Producing History In Spanish Civil War Exhumations: From The Archive To The Grave (world Histories Of Crime, Culture And Violence)
by Zahira Aragüete-Toribio /
2017 / English / PDF
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This book reflects on the new histories emerging from the
exhumation of mass graves that contain the corpses of the
Republicans killed in extrajudicial executions during and after the
conflict, nearly eighty years after the end of the Spanish Civil
War (1936-1939). In the search for, location and unearthing of
these unmarked burials, the corpse, the document and the oral
testimony have become key traces through which to demand the
recognition of past Francoist crimes, which were never atoned, from
a lukewarm Spanish state and judiciary. These have become objects
of evidence against the politics of silence entertained by national
institutions since the transition to democracy. Working alongside
archaeologists, historians, memory activists and families, this
book explores how new versions of the history of the killings are
constructed at the cross-roads between science, history and family
experience. It does so considering the workings of truth-seeking in
the absence of criminal justice and the effects of the process on
Spanish collective memory and identity.
This book reflects on the new histories emerging from the
exhumation of mass graves that contain the corpses of the
Republicans killed in extrajudicial executions during and after the
conflict, nearly eighty years after the end of the Spanish Civil
War (1936-1939). In the search for, location and unearthing of
these unmarked burials, the corpse, the document and the oral
testimony have become key traces through which to demand the
recognition of past Francoist crimes, which were never atoned, from
a lukewarm Spanish state and judiciary. These have become objects
of evidence against the politics of silence entertained by national
institutions since the transition to democracy. Working alongside
archaeologists, historians, memory activists and families, this
book explores how new versions of the history of the killings are
constructed at the cross-roads between science, history and family
experience. It does so considering the workings of truth-seeking in
the absence of criminal justice and the effects of the process on
Spanish collective memory and identity.