Two Spains, a Kitchen & a Soundtrack

From a poet walking towards the French border to the loud nights of a new democracy, this is what remains when the music outlives the regime.

For Alejo R.D.F., growing up between an Italian mother and a Spanish father's family, Spain's history came backwards: through kitchen tables, vinyl records and family folklore.

Two Spains, a Kitchen & a Soundtrack is a history of Spain you can hum along to. Each chapter opens with a poem or a song - Unamuno's last stand at Salamanca, the war song both trenches sang about the same Italian, Lorca's last night, Machado's exile, a soldier's letter to his mother, Serrat's fight over language, the return of La Pasionaria, a punk puppet witch on children's television - and follows it into the history behind it, and into the author's own family story.

It is a deeply personal journey through memory, nostalgia, and the resilience of a people who turned to verse and melody when speech wasn't safe. Part memoir, part history, part tribute, it is a testament to how stories keep open what the regime tried to seal shut.

A chronology and a who's who at the back help anyone arriving new to Spanish history.