1948–
Former Maoist urban guerrilla turned Francoist revisionist historian who reignited Spain's Civil War debates
Asked in a 2008 interview whether he condemned Franco's regime, he refused, declaring that "Franco deserves the gratitude and recognition of the majority of Spaniards."
A controversial Spanish writer who evolved from a founding member of the Maoist urban guerrilla group GRAPO into Francoism's most prominent revisionist historian. He argues that the left, not the right, bore primary responsibility for the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, contending that the Socialist-led insurrection of October 1934 was the conflict's true beginning. His 2003 bestseller Myths of the Civil War sold 150,000 copies and ignited the post-2000 revisionism debates, drawing praise from Stanley G. Payne and fierce rejection from mainstream historians including Paul Preston and Alberto Reig Tapia.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1967–1974Studied at the Escuela Oficial de Periodismo in Madrid; became a radical anti-Francoist agitator
- 1975Co-founded the Maoist terrorist group GRAPO; present at the murder of a policeman on 1 October
- 1977Expelled from GRAPO
- 1983Sentenced to one year for kidnapping complicity; accepted reinsertion measures
- 1999–2001Published revisionist trilogy on the Republic and Civil War, including The Origins of the Spanish Civil War
- 2003Published Myths of the Civil War; 150,000 copies sold, bestseller for six consecutive months
- 2005–현재Columnist for Libertad Digital and El Economista; published numerous pro-Franco historical works
Related historical events
Communist activism and departure from GRAPO
As a young man, Moa became a communist and opposed the Franco dictatorship as a founding member of GRAPO, a Marxist-Leninist and Maoist organization. He was involved in the events surrounding a police officer's killing on 1 October 1975; Moa later denied the allegation that he struck the officer with a hammer. Expelled from GRAPO in 1977, he was sentenced in 1983 to one year in prison for complicity in the 1977 kidnapping of Lieutenant General Emilio Villaescusa, though he did not serve the sentence. In the same year, he entered a reintegration program and later adopted conservative political positions. Moa recounted his experiences from this period in the autobiographical book De un tiempo y de un país. His earlier political activity should be distinguished from his subsequent historical writing.