Ronald Fraser oral history collection

The collection does not include the cassette recordings for all of the interviews for which we hold transcripts.

The collection consist of research materials that were gathered by Ronald Fraser for his books In Hiding the Life of Manuel Cortes and The Pueblo a mountain village on the Costa Del Sol. Ronald Fraser carried out his fieldwork for the books between 1969 and 1972, the interviews for 'In Hiding' describe the time period of ca. 1930-1969  and for 'The Pueblo' the time period of ca.1900- 1970 . The collection comprises of 88 interviews, 80 audio-cassette tapes and 88 transcripts. The collection includes, transcripts of interviews, notes, correspondence, press cuttings, ms drafts of the books and cassette recordings of the interviews

The Biographical note was written using information on the author taken from Fraser, RonaldBlood of Spain: an oral history of the Spanish Civil WarLondon, Pimlico 1994

Ronald Fraser was born in Germany in 1930 , he was educated in England, the USA and Switzerland and has worked on Spanish contemporary history. Fraser first went to Spain in 1957 , living in the then isolated mountain village of Mijas, Malaga to write a novel, published in 1960. Fraser has divided much of his time between Spain and London and has published books on both places, including publishing accounts of British personal work experience in the New Left Review this was subsequently published by Penguin as Workand Work 2. In 1970 Fraser wrote In Hiding The Life of Manuel Cortes, an oral history of the last socialist mayor of Mijas who had emerged from over 30 years of hiding after Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War. Manuel Cortes release followed a general amnesty granted by the Franco regime for offences committed or alleged to have been committed during the war. Ronald Fraser interviewed Manuel Cortes his wife, Juliana, and daughter Maria, shortly after Manuel had come out of hiding. Ronald Fraser used these interviews with the newly free Manuel Cortes to form the basis of his book In Hiding which looks at Manuel Cortes time in hiding, from 1939 until his 'release' from hiding in April 1969.

This was followed by The Pueblo a mountain village on the Costa del Sol, this books uses a representative account of villages to tell the history of the village. In the book Fraser describes the changes that have affected Mijas over a period of 75 years using the villagers own words as source material, the period is one of great change for the village as it is geographically close to the tourist region of the Costa del Sol.

Ronald Fraser is married to a Spanish historian, Aurora Bosch, and has taught Spanish History and oral history at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The Collection is arranged into two sub fonds, Ronald Fraser's In Hiding (RF1) and Ronald Fraser's The Pueblo (RF2). Both sub fonds use the following arrangement 

• Interview transcripts
• Cassette recordings of interviews
• Notes and Background material
• Ms Drafts

Access is open to bona fide researchers

The Ronald Fraser Oral History Collection was transferred to the University of Liverpool Library, Department of Special Collections and Archives by Qualidata Qualitative data service in December 1998

The Biographical note was written using information on the author taken from Fraser, RonaldBlood of Spain: an oral history of the Spanish Civil WarLondon, Pimlico 1994

The collection does not include the cassette recordings for all of the interviews for which we hold transcripts.

Comprehensive box lists produced by Qualidata are available for consultation in the reading room.

Summaries of both of the research collections are available on the Qualidata Qualitative Data Service website.

English transcripts of the interviews are available for consultation, we hold cassette recording copies of most the interviews (in Spanish).

This collection level description was created by Roy Lumb project archivist in November 2003  using the lists produced by Qualidata.

It is a condition of access to this material that researchers undertake not to reveal the real names, locations or institutions mentioned in these tapes, transcripts, and notebooks. Quotations may only be attributed using pseudonyms; and place names and other identifiers must be disguised. Copyright is retained by Ronald Fraser.

The collection was previously in the custody of Qualidata (University of Essex), it was transferred to the University of Liverpool Library, Department of Special Collections and Archives in December 1998, after the collection was listed by Qualidata, to compliment the University of Liverpool Spanish Collections.

There are no anticipated accruals

Albert Sloman Library - Special Collections University of Essex hold 'In Search of the Past' an oral history collection by Ronald Fraser investigating Frasers own childhood and relationship with his upper class family and household in the 1930's and 1940's in the South of England. An overview of the collection is available on the Qualidata Qualitative data service website.

The University of Liverpool, Department of Special Collections and archives holds additional Spanish Civil War Collections such as the Edgar Allison peers collection of over 900 books and pamphlets, with press cuttings, lecture notes and correspondence, relating to Spain during the Civil War and the Spanish Civil War microfilm collection that contains a wealth of primary material documenting the Spanish Republican period (1931-1939), the Spanish Civil war (1936-1939), and the immediate post War years of the 1940's.