‘The echo of my name’ by Isabel Romero Casas, a post-war female narrative about women’s freedom.

Incredible falls short as an adjective to what I felt when discovering the novel by Isabel Romero Casas which, even though it is not his debut film, it is his first time in the historical novel. And what a raid! The echo of my name is a historical fiction about post-war Madrid, where a strong female character begins to remove the blindfold that covers her eyes due to a series of family secrets that she is unable to ignore. A novel that has kept me in suspense all night and that is a faithful portrait of the time and, above all, of the coercion suffered not only by those retaliated by the regime, but also by all Spaniards and, above all, by the Spanish women who They dared to look beyond.

The Madrid of the 50s, an open wound.

While the victors strolled through the streets of Spain, the vanquished had to be careful. Madrid, and the entire country, had just emerged from harsh repression after the Spanish Civil War and is still there was a huge open wound between the people. Regardless of which side they were on, the war brought destruction for everyone, since it was rare who had not lost a loved one in the conflict.

Madrid was also beginning to expand, but not in terms of laws. Freedom was still a utopia for many, among them, women. A character already says it The echo of my namewho claims that it had been Educated to be a devoted wife and devoted mother. I think this phrase reflects very well the feelings of many women of the time.

Also, the contrast between classes It was patent. And the hate. Well, everyone saw red everywhere, or else, oppressors. Occasional demonstrations began to take to the streets and fashion changed, but not spirits.

All this and more is reflected in The echo of my name by Isabel Romero Casas. For me, one of the strong points of the novel is the faithful historical setting and location that the author has made. Walking through the streets of Madrid at the time and even visiting mythical places in the capital such as the Avenida cinema is a luxury and it has been done so well that the house or corner from where you are reading the novel begins to smell like roasted chestnuts. of the Gran Vía stalls.

Furthermore, Mercedes Quiroga, our main protagonist, is part of a wealthy family of the time, and is the daughter of the general of the Legion, Rafael Quiroga. Which is going to greatly intensify the class clash that we are going to witness.

Mercedes Quiroga, the strong female character in the novel.

The evolution of this character is Oscar’s.

The first thing we accompany Mercedes to is the fitting of her wedding dress. It is radiant and brand new. She is going to marry the man she has been in love with since she was a child and whose families are close. She couldn’t dream of anything better. They believe in the Regime, they believe in life. They are on the winning side and everything is going well for them.. Until he finds an incoherent photograph in a box in which her paternal grandmother kept poems… And his world begins to crack.

I have to highlight that Mercedes is a teenager with a noble heartwhich prevents him from looking away as he discovers the different family secrets. And there are many! Although we glimpse the first in the first chapters, we will still have to go around several times until we discover the heart of the matter.

With Mercedes we will not only live a time, but also enormous frustration and repression, and not only war. Also freedom.

Freedom, our most precious asset.

The echo of my name it’s a song of freedom. The young Mercedes Quiroga will have to face not only her father, the general of the Legion himself, and her extreme way of thinking, but also the monster that she discovers in him and everyone around him who They dance to the sound of a national song that allows no reply. Mercedes will discover the lack of understanding of her on the part of her future husband and, also, the indifference of other women who, even oppressed like her, do not want to do anything to help each other. In principle… well the novel has a sweet ending.

Although The echo of my name by Isabel Romero Casas talks about freedom in general, it focuses a lot on the freedom of women and other groups more vulnerable, such as the homosexual community. They talk about how they took away their children from Republican women at birth in Franco’s prisons, how you couldn’t get pregnant when you were single, how little general sexual education there was, the law on vagrants and thugs… Even how strange it was. for a woman to wear jeans in the 1950s in a more traditional setting. In Romero’s novel, freedom is also reflected in fashionanother point that I loved.

How many secrets can a person hold?

The novel It’s about freedom and secrets. It is the latter that turn everything upside down. The secrets will take Mercedes to Los Antones, Almería, but also to Ávila, France and, of course, to Madrid.

I was somewhat afraid, as it was the author’s first foray into the genre and into this type of plot, that there would be a facile plot surrounding family secrets. But it’s all very well spun. Even the love story.

As Mercedes opens her eyes, others also look at her. So we will have some small love stories between the pages that do not take away attention from the betrayals that, however, on other sides, Mercedes is suffering.

And along with the secrets also lies the forgiveness. As I said before, the ending is sweet and it is because Quiroga also learns to forgive. To leave the past behind and embark on the future. Because someone he loved asked him to don’t stop fighting…

What begins with a wedding, ends with another wedding.

Another of the great surprises of The echo of my name by Isabel Romero Casas is the love story. We begin by attending the preparations for a wedding and we end up, despite everything that is happening in the plot, in it. The author keeps who waits at the altar until the end. In fact, when the bride enters the church in the last pages, we can still be deceived about the identity of the aforementioned… Well… Anyway, it is better that you read it.

There are three great love stories: one of friendship, affection and loyalty, another of passion and another of true love. They all contribute something to the protagonist and teach her to become the strong woman that she is. We have some scenes that remind us of Noahs diary and it is love, too, that leads us to know another desolate scenario such as Uncle Raimundo’s Wellan important social criticism that the author wanted to make in the plot.

The echo of my name of Isabel Romero Casas is a fascinating historical novel of post-war Madrid, of a country full of contradictions, silences and wounds where many groups, such as women, were totally self-sacrificing. The work seeks freedom in all its forms along with forgiveness and deals with topics of special interest such as unwanted pregnancies, the theft of children, the criminalization of homosexuality… With a strong protagonist, we will break the chains that, surely, of Having lived through that time, we would have liked to destroy it.