Rafael Sánchez Mazas
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Rafael Sánchez Mazas was a Spanish writer and an important leader of the Falange movement. He was born in Madrid on February 18, 1894. He received a degree in law at the Real Colegio de Estudios Superiores de María Cristina, El Escorial.
In 1915 he published Pequeñas memorias de Tarín. He wrote in the magazine Hermes and in the newspapers ABC, El Sol and El Pueblo Vasco. In 1921 he worked in Morocco as a correspondent for El Pueblo Vaco and in 1922 in Rome for ABC.
Mazas lived in Italy for seven years and married Liliana Ferlosio. He identified with the fascist movement that was developing at that time.
Mazas returned to Spain in 1929 and became an advisor for José Antonio Primo de Rivera, an idealist and propagandist of the Falange. In 1933, he helped to create a weekly newspaper, El Fascio, which was immediately banned.
On October 29, 1933 the Falange Española was founded and Sánchez Mazas was named member of the new movement's Council. Up until the Spanish Civil War, he was an active member. On February of 1934, he wrote "Oración por los muertos de Falange". He also participated in the writing of "Cara al Sol", the hymn for the Falange Española.
In March 1936, Sánchez Mazas was a prisoner in Madrid. He was given a permit to leave temporarily because of the birth of his fourth son and he took advantage of the situation to escape to the Chilean Embassy. In the Fall of 1937 he tried to escape, but on November 1937 he was detained in Barcelona. He was held on the prison ship Uruguay until January 24, 1939, when he was driven to the church of Santa María del Collel with other prisoners to be executed. On January 30 he escaped a mass execution and hid in the nearby forest until the nationalist army arrived. A nationalist soldier spared his life, and he fled to France until the end of the war.
In 1940 he was named a member of the Real Academia Española de la Lengua, but he did not show up to give a speech.
He inherited a fortune and had many political appointments.
Mazas died in Madrid on October 1966.
His life story inspired Javier Cercas to write Soldados de Salamina. A movie of the same name was directed by David Trueba. His sons Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio and Chicho Sánches Ferlosio and his grandson Máximo Pradera are known artists.
