In a common grave, surrounded by some marble slabs and among the remains of another 146 people who were murdered after the 1936 coup in the cemetery of the San Fernando municipality of Cadiz. This is how they have identified the body of the former mayor of the city, Cayetano Roldán, a member of the Republican Left, as detailed by his granddaughter.
The mayor died along with three of his children and 16 other councilors who had been elected in the municipal elections of February 1936. “Since I was a child, they told me that two women went to the pit where they had thrown my grandfather and surrounded his body with some stones, some marble slabs, so that it could be identified”, detailed the relative, who also assures that the anthropomorphic study of the bones coincides with the physical characteristics of the former mayor of the city.
The granddaughter of Cayetano Roldán, Ángeles Fernández Roldán, explained that this novelty is part of the results of an investigation promoted by the Association for the Recovery of the Democratic, Social and Political Memory of San Fernando (AMEDE), which has allowed the identification of Two more people thank you, Emilio Ordaz and Alberto García, in these cases, thanks to a wedding ring and a medal around their necks.
Regarding the identification of the mayor, the woman insists that “they are presumptive evidence, both in the case of my grandfather and in that of the other two people, because the DNA tests are costing a lot, since the laboratory in Granada is taking a long time”, lamented Fernández Roldán, who complained about the delay accumulated by the only place in Andalusia where the remains of reprisals can be sent to be compared with that of their relatives.
“My grandfather was a very loved man. He was a doctor and they called him the doctor of the poor, because he cared for everyone even if he did not have money, since, instead of charging them, he even gave them some coins after caring for the most needy”, recalls Fernández Roldán.
For her, as for the rest of the relatives of retaliated San Fernando councilors, the delay in recovering the bodies of their loved ones is taking too long, since many of their descendants have died during this time. “We were ten siblings, and there were only five left. For this reason, we asked the Board for speed, so that we could bury my grandfather with his wife and his children,” the granddaughter claims.
Fernández Roldán believes that the “presumptive” evidence, the appearance of the bones surrounded by marble slabs and the anthropomorphic coincidence, should be enough for the authority to agree to hand over those remains and be able to bury them, without the need for DNA evidence. as required by law.
