A reader on Capa:

 

Hi Linh,

today I received your book “Kafka, Anti-Semite”, and I have read your essay on Robert Capa with great pleasure. I found many elements in it which I didn’t know.

About 20 years ago, the Capa community tried to enhance the authenticity of the photo of the “Dying Militiaman” by identifying him with an Andalusian anarchist well known in his times, Federico Borrell, known as Taino.

 

In 2008, Milagros Soler, specialist in Andalusian history, examined this theory and came to the conclusion that: “It is quite unlikely that someone who was active from a very young age in the anarchist ranks, contributing from clandestinity to forming the first committee of the C. N. T. in Alcoy, founder of the Libertarian Youth in that town and participated in the organization of the first anarcho-syndicalist columns who went to the front to fight against fascism, could lend himself to being the puppet of a photographer, whose reputation as a party animal, liar and womanizer was already known at that time. It is difficult to believe hypotheses that point to the fact that he could lend himself to posing for Capa in a matter such as the hoax of the death of a colleague. Never would a person with the public image that he had have lent himself to the ridicule of his co-religionists or his adversaries, lending himself to that game. It would have been very difficult for him to explain his fake death, without having to accept that he was participating in a hoax. That type of ‘humor’ would not have been well understood in a conflict that generated more than a million deaths.”

The portrait she paints of Endré Ernó Friedmann (real name of Capa) is quite unflattering. The conclusion we may draw from her essay is that the person disguised as a militiaman we see in the photo, falling backwards and dramatically dropping his rifle, is Capa himself; and that the photo was taken by Gerda Taro. Before travelling to Andalusia, the couple posed in the streets of Barcelona, disguised as militiaman and -woman. I attach a photo which shows they enjoyed the civil war, more than any real militiamen would have done.

 

Of course the essay was ignored by the mainstream press, mainstream historians, and the many people who still profit from Capa’s fame. However, it is still accessible in the internet: http://www.culturandalucia.com/GCE/Taino/La_identidad_de_Taino_en_una_foto_atribuida_a_Robert_Capa_por_M_Soler_web.htm.

 

I look forward to reading the other essays in your book, and I will share my impressions with you if I may.

 

Sincerely,