María Concepción Castella y García-Duarte (1889–1966) was a Spanish writer, in literature known by the name of Concepción Castella de Zavala. She was the author of some 25 novels, published between 1936 and 1950. Intended for a popular audience, they combined action and romance; they also promoted traditional values like patriotism, family and religion. As she embraced the Carlist outlook, her prose is also saturated with Traditionalism. Today her literary production is considered of minor importance and low quality; it is usually categorized as second-rate prose of early Francoism. She is mostly ignored by historians of literature, though she might be acknowledged when discussing novels related to feminist threads or local Granada customs.
Family and youth
The Castella surname appears mostly along the Spanish Mediterranean coast, especially in Catalonia and the Baleares, yet it is not clear what branch Concepción descended from. Some sources claim that her paternal grandfather, unknown by name, was related to banking, probably in Granada.Roque Hidalgo Álvarez, El agotamiento de la modernización autoritaria. Las élites granadinas en los años finales de la dictadura de Primo de Rivera [PhD thesis Universidad de Cádiz], Cádiz 2019, p. 290 He was married to Trinidad González-Aurioles Castaldo (born 1833);Trinidad Herrán González-Aurioles entry, [in:] Geneanet service, available here she was daughter to Miguel González-Aurioles, a pipe organ builder known for works in Granada churches of the early 19th century.Iglesia del convento de San Bernardo – Granada, [in:] Ricones de Granada service, available here Nothing further is known about the couple, except that they formed part of the well-off burgesía granadina. Their son and the father of Concepción, Ricardo Castella y González-Aurioles (died 1925),El Defensor de Granada 12.04.25, available online in Biblioteca Virtual de Andalucia service here was educated as a lawyer; in the 1890s and 1900s he practiced as attorneyon the 1893 list of lawyers active in Granada and compiled by the local Colegio de Abogados, he was listed as the last one, El Defensor de Granada 30.11.93, available here and judge in the Salvador district.Anuario-Riera 1905, p. 1691, available here Some sources refer to him also as a banquero;Un nuevo edificio de Gran Vía será reconvertido en hotel, [in:] El Independiente de Granada 07.02.20, available here at various points in time he managed municipality-run institutions like Hospital de San LázaroEl Popular 19.10.88, available here and was teaching law at Real Colegio de San Bartolomé y Santiago in Granada.Memoria del Instituto de Segunda Enseñanza de la Provincia de Granada, Granada 1898, available here At the turn of the centuries he was councilor in the Granada ayuntamientoEl Defensor de Granada 03.05.95 and served as teniente de alcalde, the deputy mayor;La Publicidad 29.09.95, available here in the early 1910s he was president of Junta Municipal del Censo.Noticiero Granadino 13.10.11
At unspecified time, though probably in the mid-1880s, Ricardo Castella married Blanca García-Duarte González. She came from a prestigious Granada family; her father and the maternal grandfather of Concepción, Eduardo García Duarte,Eduardo García Duarte (1830-1905), was son of Manuel García Herrero and Vicenta Anastasia Duarte Cordero, Amelina Correa Ramón, Sobre el intelectual Eduardo García Duarte, [in:] Arbor 187 (2011), p. 757 though born in Madrid, became an iconic Granada personality.he was married to María Josefa Remigia González Pérez (1833-?), the maternal grandmother of Concepción, Correa Ramón 2011, p. 757 Educated in medicine, he earned his status due to contribution to fighting cholera outbursts, management of the municipal sanitary infrastructure, as academic and as rector of the University of Granada from 1872 to 1875; he reportedly rejected the marqués title, offered to him by the king.Correa Ramón 2011, pp. 758-760 Ricardo and Blanca lived in Granada, in the late 1900s they moved to the large, four-storey residence in the centre of the city, designed for the family by a prestigious architect. Today considered a cultural heritage of the city,Gabriel Pozo Felguera, La tercera muerte del padre del Modernismo arquitectónico en Granada, [in:] El Independiente de Granada 31.01.21, available here it hosted 24 flats which covered 9,125 square meters.Hidalgo Álvarez 2019, p. 287
The couple had five children.named María, Ricardo, Gloria, José and Concepción, listed after the necrological note of Eduardo García Duarte, El Defensor de Granada 15.03.05 None of the sources consulted clarifies why Concepción was born in Baena, though it is understood she spent her childhood and youth in Granada. Nothing is known of her education. In 1915Revista de sanidad militar 15.02.15, available here she married Miguel Zavala Lara (1883–1973), at the time a junior officer in the rank of farmaceútico primero, in the medical branch of the army. The couple shuttled across Spain and Morocco following military postings of Zavala; in 1916 he was assigned to Larache,Anuario Militar de España 1916, available here and subsequent relocations followed. They had six children, born between the mid-1910s and the mid-1920s.named Juan, Miguel, Ricardo, Manuel, José María and Ángel, Ramón Charlo Ortiz-Repiso, Concepción Castellá y García Duarte, [in:] RAH service, available here Two of them became public figures: José María Zavala Castella was a Carlist politician who championed the pro-socialist turn of the movement during late Francoism, while Juan Zavala Castella during the same period served as director general de prisiones;Memoria de la Dirección General de Instituciones Penitenciarias 1971, Madrid 1971, p. 137 both were active in ex-combatant requeté, though José promoted the progressist and Juan the traditionalist perspective. Concepción was cousin to the socialist politician Rafael García-Duarte SalcedoConcepción’s maternal uncle Rafael García-Duarte González held chair of medicine in Granada and was married to Carmen Salcedo Atienza and the writer Francisco Ayala García-Duarte.Concepción’s maternal aunt Luz García-Duarte González, a moderately known painter, in 1905 married a lawyer Francisco Ayala Arroyo
Writings
Before the war Castella “collaborated with one or another magazine”.“Aunque habia colaborado en alguna que otra revista, empieza a escribir cuando estalla la Guerra Civil”, Ramón Charlo, La novela sentimental, [in:] Fernando Martínez de la Hidalga (ed.), La novela popular en España, vol. 2, Madrid 2001, ISBN 8493182710, p. 214 Her first works identified were stories serialized in Barcelona-based reviews; La piedra filosofal in a literary magazine Lecturas (1935)Algo 31.08.35, available here and ¿Heroes? in a Catholic weekly La Hormiga de Oro (1936). The latter told a story of a young officer, who sacrificed his love for a woman to take care of own mother and younger siblings, suddenly in financial dire straits.La Hormiga de Oro 28.11.35, available here 3 The story revealed some of future trademark features of Castella's prose: romantic threads discussed against the background of moral obligations. In the spring of 1936 as “Concepción Castellá”her pre-war works as signed "Concepción Castellá". Her wartime and post-war novels were attributed to ""Concepción Castellá", "Concepción Castella de Zabala" or "Concepción Castella de Zavala" she published a short novel Campana la de la Vela;at first it appeared serialized in Lecturas, España Médica 01.05.36, available here, and then was published as a separate volume in the Novelas Cortas de Lecturas series, Concepción Castellá [sic!], Campana de la vela, [in:] GoodReads service, available here evoking a Granadan romantic legend,compare e.g. Juan Enrique Gómez, La campana de la Vela tañe por el amor, [in:] Ideal 02.01.17, available here it explored dilemmas of the local well-off.Pablo Alcázar, ¿Volver al 36?, [in:] Granada Hoy service 01.09.2016, available here
Castella's most productive period was the Civil War. She penned three short novels (80–90 pages each)Didier Corderot, La Biblioteca Rocío (1937-1939) o las virtudes de la novela rosa durante la Guerra Civil española, [in:] Tropelias 23 (2015), pp. 43-46 with plot in wartime setting: Guerra en el frente, paz en las almas (1937)see the cover at GoodReads service, available here was related to the siege of alcázar in Toledo,Diario de Burgos 13.12.37, available here Hágase tu voluntad (1938)it is the only identified Castella's novel which has issued at least twice dwelled upon heroism of Santuario de Nuestra Señora de la Cabeza defenders,El Adelanto 13.05.38, available here El Alférez provisional (1939) presented deeds of a young man turned officer. All books featured as protagonists the patriotic Spaniards who joined National troops, though some of them – like in Hágase... – might have gone a long way from aristocratic frivolity to heroism. Another set of her novels revolved aroung Granadan customs and legends, usually with strong amorous ingredient; Juan sin alma, Vivamos sin el amor and Los duendes del Albaicin (all 1938), Cruz de floressee the cover at the Todocoleccion service, available here and Golondrinasee the cover at the AbeBooks service, available here (both 1939).
After the war Castella briefly continued both wartime and Granadan topics; La rosa del Maestrazgo (1940)see the cover at the IberLibro service, available here pictured romance episodes during the Levantine campaign, while La hija de la AlhambraImperio 07.03.39, available here and Ópalos de fuegosee the cover at the IberLibro service, available here explored local features (both 1940). Afterwards the author abandoned themes related to both wartime action and Granada customs.Charlo 2001, p. 214 Some of her novels tended to be in historical setting (Las nietas del Cid 1940,see the cover at the BuscaLibre service, available here El castillo de Fierro-Negro 1943,see the cover at the Todocoleccion service, available here) some featured an exotic background (Nómadas del destino 1945),Patria 02.06.45, available here some explored conventional romance threads (Santina 1941) and there is hardly anything known about others: Las que saben amar (1945),see the cover at the Todocoleccion service, available here Isabel Reyes (1945),see the cover at the Todocoleccion service, available here Dogal de oro (1947),see the cover at the AbeBooks service, available here Tristeza de amor (1948),see the cover at the Todocoleccion service, available here Rosas de fuego (1949),see the cover at the IberLibro service, available here La razón de vivir and Tierra en los ojos (both 1950).in few cases the publication year is not clear; this is the case of Sombras sobre la vida nad La Yaqui; the cover art and price suggest late 1950s, compare here and here
Castella's novels were aimed at unsophisticated audience and formed part of popular editorial series; one scholar underlines these within Biblioteca Rocio by a Seville publishing house Ediciones Betis,Corderot 2015, p. 27 another claims that most were part of La Novela Rosa by Ediciones Juventud;Charlo 2001, p. 214 few were issued by Ediciones Técnicas and enjoyed even some sort of marketing campaign.La Prensa 30.04.45, available here The ones in wartime setting were among many supposed to sustain support for Nationalist cause. Other novels were more tilted towards entertainment, though they were also supposed to “deliver a sense of normality” in the early Francoist era;“entretener a un público lector familiar, y ponerle a salvo de ideas subversivas, creando de rebote un clima de aparente normalidad”, Corderot 2015, p. 28 a historian puts them in the “conservadurismo casero” rubric, which by means of “literatura inofensiva” exercised “ideological control” over the readers.Corderot 2015, pp. 41-42
Carlist