A Light in the Dark: The last guerrillas in Andalusia. The Roberto Column.

Those who fled to the mountains were the vanquished that refused to accept defeat. Their struggle for survival in the Sierras of Andalusia took the form of armed resistance against their oppressors, who wanted to stamp out all vestiges of the progressive ideas of the Republic, which had meant so much to the downtrodden Spanish working class. This book manages to transmit both the sadness and the heroism of the men who threw themselves into what was a harrowing struggle even though they knew that the inevitable outcome was another defeat. This book is full of life and intense emotion, the result of the personal relationship that the author, Francisco Ruiz Esteban, a genuine expert on the guerrilla movement in Malaga and Granada, managed to establish with the survivors. Paul Preston. This book gathers together the testimonies of ordinary people who defended their dignity to the end, who sacrificed everything for important values that must be preserved, not only to pass them on to our children and grandchildren but also because for them freedom and justice were just as important as the air they breathed. They opted for active resistance. They had no alternative in the face of the violence of the new regime that condemned them merely for being members of a political party or trade union or for having fought in the Republican Army with loyalty and determination. Today they are a shining example of the most dignified, most highly valued ideals of the human race: freedom, equality, solidarity and social justice. Emilio Atienza Rivero. Francisco Ruiz Esteban set out on this new literary adventure with the same longing and passion for the truth displayed in his previous works Los Hijos de la Noche and Morir en Granada. The pages of this book reveal one of the writer’s innermost needs: to recover the history of those defeated in the Spanish Civil War, as described and relived by men and women who were directly involved. In this way A Leap in the Dark invites us to discover some of the most painful, most enduring silences that even today perturb the lives of too many people. Esther and Carme Hergueta Saavedra. Granddaughters of Antonio (known as Juan) Saavedra Segura, murdered by the Franco regime in 1947. Read more