• Chronicle Los Galindos: The Crime of My Father, the Marquis

Four corpses, two men and two women, were found in the farmhouse of Los Galindos, located in the Sevillian town of Paradas, on July 22, 1975. The victims were farm workers and their wives. The case, which soon jumped to the national media, became an enigma that even today, almost 50 years later, has not been solved.

In those first hours of investigation, suspicion remained about Manuel Zapata, foreman, whose wife Juana was one of those murdered, and the motive for the crime of passion was considered. However, Zapata's lifeless body was found days later, also on the farm and in an advanced state of decomposition, clearing up doubts as to whether he was the criminal. So who killed Manuel, his wife Juana, the tractor drivers Ramón and José, and Asunción, his wife?

Chronicle

Multiple murder.

The Galindos: The Crime of My Father, the Marquis

  • Written by: CHEMA RODRÍGUEZ

The Galindos: The Crime of My Father, the Marquis

It is a mystery on which Mediaset will try to shed light twice. On the one hand, with the true crimeLos Galindos. The whole truth by Fénix Media and, on the other hand, with a six-episode miniseries entitled El Marqués and which is currently in the filming phase in the province of Seville.

Both productions, presented at the South International Festival in Cadiz, have a common link: the actor Víctor Clavijo is the narrator of the documentary series and also plays Rafael Pertierra y Medina, Marquis of Bahia and consort of the owner of the estate. The fiction, created by Ignacio del Moral (Cuéntame cómo pasó) and Begoña Álvarez (Skam España), assumes the thesis of the book El crimen de Los Galindos. The whole truth, written by Juan Mateo Fernández de Córdova, son of the marquis himself, which places him as a possible author of the massacre: it is believed that he may have killed Zapata so that he would not warn his wife and father-in-law of the millionaire embezzlement he had discovered.

'El Marqués' is structured around two timelines: the years 1977 and 1975. In December 1977, two years after the crimes on the Andalusian estate of Los Galindos, Onofre (José Pastor), a journalist who finishes his internship at a current affairs magazine, must return to his village, Paradas, where the event took place. The director of the publication, Solís, (Jorge Bosch), commissions him to write an article about the current situation in the municipality. On the other hand, true crime focuses on the police investigation of the case, marked by negligence, irregularities and mysteries, and tries to unveil some of the enigmas of this crime that expired 27 years ago without being clarified.

How did Víctor Clavijo come to both projects? It was an absolute coincidence. One day I met Pepa Sánchez-Biezma [director] at the train station in Seville and she told me that she was shooting this documentary about the crime of Los Galindos and two weeks later they called me to do a casting related to the case and I thought it had to do one thing with the other, but no. It was a very long casting and when they called me, who was already filming The Law of the Sea, they told me that they had chosen me for the series and I saw that they were different producers. Then Pepa called me to ask if I wanted to do the voice-over and I told her: 'You won't believe it, I'm going to do the series'. Neither of them knew, but since it was the same chain there was no problem. It's a very dramatic plot. Is it being an emotionally intense shoot? Yes, but it's being very easy at the same time. We've had a lot of rehearsals and time in advance, which is not usual in television, so we are very clear about the direction and the future of the characters. When it comes to putting themselves in the shoes of the character, each actor already knows what key to play, what emotion or what nuance, and we focus more on the mise-en-scène. At the moment, almost everything I'm recording is with Óscar de la Fuente and we understand each other like crazy.

Along with De la Fuente, the young performer José Pastor (who gave life to Miguel Bosé in his biopic), Paco Tous (Paco's Men), Laura Baena (Vis a vis) and Adelfa Calvo (winner of the Goya for The Author), among others, will share the bill with Clavijo. The Andalusian towns of Carmona, Alcalá de Guadaira, Mairena del Alcor, Seville and Huelva are the settings chosen to recreate the farmhouse and other key points of history, as well as some places in Ceuta, Madrid and Barcelona.

In addition to the case, what will the series show us about the Spain of the time? It is the Spain that is dying and the Spain that is being born. The Marquis represents that Spain that faces the end of an era with that fear of what is going to happen, the fear of losing privileges, or of whether the new Spain comes with a revanchist spirit. They are a generation that has grown up with the fear of communism and the collectivization of the land, which they believe was what brought ruin. They see it from the side of the victor of the Civil War and tell themselves the story. The series portrays a period in 1975 in which they are still in the elite and another in which they have already lost a certain privilege. A documentary that talks about that time and is called After From... you can't be left alone, with interviews on the street about the legalization of abortion, the legalization of the Communist Party, etc., and it portrays the fear that existed then in right-wing Spain and the hope of left-wing Spain. It has been a source of inspiration for the character. Did the documentary you narrated also help you to build your character? Thanks to the documentary, I was able to see a video clip of the character, that there was nothing on the internet, just some photos. In profile it can have an air of me, thin, wiry... Pepa gave me a very brief interview that allowed me to hear how she expressed herself, although I haven't done an imitation. It was dangerous because you could fall into a cliché, and it wasn't necessary because the audience doesn't have that reference. But it did help me to get the spirit of how he spoke in front of the camera, with that arrogance and cockiness. And have you been able to talk to Fernández de Córdova, son of your character? I haven't had a relationship with my son, only through reading the book, where he already paints a fairly complete portrait. The documentary helped me to know some details, but making the series you have to conform to the writer's vision. Maybe talking to the son could create a conflict for me if he suddenly gives me a nuance that is in the series. Yes. And it's the same as the series

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