Which is more important to you, your family or Torres?

Despite the almost absurd paternalism, there is a familiarity about the relationship between Sr Torres and his staff which partly validates his claim that the staff are treated like family. ‘If one of them is ill, I pay for him to go to the best doctors in Barcelona,’ St Torres told me. I heard other stories: ‘I do not like that red jersey,’ one employee was told, ‘it is a foolish colour for a man your age.’ It may have been pure coincidence that the autonomous election campaign had just begun, with the Socialists threatening to win the local seat. Another employee was given a gruelling schedule of overseas visits, which mean he would be away for Christmas. ‘My wife is expecting our first baby at that time,’ he complained. He received the following poser in response: ‘Sr X, which is more important to you, your family or Torres?’

H. Eyres, Wine dynasties of Europe (1990), 166

I naturally wouldn’t hesitate to shoot him if it was necessary for my cause, and I should expect him to do the same to me

I do think that family ties ought to make a difference. After all, violent differences of opinion didn’t prevent you & me from remaining good friends did they. My attitude to Esmond is as follows – and I rather expect his to me to be the same. I naturally wouldn’t hesitate to shoot him if it was necessary for my cause, and I should expect him to do the same to me. But in the meanwhile, as that isn’t necessary, I don’t see why we shouldn’t be quite good friends, do you. I wonder if he agrees.

Unity to Jessica, 11 April 1937, ed. C. Mosley, The Mitfords: Letters between Six Sisters (2007), 106