It is no secret that Francisco Franco’s relations with his brother Ramón were very bad. Between the late 1920s and early 1930s, the future dictator, a man of profound conservatism, was scandalized by the political radicalism of the most rebellious member of his family. Ramón, at that time, was the most famous of the Francos. Although Francisco was known for his promotions in the Moroccan war, his celebrity could not yet compete with that of the aviator who had crossed the Atlantic in 1926 on the Plus Ultra.
What is no longer so well known is that Ramón, a fervent republican and sympathizer of anarchism, published in 1932 a short novel titled Abel Killed Caín, where he reflects with enormous transparency the abyss that separated him from his brother. This little work is, at the same time, a reflection of his family disagreements and a political allegory. Cain symbolizes the reactionary spirit, social insensitivity, selfishness. Abel, on the other hand, stands out for his idealism and his commitment to the cause of the people.
The story begins with the family origin of the two brothers. The father, a figure of violent character, is described as “secular, disbelieving, mocking.” You don’t have to look hard to see that the portrait alludes to Nicolás Franco Salgado-Araújo, Francisco and Ramón’s father. The mother, on the other hand, is distinguished by her religiosity. “Catholic to the core,” says the author from her militant anticlericalism.
Cain represents militarism. He has studied at the academy since he was very young and reached, without much effort, the rank of officer. His enormous ambition takes him to the colonial wars, where he conquers by dint of courage the promotions that he has not been able to obtain due to his lack of application in studies: “Cain quickly climbed the vain heights of the military.” Obviously, Ramón openly mocks Francisco’s career as an Africanist. In real life, he once drew him as a careerist who would kill his own mother in order to achieve his goals.
The criticism is personal and also a broadside against the institution, that army that only serves to repress the rebellion of the workers. The soldiers and those who command them would be “automatons of order”, without scruples when it comes to protecting the privileged with their “barbaric attacks”.
What is Abel doing, meanwhile? He also chooses the career of arms, although not by vocation. The only thing he wants is to leave parental custody and enjoy financial independence. Military life, however, disappoints him. He finds an environment of great immorality and corruption, in which not those who have the most merit stand out, but rather “the children of professors and military chiefs.” That is why, despite his industrious nature, he does not get the position that corresponds to him, although he does get a better one than Cain’s.
Ramón, as we can see, sends Francisco an unequivocal message to make it clear that he is clearly ahead of him professionally. He also reproaches him for his leading role in a conflict, that of Morocco, which has meant the murder, in an unequal fight, of “brothers of another race.” All to satisfy “the ambitions of generals, politicians and businessmen.”
The novel is a true memorial of grievances. The reckoning also descends to private issues. While Cain chooses a girl from good society as his wife, Abel prefers a companion from the town. This is something that their reactionary relatives cannot tolerate, which is why a definitive family breakup occurs in which politics also plays a part: “This marriage, together with its campaigns in favor of the oppressed and its attacks against the powerful and “The merchants of Christianity distanced him forever from his bourgeois and intransigent family.”
In real life, Ramón contracted a second marriage, through civil means, with Engracia Moreno. For a Catholic family like his, divorce was not valid. Only the law of the Church counted.
Once the Republic is established, its enemies look for Cain to be the sword that overthrows the new regime. Abel is also against the government, although for very different reasons: he is not republican enough. The narrative then reaches its climax: the military brother, while leading a coup d’état, comes face to face with the progressive hero, at the head of a large demonstration full of revolutionary flags.
Abel is very clear about what he is going to do. He believes that his obligations to the people are above blood ties. As he knows that Cain is the figure that unites the reactionary forces, he does not hesitate to attack him and destroy his skull. Ramón Franco, at the conclusion of his story, tells us that this is a “holy crime” in which the love of humanity prevails “over the narrow selfishness of family love.” Abel has managed to avoid a serious danger to the revolution by eliminating someone who can be defined as a modern version of Attila, the Hunnic leader famous for his savagery.
In April 1931, the former aviator had already expressed these kinds of ideas in an article published in the anarchist newspaper Solidaridad Obrera. There he expressed his conviction, in forceful terms, that the military coup leaders should be treated with a strong hand: “That a group of generals is trying to establish a new dictatorship or fascist regime? Drag them or lynch them with no other law than Lynch’s law. That some colonels meet as a simple threat or with the purpose of taking measures against the people? They are burned or blown up in their own dens.”
But life takes many turns. Ramón Franco, finally, supported his brother during the Civil War and died under strange circumstances in 1938 when his seaplane crashed. Despite conspiracy theories, it is most likely that there was no sabotage behind it, but rather that it was an accident. Francisco, for his part, gave his version of the events in Raza (1942), the novel that he signed with the pseudonym Jaime de Andrade in which he expresses his antipathy for everything that Ramón symbolizes. The black sheep, in his eyes, is only redeemed by death.
