The year is 1979 Josep Escolà is 65 years old and retired from all his jobs. Josep lives in his birthplace, which is Barcelona, Spain and Josep Escolà’s son, named Junior just got home form school. Junior went and sat down next to his dad who was sitting on the couch and asked him, “Dad what were all your jobs?” Josep Escolà looked up from his newspaper and asked his son, “ Why the sudden interest in my old jobs mijo?” Junior then explained to his dad that he had a report to about his parents and he had to chose either his mom or dad to write about as their main subject. Josep just nodded in understandment. Josep thought about it careful and looked at his straight in the eye as he began to straighten himself in his seat. He took a deep breathe and let it out and said, “Well mijo to start what do you know of my jobs that I had before?” Junior responded, “I knew that you were a soccer coach for lower division soccer teams.” “You are correct that I once had worked as a coach but before I became a coach I was a professional soccer player back in the 1930s.”, responded Josep. Junior looked at his father with a dumbfounded look on his face as if his father grew a second head right in front of him. Josep looked at his son and responded, “I am sorry I never told you of that topic mijo, the reason being that it is sort of a hard topic to talk about because it was very eventful and sort of a hard time for me.” Junior looked his dad with sympathy and said, “ It seems that it is very hard on you because of the look on your face dad, I mean if you do not want to talk about it then I will go find mom and interview her instead do not worry father.” “It is okay mijo I was planning on telling you about the topic but there was never a perfect moment and right now is the best moment to tell you more about my past.”, responded Josep. Junior said, “ Well dad let me ask you the basic questions then. What team did you play on?” Josep relaxed and straighten himself again before he began to speak and said, “ Well I son, I played on the soccer team named Fc Barcelona in 1934- 1937 and then again in 1940- 1948.” Junior processed the information and asked, “ Why is there a time gap between 1937 and 1940?” “ Well son lets start from the very beginning. It was 1934 when I meet Franz Platko. I was in the neighborhood field practicing my soccer technics that I learned from a friend of mine. Franz was walking by but he stopped when he saw what I was doing. I was doing some soccer moves that mostly professional soccer players knew but thanks to my friend his dad was a soccer trainer so he helped me learn them. By the look on Franz face I could tell he was very impressed and surprised of what I could do. Franz just walked up to me and informed of some soccer tryouts for international teams and I agreed to try out. He strictly told me to tryout for the soccer team called Fc Barcelona. He did not let me finish asking him a question because someone that worked with or for him interrupted and told him they had to get going. He looked me in the eye and said ‘See you at the tryouts’, I just nodded my head and watched him leave.” Junior nodded and wrote down a brief summary of what his dad was telling him. Then Junior looked up at and asked his dad, “ Did you ever see that man, Franz Platko again? Did you make the soccer team on the first try or did you have to retry out again?” Josep just nodded, as a way of taking in the questions that his son just asked him and responded, “Yes actually on the day of my tryouts I saw him standing on the sidelines of the fields and I approached him. He was conversing with someone who at the time I didn’t know who it was. Turns out that he was talking to the president of Fc Barcelona and I did not find out until later on. I greeted them both and asked Franz for his name. He apologized to me for not introducing himself to me when he told me to tryout. He told me that he was a retired goalkeeper of the team and that now he was a manager. And well son what do you think? On December 2, 1934 I was playing my first ever soccer game. After a week of training after the tryouts I played my first game. I still remember that day that on the 78 minute of the game I made my first ever goal in my soccer career. I can still hear the crowd cheering for me and chanting my name and the soccer teams name. It felt so awesome and amazing knowing that it was just the start of my career playing something I love with a passion.” Junior said, “Wow dad that sounds like an amazing experience. I do not hear anything bad about that. I do not understand why you quit.” Josep’s facial expression went from happy and joyful to gloomy and dark. He responded, “Well mijo the first year and four months of my career where amazing but during that time, life was not easy “, Josep closed his eyes for a brief moment and took a deep breathe ask if to relax himself, “At the time I did not look anywhere else but soccer and was oblivious of what was happening around me. In the streets I started to hear people whisper and always look over their shoulders with a frighten expression on their face because they heard a rumor saying that there was going to be an upspring. I remember that two days after our game April 14, 1936 during a military anarchist/socialist agitators shot parade the Civil Guardian Anastasio de los Reyes in the back. During Anastasio’s funeral a lot of riots broke out. They stopped all soccer games after April 19 because you could feel the tension wherever you went. Just walking home to the end of the street you would feel unsafe. I remember when the soccer team’s president came talked to us. He introduced himself his name was Josep Sunyol, he had an amazing personality he would always make us laugh even though our country was going through a hard time. The first time we spoke we clicked and got very close he was such a great friend. Since they told us there would be no more games until the war stopped or calmed down, so he would just act like one of us and mess around with us. Sadly on August 6,1936 he was murdered by Franco’s soldiers. His family informed us; when they told me about his death I felt like I could not longer breathe that well no more. Sunyol was scared for our safety so he sent us back home to Barcelona and he warned us to be careful for Franco’s soldiers since they took over Barcelona already. Franco’s soldiers took over Sierra de Guadarramain, Spain. Franco did purges purposely in areas he took over already.” Josep took another deep breath and continued, “ One of the groups of soldiers that were in the area arrested Sunyol for no reason. Later on during the day after they captured a good amount of people they executed everyone they captured. Even to this day I still remember the way I felt finding out about the news, felt as if my heart dropped to my stomach.” Junior took everything that his father said processed it and understood why his father did not like to talk about. His father did not like to be reminded that he lost an amazing friend that day in the war. The pained look on his fathers face as he told the story really got to him. Junior said, “Wow dad he sounds like he meant a lot to you and the other soccer players.“ Josep responded, “ Yes mijo he meant a lot to me because he was one of the friends that you met in your life and they are rare. Hopefully you not tired of hearing me talk some more son because I am barely at the beginning of the story.” Junior said, “I have a question that I been wondering about dad.” Josep said, “Sure let me hear the question mijo.” Junior responded, “Did you flee out of the country or did you stay in Spain dad?” Josep stayed quiet for a minute before saying, “ I actually did flee son, and I left to France. I remember talking to my teammates about leaving or staying. Some of my teammates wanted to stay in Spain because they had their family here and they wanted to protect them and not leave their side in time of need, while others wanted to go to a different country because their family already fled and were gone to a different country. At the time I chose to stay in Spain with my other teammates. Then in 1937 we left Spain to México and the United States on a trip to raise funds for the war. The entire soccer team went and since we were reunited we started talking about whether we were going back to Spain or going out somewhere. The civil war was already happening and a lot of destruction was happening. A lot of our hometowns and a lot of other soccer player’s hometown were destroyed. A couple of soccer player team mates and I agreed to go to France until the war was over. We stayed in France for four years. In those years I got a spot on a French soccer team so when I returned after the war I would still have practice on playing. At first playing on a different soccer team that was not mine did not feel right but I eventually got used to the feeling. I ended up playing on a soccer team called Setè for 3 years. In those three years that I was not in Spain I tried to stay in touch with the soccer players and my family. A lot of the other soccer players were either soccer player’s replacements or they got a spot on a national team and they would stay in that country permanently.” Josep paused for a brief moment and then continued, “ I still remember how the apartment was. It had 2 bedrooms both, which were white rooms. We had a restroom so it was a constant fighting matter. I stayed with a couple other soccer players’ atleast six but we would share everything during the weeks we would rotate our jobs/chores that had to be done. The living room walls were a pale yellow and the after that could fit four people the walls were painted a mintish color. I made a lot of memorable memories in France. Junior said, “Wow a lot can happen in change in so little time.” “Yes mijo those years were very dark sad days. A lot of soccer players or people that had a job associated with soccer were killed. Also something very tragic happened on March 16,1938 to the Fc Barcelona team. The soccer teams’ building was bomb and the bombs caused a lot of damages. Also a lot of other soccer teams fields and buildings were destroyed. The civil war caused a lot of grief and hurt but it brought all the soccer teams together and they became stronger from what they experienced,” said Josep. Junior asked, “Do you remember some of the other players names that died?” “ I do not remember their names no more son. Thank God that after our president no one else that I knew died.” responded Josep. Junior asked, “When did you come back to Spain dad?” Josep responded, “I came back to Spain in 1940 and I was put in exile for 6 years because I left the country while the war was happening. Thankful the new president of Barcelona was in favor of several players helped Balmanya and me start playing a year after we returned from France. After my official come back I played for 8 years on Barcelona. They changed the name of the soccer team to CF Barcelona. It was because Catalonia symbolized undisciplined, so they banned their fag and clubs were banned from using non-Spanish names. When Frano’s dictatorship ended in 1974 all the teams got their original crest and names.” Junior asked at his dad curiously, “ What is exile?” “Exile is when you get expulsed from playing for a certain amount of years.” responded Josep. Junior asked, “How did your game seasons go dad?” Josep responded, “ We won two of the championships one in 1945 and the other in 1948. During my career I played in 253 games and made 223 goals. Sadly everything that goes up must eventually come back down. I stopped playing due to sustaining many injuries to my knee and hip.” Junior wrote the last thing his dad said down and he looked at his dad with a very pleased expression and said,” Wow dad you must have been on of the best soccer players that the team had at the time.” Josep smiled at what his son said and responded, “Thanks to those experiences it made me the person I a today. After I got a little more recovered from my injuries on my knee and hip I became a team manager; 1949-1950 Badalona, 1951-1952 Sabadell, 1954-1955 Castellón and 1955-1956 Levanta. After that I just retired to stay at home with you and your mother since I had no reason to work no more. I made a lot of money as a soccer player and I still have that money saved up.” Junior said, “Wow dad it is amazing how you went through a lot during and after the war and you are always so positive about everything. If you wound not have told me this story your self I think I would not believe the other person or anyone who would tell me. I saw the pain and grief in the moments that you went through that while telling me that story.” Josep responded, “ Well son I have been through a lot and you are right. In my opinion everything that I went through happens for a reason. I learned that things always change in less than a minute so its better to see the positive of the things instead of always looking at the negative perspective of everything. So whenever something seems extremely bad or negative I always try my best to look on the positive side to keep myself going. Remember son that no matter how hard everything looks in a point of your life that to wait and let the storm pass by and when it leaves the sun radiation is 2x as stronger.” Junior smiled and nodded and his dad. He stood up and took his father by surprise by giving him a hug. Josep got up and hugged his son back. For the rest of the day Junior was rewriting everything his father said. Junior learned how to appreciate his father and mother more than ever because he understood that their lives were not as easy as they look.

                                     El Fin