Today is the 74th anniversary of end of the Spanish Civil war, which shook the Iberian peninsula for almost three years. It had started on 18 July 1936 when a group of Spanish army generals led a coup against the democratically elected People's Front government. Those military cadres, led by general Francisco Franco, initially failed to gain power in many regions but Navarre, Aragon, Castille, Galicia, Balearic and Canary Islands. After a long war in which they were supported by Germany and Italy, Francoist troops controlled the whole Peninsula and established a dictatorship which would rule Spain for nearly 40 years.
This date is a good occasion for remembering one of the most unknown stories of the repression during the war: the violation and slaughter of a 14-year old girl for being the daughter of a leftist trade-union member. Nearly 77 years after her death, the Spanish and Navarrese governments have not yet recognized the pain suffered by her and her relatives.
Maravillas Lamberto (1922-1936) was a 14-year old girl who lived with her parents and two younger sisters in Larraga, some 40 kilometers away from Iruña-Pamplona, Navarre. His father Vicente had been affiliated at the Unión General de Trabajadores trade union during the Second Republic (1931-1936), so that a group of policemen from the Guardia Civil (a Spanish paramilitary force which supported Franco's coup) went to his home in order to detain him on 15 August 1936. When police arrived at Vicente's home, his eldest daughter insisted on accompanying her father. The policemen agreed, so both father and daughter were brought to the town hall. There, Vicente was put into prison while Maravillas was brought upstairs and repeatedly violated. After that, they were both murdered and the girl's naked corpse was given to dogs. Her remains have not been found yet.
This is a single example of the millions of victims that suffered from repression and genocide during the war and even after. In fact, the latest executions took place in 1975, months before the dictator's death, when an agonic Franco ordered the execution of two ETA and three FRAP members. In fact, Francoism began and ended slaughtering. However, those crimes have never been investigated and the Spanish government has never condemned them. We shall never forget.
UPDATE: According to Martxelo Díaz, journalist from GARA newspaper, someone has attacked the monument which honoured victims of Francoist repression in Larraga. It was settled in a space called "Parque de la Memoria" (Park of Memory), which remembers every people who was murdered in Larraga during the Spanish Civil War.
This is another example of the willingness of some to silence the tragedy and sorrow that the civil war and the cruel repression brought to lots of innocent people like Maravillas' youngest sister, Josefina. She was only 7 years old when her sister was murdered and had to endure harassment and mistreatment regarding the tragedy that had took place within her family. After becoming a nun at a young age, the Mother Superior of her nunnery barred her from contacting other fellow nuns because of her family history. Josefina was even sent to Karachi, where she was forbidden to study any language so that she could not communicate with native people. Once Franco had died she could return to Spain, but mistreatment against her continued as she was barred from going out of her nunnery after trying to investigate what had happened to her father and eldest sister (some people thought that they were murdered because "they were likely to have done something wrong"). Unfortunately, stories like this are very common in the country.
UPDATE 2: The attack against the monument to the victims of Franco's repression has been already confirmed. Someone has painted the words "El Chato" on it. Those words refer to Pedro Díez Terés, one of the most famous tyrants of Navarre during the war. He was a captain of far-right Falange Española at that time and ordered the executions of many leftist people in the region, Maravillas' father Vicente among them. Moreover, El Chato is likely to have been involved in the violation and death of the girl.
UPDATE: According to Martxelo Díaz, journalist from GARA newspaper, someone has attacked the monument which honoured victims of Francoist repression in Larraga. It was settled in a space called "Parque de la Memoria" (Park of Memory), which remembers every people who was murdered in Larraga during the Spanish Civil War.
This is another example of the willingness of some to silence the tragedy and sorrow that the civil war and the cruel repression brought to lots of innocent people like Maravillas' youngest sister, Josefina. She was only 7 years old when her sister was murdered and had to endure harassment and mistreatment regarding the tragedy that had took place within her family. After becoming a nun at a young age, the Mother Superior of her nunnery barred her from contacting other fellow nuns because of her family history. Josefina was even sent to Karachi, where she was forbidden to study any language so that she could not communicate with native people. Once Franco had died she could return to Spain, but mistreatment against her continued as she was barred from going out of her nunnery after trying to investigate what had happened to her father and eldest sister (some people thought that they were murdered because "they were likely to have done something wrong"). Unfortunately, stories like this are very common in the country.
UPDATE 2: The attack against the monument to the victims of Franco's repression has been already confirmed. Someone has painted the words "El Chato" on it. Those words refer to Pedro Díez Terés, one of the most famous tyrants of Navarre during the war. He was a captain of far-right Falange Española at that time and ordered the executions of many leftist people in the region, Maravillas' father Vicente among them. Moreover, El Chato is likely to have been involved in the violation and death of the girl.
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