Vademecum

Amnesty was accompanied by several events of symbolic reconciliation with the past, like the
return of Picasso’s Guernica, a symbol of the horrors of war to Spain in 1981 from new york.
A similar symbolic meaning was found in the transformation of the Victory Parade, which since
1939 commemorated the victory of the so-called national side in the Civil War, into “Army
Day” or the inauguration of a monument to the Spanish war dead in madrid in 1985. However,
reconciliation did not extend, for instance, to the public sphere, where plenty of symbols of
exaltation of the Franco regime still existed. Even two years after Franco’s death statues were
erected in his honor (in Guadalajara, for instance). on the contrary, after 1977 several initiatives
for dismantling Francoist symbols did not come to fruition.
With regard to historical memory, the Spanish transition has raised many controversies until
today. Some are of the opinion that a pact of oblivion existed, encompassing not only the Civil
War to the transition, but also the Second republic, identified as the direct cause of the conflict.
others maintain that during the transition the past was neither forgotten nor silenced except
within the political sphere in order to prevent its use as a weapon in the political debate. in
effect, between 1977 and 1996 attention was hardly paid to the past in the political discourse 16 .
on the contrary, outside this realm, and mostly in rural areas, there were groups of people
whose actions had an impact on collective memory. the essential aim of these groups was
to provide those who still counted among the disappeared with a decent sepulcher. As early
as 1979 there were already associations that had privately started exhumations of mass graves.
By the end of the 1990s the associations had multiplied and, apart from carrying out exhumations
(a task hindered by the lack of resources and specialists) had begun to commemorate the
victims’ memory, for instance, by placing commemorative plaques in places of memory.
they also advocated for the removal of symbols from the Franco regime. these numerous
citizens’ initiatives took the debate into society, from where it entered the political realm.
no doubt Spaniards had the right to know about their past. For that reason, insofar as there
were mass graves to be exhumed or archives still inaccessible 17 , these vindications should
be attended by public authorities.
15 on the Spanish transition and historical memory, see in Spanish: Paloma Aguilar Fernández: memoria y olvido de la
Guerra Civil española, madrid, Alianza Editorial, 1996; Julio Aróstegui/François Godicheau (eds.): Guerra Civil. mito
y memoria, madrid, marcial Pons Historia, 2006; Francisco Espinosa maeste: Contra el olvido. Historia y memoria
de la Guerra Civil, Barcelona, CrÍtiCA, 2006. in German: Walther l. Bernecker/Sören Brinkmann: Kampf der
Erinnerungen. Der Spanische Bürgerkrieg in Politik und Gesellschaft 1936–2006, nettersheim, Verlag
Graswurzelrevolution, 2006. in English: Daniel nataf/Elizabeth Sammis: transitions from Dictatorship to
Democracy. Comparative Studies of Spain, Portugal and Greece, new york, taylor and Francis Group, 1990; Paul
Preston: revenge and reconciliation: the Spanish Civil War and Historical memory, Working Paper Series of the
Center for European Studies, Cambridge, Harvard university, massachusetts, 1986
16 See Santos Juliá: Echar al olvido. memoria y amnistía en la transición, in “Claves de razón Práctica”, 129 (2003),
14–24.
17 For instance, some historians complained about the fact that the Francisco Franco national Foundation, despite
receiving public funds, did not allow access to the entire collections in its archive. See miguel Ángel Jaramillo
Guerreira: “Fuentes documentales para el estudio del franquismo”, in El franquismo: el régimen y la oposición.
Actas de las iV Jornadas de Castilla-la mancha sobre investigación en archivos, Guadalajara, 2000, 309.
FoRewoRd
17