JAVIER CERCAS, Spanish writer: “The Spanish coupe d’ teat in 1981 was the conquest of the Democracy”

Javier Cercas in association with Instituto Cervantes came to London to launch the translation into English about his latest book "Anatomy of a moment". The presentation was chaired by historian Antony Beevor, author of "The Battle for Spain", at SouthBank centre.

Javier Cercas imagines in his latest book a remarkable event at the transition of the Spanish Democracy. "The Anatomy of the moment" tells about the political coup of 23 February 1981 when Lieutenant –Colonel Tejero and his civil guards burst into the new Spanish Parliament with guns in their hands saying “todo el mundo al suelo” (everybody get down to the floor!).

Although in many countries thought that “the sequence was part of a Berlanga’s film”. It was real. Whilst the Civil guards try to control the Cortes, and their politicians are lying on the floor trying to save their lives, only three men stand up to the coup: Adolfo Suárez, leader of the “transition” and president at that time; Gutierrez Mellado, a former Francoist general; and Santiago Carrillo the head of the recently legalized Communist Party.

Javier Cercas has focused in the audiovisual document, the radio recordings and the King’s discourse at midnight spread out around the world. Related to the positive king’s image, the author insisted that "although the King could have been the ideal person to be behind the coupe, he wasn’t” affirmed categorical.

To Cercas the hardest part of the book was when he had to write that “nobody did anything” and that was caused by “the civil war in the Spanish mind”. The political situation was very difficult. That year a lot of people were killed by ETA; Spain was in the middle of a deep economical crisis and only 40% of civilians believed in the Democracy. “The coup could be work by the politicians at that moment and because the Democracy was very weak” pointed out Cercas.

The main purpose of this book, as Cercas said, is to “try and talk about historical conquest within Spanish Democracy and literature”. The book is a non-fictional work, a historical and a chronicle work “because historians need the imagination to understand things” related Cercas. Furthermore his aim was to experiment with the form, that is why it “is a strange book, although I have not invented anything, I wanted to imagine how they felt".

Javier Cercas is a novelist, a short-story writer and columnist. He is author of the novel "Soldiers of Salamis", which sold more than a million copies worldwide. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages. The Anatomy of a moment has been translated into English by Ann McLean and is published by Bloomsbury.