The origins of historical memory in Spain

The costs of memory-related efforts in the Spanish transition

Abstract

For quite a long time Spain has been debating whether its Transition to democracy was based upon oblivion or silence regarding the Spanish Civil War and Francoism, or whether an interest on both issues patently shows on many and diverse publications. Undoubtedly, the war was far more and variedly present that the dictatorship during the Transition, and now it is clear that those who pioneered what in later days would be called historical memory claims began their activities precisely during that period. The purpose of this paper, however, is to show that actions aimed to vindicate the remembrance of Francoism’s victims took place, almost exclusively, in local environments and that they were taken by relatives of those executed by the dictatorship or, if anything, local authorities in cooperation with these families. The support of the main regional, and even less so national leftist parties and unions apparatuses was barely non-existent. It is also stressed here that those who began to clear this way were faced with many difficulties, even facing personal risks and confront still powerful actors unwilling to accept the country’s democratization and the resultant change in the inherited historical narrative. The case in point used to prove all these claims is the village of Torremejía (Badajoz), whose first democratically elected mayor was sued for having helped some of his neighbors to move the remains of persons executed by Francoists from the common grave they were into the village’s cemetery. We have been the first researchers to gain access to the relevant judicial file, direct testimonies, and the village archive. The importance of this case goes well beyond the local limits and serves to illustrate both the Transition’s possibilities and its limits.