ABSTRACT
During the Civil War and in its immediate aftermath, Gonzalo Queipo de Llano y Sierra was the object of considerable adulation. His first biographer discovered 'in his energetic and uncomplicated soul, in his pure yet drole spirit, in his flexibility and bravery, in his complex good looks, the style of a thoroughbred soldier'. The defeat of Spain at the hands of the United States in 1898 ensured that Queipo would never return to Cuba. Queipo forgot his hitherto slavish devotion to Alfonso XIII and joined the Republican movement. Although driven by personal resentment rather than political commitment, he was one of the founders of the Association Military Republican. Queipo was finally awarded the Gran Cruz Laureada in February 1944, after having requested it repeatedly. The man who had presided over the murder of tens of thousands of Andalusians was buried dressed as a Penitente of the Cofradia of the Virgin of the Macarena.
