By Isabel Laguna I Cádiz, (EFE) disappeared, no one informed their relatives that their bodies were buried in five nameless niches.
During this half century, José Manuel Pose, who was 18 years old when the shipwreck occurred, like the rest of the relatives of those five sailors, have lived with the pain of thinking that the bodies of their parents disappeared at sea.
Mourn a disappearance at sea
“It is an immense pain, I do not wish it on anyone. I remember my mother’s pain, she did not mourn a death, she mourned a disappearance at sea, she did not recover from that, ”she explains to EFE.
Half a century later, they have discovered that those five bodies were recovered and are buried in the San Román de Arrecife cemetery and have begun their fight to bring them back to their land.
Their relatives began to get in touch a few months ago, when, as the 50th anniversary of the tragedy approached, they thought they would pay tribute to the victims.
“We didn’t know each other, but now, with the Internet, pressing a button will take you a long way,” says José Manuel Pose, who now chairs the Association of Relatives and Friends of the Victims of the Shipwreck of the Domenech de Varo Ship.
They began to gather information. Pose took an 11-day trip to Arrecife where he dived into different archives.
This is how the story of that ship that left El Puerto de Santa María was reconstructed, with twelve men from this town and from Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Barbate and Cádiz, to fish on the North African coast.
On a night of bad seas, the ship had to go to Arrecife to solve a problem and it collided with some rocks. “When I heard the ‘boom’ of the coup, I put my legs on the ground and the water was already up to my belly,” says José Mangas, the only one of the two survivors who still lives, in Sanlúcar de Barrameda.
Giant waves carried away all the crew members. Only he and the skipper managed to reach the coast.
That night the first two corpses appeared and in the morning, a third. The two survivors were able to identify them, before returning to their land.
Five nameless niches for a shipwreck
But from that moment on, “the peninsular authorities and organizations, and specifically those of the Bay of Cádiz, stop providing information to the next of kin about the appearances of the rest of the bodies.”
The local press on the island reported that the following days five more bodies were recovered.
Their unidentified bodies were buried in unmarked niches, along with those of the three who were identified. Families were never informed.
The relatives have quantified the amount they would need to complete the identification and bring their remains to their towns of origin at 14,900 euros.
Among them are very humble people who “would have to wait another five years” to be able to save on expenses. For this reason they have started a campaign to gather help.
The provincial deputy of IU, Carmen Álvarez, has registered a motion that the plenary session of the Provincial Council of Cádiz will address.
Heal a part of the penalty
“Their wives have died without being able to bring flowers to a grave and with the pain of thinking throughout their lives that the bodies were submerged in the sea,” explains the motion, which understands that “there is a moral responsibility on the part of the administrations” .
The relatives assure that they are receiving support for their efforts from city councils, parties and fishermen’s associations, except from the Social Institute of the Navy.
“We do not claim anything. In the event that we did, it would be prescribed,” says the president of the association, who understands that the only thing they are after is to uncover “the harsh reality, that that was covered up” and that today “what was not done in its day” be done ” identify some dead sailors and that their families can know where their remains are.
María del Mar Rodríguez, a resident of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, did not even know her father. He saw her being born, said goodbye to her in the hospital and eleven days later he died in that shipwreck at the age of 23, one year after marrying her mother. She never thought that she would have more bond with him. Now that she happened to find her name on social media she can, 50 years later, heal a part of her grief.
“Each of us has a 70 percent chance that our parents are in one of those five niches and a 30 percent chance that they are the two that actually disappeared at sea. But we want to take the risk. Until now we had a zero percent chance”, says the president of the association. EFE
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