Memories and silences. Transgenerational and cross-border violence under Francoist repression

Résumé 0

A village in the Castilla y Léon region, scarred by the important emigration wave it experienced between 1950s and 1970s, is penetrated by diverging approaches of History: an academic research study, which collected life-stories and unearthed a local history of Francoist domination (Iglesias Ovejero, 2016), and a group (consisting of both residents and emigrants), which reckons silence on these wrongdoings are immensely preferable because of the high risk their mention would trigger a revival of fratricidal strife. This dedication to silence is paradoxically the sign of acute memory. But, like Moro (2002) and the transcultural approach, the descendants of migrants, because of the impact it has on people, need to reconstruct a family history, even if they live in another territory. On the basis of interviews and participant observation, the study is carried out while the bodies of missing persons are unearthed from a mass grave. It focuses on the stakes of mentioning or keeping silent today the history of Francoist repression within the region as well as through the mobility of the residents and their descendants.