Montse Armengou recommends a story of a woman and resistance during the bombings in Gràcia

BarcelonaJournalist Montse Armengou, who has directed many documentaries about silenced and forgotten stories of Francoism victims, recommends Ferma sobre la terra (Edicions 62), by Ascen Capel Cilla, which speaks with a female perspective about the fascist bombings that Barcelona suffered in 1938, in the Gràcia neighborhood. "They are women who in difficult times resist and help each other, in the midst of war they manage to make life prevail over death, they remain firm when everything trembles," says Armengou.

The protagonists are Teresina, 12 years old, her mother Rufina, and the neighbor Rosalia, who when the bombs fall hide in an anti-aircraft shelter in Gràcia. When they come out, the building where they live has been demolished. In the shelter, with the roar of artillery, in the midst of darkness, the women think about family conflicts, about those who have disappeared and about the absent. When they return to normality, there is the weight of all that has never been said. One of the themes of the novel that most attracts Armengou, and that often emerge in many documentaries, are the silences. This void, the stories that remain inside but are never verbalized, are passed down from generation to generation. It was not possible to speak for decades due to the dictatorship and, for many years, not even in a democracy that preferred to forget.

"The author is very honest because she knows she will not be able to unravel all the secrets that the family has carried for decades. They are enigmas that have no answer, because their protagonists take them to the grave, and she tries to create her own story. The generations that did not live through those events have ended up inheriting them through silence," says Armengou. The only thing we can do is try to reconstruct the puzzle even if some pieces are missing: "We can only try to glimpse the final picture, a picture that can help us understand our past".