, a historian and librarian at the [[University of Salamanca]], asserts that Unamuno's words were put in his mouth by Luis Portillo, in 1941, possibly with some help from [[George Orwell]], in a piece in the literary magazine ''Horizon'', entitled Unamuno's Last Lecture. Portillo had not witnessed the event.{{sfn|Delgado Cruz|2019|p=}}

Severiano Delgado's book, titled ''Archeology of a Myth: The act of October 12, 1936 in the auditorium of the University of Salamanca'', shows how the propaganda myth arose regarding the confrontation that took place that day between Miguel de Unamuno and the general Millán Astray.

Delgado agrees that a "very fierce and violent verbal confrontation" between Unamuno and Millán Astray definitely occurred, which led to Unamuno being removed from his rectorship, but he thinks that the famous speech attributed to Unamuno was invented and written by Luis Portillo."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/11/famous-spanish-civil-war-speech-may-be-invented-says-historian | work=The Guardian | title=Spanish civil war speech invented by father of Michael Portillo, says historian | date=11 May 2018 | first=Sam | last=Jones}}</ref>{{sfn|Delgado Cruz|2019|p=}}

Delgado says that:
{{Blockquote|What Portillo did was to come up with a kind of liturgical drama, where you have an angel and a devil confronting one another. What he wanted to do above all was symbolise evil—fascism, militarism, brutality—through Millán Astray, and set it against the democratic values of the republicans—liberalism and goodness—represented by Unamuno. Portillo had no intention of misleading anyone; it was simply a literary evocation.}}

Unamuno took the floor, not to confront Millán Astray, but to answer a previous speech by Professor of Literature Francisco Maldonado who had identified Catalonia and the Basque Country with the "''antiespaña''" (Antispain). Unamuno himself was Basque and was revolted with Francisco Maldonado's speech, but when addressing the audience, Unamuno used the example of what had happened with [[José Rizal]] (a Filipino nationalist and polymath during the tail end of the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines, executed by the Spanish colonial government for the crime of rebellion after the Philippine Revolution). Millán Astray had fought in the Philippines and it was the reference to José Rizal that annoyed Millán Astray, who shouted "The traitoring intellectuals die".

As proof that the incident was nothing more than a crossroads of hard words, the photograph reproduced on the cover of his book shows Millán Astray and Miguel de Unamuno calmly saying goodbye in the presence of Bishop Plà, with no tension between them. The photo was discovered in 2018 in the National Library and was part of the chronicle of the act that the newspaper "The Advancement of Salamanca" published the following day, 13 October 1936.{{sfn|Delgado Cruz|2019|p=}}

According to Delgado, Portillo's account of the speech became famous when a then very young British historian [[Hugh Thomas, Baron Thomas of Swynnerton|Hugh Thomas]], aged 30, came across it in a Horizon anthology while researching his seminal book, ''The Spanish Civil War'', and mistakenly took it as a primary source.{{sfn|Delgado Cruz|2019|p=}}