Introduction

          Imagine that you are a passenger in a newly developed time machine that
            has been programmed to return to the year 1939.  Your destination is Spain
            and your reason for traveling back in time is to investigate life as a result of
            the Spanish Civil War.  The time machine has given you an amazing opportunity
            to explore Spanish culture by seeing for yourself how drastically life changed
            for the Spanish people after the civil war.  After Francisco Franco's fascist
            regime radically overthrew the Spanish government, life in Spain became very
            different, especially in terms of cultural developments and contributions.

            Just take a minute and imagine what life would be like if everything you said
            and did was controlled by the government.  As Americans, we often take for
            granted the many freedoms that we are entitled in the United States Constitution.
            But what if that constitution did not exist?  What if an overthrow of the
            government was as easy as brushing your teeth every morning?  Thank goodness
            for us, the possibility of that is very unlikely.  But for many countries, the threat
            of a dictatorship is always a possibility.  In 1936 at the onset of the civil war,
            Spain's political, economic, and cultural systems and traditions were experiencing
            total upheaval.  Like many other countries in the first half of the twentieth
            century, Spain fell under the control of the fascist party.  Their party leader in
            Spain, Francisco Franco, became the man who decided the fate of the Spanish
            people.  He controlled every aspect of their lives.

            In order to gain a more complete understanding of the Spanish Civil War, you
            must put yourself in the shoes of those who actually experienced it.  This is
            where the time machine comes in.  Your visit back in time will force you to look
            at how the Spanish Civil War influenced movies, art, and literature, three very
            important aspects of Spanish culture.  By studying the impact of the civil war,
            you will begin to see how drastically life changed for the Spanish people after
            1939 when the powerful dictator Franco officially had control of the country.
            Culture was one area of life that experienced dramatic changes.  If you are
            willing to use your imagination in order to travel back through time, you will see
            the challenges that the Spanish people had to overcome.  In addition to gaining a
            much deeper appreciation for the American democratic system, you will learn
            that culture, in the form of movies, art, and literature, became a very important
            means by which the Spanish people expressed themselves.

The Task

            Specifically, your task is to pretend that you have been asked to travel back in
            time in order to research the influence of the Spanish Civil War in terms of the
            cultural developments in Spain during the time of Franco's reign.  On your
            journey you must gather information pertaining to the cultural contributions of
            the Spanish people so that you can create a time capsule which will contain
            samples of your findings from the areas of movies, art, and literature.  With each
            sample you will write an explanation describing how and why your selections
            best represent the influence that the Spanish Civil War had towards cultural
            development.  Once your mission of time travel has been completed, your newly
            created time capsule will be used to help future generations understand the
            significance of this very important event in the history of Spain.

The Process and Resources

            It is 1939 and you have been selected to travel back in time with two other
            people in order to research the impact of the Spanish Civil War on the Spanish
            culture.  At the start of your journey you have been given a time capsule, recently
            discovered after having been buried for the last fifty years, with samples from
            the following three very important areas: movies, art, and literature.  The sample
            movie is "Raza," the sample piece of artwork is Picasso's Guernica, and the sample
            piece of literature is Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls.  (Literature
            is the only area in which you can use selections from other countries to show
            the influence of the Spanish Civil War, i.e., American authors.)  Your job is to first
            decide amongst yourselves which area you would like to investigate and second,
            to use the sample provided in your culture area to research how the Spanish
            Civil War was influential in its creation.

            As you begin to understand how the civil war changed the course of Spanish
            cultural development through your investigations of your one sample, expand
            your research into investigating other samples from your culture area.  For
            example, the artwork Guernica should lead you towards other artworks that
            have also been influenced by the radical uprising of the Spanish Civil War.  After
            you feel that your investigation has been exhausted, you will need to select two
            samples from your culture area that you feel best represent how the Spanish Civil
            War influenced either Spanish movies, art, or literature (remember: it can be
            literature of other countries too!)  Then you will rejoin one another in a discussion
            about what you learned regarding your specific culture area and its relation to
            the impact of the Spanish Civil War.  In sharing your ideas and findings, you should
            all come to have a general understanding of the different areas of culture that
            were impacted after 1939.  Together you will decide which of the two samples
            best represent the areas of movies, art, and literature.  Your ultimate goal is to
            compile your findings into the creation of a new time capsule.  (The actual creation
            of a time capsule is left to your own discretion.  You can use paper bags, plastic
            containers, or any other materials desired.  The majority of emphasis in this case
            will be placed on the substance and quality of data obtained through your
            investigation which will be put in the time capsule, not in the creation of the time
            capsule.)

            You will return to the present year with the new time capsule in hand which will
            serve to educate future generations on the cultural influences of the Spanish Civil
            War.  Along with each movie, art, and literature sample, you need to include a one
            page summary for each cultural area explaining why your selection in the area of
            either movies, art, or literature best represents how the civil war influenced
            Spanish cultural development.
 

Phase 1-Background: Something for Everyone

            You will each need to have some important background information about the
            Spanish Civil War in order to guide your investigation into the cultural
            development of the country.  If you explore the following links you will be able to
            gain a much broader understanding of the history of the Spanish Civil War.

• Background on the Spanish Revolution and Civil War-This site if full of amazing links that will peak your interest as to what happened to cause the radical uprising in Spain from 1936-1939.
• The Spanish Revolution and Civil War-This site is another exciting place to find information and interesting facts about the fascists' rise to power in Spain.
• History of the Spanish Civil War-If you are looking for a concise layout of the turn of events that caused the outbreak of civil war, then this is your place to be!

            Part of the time travel journey includes assuming the role of research analyst
            of one of the following areas: movies, art, and literature.  You will need to decide
            as a group who will study which cultural area.  This role playing opportunity will
            allow you to explore one area of culture in order to see how it was influenced by
            the Spanish Civil War.  Click on the following pictures in order to link to descriptions
            of each particular role.  Included in each description is a list of Internet links that
            will provide you with places to go for further investigation of your cultural area.
            Be prepared to return to your group with important information, facts, and
            examples of your topic area so that you can decide as a group which samples are
            the best representations for your time capsule of how the Spanish Civil War
            influenced Spanish culture.
 

Phase 3-Joining Forces

            Once you have each gathered the information required of you, you will rejoin the
            members of your group and discuss your findings.  Share facts and show your
            samples.  Not only is this quest a creative task, but a consensus building one too.
            Your goal at this point in the project is to help each other learn about all of the
            three cultural areas of movies, art, and literature, even if it was not your area of
            concentration throughout the course of the investigative process.  Once you have
            shared your information, as a group you will need to decide which of your samples
            that you have brought to represent your own cultural area that was investigated
            best defines and symbolizes each cultural area.  You want to select samples that you
            feel, once brought back to the present day and analyzed by future generations, will
            portray the most representational items of how the Spanish Civil War influenced
            cultural development in Spain.  Along with that, together you need to summarize
            the relation between the items you have selected and the role of the Spanish Civil
            War.  Be clear and concise (no more than one page per area) and remember that
            others will be reviewing your findings upon your return home!  You want people
            to know exactly what kind of cultural contributions existed after the civil war by
            providing them with concrete examples and explanations.

The Conclusion

            Congratulations!!!  You have completed the journey back in time--and survived it!
            Now that your time traveling days are over, hopefully you have taken with you
            some very important information about the Spanish Civil War and have
            improved you research skills.  Your work has been most insightful and you
            have left behind valuable information from which future generations will continue
            to utilize in their search for the truth about life under dictatorship rule.  Your first
            hand account of life under a fascist regime and the cultural developments that were
            hampered as a result of the government's control will prove to be most helpful to
            future researchers of this subject.  Although this is only a tiny fragment in tracing
            the history of Spanish culture, we can at least begin to understand how politics and
            wars can impact a nation's culture.  Your work has proven, however, that though
            hardships were endured and obstacles were overcome, the strength of the Spanish
            culture lives on.

 
This document was created by Kristen Kincaid, an Education student at the University of Richmond studying in the department of .  She completed the original version of this document as a project for the class EDUC 343: Computers in the Classroom, during the fall semester of 1999.

Assistance for this project was provided by Dr. Patricia Stohr-Hunt.  She has maintained and revised this document as an interactive resource for educators, students and parents.  All inquiries and comments regarding this document should be mailed to her at the following address: pstohrhu@richmond.edu