Possessed Pilgrims and Land Dispossession: The Agrarian Perplexities of Alardo Prats.

In 1929 Alardo Prats y Beltrán published one of the most fascinating reports of Spanish journalism prior to the Second Republic: Tres días con los endemoniados: la España desconocida y tenebrosa. Prats confronted the massive pilgrimages to the sanctuary of the Virgin of La Balma, in the Alt Maestrat region, visited by legions of Valencian, Aragonese, and Catalan " endemoniados " or possessed peasant farmers seeking exorcism. Already an accomplished journalist and in the midst of the Spanish Civil War, Prats visited Aragonese lands to witness the frontline and the collectivizations taking place at the rear. By analyzing his 1929 report and his 1937 Vanguardia y retaguardia de Aragón , I illuminate the insufficiencies of the republican liberal discourse in understanding key aspects of the peasant ethos, and the failure to recognize the effects of land dispossession. In 1929 Alardo Prats y Beltrán published one of the most fascinating reports of Spanish journalism prior to the Second Republic: Tres días con los endemoniados. La España desconocida y tenebrosa. Prats confronted the massive pilgrimages to the sanctuary of the Virgin of La Balma, in the Alt Maestrat region, visited by legions of Valencian, Aragonese, and Catalan "endemoniados" or possessed peasant farmers seeking exorcism. Already as an accomplished journalist and in the midst of the Spanish War, Prats visited Aragonese lands to witness the frontline and the collectivizations taking place at the rear. By analyzing his 1929 report and his 1937 Vanguardia y retaguardia de Aragón, I illuminate the insufficiencies of the republican, liberal discourse in understanding key aspects of the peasant ethos, and the failure to recognize the effects of land dispossession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]