Working title Mosén Millán Language Spanish Originally published 1953 Genre Novella | Country Spain Media type Print | |
Original title Requiem por un campesino español Spanish Civil War books Soldiers of Salamis, La cabeza del cordero, The Time of the Doves, Campo cerrado, Luna de lobos | ||
Requiem for a Spanish Peasant (Réquiem por un campesino español) is a famous short novel in twentieth-century Spanish literature by Spanish writer Ramón J. Sender. It relates the thoughts and memories of Mosén Millán, a Catholic parish priest, as he sits in the vestry of a church in a nameless Aragonese village, preparing to conduct a requiem mass to celebrate the life of a young peasant named Paco killed by the Nationalist army a year earlier, at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. As he waits, his thoughts are interrupted by the occasional comings and goings of an altar boy, who hums to himself an anonymous ballad.
Contents
The novel was originally published under the title Mosén Millán; however, the author changed the title to shift the focus from the priest to its peasant protagonist.
Plot summary
The story is narrated by a third-person omniscient narrator who has insight into Mosén Millán's thoughts and feelings. Three distinct planes of narration exist in the novel: the present, Millán's recollections of his relationship with Paco from birth to death, and the ballad the altar boy sings which recounts Paco's life.
In the present, Millán, fatigued, prays as he awaits the requiem mass with recollections of Paco's life. As he prays he rests his head against a wall - a habit - which bears a dark spot. The altar boy comes and goes and both remark on the lack of people attending mass. Millán, feeling guilty knowing that he played a role in Paco's death, asks the altar boy to leave the church to look for mass attenders in the town square when the altar boy sings the parts of the ballad that refer to Millán.