Relatives, memorialist associations and the Seville City Council have taken another step this Monday on the long road of giving “dignity” to the victims of Franco’s repression with the inauguration of the ossuary-memorial of the Pico Reja grave, where they have deposited the remains of more than 50 assassinated after the coup.
At the end of February, Seville closed the Francoist mass grave at Pico Reja, the largest open in Spain. The data indicates that this ossuary accumulates remains of some 1,786 reprisals. Among them could be those of Blas Infante, the so-called father of the Andalusian homeland.
In an act charged with “emotion, recognition and dignity”, the relatives of the victims, the memorialist associations and the Seville City Council agreed to demand that the Junta de Andalucía speed up the work to identify the DNA of the remains to verify the identity Genetics of the murdered.
The ceremony of “dignity and recovery” of memory concluded with the inauguration of the ossuary-memorial of the Pico Reja grave, where little by little the remains of fifty retaliated were deposited in some 40 boxes with red carnations, an initiative in which The former mayor of Seville and the leader of the Andalusian PSOE, Juan Espadas, whose uncle was shot, participated.
Earlier, a column of several hundred people walked silently along the main street of the cemetery carrying photos of those killed after the 1936 coup, Republican flags and a banner that read “Never again fascism.”
Paqui Maquena, leader of the memoralist associations and candidate for Adelante Andalucía, called for “memory and dignity”, stressed that “we do not forget or forgive, we ask for justice for families” and stressed that Seville has taken another step in reparation for the retaliated of Francoism”.
Juan Tomás Aragón, Seville councilor for Citizen Participation, explained that with the work on the Pico Reja pit “a wound that hurts is closed” because he admitted that “there is still a lot to do.”
Now the objective is to begin the excavation works of the Monument pit, located near the Pico Reja pit. It is an even bigger grave in which there would be some 2,600 victims of Francoism, according to experts.
“Today we see a commitment completed, we have settled a debt with the relatives of the victims who needed their City Council to give them a voice and give them the treatment they deserved,” former Seville mayor Juan Espadas told the media, who thanked the memorialist associations and the officials of the City Council their work.
The event was also attended by representatives of parties such as Podemos, Más País, PCE and IU, although the absence of representatives of the Andalusian Government was noted, according to the organization.
“We recover memory, fundamental for the identity and pride of Andalusia, has indicated the leader of IU Toni Valero, who urged to carry out these acts in so many places in Andalusia where “there are still graves and they have not been recognized” victims, which he attributed to the “non-compliance” of the Government of Moreno with the Law of Historical Memory.
