Desde hace ya unos años Álvaro Fernández Alonso ha sido uno de los asistentes fijos al homenaje que se celebra en el Pirineo navarro a los esclavos del franquismo. Aquí le conocimos, y aquí sentimos la fuerza de su palabra y de su presencia, desde que llegó acompañando a la familia de Pepe Barajas y Elena Díaz, junto con sus compañeras y compañeros del Col·lectiu Republicà del Baix Llobregat y del Ateneu Republicà de Gràcia (Barcelona).

Aquí le conocimos, le sentimos a nuestro lado, en el trabajo por esclarecer toda la barbarie del franquismo, por homenajear a su víctimas, y también por exigir la defensa de los derechos de las personas y de los pueblos, en especial de las y los trabajadores. Le conocimos aquí, sumándose a un homenaje que también era para él, debido a lo que le tocó sufrir por su militancia antifranquista y anticapitalista.

Aquí te conocimos, Álvaro, junto a una escultura que nos recuerda que entendemos la memoria como un ejercicio de libertad permanente, de denuncia y de dignidad permanente. Por eso, porque así te hemos conocido, así también te recordaremos, sintiendo la fuerza de tu palabra en la denuncia de los crímenes del franquismo y sintiéndola también cuando nos resistimos a las normas de esos nuevos y viejos gobernantes, “los mercados”, esos que pretenden ahora recortar aún más nuestros derechos. Así te vas, y así te quedas, sintiendo y agradeciendo tu presencia.

Besarkada handi bat!

Memoriaren Bideak taldeko zure lagunok

Portada del libro Esclavos del franquismo en el Pirineo
Title: SLAVES OF FRANCO IN THE PYRENEES
Authors: Fernando Mendiola and Edurne Beaumont
Published by: Txalaparta
Second editon: 2007
ISBN: 84-8136-457-7

When the Civil war ended, more than 2,000 anti-Francoist prisoners were brought to the valleys of Salazar and Roncal in the Navarran Pyrenees, in order to open up a mountain road. This road is the axis of this book, and presented through that is the disturbing story of the organisation and social impact of these forced labour battalions.

Through these pages and by means of direct testimonies, we are given a taste of the reality of one of these battalions which sought to physically and psychologically subdue those defeated in the war. We hear about the prisoner’s strategies for surviving in such extreme conditions and we are shown the consequences that this forced labour had as much in the populations of some small mountain villages as in the families of these slaves of Franco.

An extensive work of research, accompanied by detailed documents and lists which aim to break the wall of silence imposed during decades on this, one of the most unknown and cruellest aspects of the francoist repression: slave labour.

Book contents licensed (as from 2nd editon)under Creative Commons BY-NC-ND
(Reconocimiento-Uso No Comercial-Sin Obras Derivadas)

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The catalogue aims to go further than that implied by forced labour in the western Pyrenees, taking into account the fact that research exists which analyses the impact of these kinds of measures during the Franco dictatorship in other parts of the Spanish peninsular. Because of this and as well as including reproductions of what is exhibited on the panels, are the results of collaboration with researchers into the different aspects of this mode of repression.

In reference to the internal contents, the catalogue is divided into three parts. The first part places forced labour within a framework of contemporary European and Spanish history. Presented in the second part are the results of different research into forced labour in the Pyrenees, from Catalonia to Euskal Herria (the Basque Country). The third part is a compilation of studies into other forms of forced labour and its impact on the families of prisoners. It concludes with an analysis in the epilogue the presence of this penal and concentrational phenomenon within the collective memory.

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portada del catálogo

Panel de la exposición
The exhibition titled “Slavery under Francoism: roads and fortifications in the western Pyrenees” consists of 16 panels (Available in Basque or Spanish) which shows the work carried out, as much in the whole Spanish state as, though in more detail, in the Basque Pyrenees. The panels are divided into three fields of interest.

The first of them “An entire network of slavery”explains the establishment of different models of forced labour, and its extension throughout the whole State of Spain.

The second of them “Little bread and a lot of misery” centres around the experiences of the prisoners who worked on the fortifications and roads in the Pyrenees.

The third one, “Beyond the barbed wire” analyses who really benefited from this forced labour, and also the impact that they have had in the Pyrenean villages, on the families of the prisoners and within the collective memory.

En este apartado puedes visionar fragmentos de entrevistas, documentales sobre trabajos forzados y otro tipo de material audiovisual.

Durante muchos años la experiencia de los trabajos forzados ha estado silenciada, o como mucho constreñida al mundo privado de los prisioneros, de sus familias y amistades.

Queremos que gracias a esta página web su voz pueda ser escuchada por todas las personas interesadas en esta cuestión, para que sean ellos y ellas, protagonistas de esta historia de esclavitud y dignidad, quienes nos hagan llegar sus experiencias