Description
Diane knew nothing about the Spanish Civil War, and the only thing she knew about the dictator Franco was that Alberto, the worldly, successful Spanish engineer she wanted to marry, called him “benevolent.” The story of this Spanish/American marriage is set in Madrid during the final years of the Franco regime, 1966-1976. The insights into daily Spanish life could only be told by someone who lived them, and loved most of them. Diane filled her letters home with happy anecdotes about maids and doormen, in-laws and food, but underneath the comfortable exterior lingered vague images of Franco’s police and ghosts of the Civil War – the war no one spoke about, or mentioned only superficially. Except for Alberto who had recounted his harrowing experience as a teenager fleeing the siege of Madrid. It was Alberto’s increasingly alarming behavior that made her fear for her marriage, and ultimately made her fear for the safety of her daughters. When she saw no other way out, Diane took advantage of her husband’s out-of-town business trip, packed three suitcases and fled.
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Diane Lorz Benitez grew up in the 1950s in Meadville, PA. Perhaps singing the Mass responses in Latin at Saint Bridgit’s church or the sound of her grandfather’s German accent awakened her interest in language—or the visit from an uncle who had lived in Paris and spoke French. Maybe following her Army captain father from post to post during WWII created an appetite for travel.
Although encouraged by her parents toward a teaching career, Lorz Benitez left college to work in a high-end retail store in Cleveland, Ohio. Her classroom was a salon of imported fashions and colleagues with accents. She wanted the story behind any voice that didn’t sound like hers. But the accented voice that changed her life belonged to a Spaniard.
At the age of twenty-four, Lorz Benitez resigned from a hard-earned position, drained her bank account and sailed away with a civil engineer from Madrid ten years her senior. This is the inside story of a Spanish/American marriage during the final decade of the Franco dictatorship, and of an ongoing love for Spain.
After nearly twelve years in Madrid, Lorz Benitez returned to the United States and now lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.
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