INFLUENTIAL – 'Corresponsales en la Guerra de España' has already been mounted in 25 other countries, and continues to draw crowds even in Manila.

MANILA, Philippines — Ernest Hemingway. George Orwell. Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

Ask anybody what these names have in common, and the answer one will probably get from the layman is that they line the shelves with the heading “Literary Classics” in bookstores all over the world.

But these three famous writers – along with several more – share more than just the fame and fortune that their love of the written word has afforded them. Hemmingway, Orwell, and Saint-Exupery all served as war correspondents for their respective papers during the Spanish Civil War, a violent conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between General Francisco Franco’s Nationalists and the Republican supporters of Spanish President Manuel Azaña.

The wartime work of these writers is the focus of the latest exhibit mounted by the Instituto Cervantes, the Spanish agency tasked with promoting the study and teaching of Spanish language and culture.

Titled “Corresponsales en la Guerra de España (Correspondents in the Spanish Civil War)”, the exhibit brings together a collection of wartime newspapers and photographs that document the lives of journalists in Spain during the Spanish Civil War.

The first media war
According to exhibit curator Carlos Garcia, the “Corresponsales” exhibit underscores the importance that the Spanish Civil War played not just in shaping European and world history, but the lives of the journalists who were covering it as well.

The Spanish Civil War has been dubbed as the first “media” war, as most journalists covering it wanted their work to support the cause that they believed in. Hemmingway was a Republican supporter, and George Orwell even participated directly in the fighting.

The idea to mount an exhibit specifically focused on this aspect of the war was first conceived in 2003 and took a couple of years to prepare.

“It was first conceived at Instituto Cervantes New York to mark the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the Spanish Civil War,” Garcia explains. “It took two  years to collect the original press articles, and the Instituto Cervantes network collaborated in the scouting and searching of the newspapers.”

Picking the journalists to be featured in the exhibit was no easy task either. With numerous international publications covering the events of the Spanish Civil War, Instituto Cervantes had to find a way to narrow down the articles and journalists to be featured.

“We had to judge them according to journalism standards. We picked those who excelled as journalists,” explains Garcia. “Some of them were not famous at he moment but they’d become major writers after the war. In some cases, like Saint-Exupery, they were already great writers who worked as correspondents during the war.”

Articles were also picked if they were “scoops” and were very meaningful for the development of the war.

The exhibit was a huge success, and has since then made the rounds all over the world, with Manila being its 26th stop. “Corresponsales” has also been staged in Moscow, Athens, Rome, Lisbon, Belgrade, Africa, and the United States.

War changes lives and ideas
Garcia says that many great writers emerged from covering the Spanish Civil War because the conflict changed their lives and idea, with none of them leaving it “untouched”.

One can hardly argue with the work that the Spanish Civil War has “produced”.

Ernest Hemmingway wrote “For Whom the Bell Tolls” after covering the Spanish Civil War, while George Orwell came up with “Homage to Catalonia”.

Garcia says the exhibit also highlights the coming change that would take over the coverage of areas in conflict.

“The Spanish Civil War is the last conflict that was covered and told through written articles. From then on, the image would become more important than the written text,” he ends.