Nuria López García

This interview has as an objective to collect the testimony of a Spanish citizen concerning the Civil War in Spain and the Dictatorship that followed. In those terms, I

chose to follow the story of Nuria López Garcia and her family. Originally from Granada, she shared with me the republican experience of her grand-parents from an Andalusian point of view. Her grand-father José Garcia, fought directly in the war against the nationalists while her grand-mother Lola Rodrigue belonged to a republican village called Motril. We talked about her grand-parents relationship in times of war and especially the active participation of the grandpa in the fights. Nuria explained to me the climate of violence, sufferings and deep division during this period.

We then talked about the transition towards the Francoist dictatorship in which the republicans that didn’t flee abroad faced violent consequences for their political ideas. It was the case of her grandfather. As he had to travel from Motril to Granada every month to sign an emergence paper so that the regime could trace him, one day he did not come back. This is how her grandmother found out that he had been incarcerated for no valid reason except that he was an ex-republican fighter. After a few months of exchanging through letters -which she shared with me, Nuria’s grandmother received a document announcing the death of her husband. He had been shot by the government against a wall at the Granada cemetery along with other prisoners and then buried in a mass grave. This was an extremely traumatic event for his wife as she had to raise their daughter alone. To this day, they both remain very silent of the subject. Later on, Nuria’s mother also faced the consequences of being under a repressive dictatorship as her university scholarship was taken away from her because she was the daughter of an ex-republican fighter. Considering these two events, Nuria’s family lived in constant fear of having to face governmental oppression.

We then mentioned the transition to the Republic and the impact of the 1975 “Law of silence”. Indeed, even though it was seen as the best way to achieve peace at the time, Nuria shared with me her concerns on the actual consequences of it. As this period of the Spanish history has been partly silenced, the new generations is not conscious enough of the threats nationalist ideas. Consequently, it is with great fear that she witnesses the rise of pro-Franco and fascist ideas in Europe.

Lastly, Nuria pointed out the importance of transmission and memory about this historical passage to the younger generation in order not to fall into the same mistakes. She shared with me the art of her daughter which did some pieces on the story of her great grandfather.