Josefina Cuesta, pioneer of historical memory in Spain, dies

Josefina Cuesta giving the conference 'Unamuno and women', at the Casa Unamuno of the University of Salamanca, March 7, 2017 Friends of Unamuno Salamanca Association

On March 30, 2021, after a short illness and surrounded by her family, the emeritus professor of the University of Salamanca Josefina Cuesta Bustillo (Villamolón, 1947-Salamanca, 2021) died.

He studied at that center, where he obtained a doctorate and a Chair in Contemporary History.

Several generations have benefited from his teaching, experience and generosity.

If her doctoral thesis, which revolved around the International Labor Organization, led her to specialize in 20th century social history.

It was her initiating trips to Paris in the 1970s that led her to L'École des hautes études and to classes with Pierre Nora, director of

With it, she was trained in the concept and the relationship between memory and history, a subject to which she was linked for life and that placed her as a pioneer of these studies in the Spanish university.

That early look at memory, implied high doses of courage and an altitude of vision on a path that was not comfortable or easy, but the margins

They were always familiar to women and Josefina in this sense used them as a lever to empower herself.

He understood that memory in Spain had been built on State crimes, human rights violations and on systems of oppression that generated silence and oblivion.

In his book,

(2008), which constituted his great theoretical contribution in the field of memorialism, he reflected on the works of memory in Spain from the Second Republic to the democratic period , going through the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship.

A thought, his, that understood that memory in Spain had been built on crimes of the State, human rights violations and on systems of oppression that generated silence and oblivion.

In the academic field, he bequeathed us brilliant analyzes derived from that innate power he had for the conceptual study of the work object.

The social function of history, with Professor Cuesta, acquired the category of a company.

His professional worth was shown in the direction of numerous doctoral theses, publication of articles, books, conferences and in the committees of which he was a part, such as the ANECA;

She was the patron and collaborator of the Documentary Center for Historical Memory;

director of the Center for Women's Studies at the University of Salamanca;

co-founder and co-director of the collection Memoria de Mujer, from USAL editions, a series aimed at the dissemination of multidisciplinary gender studies, necessary for the recovery of the memory of many women, among others, that of republicans, anarchists, socialists or Communists who made a breach in the incipient Spanish democracy of the 1930s.

His collaboration with memory associations was close, especially with the Salamanca Association for Memory and Justice.

She built a network of research networks around the history of women where university education had special relevance, forming an ambitious research team led by the best specialists.

Her capacity for work, courage, and solidarity made her participate selflessly in multiple social enterprises, contributing her personal humanity.

From a very young age, he understood the University as an education platform without borders, where diversity and difference led to enrichment;

In love with life, she was passionate about traveling, knowing, knowing ... and in coherence with all this she was a visiting professor at various universities in Europe, such as the University of Paris VII, Denis Diderot, the

de Paris, the University of Toulouse, and in others in Latin America, in countries like Mexico, Chile or Argentina.

Josefina wrote, not long ago, referring to the transfer between memory and history, that it was not "devoid of conflicts, problems, dissident interpretations, and trickery", Ay, Josefina!

What a lure the latter, when it was only a few days ago that we took the word of immediate projects away.

Rest in peace friend and teacher.

María José Turrión,

is a historian and former director of the Documentary Center for Historical Memory.