Eighty years ago, the Spanish Civil War was getting close to its bitter end as Franco's armies moved northwards through Catalonia, bringing death and terror with them. And this Sunday, Catalan singer Marina Rossell brought emotional memories of that era to the surface at an event to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the bombardment of the town of La Garriga. Rossell, accompanied by piano, performed a song first sung by Teresa Rebull, Paisatge del Ebre.
The lyrics tell the story of someone who returns to a cave in mountains near the river Ebro, for the first time since 1938 - when the devastating Battle of the Ebro was fought - and finds "Jaume's shoes", with holes in them, along with other objects that show what happened there: an ammunition magazine, and three pieces of shrapnel on a mud-covered plate. The lyrics were taken from a poem by Josep Gual, before being sung by Teresa Rebull, herself a nurse with the anarchist POUM militia and then a singer in the post-war era.
Catalan president Quim Torra was present at the event and afterwards proposed that this year, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of the Civil War, all Catalan towns and cities should hold collective acts of reparation for the descendents of those condemned by court-martial decisions.
Quim Torra with the mayor of La Garriga, Meritxell Budó / ACN
On January 29th, 1939, Mussolini's Italian air force, at the service of Spanish general Francisco Franco, bombed La Garriga, north of Barcelona, leaving fifteen fatalities. To commemorate this, and to reclaim the historical memory, the municipality inaugurated a new memorial signposting of the mass grave at the old cemetery at the Doma church.