The Civil Guard opposite the Café Moka

One of the Civil Guards holding the roof across the street during the Barcelona May fighting, and the only man on the other side of the barricade George Orwell speaks to. Orwell trained a rifle on him and shouted at him not to shoot; the answer was that he had been firing at somebody else, that they were only workers the same as us, and that the beer was all gone.

What they want in Orwell's account

In Orwell's account he wants the arrangement to hold. He explains himself across a street rather than let the other roof think he has broken it.

The book

Cover of Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell

Homage to CataloniaGeorge Orwell, 1938

George Orwell went to Spain to write newspaper articles and joined a militia instead: a winter in the Aragón trenches, street fighting in Barcelona, a bullet through the throat.

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At a glance

In the book: A Civil Guard holding the buildings opposite Orwell's post
Where: The roofs above the Ramblas, during the May fighting
Where he appears: Chapter 10

Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

For several days of the May fighting George Orwell was on guard on the roof of an observatory over the Poliorama, watching the Civil Guards who held the Café Moka and the building opposite. The two sides had an arrangement: neither would fire without warning the other first. Orwell was well aware that the guards might get a telephone order at any moment and that the arrangement would end there.

Trouble came close only once. One of the guards opposite knelt down and started firing across the barricade. Orwell trained his rifle on him and shouted across not to shoot at them, or they would fire back. The man shouted back that he was not firing at them, and motioned with his rifle down the side street, where a youth in blue overalls with a rifle was dodging round the corner and had just taken a shot at the roof. Orwell believed him.

What followed is the exchange Orwell keeps. The guard called across that they did not want to shoot, that they were only workers the same as anyone on the other roof, and gave the anti-Fascist salute, which Orwell returned. Orwell then shouted over to ask whether they had any beer left. They had not; it was all gone. The same day, from another building down the street, a man raised his rifle and fired at Orwell for no reason he could see, and missed by so much that the bullet did not even hit the observatory.

How the book draws them

Appearance, manner, and tone — as the book sketches them, in our words.

The shootingHe knelt and fired across the barricade at a youth in blue overalls who had shot at him first, which is the whole of the incident that nearly started a battle between two roofs.
What he shoutedThat he was not firing at them, and then that they did not want to shoot at all, being only workers the same as the men opposite.
The saluteHe made the anti-Fascist salute across the street and Orwell returned it, both of them still holding the roofs they were supposed to be fighting over.
The beerOrwell's next question across the gap, and the answer: no, it was all gone. The Café Moka's stock had been drunk by the men occupying it.

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