page_title: Black Hand (Spain)
section_title: Historiographical debate
hierarchical_section_title: Black Hand (Spain) / Historiographical debate
caption_attribution_description: placa la Mano Negra. Edificio Sindicatos Jerez
context_page_description: The Black Hand was a presumed secret, anarchist organization based in the Andalusian region of Spain and best known as the perpetrators of murders, arson, and crop fires in the early 1880s. The events associated with the Black Hand took place in 1882 and 1883 amidst class struggle in the Andalusian countryside, the spread of anarcho-communism distinct from collectivist anarchism, and differences between legalists and illegalists in the Federación de Trabajadores de la Región Española.
context_section_description: Historians offer differing accounts on the reality of the Black Hand organization. Tuñón de Lara affirms that there was no single organization, but small, anarcho-communist crime syndicates between secular rebellion and delinquency were used to justify the repression would precipitate the death of the FTRE. Termes called the affair a police set-up while acknowledging that agrarian Andalusia did experience violence.
  Avilés Farré demurred that the question of the Black Hand's existence was less important than what became as a result: the documents were likely real, but there was ultimately no activity ascribed to the group or evidence that the group either successfully formed or committed any crimes. If the group existed, it left no trace and even those convicted of crimes associated with the Black Hand had not heard of the organization. The found documents were presented by the police as evidence of a broad conspiracy that would explain the wave of violence that had been occurring across western Andalusia. Its pugnacious name inferred a diffuse, mysterious fear, and had journalist appeal. While Avilés Farré interpreted the documents to be written by someone attempting to found a clandestine group for purposes of class warfare (i.e., not forged), likely by hidden associates of FTRE's  San José del Valle local, the historian said that there was no evidence that the group came into fruition or carried out its proposed threats. Whether the Black Hand affair was a false flag fabrication or, more simply, an unfounded government attempt to quell the agricultural revolts was the subject of Republican politician and writer Vicente Blasco Ibáñez's 1905 sociological novel,  La bodega.
  Historian and journalist Juan Madrid wrote that the governmental interest in associating anarchists with any crime capable of tarnishing their image has been a constant throughout the history of Spain and the world.
caption: Plaque in memory of the prosecutions against the Black Hand in front of the CNT headquarters in Jerez de la Frontera
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "2560", "Image ImageLength": "1920", "Image Make": "SAMSUNG", "Image Model": "GT-S7560", "Image Orientation": "Rotated 90 CW", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "S7560XXAMG7", "Image DateTime": "2014:06:16 10:11:48", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "232", "Thumbnail ImageWidth": "320", "Thumbnail ImageLength": "240", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Rotated 90 CW", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "808", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "15434", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/520", "EXIF FNumber": "13/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "50", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:06:16 10:11:48", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:06:16 10:11:48", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "69/25", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "177/50", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2560", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1920", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "648", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}