Renán Vega Cantor, El Colectivo, 7/7/2022
Translated by John
Catalinotto
The author is a Colombian historian
Now it turns out that NATO, a criminal organization par excellence, is using ‘Guernica’ as a symbol of its wars of aggression against the world, where the blood and pain generated by the fascist forces in the small town of Guernica on April 26, 1937, is multiplied.
This group posed in front of Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ painting included Queen Letizia of Spain, Jill Biden of the U.S. and 14 other ‘First Ladies’ of ‘world leaders’ attending the 2022 NATO Summit in Madrid, June 29.
The photo is outrageous, although at first glance it appears harmless: A group of women are posing, and in the background is “Guernica,” Pablo Picasso’s iconic anti-war painting. What is behind this seemingly innocent and banal photo?
To understand, it is necessary to discuss who the women in the photo are and what was happening when it was taken. Because let’s remember there is no text — in this case it’s all visual, just a photo — without a context that might allow us to understand it.
In the photo are women linked to European or North American power. They are the “First Ladies,” who met in Madrid on the occasion of the NATO Summit in early July. They were summoned there by Spanish Queen Letizia Ortiz.
That is to say, they are women who accompany the presidents and prime ministers of the member countries of that military alliance that serves U.S. imperialism. The NATO meeting spoke precisely not about peace, but about war.
In this context, the photograph is an apology for war on the part of the women linked to NATO power. Considering the circumstances, the image of Guernica has been dragged through the muck.
Guernica is a universal icon that denounces the barbarities of war in general and the fascist aggression suffered by Spain in the 1930s in particular.
