''14 de abril. La República'' () is a Spanish period drama television series. Set in the

Second Spanish Republic The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of democratic government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931 after the deposition of Alfonso XIII, King Alfonso XIII. ...

, it is a spin-off of ''

La señora LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second most populous city in the United States of America. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music *La (musical note), or A, the sixth note *"L.A.", a song by Elliott Smit ...

'', featuring a number of characters from the latter show. Produced by

RTVE The Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española (; ), known as Radiotelevisión Española (''Spanish Radio and Television'', RTVE), is the Spanish national public Broadcasting, television and radio broadcaster. It is a state-owned enterprise f ...

in collaboration with and created by Virginia Yagüe and Jordi Frades, the first season aired on La 1 in 2011. The already produced second season was put in the freeze during the seven years of rule of the People's Party, eventually airing from 2018 to 2019.

Premise

The fiction starts with Ludi, a female servant, arriving to

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

from

Asturias Asturias (; ; ) officially the Principality of Asturias, is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensive with the provinces of Spain, province of Asturias and contains some of the territory t ...

. In the context of the proclamation of the

on 14 April 1931, the Spring of 1931 in the Spanish capital is bustling with those celebrating the advent of the Republic, while those against it prepare for armed struggle. The "De la Torre" family, a landowning family representative of the "stagnant, rancid

bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and aristocracy. They are traditionally contrasted wi ...

", is among those opposing the new government. The son of the family, Fernando de la Torre (

Félix Gómez Félix Gómez (born 1977) is a Spanish actor. He earned early success in Spain in the early 2000s for his performance in the television series '' Al salir de clase''. He is also known for his performances in '' Amar en tiempos revueltos'', '' 14 d ...

) is engaged to Mercedes León (

Mariona Ribas Mariona Ribas i Deu (born 18 June 1984 in Sabadell, Catalonia) is a Spanish actress. Ribas received a musical education and studied dance and acting before her debut on television at the age of 15. On the stage, Ribas made her debut with a starr ...

). The members of the lower class "Prado" family work as rangers of the large estate owned by the De la Torre, showing feelings of submission towards their employers conflicted by their endorsement to the promises of agrarian reform brought by the Republic. The offspring of the Prado family are Jesús (

Alejo Sauras Alejo Martín Sauras (born June 29, 1979) is a Spanish actor who is best known as Raúl Martinez in ''Los Serrano''. Biography Sauras was born in Palma de Mallorca, Mallorca but he spend his childhood in Madrid. Sauras studied aviation electron ...

) and Alejandra (

Verónica Sánchez Verónica Sánchez Calderón (born 1 July 1977) is a Spanish actress. She made her debut in theatre in 1996, and came to media attention as Eva Capdevila in the Telecinco series '' Los Serrano'' in 2003. Sánchez has since developed a successfu ...

). The extremes of the ideological polarization in play are represented by characters such as Hugo de Viana ( Raul Peña), a military officer opposing the Republic and Encarna (

Lucía Jiménez Lucía Jiménez Arranz (born 21 November 1978) is a Spanish actress. She started with a David Trueba movie, '' The Good Life'', and she became very popular thanks to the TV series '' Al salir de clase''. Filmography Cinema Television ...

), a strong Socialist woman. The series features a number of characters from ''La señora'' such as Encarna, Ventura and Hugo de Viana, played by the same performers.

Cast

Production and release

Created by Virginia Yagüe and Jordi Frades, the first season started filming in October 2010. It premiered on 24 January 2011. The series subsequently received harsh criticism from the People's Party (PP), then the main opposition party. The 13-episode season ended on 18 April 2011 with good viewer ratings (18.2% share) and a

cliffhanger A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious situation, facing a difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction or bef ...

. The second season was produced by Endemol TV. Slated to air in 2012, the second season of the series was shelved indefinitely because of the arrival of

Mariano Rajoy Mariano Rajoy Brey (, ; born 27 March 1955) is a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 2011 to 2018, when a 2018 vote of no confidence in the government of Mariano Rajoy, vote of no confidence ousted his government. A m ...

and the PP to government, as they preferred to bury a fiction set in the Republican period. Seven years after, in 2018, only once

Pedro Sánchez Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón (; born 29 February 1972) is a Spanish politician who has served as Prime Minister of Spain since 2018. He has also been Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) since July 2017, having p ...

became prime minister, the airing of the second season was programmed again. In the meantime two of the main cast actors ( Héctor Colomé and

Álex Angulo Alejandro Angulo León (12 April 1953 – 20 July 2014), better known as Álex Angulo, was a Spanish actor who performed in over sixty films during his career spanning more than 30 years. Life Born in Erandio, Biscay, Angulo made his feature ...

) had died. The opening episode of the second season premiered on 3 November 2018 in

prime time Prime time, or peak time, is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television shows. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

. The broadcasting run was irregular, to the point the channel sometimes scheduled back-to-back two episodes. Mired with problems and low viewership ratings, the series ended with the back-to-back broadcasting of the last two episodes aired on 26–27 January 2019.

Season 1

Season 2

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * * * * {{Authority control Television series set in the 1930s Television shows set in Madrid 2011 Spanish television series debuts 2019 Spanish television series endings La 1 (Spanish TV channel) network series Spanish-language television shows Censored television series Historical television series Television series about the history of Spain Sequel television series 2010s Spanish drama television series Television series by Diagonal TV