A route through the vestiges of the Civil War guided by local historians

BarcelonaJournalist and ARA contributor Aure Farran Llorca traveled all over Catalonia to learn about the memory of the Civil War through its vestiges. She explained this in a series of reports for the ARA and then recounts it in greater depth in the book. Vestiges of the Civil War (Vienna Editions). In thirty chapters, it provides details on what to visit and many of the stories behind combat sites, such as shelters, bunkers, trenches, cities that suffered bombing, evacuation and exile routes, field hospitals, and the visible traces of the brigade members' passage, among others. There is the front and the rearguard.

"I have spoken with many local researchers and historians, who have been investigating their territory for many years. Historians like Manel Gimeno, who began studying the repression in Pallars in the 1980s, when no one else was doing so; Pol Galitó, who has recovered many stories from the Segre front; or Carles Hervás. 50 local researchers. Visiting all these places, you realize that there were many wars, because they were experienced very differently depending on the place," explains Farran.

Conservation

Much memory is preserved thanks to these historians and researchers who have dedicated themselves, often selflessly, to recovering part of a past that some would have liked to erase forever. "Many of them are getting older and suffer because no one takes up their responsibility when it comes to preserving local memory. It's important to give them visibility," warns Farran. Over the past few years, many of these spaces have been marked with panels. However, some are quite neglected. "Sometimes there are differences because larger cities have more resources, but it's also a matter of sensitivity. There are very small places, like Foradada (Noguera), where the mayor, Maricel Segú Peralba, is very sensitive to these issues and they have done a lot of work," Farran assures.

In the book, the journalist proposes many tours: she follows in the footsteps of the British writer George Orwell through Barcelona, ​​​​visits the places of repression in the Catalan capital, the defense line of the Catalan coast, the airfields from where the Republican aviators took off, the shelters of Tarragona, the mark left by the brigadistas in the Prio, in front of the Segre, the trenches of Agramunt, the defensive belt of Artesa de Segre, devastated villages, the paths of exile in the Pyrenees ...

"I think that remembering the Civil War is very important at this time, with the rise of the extreme right." The book not only shows vestiges or scenes of the Civil War, but through the testimony of local historians explains what those three years of conflict meant for the country and for the people of the country, which left many wounds, which, even today, have not fully healed.