San Fernando Cemetery, Sevilla 1936

 

"Twenty men are rounded up from the Macarena quarter the night my abuelo is taken. They are offered a cigarette. They are offered the chance to repent, to confess. Each man is told that if they swear allegiance to Franco and to the Nationalist regime, they will be released. They are told this as rifle butts cut gashes across their cheekbones, their temples. Part of Manuel’s ear is severed by a blow, and there is blood trickling down his neck. A slash across his shoulder bleeds through his shirt that is slapping cold against his skin.

One after the other, eighteen men cry out “¡Ni muerto -- not even when I’m dead!” when asked if they wanted to repent. Over and over, and often through tears of anguish, “¡Ni muerto! ¡Ni muerto!” as they are shot against the wall of the San Fernando cemetery."

For more on reclaiming the bones from the mass graves in Spain, click here, here and here.