"Agustí Duran Sanpere (Cervera, 1887 - Barcelona, ​​1975) was a man of action and courage," says Pilar Cuerva, director of the National Archives of Catalonia (ANC) and co-curator, with Enric Terradellas, of the exhibition dedicated to the multifaceted archivist, which runs until June 13. He was methodical, devised and organized an archival system that still endures, and stood up for what was necessary. He rescued in extremis The archive of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, which a scrap metal dealer almost turned into pulp. He confronted violent groups who wanted to burn Church property during the Civil War. And he waited, with all the risks that entailed, for Franco's troops to arrive to guarantee the safeguarding of Catalan heritage.

In September 1936, two months after the outbreak of the Civil War, the German consul wrote a letter to the Republican Generalitat requesting the release of two German citizens accused of espionage, not forgetting to mention that Germany had recently released two Spaniards. The two German citizens, who were on the Modelo, were released. However, in a letter, the Republican Generalitat expressed its surprise at the fact that both claimed they were hiking in the Pyrenees but were carrying no documentation and were taking photographs of the fortifications. This is just one example of all the documentation, some of it unpublished, that shows the efforts made by the Republican Generalitat in terms of foreign relations during the Civil War, and that can be seen in the National Archive of Catalonia.

There is the official memory, the one that appears in every book or the one that politicians proclaim, and which varies according to its color or moment, and there are the multiple memories safeguarded in the archives. Without these other memories, it would be much easier to manipulate history, and we would not be able to hear many voices that have often been sidelined. In 1995, 30 years ago, theNational Archives of Catalonia It moved to Sant Cugat del Vallès. It encompasses 12,625 square meters and up to 60 kilometers of shelves containing documents. It houses both private and public documents, allowing us access to both the most remote and recent history.