Cara al Sol

The story

"Cara al Sol" ("Facing the Sun") is the anthem of the Falange Española de las JONS, the Falangist party of the Spanish far right. In 1935 the Falangists wanted a stirring song of their own to answer the "Himno de Riego", the official anthem of the Second Spanish Republic, and "A las Barricadas", a very popular anarchist song. The party's leader, José Antonio Primo de Rivera, called a committee together on 2 December 1935 at the Madrid home of Marichu de la Mora Maura; José María Alfaro, Rafael Sánchez Mazas, Agustín de Foxá, Pedro Mourlane Michelena, Dionisio Ridruejo, Agustín Aznar and Luis Aguilar were among those present. The words were written jointly under Primo de Rivera's editorship, line by line among Foxá, Alfaro, Ridruejo, Mourlane and himself, and closed on existing Falange slogans; a sub-committee reviewed them at the Cueva del Orkompon, a Basque bar in Madrid's Calle Miguel Moya.

The music was by Juan Tellería and Juan R. Buendía, based on Tellería's 1935 piece "Amanecer en Cegama" ("Dawn at Zegama"). Provisionally called the "Himno de Falange Española", the song was first performed at a rally at the Cine Europa in Madrid on 2 February 1936, and was registered between 1936 and 1937 with the words under the name of Juan Ruiz de la Fuente.

Primo de Rivera was executed on 20 November 1936, and his glorification by the Nationalists spread the song. During the Spanish Civil War the Falange, an important part of the Nationalist side both in ideology and in arms, kept its own organisation and fought alongside the insurgent army, and "Cara al Sol" was its anthem throughout the war. In Francoist Spain the Falange was merged with other far-right groups into the Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las JONS, the only legal party, and "Cara al Sol" became a "canto nacional" (national song) together with the Carlist "Oriamendi" and the anthem of the Spanish Legion, often played alongside the official anthem, the Marcha Granadera. A decree of 1942 ordered that the national songs be saluted at official events with the Roman salute, or with a military salute at purely military ones. It was regarded as the battle song of the Spanish far right.

After the war a slow version, "Amanecer", produced and conducted by A. Velázquez and sometimes sung by a woman, turned the battle song almost into a love ballad. Falangists who had joined before the war called themselves "old shirts" and those who joined later "new shirts", a term drawn from the anthem. Since the Spanish transition to democracy the song has often been sung at far-right rallies, among them by demonstrators at the removal of the last statue of Franco from Madrid.

What it says

The anthem of a far-right party, a martial song of sacrifice and loyalty to the movement; solemn and defiant.

The words

The words of this song are still in copyright, so the Institute does not print them itself: Genius shows them below, under its own licence.