Hi, I am Miquel Gonzalez, a photographer with Spanish roots living in Holland. During the last three years I traveled through Spain in search of its Lost Memory. I was disturbed by the idea that family members of half the country were still buried in gutters, in fields and ravines or in mass graves outside of towns and villages.
I am currently crowdfunding the book publication:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/miquelgonzalez/memoria-perdida-recovering-spains-lost-memory-1936
Memoria Perdida | Spain’s Lost Memory 1936-1975
To this day the bodies of up to 114,000 disappeared from the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939, and the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, 1939-1975, lie in unmarked mass graves all over Spain.
Víznar III (Barranco de Víznar), Granada. Between 2,500 and 3,000 deaths were recorded from 1936 to 1951. According to oral testimonies more than 6,500 people are buried in mass graves along the road between Víznar and Alfacar
Víznar III (Barranco de Víznar), Granada. Between 2,500 and 3,000 deaths were recorded from 1936 to 1951. According to oral testimonies more than 6,500 people are buried in mass graves along the road between Víznar and Alfacar
Memoria Perdida comprises photographs of the sites of the mass graves and related atrocity sites that have not been opened or dignified to this day. Many sites have been lost, have been hidden by new constructions or have disappeared without any hint or sign remembering it’s cruel past. The lack of historical memory, justice and truth that I encountered at most of the locations was pathetic and upsetting. I intended to approach the atrocity sites as neutrally as possible and to respond to what I would find and feel. I captured the places as close to the same hour, day and season of the year of the killings as possible. Most photographs were taken after sunset and before sunrise, the preferred hour for “walking” and executing people. The emptiness and silence that caught me when visiting the sites gives a certain serenity to the landscapes in strong contrast to the horror occurred. Whilst the sites were impregnated with human traces, it was the human absence that stroke me the most. It made me think about the victims and somehow re-established their presence into the empty landscape.
More info: kickstarter.com
Víznar III (Barranco de Víznar), Granada. Between 2,500 and 3,000 deaths were recorded from 1936 to 1951. According to oral testimonies more than 6,500 people are buried in mass graves along the road between Víznar and Alfacar.
Víznar II (Barranco de Víznar), Granada, 2.11.1936. Milagro Almenara Pérez, pharmaceutical and feminist, murdered along with 3 other women here. From 1936 to 1951 more than 6500 people were murdered and disappeared between Víznar and Alfacar.
Víznar IV (Llanos de Corbera), Granada. 17/18.8.1936, 4:45, 400 victims, among them the poet Federico García Lorca, the school teacher Dióscoro Galindo and the anarchists Francisco Galadí and Joaquín Arcollas.
Barranco del Carrizal II, Órgiva, Granada, 11.8.1936. 4000 people executed and buried in quicklime. Human remains appear after heavy rains . Contention walls protect a reservoir at the end of the ravine from “waste”.
Cementerio de San José, Granada. Manuel Carmona Ruiz, 35, was accused of illegal possession of weapons and executed on 15.8.1936 at 5 am in the vicinity of the cemetery. Between 1936 and 1956, 3,969 people were executed at the cemetery walls.
Cementerio de San Juan, Badajoz. 14.8.1936, thousands were shot at the cemetery wall. In 2009 a modern and higher wall was built to cover the original wall, icon of the repression.
Castuera I (Concentration Camp), Badajoz, 03.1939-03.1940. There were between 8,000 and 20,000 prisoners in the concentration camp of Castuera. The surrounding mines are supposed to contain hundreds of disappeared.
Villalibre de la Jurisdicción I, León. 1936-1937, Arsenio Macias, a teenager of just 16 years old, was murdered by Falangistas as he refused to reveal the whereabouts of his brother
Montearenas II, Ponferrada, 20.9.1937, Bernabé González Cañas, 29, was shot and buried in a mass grave. There are 60 documented murders, but there may be 200 victims. Graves were lost due to the construction of the A-6.
Campo de la Bota I, Barcelona. 23.4.1939, 5:00, Carme Claramunt Bonet, 41 years, was the first of 11 woman to be shot here. Between 14.2.1939 and 14.3.1952, 1,717 people were shot under the Franco regime. 44 rebels had been shot here in 1936.
Valle de los Caídos III (Cuelgamuros), Madrid. 1.4.1959, the basilica built with the work of political prisoners contains 33,833 human remains. For the inauguration 12,410 unidentified republicans were brought here without knowledge of their families.
Tresviso I, Cantabria.11.1937, Avelino Fernández Bravo, 29, married, was murdered and buried in La Mesa.
Monte de Estépar II, Burgos, 8.1936-10.1936, more than 300 people were “taken out” from the Burgos prison and shot.
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