The film La bola negra, directed by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, Los Javis, continues to be a talking point two weeks after its premiere.
The latest controversy unleashed on social media surrounding the film or, rather, its soundtrack, has arisen from the interpretation of the song Soldadito español by singer Judeline last week on the Televisión Española program La revuelta, presented by David Broncano.
This song is incorporated into the film's soundtrack, specifically appearing at the beginning of the film, and has been one of the most celebrated themes by the public along with the song La nieve, by Guitarricadelafuente.
But why has the controversy arisen?
The Televisión Española program published Judeline's cover of the song on its X account, and comments were not long in coming. The bulk of them could be divided between those who were enraged that this song — originally written in 1927 by Jacinto Guerrero — was reproduced and covered in a space they consider "progressive," making absurd value judgments about the program.
On the other hand, and on the opposite side, sectors that considered the song an exaltation of colonialism and Francoism. Of colonialism because this song was written in the context of the Rif War, in which Spain fought the Riffian troops, and of Francoism because the song was widely disseminated during the dictatorship.
However, these two positions seem intellectually poor to me:
Firstly, for the far-right sectors, who consider it undignified that a "fetish" song of what they consider their legacy is reproduced in a medium they consider left-wing, only shows their already known sectarianism and their desire to appropriate everything that might sound patriotic. The appropriation by the right of the symbols closest to patriotism has precisely caused a large part of society to repudiate them, so it can be affirmed that these sectors have a great responsibility for the — increasingly less — non-identification by many Spaniards of symbols such as the flag, the anthem, or popular or religious folklore.
On the part of the far-left sectors, the opposite is true: an asphyxiating ideological purism, incapable of appropriating or re-appropriating elements that should be common.
To put it in context, these sectors have gone so far as to attack Adelante Andalucía for defending the protection of popular and religious culture in Andalusia, very much linked, for example, to the processions of Holy Week.
There is a part of the left that repudiates anything that smells Spanish because it seems to carry a contamination of origin, when it is clear that this reappropriation would be useful in two ways: in the reconnection of the left with an electorate that long ago stopped being self-conscious about national symbols, and because this reappropriation would blow the mental schemes of the far-right by "stealing" part of their supposed cultural heritage.
The controversy of these days on social media regarding Soldadito español has inevitably taken me back to what usually happens when Holy Week arrives and the Legion performs the mythical El novio de la muerte in the procession of the Most Holy Christ of the Good Death in Malaga.
When the transfer of the so-called "Christ of Mena" is broadcast on the morning of Holy Thursday by TVE, there are always users on social media who consider the anthem a "Francoist relic," when the truth is that the song, which was originally a cuplé, was premiered by the singer Lola Montes at the Teatro Vital Aza in Malaga in 1921, fifteen years before the Civil War, and over the years it has become an anthem sung transversally by most people from Malaga, regardless of their ideology or values, as it is perceived more as a symbol of identity in the city.
The intellectual left of the country would do well to approach these facts with less ideological purism, because the truth is that, if they continue like this, they will increasingly preach to a shrinking social niche.
It is, however, understandable that many of these cultural expressions may cause misgivings because even in the generations, especially older ones, the use that the dictatorial regime made of them is still present, but reappropriation is much more useful than its denunciation, in view of the social evolution of the Spanish population itself.
In short, the cultural use of soldadito español should be treated with normality, now that many have rediscovered it thanks to the Javis' film, bearing in mind that in the end each person gives the meaning they want to the different cultural elements of our history, and that its meaning should in no case be understood as static over time.