Reconciliation is of the most used justifications Evidently, thousands of dead buried there also
by those who want to avoid any kind of action in deserve respect; however, respect does not
the Valley of the Fallen and who deny that this involve a dissolution of memories under the same
place was built in honour of the victors of the civil “reconciling” memory. The Valley must become an
war. Cuelgamuros represents an anti-democratic agora where different memories could coexist, even
symbol, a late-Franco myth that has not disappeared if they are confronted. This does not involve their
in certain circles of the extreme right and the unification or mixing up without leading to “happy
Catholic Church. The decree of April 1, 1940, which end” of democratic Spain through a joint memorial,
would start the monumental project of the Valley, but rather that each memory deserves its space
already stated that its purpose was “to perpetuate -always from a democratic approach. The priorities
the memory of those who fell in our glorious must be: explain, periodize, identify, dignify and act.
Crusade”. As is well known, the hardest part of And these must be done by separately identifying
the construction works, such as the excavation of and addressing the different memories, victims or
the basilica encrypted in granite, was undertaken soldiers there buried and/or the memorial elements.
by Republican political prisoners. What type of Undoubtedly, the Valley represents the dictatorship
reconciliation could they possibly find in a site they and National Catholicism in all its variants and
were forced to build by a dictatorial authority? The evaluations.
purpose of the Valley is very clearly stated in the
documentation of the age -in the burial order of July
11, 1946, of the decree-law of August 23, 1957 by
The thousands of bodies
which the foundation of the Holy Cross of the Valley
of the Fallen was created, in the letter written by
Franco to José Antonio’s brothers so that he could
be buried there, etc. “to bury those who fell in the
Crusade, in the War of Liberation, in the Uprising,
those who fought the Anti-Spain and the Marxist
hordes”.
Clearly, several
memories coexist in
the Valley of the Fallen,
until now ruled by the
shadow of the dictator
and under the protection
of the most old-fashion
National Catholicism,
based on the union of the
sword and the cross.
As quoted in the Report
of the Experts Committee
(commissioned by the
Spanish government
in 2010), 33.847 people
were buried in the Valley
of the Fallen, between
1959 and 1983.
Many families were never aware that the remains of
their loved ones, whether Republicans or Francoists,
had been moved to Cuelgamuros. Some of these
families are currently claiming their exhumation and
identification. In fact, the Valley became the largest
mass grave in Spain. It has been questioned the fact
that bodies buried in the Valley of the Fallen can be
recovered due to the bad state of the columns and
some crypts, with mortuary boxes destroyed by the
humidity and filtrations, which results in mountains
32
Observing Memories
ISSUE 2