Huesca and Return

Orwell toma café en Huesca

On March 27th 2018 Richard Blair spoke about his father, George Orwell, to a large audience in Nerja in southern Spain. The town of the title, Huesca, was one that his father saw but never visited: during Orwell’s watch the town was held by the Falange, under siege from the government militia who were trying to take back the town from the fascists.

The forces with which Orwell fought promised themselves that one day they would take coffee in Huesca, remembered in the phrase Orwell toma café en Huesca. That happened long after the Franco regime had fallen, but the phrase has become a motto of those who remember the struggle against fascism in Spain.

Richard Blair extends his thanks to Helen Sijsling, chair of the Arts Society of Nerja, her husband Wim van Hornsveld who designed this poster, and to everyone involved in the Orwell toma café en Huesca campaign.

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