On the day when the body of the Spanish
dictator, Franco, was exhumed from the grand mausoleum in the Valle of the Caidos
(Valley of the Fallen) and transferred to the small cemetery where his wife is
buried, Calasparra has marked the occasion by remembering victims of the
fascist regime.
Today, October 24, 2019, the Socialist Party of Calasparra paid tribute to
thirteen young women, executed by firing squad by the dictatorship, four months
after the end of the Civil War, (For being members of the equivalent of the Young
Socialists) and the Calasparrians sent to the Mauthausen Concentration Camp by
the regime and who were also buried in the Valle de Los Caidos, alongside an
estimated 35,000 other victims of the regime.
Local Cllr Antonio Merino calls today a “historic day for Spain, Europe and for
the world. Dignity returns to our country.”
On his Facebook page he adds: “Today we see the dictator outside the Valle of
the Caidos. The government of Pedro Sanchez has honoured his commitment.
“For those who are here and for those who are not,” he added.
The Mayor of Calasparra, Jose Velez, joined members of his party to place 13
red roses on the memorial to the Calasparrians who died in Mauthausen, which stands
in the grounds of the Casa de la Cultura.
