Seville, (EFE).- Relatives, memorialist associations and the Seville City Council have taken another step this Monday on the long road of giving “dignity” to the victims of Franco’s repression with the inauguration of the ossuary-memorial of the Pico grave Reja, where they have deposited the remains of more than 50 murdered after the coup.
At the end of February, Seville closed the Francoist mass grave at Pico Reja, the largest open in Spain. The data indicates that this ossuary accumulates remains of some 1,786 reprisals. Among them could be those of Blas Infante, the so-called father of the Andalusian homeland.
In an act charged with “emotion, recognition and dignity”, the relatives of the victims, the memorialist associations and the Seville City Council have agreed to demand that the Junta de Andalucía speed up the work to identify the DNA of the remains in order to verify the genetic identity of the murdered.
40 boxes with red carnations
The ceremony of “dignity and recovery” of memory concluded with the inauguration of the ossuary-memorial of the Pico Reja grave, where little by little the remains of fifty reprisals have been deposited in some 40 boxes with red carnations, an initiative in that the former mayor of Seville and the leader of the PSOE-A, Juan Espadas, whose uncle was shot, have participated.
Earlier, a column of several hundred people walked silently along the main street of the cemetery carrying photos of those killed after the 1936 coup, Republican flags and a banner that read “Never again fascism.”
Paqui Maquena, leader of the memoralist associations and candidate for Adelante Andalucía, has called for “memory and dignity”, has stressed that “we do not forget or forgive, we ask for justice for families” and has stressed that Seville has taken a further step in reparation of the reprisals of Francoism”.
Juan Tomás Aragón, Seville councilor for Citizen Participation, has argued that with the work on the Pico Reja pit “a wound that hurts is closed” because he has admitted that there is still “much to be done.”
More unrecognized graves
Now the objective is to begin the excavation works of the Monument pit, located near the Pico Reja pit. It is an even bigger grave in which there would be some 2,600 victims of Francoism, according to experts.
“Today we see a commitment culminated, we have settled a debt with the families of the victims who needed their City Council to give them a voice and give them the treatment they deserved”, the former Seville mayor Juan Espadas told the media, who thanked the memorialist associations and City Hall officials their work.
The event was also attended by representatives of parties such as Podemos, Más País, PCE and IU, although the absence of representatives of the Andalusian Government was noted, according to the organization.
“We recover memory, fundamental to the identity and pride of Andalusia, has indicated the leader of IU Toni Valero, who has urged to carry out these acts in so many places in Andalusia where “there are still graves and they have not been recognized” the victims, which he has attributed to the “non-compliance” of the Government of Moreno with the Law of Historical Memory. EFE