Confronting a history of war loss in a Spanish family archive

ABSTRACT

The article discusses how relatives of left-wing Republicans killed and buried in mass graves by Francoist groups during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) recompose the stories of violent death of their ancestors in connection to documentary evidence that emerges during the search for their human remains. Mass grave searches have taken place in the midst of a process of historical investigation that has brought families, historians, activists and archaeologists together in order to document and seek official recognition for these extrajudicial executions. In so doing, they have also prompted the circulation of personal papers and official Francoist files that bear poignant information about the victims. Both sets of documents converge in the family archive, eliciting different re-readings and acts of memory. The article considers how familial interactions with these material sources attempt to grasp and recreate a history of loss marked by rupture and filled with absences. It also explores how such historical and familial uncertainties marks the experience of disappearance in the Spanish context.

KEYWORDS:

• Spanish Civil War
• exhumations
• family archive
• silence
• memory
• history

Acknowledgements

I thank the family of Juan Brazo Naranjo, especially José Antonio Brazo Regalado and Fernando Brazo Marayo, for retelling the story of their relative to me and for providing me with the personal documents that appear in this article. I am also thankful to the Historical National Archive in Spain for allowing me to reproduce the document in Figure 2 of this article. I also thank the Agrupación de Familiares de Víctimas de Fregrenal de la Sierra and the Project for the Recovery of Historical Memory in Extremadura (PREMHEx) for their support with this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Zahira Aragüete-Toribio http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8665-8174

Notes

1. Authors such as Box (2010) have analysed the array of commemorative celebrations and reburials that took place during the first decades of the Franco regime. Calendars were changed to commemorate the start and end of the conflict, parades of victory were organized and new constructions built to honour the Francoist dead. Among the most emblematic monuments was the so-called Valley of the Fallen. The Valley is a funerary complex composed by a crypt and an abbey. The mausoleum contains the remains of over 34,000 individuals – though this number could be much higher (see Ferrándiz 2014; Solé 2009). It was built by Republican prisoners and it contains the corpses of those who fought on the Francoist flank. It also contains, however, the corpses of Republicans that were transferred to the Valley without the consent of their relatives (Solé 2009).

2. Law of 26th of December through which the rights and measures in favour of those who suffered persecution or violence during the civil war and dictatorship are recognized (my translation).

3. Among these groups were the Asociación para la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica de Extremadura or ARMHEX (Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory in Extremadura), the Asociación Memorial Campo de Concentración de Castuera or AMECADEC (Association for the Memory of Castuera Concentration Camp), the Asociación Memorial Cementerio de Cáceres or AMECECA (Association for a Memorial in Cáceres Cementery) and the groups of families of victims of Francoist repression in Puebla de Alcocer, Garciaz and Fregenal de la Sierra.

4. The team of the Proyecto para la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica de Extremadura or Project for the Recovery of Historical Memory in Extremadura (PREMHEx) worked conjointly with historical memory associations and families North and South of the region from 2002 to 2013. From 2014 to 2015, a different team was responsible for the project.

5. During interviews and informal conversations, families often said to me that the most important thing for them was for “others to know what had happened”. Here the term “others” signals the need for this information to be shared broadly and publically. Some of them also spoke of their wish to seek justice and to have their stories heard in a courtroom.

6. During fieldwork, people often explained to me that their relatives or families had turned to right-wing neighbours with whom they had good relations to save the lives of relatives whose life was threatened.

7. Many relatives said to me that their relatives had been “killed physically and also socially” because their deaths were never included in civil registries.

8. Law 5/1979 of 18th September for the recognition of pensions, medical-pharmaceutical aid and social aid in relation to widows, children and other relatives of the Spanish people who died as a consequence or during the past Civil War (my translation).

9. Espinosa (2006, 16–17) adds that some of these recording methods were generally inaccurate because victims were often inscribed more than once and left-wing victims were sometimes added to Francoist lists in villages where no right-wing supporters had been executed.

10. Two of the most interesting publications were La dominación roja en España (Red Domination in Spain), published in 1943, and Datos complementarios para la historia de España: Guerra de Liberación (1936–1939) (Complementary Information about the History of Spain: War of Liberation (1936–1939), published in 1945 (Gil Vico 1998, 182).

11. Translation Figure 2.

LIST of individuals that formed the RED COMMITTEE of the village

of FREGENAL DE LA SIERRA. These are listed as on the report by the MAJOR OF

THE CIVIL GUARD STATION, on 2 November 1941, placed on the

File CHECAS, of the abovementioned village, whose names are not registered on any of the other three states, though the crimes committed were perpetrated by individuals that formed the COMMITTEE

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Bravo Naranjo Juan …  …  … ..

Barragan Rodriguez Juan … .

Carrero Nuñez Leandro …  … 

Delagado Pérez Agustín …  … All these individuals have been sentenced to death and the sentence has been completed

Galván Rodriguez Manuel … 

Cómas Torres Arturo …  …  … 

Luna Rodriguez Manuel …  … 

Gonzalez Rebollo Francisco. –escaped from Prison

Cordero Galván Camilo …  … –served enforced sentence

Real Barreno Ignacio …  …  … -sentenced to death

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[In handwriting] Ildefonso Lucas Moreno is listed on the report as in attenuated prison. Look up where his name and surname is listed to make his file

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the European Research Council, as part of the project “Bosnian Bones, Spanish Ghosts” with Dr Sari Wastell as the Principle Investigator [grant no. 241231]. It has also received funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation, as part of the project “Right to Truth, Truth(s) through Rights: Mass Crimes Impunity and Transitional Justice, with Dr Sévane Garibian as the Principal Investigator (SNF project PP00P1_157406/1).