Soldiers of Salamis

by Javier Cercas

Pascual’s book was self-published; it contains several references to Sánchez Mazas, with whom Pascual spent the hours leading up to the execution. Following Aguirre’s suggestion, I likewise read Trapiello, and in one of his books discovered that he too told the story of Sánchez Mazas facing the firing squad, and in almost the exact same way I’d heard Ferlosio tell it, except for the fact that, like me in my article or my true tale, he didn’t mention the “forest friends” either. The exact similarity between Trapiello’s tale and mine surprised me. I thought Trapiello must have heard it from Ferlosio (or one of Sánchez Mazas’ other children, or his wife) and imagined that, having been told so often by Sánchez Mazas in his house, it must have acquired for the family an almost formulaic character, like those perfect comic stories where you can’t leave out a single word without spoiling the joke.

Collective memory through witnesses