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Manuel Azaña: The Politician Journalist

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The Scholar: Manuel Azaña Manuel Azaña y Diaz was born on January 10, 1880, in Alcala de Henares, a small city in the middle of Spain, northeast of Madrid. He was born into a wealthy family and received his secondary education in the Colegio Complutense and Instituto Cardenal Cisneros. He received a lawyer’s license after attending the University of Zaragoza (1897) and a doctorate from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, a prestigious institution. Although he studied Law, Manuel pursued journalism and the humanities; he quickly became known as a literary man, political philosopher, scholar, and essayist. After his higher education, Manuel worked as a journalist, civil servant, and writer. Manuel was profoundly involved in the arts, whether he was employed by the Main directorate of the Registries as a notary, working in the Ateneo as an assistant, or continuing his studies overseas. In journalism, he collaborated publishing newspapers such as Imparcial and El Sol, and in 1920 he founded
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Suggestions for solutions

Hello Delegates, In this blogpost, I will be discussing some general suggestions towards solutions you can implement in your respective committees. Looking at your position papers, it seems you are all already on the right track and have done some great research to inform your proposed solutions, so I'd just like to highlight some things to give you an idea of what the dais hopes you address or show consideration towards in your in-committee solutions and actions. One thing to note is that for all solutions and directives, we are looking for them to be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-oriented (SMART). Military/War Solutions This committee consists of two cabinets of politicians, military personnel, and important Spanish figures brought together for the main purpose of taking action in what will go down as one of the most important European conflicts of the 20th century. As such, this committee is quite easy to become solely a military game with both cabinets ch
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Deep Dive: Francisco Franco

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Francisco Franco      On December 4th, 1892 (in Ferrol, Spain), Francisco Franco was born to a careless Spanish Naval Corp father and a conservative Roman Catholic mother. After attending a Catholic private school until he was 12, Franco hoped to follow in his father's footsteps by entering the Naval Academy but instead joined the Army at the age of 14 after being denied admission.       Franco soon began volunteering for active duty in Spanish Morocco for colonial campaigns, and during his time there, developed a reputation for being efficient, honest, and professional (deviating from his father's reckless tendencies). He was soon promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and his effective measures to discipline his troops earned him the rank of captain in 1915, making him the youngest captain in the Spanish Army. As captain, Franco led many successful campaigns against Moroccan revels and brought the revolt to an end, making him a national hero. By the age of 33, Franco became the
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Guernica Returns to the UN

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After a year of absence, the 25-foot tapestry replica of Pablo Picasso's Guernica  returned to the United Nations on February 5, 2022. Nelson A. Rockefeller Jr. owns the tapestry and explained that its removal was dedicated to help clean and preserve it for long-term public display (New York Times). It now stands outside the Security Council chambers, where it stood for over three decades, as a solemn reminder of the UN's core peacekeeping mission amidst unprecedented times. Painted in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War, the original Guernica  is an international anti-war symbol. It portrays the events of April 27, 1937, when Nazi air forces bombed the village of Guernica in northern Spain. The city was regarded as a stronghold of the Republican resistance movement in Basque Country - the epicenter of Basque culture - but it had no real strategic military value. Rather, its primary significance was cultural. Thus, the forces allied with Franco primarily targeted civilians with t
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Procedure Guides, Flow of Committee, and Expectations of Crisis

 Hello again delegates! As conference approaches, I'd like to discuss a little bit our committees procedure and our expectations for how committee will flow and how you will engage with it. Procedure  Our committee(s) will use standard BMUN crisis procedure. From our collective experience as chairs, we believe that this procedure is the best method to promote thoughtful debate while also enabling the dynamic nature of crisis committees. This procedure also lends itself to our committees in that delegates will be representing members of a sort of cabinet or alliance that must discuss and debate on what  collective actions to take as a united front while also getting regular updates to the situation of Spain.  For those of you not familiar with BMUN or any crisis procedure, I'll give a brief overview here. Crisis committees at BMUN use similar procedures to General Assembly committees with some key differences. We will facilitate discussion in committee with moderated and unmoder
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Vice Chair Introduction: Riley Thompson

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Hi there! My name is Riley Thompson. I’m a second year here at Cal studying Political Science, Rhetoric, and Public Policy. This is my first year in Model UN and I’m very excited to learn alongside you all! In addition to BMUN, I work with a research group here on campus focused on youth advocacy, and I am a lead staff member for the California Youth and Government program. This will also be my first year staffing for Bearstage, the theater group here on campus. Aside from all that, most of my free time is spent playing Dungeons and Dragons with my friends!
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Spanish Civil War Key Terms

Hey there delegates, To help you with your preparations, we've compliled a list of Spanish Civil War Key Terms! These terms are split up into three categories: Contextual terms, Timeline terms, and Party terms. Hope this is helpful :) Contextual Terms      Fascism - An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization, defined by forcible suppression of opposition and strong control of society and the economy. Socialism - A political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole. Communism - A system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, with actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state. Anarcho-Communism - an ideology that promotes the abolition of state, capitalism, private property, social hierarchy, and waged labor and supports collective ownership of
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