Generations – In Spain, an anonymous woman recovers her father’s story, history and past. Her grandfather’s imprisonment during the war and afterwards, destroyed her father’s family.

by Lisa Hernandez

SANTANDER –We will call her Carmen Martínez, because she doesn’t want her real name published. She is a 40-year-old college language professor whose family was affected by the Spanish Civil War and postwar dictatorship of Francisco Franco.  Her family’s experience is similar to that of thousands of families who were changed by those periods.

“Fortunately, I did not live through the civil war, and the Franco regime caught me very young,” Martínez said. “Therefore, I can give the limited testimonies of my father during the war and post war. I say ‘limited’ because it is a generation that was silenced by fear because of the political uprising of that era that could cost someone their life.”

Placing her small glass of water on the coffee table and clasping her fingers together, Martínez emphasizes that she does not want any pictures taken of her face.

“I do not want my name or my family's name to appear on the internet, they are very personal issues that I have told,” she said.“On the other hand, I have a story that belongs to my father.”

After being assured that her privacy will be protected as much as possible, Martínez finally relaxes in her chair, leans back like a storyteller ready to read to an attentive audience.

Martínez explains that she does not want to be identified because she did not live through the war, and her statements might be met with ridicule and criticism. However, her mission is to finally set the record straight about her family’s pain and grief.

“My father was born in 1930 in El Toboso and,when he was 8 years old, his father was taken prisoner along with his brother, who died at 15 after suffering a terrible beating. My grandfather was sentenced to the death penalty - someone accused him of being a Communist,” Martínez said. “From there began the tragic story of his life. My father's grandmother was very Catholic and through the church won a pardon for my grandfather. She helped him save his life after a year thinking that any day he would wear out. But he lasted until seven years later, weighing 83 pounds.”

El Toboso is a small town located in the province of Toledo, Spain. During her grandfather’s seven-year term in prison, Martínez’s grandmother had two children. The fact of the two illegitimate births is not talked about much, for it destroyed her family. But it helps to explain why her grandparents did not live together after her grandfather’s release.

Sipping water,  Martínez begins to talk more about her father’s experiences.

“Life after the war changed dramatically since that meant my father, who was just 8 or 9 years old, had to contribute to the household economy to move forward with his own father in jail and his younger brothers,” Martínez said. “I'm thinking about all the pain he had to live with as a small child after the horror of a war. I am surprised at his strength; many people end their days with mental illness, as if the body would set off alarm bells to stop so much horror inside.”

Around the time that Martínez’s grandfather returned from prison, the family moved to Madrid in search of work. Spain was extremely poor – and grasping any chance of education was only for the lucky.

“Shoveling in tunnels and seeing how each day had landslides, burying a worker. And from ‘sun to sun’ [sunrise to sundown] as my father said, Saturdays and Sundays included,” said Martínez.

Her father worked for another 30 years, combined with work in the fields before retiring. Martínez emphasized her father’s main goal was to provide for the family and overcome the numerous obstacles that the war and the Franco era created.

With the death of Franco in the 1970s came The Transition, which included the legalization of the Communist Party. There was a fear that political stability would not last.

Martínez’s father was illiterate due to a lack of educational opportunities. Her own childhood was different; however, her family had to worry about being considered Rojos, or Reds.

“Therefore the years of Franco hit tremendously in all areas of life but mainly in education and in the field of freedom,” she said. “The people went to church because, if not, you were suspected of communism and atheism.”

Martínez begins to wind down her story.

“I think it is important to clarify what happened to those who say --, who lived just a war and that as in any civil war both sides are suffering, and atrocities were committed by both,” said  Martínez. “Do not forget that the official histories are the winners and the real histories are like puzzles made up of many different pieces.”

(Martinez was interviewed in Santander during the summer of 2008.)

Interview Excerpts From Anonymous Daughter

Transcript of Interview in Spanish, Quote 1

Time (1:17)

“Afortunadamente no viví la Guerra Civil y la época franquista me pilló de muy pequeña. Por tanto sobre la guerra y la posguerra lo único que puedo hacer es transmitiros los escasos testimonios de mi padre. ¡Escasos digo!, pues es una generación que fue silenciada por el miedo ya que los pronunciamientos políticos te costaban la vida, una generación que había visto cómo se llevaban cada día a personas delatadas por vecinos que aprovechaban la situación de poder para saldar viejas rencillas en algunos casos, en otros para quedarse con las tierras de sus vecinos y era tan fácil como acusar a alguien de comunista…. Tuvieron que vivir más de cuarenta años bajo un régimen que les había arrebatado todo, incluso la palabra. Por eso quiero enfatizar que fue mi padre, el que vivió y sufrió en primera persona como tantos otros miles, la terrible posguerra española en una zona de difíciles recursos económicos como La Mancha, donde la posguerra causó estragos.”

English Translation of Quote 1

“Fortunately, I did not live through the civil war, and the Franco regime caught me while I was very young. Therefore I can only transmit the limited testimonies of my father during the war and post war. I say ‘limited’ because it is a generation that was silenced by fear, because  political statements would cost you your life, a generation that had seen people being snatched every day after being given away by neighbors who took advantage of their leverage to avenge old scores in some cases, to keep their neighbors’ lands in others. And it was as easy as accusing someone of being a communist…They had to live more than 40 years under a regime that had taken everything from them by force, including their right to speak. That is why I want to emphasize that it was my father who lived and suffered in first person like many other thousands during the terrible postwar Spain in an area that had difficult economic resources like La Mancha, where the postwar caused havoc. “