"Franco's supporters shot Peset in 1941 because they were afraid of what he could do."

BarcelonaJuan Bautista Peset (Godella, 1886 - Paterna, 1941) might have been spared a firing squad. A doctor and rector of the University of Valencia, Franco sentenced him to 30 years and one day, but some of his faculty colleagues weren't satisfied. They filed a second complaint and, to convince the Francoists, sent a lecture in which the only parish priest shot after the Civil War defended republicanism. Peset was buried in the tomb of his younger brother, who had died when he was just 2 years old. Until the arrival of democracy, no one dared to put his name in the cemetery.

What were his last three hours like? What were he thinking? What conversations did he have? Twenty years ago, the Valencian writer Martí Domínguez (Madrid, 1966) received a facsimile of Peset's summary published by the University of Valencia and was devastated. Especially because he was denounced by other university professors, both in the first trial and the second. "The academic world is extremely dangerous," says the author. Peset's tragedy remained latent, and about five years ago, Domínguez began investigating. Ungrateful homeland (Proa) No one appears under their real name, but, as the author says, everything is real: "There is no falsehood or imposture. Everything is born from reflection and knowledge of the moment," he assures. "I have read as many summary works as I could, to enter this world and understand it." The book appears in Catalan and Spanish, both versions written by Domínguez, with a slight change of name. In Spanish it is called My ungrateful homeland in homage to the poem The dismissed by Leandro Fernández de Moratín which ends by saying: "Goodbye, my ungrateful homeland".

Peset's naivety

It can't be easy to imagine the last three hours of a man condemned to death. "Peset thought until the last moment that he would be saved. The same day he was shot, he helped the doctor at the Modelo prison in Valencia operate on a hernia. He became friends with that doctor, who even testified in his favor. It all happened so fast that when the pair of Civil Guards took him away, he was just a note after the note," Domínguez said.

"He was a freethinker who was executed not for what he had done but because they were afraid of what he might do; he worried the new Spain. He was so good and so naive that he didn't believe that could happen to him," he adds. He could have escaped three times, but he didn't. There was a certain haste in his execution. All the trials during Franco's regime were illegal; they were murdered. In his case, it was even worse because it was illegal even in the illegality of Franco's regime. The war auditor's report was missing.

The Companions on the Scaffold

On the same day Peset was shot, soldiers killed three other men who ended up in the mass grave. Among them was Antoni Agustí Gil, mayor of Sagunto. "There are photographs of all the mayors in Sagunto City Hall, but he's not here. We're thinking about taking some action to vindicate him," explains Domínguez, who has also researched these men condemned to silence and oblivion.

Ungrateful homeland It's a multifaceted novel featuring Peset's fellow inmates, other prisoners, the director of Valencia's Modelo prison, Ramón de Toledo Barrientos, and the doctor who certifies the death of the condemned who opens and closes the novel. It shows a barbarity that isn't so far away. "I didn't want to do any historical reconstruction. It's a topic that interests us a lot. We're seeing how Donald Trump attacks universities, free thought, academic freedom... All of this worries me a lot," he says.

Domínguez has done extensive research in military archives, something that isn't always easy. He has spoken with Peset's grandchildren. "They are historians and didn't know much about their father's end," he says. And also with other relatives of those executed who ended up buried in the mass graves of Paterna. Domínguez exudes admiration for Peset. He was the only parish priest shot in the post-war period. The other two were assassinated during the Civil War: the rector of the University of Oviedo, Leopoldo García-Alas, in 1937, and Salvador Vila, rector of the University of Granada, in 1936. Peset is currently part of the nomenclature and gives his name to an important avenue in Valencia. However, Domínguez believes he remains unknown.

Peset belonged to a lineage of doctors and came from a bourgeois family that owned a major pharmaceutical laboratory. He was a deputy for the Popular Front. "He was a reformer. The University of Valencia was the only one that commemorated Darwin during the centenary of his death, and the first congress of doctors and biologists in Catalan was held there," he emphasizes. The colleagues who denounced him worked and researched with him, but did not share his ideas. Some, like Francisco Marco Merenciano, who dedicated himself to the search for the red gene, had brilliant careers. The writer draws certain parallels with current events. "Sometimes I wonder if universities should go further and not only work on the academic side, but also create citizens. There's a lack of civic engagement, and by the time you want to react, it's already too late," he reflects.

For Domínguez, the search has cost him hours of sleep. He read summary reports addictively: "The same thing happened to me with The spirit of the time (Proa, 2019; Òmnium Prize): I couldn't stop reading documents about Nazism to try to understand how all those great intellectuals participated in the genocide."