Representatives of the exile and the Republican resistance pose with the Spanish and French authorities in the cultural center of Collioure (France) after receiving a declaration of recognition from the State.Albert Garcia
Rosario Cunillera walks along the Le Perthus road along which her father, among thousands of other defeated Republicans, fled in 1939 from Francoism to France. It is his 78th birthday and the guerrilla Benigno Cunillera died some time ago, as did his mother, Bernardina Peláez, but he is excited to undo his steps: "It had to be very hard for him and for all those families who crossed to another country with cold, rain and fear," he explains. Next to her there are two hundred more people, among them, the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, Fernando Martínez, the French prefect of the area, the director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis García Montero, the president of CCOO, Unai Sordo, the delegate of UGT in Catalonia, descendants of anti-Franco fighters and veteran members of memorialist associations – most of them octogenarians – who have made nine hours by bus from Madrid, reading poems by Machado, to participate in the celebration of the first official day of homage to the victims of exile, as established by the memory law approved last October. The Minister of the Presidency, Felix Bolaños, had planned to attend, but had to cancel the trip after being operated on urgently last Saturday for biliary colic.
Several coaches have transported dozens of people from different parts of Spain to El Perthus to participate in the march between Le Boulou, the same road that thousands of Republicans made to flee Spain. Albert Garcia
Fernando Marinez, Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, during the march between El Perthus-Le Boulou.Albert Garcia
March between The Perthus-Le Boulou of Spanish Republicans. Albert Garcia
Rosario Cunillera, walks with an image of her relatives in the march between El Perthus-Le Boulou.Albert Garcia
The Secretary of State for Democratic Memory of the Government of Spain, Fernando Martínez, presents a diploma of recognition to Jesus García during the act of homage to the victims of exile in the cultural center of Collioure. Albert Garcia
Floral offering at the tomb of Antonio Machado. Albert Garcia
Monument in homage to 70 children under 10 years old killed in the concentration camp of the beach of Argeles-sur Mer, in the cemetery of the Spaniards of this town. Albert Garcia
Luis García Montero, poet and director of the Cervantes Institute, reads a poem during the act of homage to the victims of exile in the cultural center of Collioure. Albert Garcia
An attendee with a republican flag at the tribute to the victims of exile at the cultural center of Collioure. Albert Garcia
Fernando Martinez (right), with French authorities during the wreath laying at the cemetery of the Spaniards of Argeles-sur Mer. Albert Garcia
Benigno Cudillera ended up, like so many Spaniards who fled to France, in a concentration camp. In 2015, then-French Prime Minister Manuel Valls chanted something akin to a state pardon: "They were humiliated. They wanted to take away their dignity. Those fleeing in search of freedom expected another kind of welcome. That's not France," he said. Since then, the authorities have multiplied the tributes to the Spanish Republicans, considered "heroes" in the neighboring country. Because after being mistreated, part of that human contingent of losers of the Spanish Civil War decided to play a second round against fascism by supporting the French in the resistance against the Nazis. "The concentration camps," explains Henri Fareny, president of the Association of Former Spanish Combatants in France, "were the crucible of resistance that was to develop later. The role of La Nueve [the first Spanish soldiers who entered Paris to liberate the capital in August 1944] is well known, but that process that will later be called Resistance had begun much earlier." In the camp of Argelès-sur-Mer, where more than 80,000 Republicans ended up, such as Rosario Cunillera's father, "70 children under ten years old: Spaniards, Jews and Gypsies" also died, as explained by a plaque in the so-called "cemetery of the Spaniards". Some small colored stones – those of the Republican flag – remember their names and age: "Manuel Martín, 3 years", "Macrowiack Sophie, 7 months ...".
Stones with the names and ages of children under 10 years of age who died in the concentration camp of Argelès-sur Mer (France). Albert Garcia
The second stop of the tribute is in Collioure, before the tomb of Antonio Machado, who died in the French town in February 1939, three days before his mother, Ana Ruiz, and barely a month after having managed to cross the border. García Montero recalled that the journalist Corpus Barga carried the poet's mother in the last meters to the pension where they stayed and that she, "with the disorientation of exile, asked him in his ear: But when did we arrive in Seville?". She thought she was coming to the city where her children were born, rather than to the French town where she was to be buried next to one of them. "Antonio's last verse, the one they found in the coat in his pocket when he died," Montero recalled, "was precisely the one that remembered his childhood: 'These blue days and this sun of childhood...' The director of the Cervantes Institute has also read, very moved, the first poem that Rafael Alberti wrote in exile, about that dove that was wrong; one of his entitled Collioure and another of famous beginning that Luis Cernuda composed from the US after meeting a brigadista who had risked his life in Spain to defend La República: "Remember it yourself and remember it to others ...". This was dedicated by Montero to Jesús García Martínez, who received the biggest ovation in the crowded auditorium of the cultural center of Collioure. At 104 years old, he is the last living brigadista. Of Andalusian origin, he emigrated with his family with only two years to France and when he turned 18, with another friend from the neighborhood, he joined the international brigades in the Civil War. "I did it because I'm Spanish and to fight fascism," he explains. His friend died. He, who fought in the Battle of the Ebro, was seriously wounded and lost almost all the muscles of his arm in a bombardment.
Along with Jesús García, 16 other men and women, including Ana Floristán, 85, recently arrived from Havana, received a diploma from the Government, the declaration of recognition of the State for their sacrifice in favor of democracy. He was only nine months old when he crossed the French border with his family and soon after they managed to go into exile in Cuba, for which his grandmother, who already lived there, had to pay a large fine.
"They took away their house, land, family, work ...", listed the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, "but the Spanish exiles had the strength to start a new life, the perseverance to move forward with their own, and eternal fidelity to their ideas. And they won, because today's Spain is a full democracy. We owe it to them, to our heroes."
