MYPLACE
May 2014
____________________________________
____________________________________
MYPLACE (Memory, Youth, Political Legacy And Civic Engagement)
Grant agreement no: FP7-266831
WP2: Interpreting the past
Spain (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)
Deliverable 2.3: Intergenerational transmission of political heritage and
historical memories (Spain)
Editors
Mariona Ferrer-Fons, Albert Jiménez. Sanjin Uležić
Version
Date
Work Package
Deliverable
V2.0
31 May 2014
WP2: Interpreting the past
Deliverable 2.3: Intergenerational transmission of political heritage
and historical memories
PU
Anton Popov, Dušan Deak
31.5.2014
Dissemination level
WP Leaders
Deliverable Date
Document history
Version Date
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Modified by
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Deliverable 2.3: Intergenerational transmission of political heritage and historical memories (Spain)
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1
20.5.2014
First Version of the Deliverable (UPF)
Created by
MFF, AJ, SU
2
31.5.2014
Version 2 after comments of coordinators
Created by
SU,MFF
Content
1. Introduction and context information
2. Theoretical framework and historiographical outline
3. An overview on memory transmission among young people using survey data
4. Empirical analysis of the intergenerational interviews
4.1. Methodology: selection of the interviewees and profiles
4.2. Discussion of findings of the intergenerational interviews
4.2.1. Family-based summary of memorial narratives
4.2.2. Family mnemonic culture
4.2.3. Effects of historical memory on political engagement and participation
5. Conclusions
References
Appendix
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1. Introduction and context information
Spanish history of the 20th century is one that holds many cleavages which in their respective
periods polarized the population. Several events are deeply embedded into the conflicting historical
narratives of contemporary Spain, with the transitions between them representing significant social
and political changes. Four periods are of particular importance in the last century: (1) the
proclamation of the Second Republic (1931-1936) which implied a period of progressive changes
but high level of tensions between a very polarized society; (2) the Civil War (1936-1939) that was
fought from July 17th 1936 to April 1st 1939 between the Republicans, who were loyal to the
established Spanish Republic, and the Nationals, a rebel group led by General Francisco Franco; (3)
the Francoist dictatorship (1939-1975); and (4) the transition period which started in 1975 with
Franco‘s death and we could consider that it is finished in 1978, with the approval of the Spanish
Constitution. All these periods, but in particular the Civil War and the Dictatorship, have had a
significant a impact on the Spanish (and Catalan) population.
Besides historical developments, a present crucial issue of division in Spanish, but in particular in
Catalan society, is the desire of self-determination (secession) from Spain of a part of the Catalan
society, which is a society increasing polarised through the already existing center-periphery
cleavage (Lipset and Rokkan 1967) which also has deeply historical roots. This situation needs to
be considered when exploring the segments of political culture and interpretation of the past that
refer to memory issues. Identity threats are based on long-standing conflicts that tend to influence a
particular kind of memory dynamics through processes that will be elaborated further in other
sections of this report.
What we will explore in this report is the various elements that exist within families that foster the
development of certain familial narratives that get passed (or not, in some cases) from older to
younger generations, and how this ties into the political socialization of the generations receiving
these narratives. As political participation is one of the main questions of the research of the
MYPLACE project, we have set that as the crucial research interest and asked ourselves the
question - are family narratives related to the political participation or (political engagement as a
predictor of participation) of the youngest generations?
To answer this and other related questions we will use both survey data and qualitative data from
the intergenerational interviews.
2. Theoretical framework and historiographical outline
The discussion of the theoretical framework must begin with the conceptualization of the difference
between ‘cultural’ and ‘communicative’ memory, as conceptualized by Assman (1997). The
relationship between them can be defined with the following statement: when communicative
memory, which is biographical and factual, located within a generation of contemporaries who
witness an event, institutionalize that memory, it becomes cultural. This is very important for the
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Spanish case, as the question quickly arises - what is the cultural memory of a specific act in 20th
century Spanish history? Is there one?
When considering this, there is one crucial development that was conceptualized by authors such as
Aguilar and Humlebaek (2002) and Molinero (2006), which are the particularities of the context of
the transition between the Francoist dictatorship and the democracy of current-day Spain. Moving
from an exclusionary and repressive political system to one that was intended to be democratic and
encompassing, certain processes needed to be carried out in order to guarantee a peaceful and
gradual, as well as forward-looking, democratic Transition. A central component of this was the
process whereby the atrocities of the Francoist dictatorship were largely placed outside of the
limelight with the intention of not challenging existing structures in the political elites that were
holding positions on both sides of the line that marks the beginning of the Transition. This is a
defining property of what Langenohl refers to as the third wave of democratization, to which he
counts the democratization of Southern European democracies in the 1970s, which he
conceptualizes as the ‘ possible contradiction between the politically-pragmatic and juridicallymoral ways of addressing the past’ (Langenohl 2008, 163). This process was not limited only to the
political sphere, and indeed, had its most (or indeed, least) visual manifestations in the public
sphere, where except for a few exceptions, this brushing aside of historical injustices was largely
unchallenged.
As Franco‘s death was moving further back on the timeline of Spanish history, more and more
attempts at challenging the status quo emerged, with all of them occurring primarily on the side of
those (or the offspring of those) who faced hardship, injustice, and persecution during the Civil War
and the dictatorship. What this introduced into Spanish society is a memorial divide, where on one
side those, who hold the republican ideology as a personal background - and as such affiliate more
with the political left - challenge the narratives and attempt to uncover and bring to the foreground
the atrocities of the Francoist period, and on the other, those who hold the nationalist (the
Nationals‘ side) ideology - and affiliate more with the political right - maintain the memory of what
they perceive as the positive aspects of the period. As such, the issues we will be discussing in this
report are of a highly politicized nature - in all likelihood, the most of any MYPLACE countries of
focus - and as such, the family narratives will be a part of two larger bodies of narratives that
currently exist in the Spanish society, with traces of a third narrative present as well. This third
segment is the non-challenging one, which can be understood as the social manifestation of the
political attempts at creating an institutional forgetting.
These stances, or rather the lack of any, are mostly present with apolitical individuals and families,
where this label is indicative of either a mixed political background or of non-politicization in the
post-war period. As such, it is the second generation (meaning the one born to those who
experienced the Civil War) that proves to be central to either a successful creation and maintenance
of what Hirsch (2008) refers to as postmemory. This is described as: “the relationship that the
generation after those who witnessed cultural or collective trauma bears to the experiences of those
who came before, experiences that they ,remember‘ only by means of stories, images, and
behaviours among which they grew up” (2008, 106). Simply put, if the first generation experienced
and event and created a memory thereof, then the second generation, if that memory has
successfully been passed to them, holds a postmemory. This concept is highly appropriate for use in
this report, as it is centred around the generational structures of transmission, where it clearly
delimits between (a) familial and (b) affiliative trajectories, whereby the first describe the
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transmission of memory and postmemory from a higher to a lower generation, and the second the
transmission across one generation. As we are dealing with the inter-generational transmission, we
will of course focus on the former set of trajectories.
There is one final important considerations that stems from the particularities of the Spanish case
and the base concepts we will be using. Namely, if we follow Hirsch (2008) in her understanding of
ruptures in memory, and expand on that concept a bit, we can safely posit that the nationalist
challenges to memory on both sides of the Spanish-Catalan cleavege are fit for this title of rupture.
Indeed, as challenges, recontextualizations, and revisions of historical events take place, this bears a
definite impact on the population that holds these elements as part of their identity. This is largely
the result of “cultural memory [being] closely linked to national identity” (Fortunati and Lamberti
2008, 132). In turn, any challenges to the encompassing identity are also challenges to the memorial
framework.
Finally, it‘s important to consider the conceptualization of mnemonic elements in the transmission
mechanisms. It is difficult to identify specific family-unique elements, and indeed, if we follow
established thinking on the matter, it‘s even difficult to separate between individual and social
mechanisms. For this, we have opted to use Olick‘s (2008) understanding of the process as an interconnection between products1 and practices2, whereby we focus on the impact of both on the final
outcome - the political awareness and participation. We believe that as it‘s virtually impossible to
separate their individual aspect from the outcome we are observing, it is of no use to separate them
and treat them as separate concepts. As such, we are focusing on the impact of the joint memorial
processes on the awareness and participation of our respondents.
3. An overview on political memory transmission among young people using
survey data
Before to move to the analysis of the intergenerational interviews, we take into consideration some
empirical findings from previous WPs of MYPLACE in order to triangulate data. Hence, the
following section is based on data from the MYPLACE survey that was carried out in 2012 in the
framework of WP4. We present this data here as it allows us to give an overview into the general
field of memory politics in Catalonia using a representative randomly distributed sample. This lets
us make inferences that we simply cannot do with the sample of 4 intergenerational interviews. The
two locations selected for the survey were the towns of Vic and Sant Cugat, both in the province of
Barcelona, which indeed also form the basis for the sampling of further respondents for WP5, and
in part, for the interviews used in this report on the intergenerational transmission of memories.
Two of the four intergenerational interviews are people that were surveyed and interviewed indepth in WPs 4 and 5 respectively.
1
Products being defined as: “stories, rituals, books, statues, presentations, speeches, images, pictures, records, historical studies,
surveys, etc.” (ibidem).
2
Practices being defined as: “reminiscence, recall, representation, commemoration, celebration, regret, renunciation, disavowal,
denial, rationalization, excuse, acknowledgment, and many others” (ibidem).
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As was shown from the results of the survey that were presented in Deliverable 4.5, the family
features prominently on young people as a place where historical narratives form the basis for
memorial processes (Assman 2006). Indeed, the survey data showed that discussions within the
family about general historical topics, either with parents (G23) or grandparents (G1) were done
quite frequently, with 27-29% of the respondents doing it regularly, and 45-58% doing it
occasionally. However, as we will show in this report, it is not the frequency of the discussions that
enforces memorial processes, but their structure and the family context in which they take place.
When considering the topical distribution of discussions, as you can see in Table 1, the following
empirical evidences emerge. First, the Civil War is the most discussed topic in both locations,
which points to the prevalence of narratives of conflict and their maintenance in Spanish and
Catalan common discourse. Second, the Francoist period4 is not as common of a topic, or is not
deliberated upon as much as we could expect for a dictatorship that lengthened almost 40 years. The
explanation for this, as we have seen for instance in WP5 findings, is that the period was largely left
uncontested for three reasons: first, the mixed political background of some respondents’ families,
where families came from both sides of the conflict and for this high politicization was often not
present. Second, the imperfect Transition, which represented a pact between the Francoist sectors
and the new democratic parties, and which ultimately left the Francoist period largely unaddressed
in terms of institutional focus until the Historical Memory Law of 2007 (and even then, it was only
addressed partially, never from a full critical perspective of the non-democratic regime). And third,
the likely effect of the political socialisation during the period of the dictatorship that might have
effects on many generations of Spaniards who were less politicised than those people who were in
the exile or were fighting against Franco since the 1960s.
However, it must be said that Catalonia was one of the regions in which attempts at addressing the
injustices and effects against the population living during the Francoist period were beginning first albeit primarily non-institutionally, from families and informal groups. However this does not
contribute much to the sample that we are working with, as any heightened awareness amongst the
respondents with a solely Catalan heritage is offset by the lessened awareness of those with a mixed
Catalan-Spanish or solely Spanish heritage.
Table 1. How often young people talked with their families about the Francoist period and the
Civil War (in %)
Never/scarcely
Often/very
often
Francoist period
Vic
Sant Cugat
63,4
57,6
Civil War
Vic
Sant Cugat
20,6
24,2
36,6
79,5
42,4
75,8
3
We will be using the following labels for family generations throughout this report: G3 - youth respondent within the MYPLACEdefined age-range, G2 - parent of the youth respondent, G1 - grandparent of the youth respondent.
4
It is important to note that the term “Francoist period” was used in the survey instead of the label “Francoist dictatorship” as not
to alienate or prejudice the responses from either those positioning themselves in affiliation or opposition to the politics of that
period.
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N
(585)
(582)
(580)
(576)
Further inquiry was made into the sympathy of the families at the time of the Civil War for the sides
involved in the conflict (see Table 2). As expected, the sympathy and affiliation for the Nationals‘
side, led by Franco, was low in both locations, which mirrors the historical facts that Catalonia was
very strongly anti-Francoist during the Civil War, although some pro-Francoist strains also existed
and divided many communities - such as in Vic, which is a historically very clerical town. Indeed,
we can note in parallel a new phenomenon of the Spanish post-war period, which is evident here by
the divided support for both sides by respective parts of the families. Indeed, the post-war
migrations of individuals or entire families since the end of the 1960s from other parts of Spain to
Catalonia produced a more complex historical and memorial heritage. This divided heritage is
present in a quite significant extent in both locations, with the phenomenon emerging in a larger
scale in Sant Cugat (where we have a larger segment of Spanish-speaking people among those born
in Spain - we are disregarding those foreign-born) which was a town that grew in large from the
intra-Spanish economic migrations and where more middle/upper class liberal professionals were
concentrated. Of particular importance is the non-identification, which is very high in Vic, where it
reaches a quarter of the respondents. This is indicative of a very particular narrative that is present
in the rural areas of Catalonia. Namely, being very religious areas for many generations before the
war, but still in large part supporting the Republicans (Graham 2002, 33), the families were more
likely to develop a non-ideological stance towards the conflict. Where the oppression was
predominantly coming from the Francoist forces, and where these families largely participated in
the fighting on the side of the republicans, the repercussions of the war on their communities
(various impositions and the republican persecution of the local clergy) were significant
developments to ideologically distance the population from either side beyond simple affiliation for
survival. These developments are evident from the large difference in the sample, where only
11,7% of the respondents noted non-affiliation in the sample from Sant Cugat - a town on the
outskirts of Barcelona, which was a republican stronghold at the time of the conflict.
Table 2. Sympathy of families for sides of the Civil War (in percentages)
With the Nationals (Francoist forces)
With the Republicans (legal government)
One part of the family with the Nationals and one
with the Republicans
Neither of them
Don’t know/Don’t answer
N
Vic
4,5
30,8
Sant Cugat
5,6
42,1
14,9
19,8
25,3
24,5
(597)
11,7
20,9
(592)
To show the relevance of historical narratives for political participation, we must first look at the
index of political activism (see Table 3). This index is calculated through the respondents’ answers
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to a battery of 20 questions relating to different political activities that could have done in the past
12 years. The minimum value is 0 (for respondents who report no participation at all in any activity
during the past 12 months) to 20 (respondents who report one, two, three, or more concrete acts of
participation in all activities during the past 12 months). Hence, higher values mean higher levels of
political activism. As we can see, there is more frequency of deliberation on the war and level of
activism in both locations, but the effect is somewhat higher in Vic.
Table 3. Mean values for index of political activism (0-20) by frequency of talking about the
Civil War within the families of young people when they were child or younger
Vic
Mean
Never/scarcely
2,9
Often/very often
5,06
All
3,7
CI at 95%
[2,6-3,2]
[4,6-5,4]
[3,4-3,9]
Sant Cugat
Mean
N
371
214
585
CI at 95%
N
3,5
[3,5-4,1]
335
4,8
[4,4-5,5]
247
4,1
[3,8-4,3]
582
Notes: CI= confidence intervals for the mean at the 95% level.
From this we can establish relations between political activism and the frequency of discussing the
Francoist period (see Table 4), taken from Table 2. As we can see, there are statistically significant
mean differences in both locations. There is a pervasive trend that coming from a family where the
Francoist period was discussed, the level of participation of the youth (G3) is higher.
Table 4. Mean values for index of political activism (0-20) by frequency of talking about the
Francoist period within the families of young people when they were child or younger
Vic
Sant Cugat
Mean
CI at 95%
N
Mean
CI at 95%
N
Never/scarcely
3,4
[3,1-3,6]
461
3,8
[3,5-4,1]
437
Often/very often
4,8
[4,2-5,4]
119
4,9
[4,4-5,5]
139
All
3,6
[3,4-3,9]
580
4,1
[3,8-4,3]
576
Notes: CI= confidence intervals for the mean at the 95% level.
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In Vic, the statistical significant differences are between those young people whose families
supported neither of the sides in the Civil War (see Table 5). We can note that we can describe as
less active those young people from families who did not support any of the sides of the Civil War.
This largely points to the already discussed factor that the non-affiliated families were such due to
their lack of politicization, and as such, a cross-generational political socialization into a specific
ideological framework did not occur. We can note the same phenomenon in Sant Cugat as well, but
here, additionally, it is those young people whose families were affiliated with the Nationals that are
also less active.
Table 5. Mean values for index of political activism (0-20) by sympathy of families for both
sides of the Civil War
Sant
Cugat
Vic
Mean
CI at 95%
N
Mean CI at 95%
N
With the Nationals
4,8
[3,4-6,2]
27
3,8
[2,8-4,9]
33
With the Republicans
4,9
[4,5-5,3]
184
4,9
[4,5-5,3]
249
One part of the family with the Nationals
and one with the Republicans
5,2
[4,4-5,9]
89
4,7
[4,1-5,4]
117
Neither of them
2,2
[1,8-2,7]
151
2,8
[2,2-3,5]
69
All
4,1
[3,8-4,4]
451
4,5
[4,2-4,8]
468
Notes: CI= confidence intervals for the mean at the 95% level.
When considering the impact (see Table 6) of the nature of the narratives on the involvement in
various political groups (to which we count political parties, social movements, NGOs, and youth
unions), we can see that the awareness of the Francoist period - which implies an awareness of the
violence and repression, in the context of an emancipatory ideology - has a larger motivating impact
in Vic, whereas the Civil War has the same for Sant Cugat.
Table 6. Frequency of talking about the Civil War and Francoist period among families of
young people and involvement in political groups
(% of young people who belong to political groups)
Never/scarcely
Often/very
often
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Civil War
Vic
Sant Cugat
37,3
29,5
(172)
(129)
42
38,8
(50)
(54)
Francoist period
Vic
Sant Cugat
32,6
27,5
(121)
(92)
48,6
37,2
(104)
(92)
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Finally, we need to consider (see Table 7) the impact of the affiliation of the family with either side
during the Civil War, and through that the defining force of that for an intergenerational political
identity of the family, on the political involvement in political groups of the youngest (G3)
generation. Although the number of cases where the family affiliation stood with the Francoist
forces was small, we can still note major differences between Vic and Sant Cugat in terms of the
involvement in political groups. Namely, 55% of those coming from families that supported the
Nationals are politically involved in Vic, as opposed to only 15% for Sant Cugat. Moreover, in Sant
Cugat there is less impact of the wartime affiliation of the family and the engagement in political
groups. In Vic, to have the family positioned on one side, or to have it divided, has much more
impact on the participation of the youngest (G3) generation than there is in those families who
supported neither of them.
Table 7. Side(s) of the family during the Civil War and involvement in political groups
(% of young people who belong to political groups)
With the Nationals
With the Republicans (legal government)
One part of the family with the Nationals and one
with the Republicans
Neither of them
Vic
55,6
(15)
47,8
(88)
50,6
(45)
29,8
(45)
Sant Cugat
15,2
(5)
36,9
(92)
36,8
(43)
33,3
(23)
4. Empirical analysis of the intergenerational interviews
4. 1. Methodology: Selection of the interviewees and profiles
The interviews that were done for this segment of the research were done with members of four
families, which were chosen based on the youngest generation (G1). The chosen participants were
ones where contact was already established for research in other WPs, and were: Laia (participant
of the activist focus group in WP2), Angel (survey and in-depth interview respondent from Sant
Cugat, WP4/WP5), David (survey and in-depth interview respondent from Vic, WP4/WP5) and
Lluc (activist in the left independentist movement ARRAN/CUP from Mataró, WP7).
In three cases we interviewed the members of three different generations and in one case two (son
and father) as all grandparents were already deceased. In the four cases we had previous
background information and were able to locate the position of the family of the young person
during the Civil War - the crucial polarizing event of 20th century Spanish history. We selected two
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cases for the Republican side (legal government) and two for the Nationals‘ side (fascist troops led
by Franco). In two cases, the information came from the MYPLACE survey (WP4), and in the rest
through qualitative techniques such as focus groups (WP2) and in-depth interviews and
ethnographic research (WP7). All young people collaborated to contact the members of the families
and no ethical issues appeared during the fieldwork.
Table 8. Description of the profiles interviewed by main family position in the sides of Civil
War
Republicans (Legal government)
The Nationals (Francoist side)
Youngest generation (G3)
David
Male, 21, living in
Male, 24, living in
Female, 21, living in
Barcelona in a shared
Vic, primary
Mollet with parents,
flat, full-time
Male, 24, living in Sant education, studying
full-time university
university student,
Cugat, studying
secondary education
student, Catalan
Catalan speaking with university degree,
and working partspeaking with the
the family, activist in living with the parents,
family, collaborates
time, living with
ARRAN (youth branch Spanish speaking with
with a Memory
of the left selfthe family, not active in family members (not
organisation
parents), Spanish
determination
any political/civic
(Associació d'Immolats
speaking with the
movement in
group
per la Llibertat de
family, member of
Catalonia) and in youth
Catalunya)
cinema association
leisure group
Laia
Lluc
Angel
Middle generation (parents) (G2)
Father
Father
Father
Mother
Male, 52, living in
Mollet, working as a
lawyer, university
degree, married,
Catalan speaking with
the family, no-active in
civic/political groups
Female, 53, living in Male, 44, living in Sant
Male, 52, living in
Mataró, post-graduate Cugat, university
Vic, secondary
degree, working in
degree, full-time
Educational Public
working as company education,
Services, married,
manager, Spanish
unemployed, married,
Catalan speaking with speaking with the
Spanish speaking
the family, active in a family, not active in
with the family active
youth leisure group and political and civic
in a radio program
Youth Council
groups
Oldest generation (grandparents) (G1)
Grandfather
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Grandmother
Grandfather
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Not applicable
Male, 80, living in
Mollet, retired,
university degree,
married, Catalan
speaking with the
family, active in a
memory organisation
of which he is the
president
Male, 90, living in Sant
Cugat, secondary
education, married,
Female, 79, living in
retired (he was a
Mataró alone, primary
Captain of the Civil
No living
studies, retired, widow
Guard), Spanish
, Catalan speaking with
grandparents
speaking with the
the family, not active in
family, in the past he
civic/political groups
was member of the
Falangist Youth
organisation
Criteria of selection for the intergenerational interviews
In order to have some variation on the profiles of the intergenerational interviews, we followed
several criteria for the selection of the young people’s families. First, we wanted to have variation
on the position of the families in both sides of the Civil War, which clearly is one of the most
important and traumatic events in Spanish (and Catalan) history of the 20th century: as such, we
selected two young families who were on the Republican side and two families who gave support to
the Nationals. Second, we wanted to have some example of the transmission of family history in a
very politicised family that could be considered as an example of elite transmission: Laia’s family
was suitable for this as her great-grandfather was the mayor of a city near Barcelona, called Mollet,
and member of the historical ERC party (Catalan Republican Left). He was executed by the
Nationals (Franco’s supporters) in 1939 and the family was heavily penalised by the Fascists in the
post-war period. After Franco’s death, Laia’s grandfather was instrumental in creating the first
historical memory organisation in Spain and is to this day still very active in these issues. Besides
this case, we also wanted examples of intergenerational transmission among common people - ones
with no stake in public memory cases - although there is one case (Angel’s family from Sant Cugat)
where the grandparent, now retired, was a Captain in the Civil Guard during and after Franco’s
dictatorship. Finally, we wanted to have people who live in different parts of Catalonia, both ones
that coincided with MYPLACE fieldwork sites, as well as people from other places. As such, our
respondents are from Vic, Sant Cugat, Mataró, and Mollet, all cities in the province of Barcelona,
but very different between them in a number of characteristics, from socio-demographic and
economic ones, to historical political-identity ones.
4. 2. Discussion of findings of the intergenerational interviews
In this section we discuss our main empirical findings from the intergenerational interviews. We
turn from a wide descriptive explanation of the memorial space in Catalonia and Spain to a caseoriented analysis based on our selected interviewees.
4. 2.1 Family-based summary of memorial narratives
a) Family of Lluc
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The first generation displays traits typical of those who have experienced severe psychological
trauma derived from the first-hand experience of major a conflict and the ensuing repression (from
Francoists). Even though the act of recalling the past is present, there appears to be a lack of
willingness to dwell on it that goes beyond what could be considered normal and which strongly
suggests the existence of suppressed memories.
There seems to be a strong presence of issues linked to the “national axis” for all three generations
and, especially, to the suppression of national minority rights during the dictatorship. For the first
and second generations, the direct experience of suppression of almost any display of Catalan
culture in the public sphere remains a common theme of remembrance among family members. The
fact that the cultural element - unlike other ones such as class or ideology - of both the personal and
common identity of the respondents has eluded falling within the reach of what has been called the
“absent memory” (Hirsch 2008) and has thus remained a unifying element through time represents
a potentially significant finding.
(…) When I was a little older, you could not speak, at home we would always speak
Catalan, you could not speak it, you had to speak in Spanish and you barely knew how
because at home we had always spoken Catalan, and I went to school when I was almost
eight years old, and when you spoke Catalan, gee! They’d make such a fuss. I had never
been grounded too often, but I was for speaking in Catalan (G1).
(…) I remember…as long as you didn’t get involved in politics they would not mess with
you. If you wanted tranquility, you just had to go along with it and that was it. But don’t
you dare speak in Catalan, right? That was clear (G1).
It is interesting to note how the second generation, though it has a direct link with the experience of
“national” (meaning Catalan, and meaning especially linguistic) repression and there is a definite
continuity between the fact and the memory (making it indexical in its nature), it does not
conceptualize, rationalize and fully understand the significance and implications of those facts until
the memories are recalled later in life, often through a common lens.
“ (...) I was born in 1960, that means towards the end of Francoism, the school was in
Spanish, obviously. When I as a kid I didn’t experience that as a strange thing, I was very
much used to speaking in Catalan at home and Spanish in the street but you don‘t become
aware of that until later, when you are older” (G2).
“ (...) Of course there are some reflections that I could tell you about now, I will tell you
but I’ve made them later, I mean, when now, later, you analyze things is when you analyze
and you can actually make an analysis, not back then” (G2).
The second generation narrates the experience of the transition as an exciting moment of change
and great expectations that are later to become unfulfilled or, to some degree, betrayed by the very
“leaders” of the social movements or coopted by the institutions of the State. The democratic
Transition is also perceived socially and politically as a period of contradictory openings and
contrasts, where the first experiences of activism for the second generation took place, usually in
the form of social activism (“esplai”, “Consell de Joves”, youth leisure groups, and Youth Councils)
at first and then evolving to more political activities. We can see similar (though considerably
harsher, the term “taboo issue” is used) critical views of the transition emerge again in the third
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generation’s discourse, something that points at a possible transmission of a historical and political
discourse through generations.
“(...) Our adolescence was tied to change, to the transition, so much that sometime you
don’t know if you remember something just because it was part of your youth, of your
personal growth or because it’s part of historical evolution, you know? It is very much tied
to the moment in which you discover the social world, the implication of organization, the
implication” (G2).
The dictatorship’s repression features prominently for a more politicized second and third
generations (defined as a “slaughter”), a phenomenon explained not only because of the late
repressive surge during Franco’s last years but also because of the first appearance during the
transition of open spaces in which it was possible to actively discuss the past (which, in the Spanish
case, means the terrible repression that took place during and after the Civil War; a repression
which some historians have not doubted in qualifying as “genocidal”). This opportunity for
discussion and vindication would later disappear (or at least be severely limited) once the official,
hegemonic discourse settled in through institutions and media.
“(...) I didn’t experience it as repression because at the time I wasn’t aware that it was,
besides they were all Spanish-speaking nuns and when Puig Antich died I remember there
was a tense situation in class” (G2).
“ Political repression. Mostly because there were people who lived the war in flesh...and
some of them are afraid, people who lived through the post-war, the end of the war...they
are very old now. But above all there’s people who may have experienced political
repression, cultural repression, maybe that is what is most present when remembering the
Francoist dictatorship“ (G1).
The third generation shows an acute interest in historical topics (usually approaching them from a
political angle), especially about modern and contemporary periods. As expected, the Civil War
appears as the most conflictive period and shares the top spot with the Second Republic and the
Transition when considering historical relevance in terms of effects on the socio-political formation
of the Spanish state.
Here, the narrative about the Second Republic corresponds essentially with what could be expected
from someone who identifies with the republican side; it appears as a period of great
democratization and liberalization of the state and of social progress interrupted by a military coup
executed in defence of the ruling classes interests. It is interesting to note here how the national
discourse and the class discourse interact and get incorporated into each other (a characteristic that
was almost entirely missing in older generations).
“ (...) the fact that the Second Republic was closely tied to nationalism is a fact that now,
with a post-transition, being a nationalist and having a republican nationalist past has
always been linked and thus it’s quite understandable that people...I think most Catalans
would think they lost the Civil War.” (G3).
b) Family of David
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For the first generation, there appears to be a pre-eminence of the Civil War as the most relevant
historical period in Spanish history, tough the Second Republic and the dictatorship also feature
prominently in shaping the country’s political and social structure (both formal and informal).
There is a positive evaluation of the republican period and an identification of it with greater
liberties and a general feeling of freedom and progress, especially when compared with the later
Civil War and the dictatorship, which is seen as an oppressive, authoritarian regime.
“(…) I guess it’s kind of like we were in a prison, everything painted in gray, in which it’s
only valid whatever I say” (G3).
When it comes to the period of what can be considered the “consolidated” democracy (the mid-tolate 1980’s until today), there is an expected presence of current trends among young people
regarding the evaluation of democracy as a system (not simply its performance), featuring
prominently feelings of dissatisfaction, disaffection and the idea of the political system as some
form of limited democracy.
“Of course, with Franco we had little freedom but right now with democracy we don’t
have that much either. We can’t decide what to do, we have to choose who rules over us
and we can’t choose to do what we want to do” (G3)
In line with the first generation, the second generation respondent also places the Civil War as the
most relevant and conflicting period of recent Spanish history, followed by the current situation and
the Transition period, which is remembered as a period of great political insecurity and uncertainty
(a vision that may have gone through to the third generation) but also as an essentially positive
thing (though a critical element has emerged with time), in line with the hegemonic institutional
discourse. When discussing relevance, the fact that both the transition and the current socio-political
moment have been experienced directly by the respondent, might point to a connection between the
assignment of importance among relatively recent historical periods and direct, personal experience
of those periods.
For the second generation, there is a clear recollection of the internal family division between leftwing republicans and conservative Catholics (which ended up with the family leaving for a safer
rural environment).
“RES: (…) Then my historical memory is very confronted in both sides.
INT: Then, the war period generates a division wthin the family?
RES: It generates division but not among them, but a moment came in which the situation
was incompatible. They either killed one or the other. Then, the option they took?
Leaving” (G2)
Regarding what is considered the appropriate way of interpreting history, the second generation
respondent rejects what he considers to be politicized versions of history instrumentalized by
institutions and the different political tendencies, appeals to what we may call a scientific instance,
represented in this case by professional foreign historians.
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c) Family of Angel
The first generation experiences and memory are predominantly shaped by the respondents role as a
member of a family with a military tradition, especially during the Civil War (in which,
paradoxically, because of their place of residence in republican territory they suffered under the
Francoist bombings), and later by his role as a member of the Guardia Civil during the dictatorship,
of which an unapologetic defence is made.
“I’m gonna be very honest with you: I remember Franco’s time as the best Spain has ever
experienced (…) Were there people in jail? Of course, everyone that had to be there, the
criminals were in jail. But it was an era in which Spain was a junkyard and bit by bit it
started to be rebuilt and we got to be the ninth nation of the world, I think (…)” (G1).
The second generation views on historical narratives are dictated by a belief in the subjectivity of
memory and in the relevance of the effects that the distribution of power after a highly conflictive
period has on the way its tale is shaped. In other words, it could be described as an approach based
on the idea that “history is written by the victors” not only describes a reality but it also brings a
degree of legitimacy to the victors narrative, something which in the Spanish case means
legitimizing Francoist historical literature and questioning historical memory restoration initiatives.
“(…) Those who win tell the story and sometime the worst part is that those who lose want
to reinvent it, so the paranoia is in order, nobody is going to accept a defeat with a good
mood, and then we want to transform a defeat and we want to modify the arguments of a
victory” (G2).
There is also a conception of public historical discourse as a simplified, Manichaean form of a
much more complex narrative that is being used to politically stigmatize and marginalize certain
ideas and the sectors of the population that might hold them (something that implies high levels of
distrust towards all those capable of producing this kind of discourse: institutions, parties, media,
fiction, etc., and a retreat to individual and private forms of memory). In this particular case, even
though it is never explicitly stated, it is subtly implied in the respondent’s answers that he is
referring to a perceived coercion exerted on conservative ideas, possibly triggered by the Historical
Memory Law.
Third generation shows great interest in historical topics, especially into Spanish history. The
Transition period and the figure of Adolfo Suárez (prominent leader of the Transtion and President
of Spain in the 1977 and 1981) between are highly regarded as key turning points for a peaceful
change from an authoritarian regime into a democratic one (though minor criticisms to the current
state of democracy are also present), and the depiction of them the respondent makes shows
coherence with the hegemonic narrative built by political elites from the Transition onwards. The
second generation respondent, having direct experience of the Transition as the “main” conflictive
period of his life, displays a more critical attitude towards it (criticism based on a perceived lack of
ideological coherence from key actors), slightly further from the official narrative than the third
generation. The first generation is also appreciative of the process as a whole, but displays a critical
attitude regarding what are perceived as excesses in liberalization (such as the legalization of the
communist party or the de-centralization of the state).
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As expected, the Civil War still appears as the most conflicting period of recent history, even
though the Second Republic, the dictatorship and the Transition are also understood as significantly
conflictive and highly relevant. The understanding of the Second Republic as a primarily
“conflictive” period (over other possible and frequent qualifications such as “modernizing” or
“liberal”) as well as several criticisms (“badly managed”, “too many changes too fast”, etc.) are also
noteworthy as they appear prominently in the respondents discourse and they are shared with the
previous generations (from which it seems logical to infer that these perceptions are transferred
from generation to generation), especially the first one, in which we can find direct experience and
memory.
“They started burning churches and started commiting atrocities, and the persecutions
started and I…I remember that time in Madrid, a tome of tension. We lived in Atocha
street and I remember gunfights between the San Carlos faculties. Students on the roofs,
and the police” (G1).
We can also see an equating of both Civil War sides in the respondents discourse, a trait that stays
coherent with the aforementioned “transition consensus” and in rough correlation with those
respondents descending from members of the Francoist side.
“(…) In my case, in the university there’s a lot of discussion during strikes and
demonstrations…‘during the Civil War this or that and they killed whoever‘ and I say ,well
yes, but the others did too‘„ (G3).
It is possible to identify parts of a historical narrative traditionally associated with the regime’s
official history, according to which, during the period going from 1931 to 1936, the Spanish State
would have been on the brink of a revolution (or even in the midst of one) led by socialist or
communist forces which would have in turn led to the establishment of a system similar to that of
the Soviet Union, thus turning the military coup into a counter-revolution.
“(…) maybe if the left had won, they would have installed another dictatorship, but instead
of a right-wing one, a left-wing one. It’s something that happened in Russia with the Soviet
Union” (G3).
There’s also some appreciation in the third generation for some of the perceived accomplishments
of the Francoist government (even though, unlike the first generation, it is not an entirely apologetic
view and ultimately the democratic convictions prevail in its critique of the dictatorial form),
something which -yet again- fits within the historical framework of a family belonging to the
“national” side.
“(…) like the social security, which he created, and I think that’s correct. I disagree with
certain censorship acts; he materialized (sic) the food supply because he divided it among
everyone a bit. Well, he has his pros and cons The conclusion? It’s still a dictatorship for
good or bad, it’s a political system with no future whatsoever” (G3).
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d) Family of Laia
5
The example of this family, which was affiliated with the Republican/legal government side during
the Civil War, works as an example of active memory transmission in both a private familial and
public level. The reason for this is that this family underwent a very traumatic series of events
towards the end of the Civil War, centred around Laia‘s great-grandfather (what would be the ‘zero
generation’), Laia‘s great-grandfather, who was the Republican-affiliated mayor of Mollet - an
industrial town near Barcelona with then about 5000 inhabitants - and affiliated with the ERC
(Catalan Republican Left) political party. In the last period of the Civil War, when Barcelona was
being occupied by the Nationals (fascists), Laia‘s great-grandfather, his wife, and his children (a
daughter and a son - Laia‘s grandfather, one of the interviewees) went into exile to France. After the
end of the Civil War,her great-grandfather decided to come back to Catalonia to be reunited with
his family, who ventured back some time ago. He did so thinking that he would not be repressed, as
he was not militarily active, however this was not the case. He was arrested at the Spanish-French
border and imprisoned in Modelo prision in Barcelona, and after an arranged tribunal executed by
the fascist forces. The family was stripped of their property and did not have access to the already
rationed food. Laia’s great-grandmother, her children, her mother and the sister of Laia‘s greatgrandfather survived in a very difficult period. The great-grandmother went to work in a textile
factory under very hard conditions and Laia’s grandfather started to work when he was 14 years
old. He remembered the times of the postwar period as a really difficult one:
“The worst times were the first period of the dictatorship, the post-war period. That period
was horrible, our father was killed, they took all our property and stole everything. There
was a constant persecution of the family (...) They started to forbid the food. We could not
go to public schools because we were considered “rojos separatistas” [red separatists]. We
had to go to a private school and pay for it. We did not have money or food. Thanks to
friends we survived. Every night they threw food into our courtyard - potatoes, beans and
flour... And we survived as we could. We also lost the possibilities of access to the
rationing in Mollet” (G1).
4. 2.2. Family mnemonic culture
a) Family of Lluc
For the first generation, there is an absence of any kind of expression of memory within the family
that is in any way related to conflictive or traumatic events (or even less to political events). This is
quite an expected phenomenon, typical of traumatized individuals and of families belonging (or
somehow related) to the losing side of the Civil War, wanting to avoid any public exposure and the
ensuing risk of repression in the subsequent dictatorship period.
5
See the appendix for pictures taken during Laia’s grandfather interview.
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“(…) my father was not a political man. He went to war and he didn’t want to know much
about it because he’d had a hard time and…no no, he was never arrested or anything but he
had a hard time. We had a hard time” (G1).
There are, though, slight contradictions in the respondents discourse in which some forms of actual
memory transmission appear to be present. Even though the narrative is not overtly political in its
nature, it does carry enough information (for example the experiences of fear and hunger during the
post-war period) to shape later forms of post-memory which will actually play a significant role in
political participation.
“No, if the asked things I answered them and I explained that during the war we had a very
rough time and if sometime they won’t eat I say don’t leave any food, eat, if you’ve had
enough keep it, don’t throw it away” (G1).
It seems possible to appreciate a “generational gap” when it comes to transmission of memory that
goes from the first to the third generation. This gap may be linked not just to the passing of time and
change in political and social context, but also to a more “mundane” aspect such as the transition in
the role of women from mothers to grandmothers and the increase in the amount of time spent (and
the kind of relation established) with their grandchildren.
“ I’ve had more time to…with my grandchildren more than with my daughter, because
with my daughters, since I’ve always lived with my mother, my mother-in-law and an aunt
with three kids…” (G1).
It is thus important to note the significance of the role that women have played traditionally in oral
transmission of memory, mostly due to their presence as educators and care-takers. During periods
where conciliation between work and family life was virtually non-existent, stay-at-home mothers
and grandmothers became primary carriers of family narratives for younger generations.
“(...) I had heard my grandmother say some things, she was the one who gave us dinner,
the one taking care” (G2).
In this case, the third generation respondent has engaged in conscious efforts to investigate and
document the past experiences of the previous generations (conducting original research within the
family). In this way, transmission mechanisms surpass the merely private and are brought to light
and systematized.
This way, for the third generation memory transmission becomes a vehicle for the passing on of
traditions and worldviews within the family. Unlike the second and -especially- the first generation,
here we can see a somewhat self-conscious conception of post-memory which could quite probably
be linked to the research efforts realized by the respondent.
“Memory is always transmitted from generation to generation...and also the habits and the
worldviews” (G3).
There is a generic idea that categorizes interpretations of the past as inherently subjective
(something that is apparently a common theme for almost all respondents), especially when dealing
with personal experience and memory (which in this case are even understood as “political
analysis”). This idea also rests on an appeal to expert analysis done by “professional” historians.
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Despite all this, the perception by the respondent of the correspondence between the family-centred
version of history and this “neutral” sources is of essential coherence between the two.
b) Family of David
The presence of family narrative functions as a way of acquiring not only a form of post-memory
but also as a transmission mechanism for political opinions which are based on specific historical
views. In a way, the form in which the family environment works as a primary socialization
mechanism and as a source for identity (within some other’s memory) is often difficult to
differentiate.
“Since I didn’t live it and I have acquired through what my family says, and when it comes
to Francoism for example, they don’t talk much about it, but they do say there was a lot of
“privacy” (?), you couldn’t say your thing, everything was examined and any time you
wanted to say the cops would come and control everything always giving you beat-downs,
something which now is badly seen but that was normal back then and people were very
scared” (G3).
According to David, there is a perceived lack of discussion of topics related to the republican past
within the family (which goes further in the case of his mother, who refuses to discuss politics at
all), even though some contradictions in this discourse arise, as frequent conversations, discussions
and recollections of past events with family members from the first, second and third generations
are mentioned, as well as other, less direct mechanisms (e.g. songs).
“My grandfather tells you stories and he told me a lot of things about the Civil War, he
happened to carry messages, equipment and supplies, and he was even captured and beaten
down and he was a prisoner of war. He had quite a hard time (…) My dad also told me a
lot of things about Francoism and the Civil War” (G3).
The role of fiction also appears as a significant factor in shaping the images and views about the
past, especially films and TV shows play a key role in developing the younger generation’s interest
in history and in shaping its perceptions about historical events.
A conscious differentiation is made between the direct experience of memory and the mediated
forms that belong to post-memory.
“(…) if you experience it it’s easier. It’s like if a person takes a book and he explains it to
you making a summary, that’s not the same as if you take the book and read it. They can
tell you fifty thousand things but the way you see it is not the same” (G3).
The republican past of some family members combined with the effects of an internal family
division might have been the cause for what the respondent characterizes as a deliberate effort in
ignoring political topics which led to severe ignorance of political realities. Only with the death of
Franco were these topics discussed openly within the family environment.
“(…) Later then, yes, after…I don’t know if it’s out of fear but with the Transition, my
uncle from Barcelona, the right-wing one, he started to tell us the great deeds of my
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grandfather; he had taken part in some revolution…because he was the only one who
remembered what had really happened during the Civil War. But that was later, years
down the line” (G2).
Again, the role of women as memory holders and transmitters appears as especially relevant in a
post-war context in which men were often absent from home, though in this particular case, the key
figure (the grandmother) serves the purpose of suppressing a part of the family’s shared past based
on political reasons.
“(…) I already told you I didn’t meet my grandfather, and he was maybe the person that
was more politically involved. Him dying so young, my grandmother took charge of the
family and it turned into quite loyal to the regime, quite to the right-wing. I don‘t know the
reason and I never asked about it” (G2).
c) Family of Angel
Both the second and third generation respondents add to the family-centred mechanisms of memory
transmission their own research, resorting to bibliography on the different subjects of interest,
documentaries and also to works of fiction (such as movies).
“(…) Transition and Adolfo Suárez, for example, he was, now that he has passed away, he
was a carácter that interested me a lot, I have the movie, I’ve read about him” (G3).
It is interesting to note how fiction also conditions the portrayals of the past that are present in the
second generation, and it is used as a tool for conveying aestethicized images that can complement
personal narratives.
“(…) a similar situation to that which the TV show “Cuéntame” tells us, the sixties, things
in black and white, but fun and simple, I have no negative memories of my first childhood”
(G2).
Scepticism about the “fairness” and “objectivity” of the information obtained through any means
except direct experience is present prominently, going from historical sites and museums to (and
especially) the media and, amongst them, those perceived as “extremist” and “politicized” are
treated as highly unreliable sources (it must be noted here that public Catalan media are labelled as
extremist by the respondent while certain Spanish private channels -owned by companies with
conservative agendas- are considered as neutral and centrist (?)).
School is also present as a very significant mechanism in shaping historical perceptions, with
certain professors playing major roles in the developing of the respondent’s views. It is, however,
interesting to note how even though institutional mechanisms such as this provide the basic
structure for historical narratives, family and family memory keep their presence as a sort of
mediators -and possibly as “truth” validation mechanisms- in this process. Ultimately, there appears
to be an underlying belief in the inescapable subjectivity of historical narratives and, faced with
that, the respondent chooses to a) consult and contrast as many sources as possible and b) place
trust in the direct experiences of close relatives.
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“(…) when I was preparing my high-school exams I did a first reading of the syllabus and
then I called him (father or grandfather) and we talked about so I had a, let’s call it
friendlier, opinion of the data. Like, you know I’ll give you the more relevant details, in
that sense…” (G3).
Within the family environment, men seem to have a significantly higher presence and show a
predominance in memory transmission through all three generations (something that differentiates it
from other respondents environments, where women -as caretakers- were much more present) and,
between generations, there appears to be a bigger presence and impact of the first generation over
the second one, something that points out a possible “memory transmission gap” between
grandparents and parents that is somehow normalized with grandchildren, though the perceptions of
the third generation about the transmission between the other two would suggest otherwise, and the
second generation respondent specified the existence of abundant communication with the first one.
“(…) Because I’ve been more interested in Spanish history, I’ve talked more with my
grandfather and my father. In order of preference, I’d say first my grandfather and then my
father” (G3).
Again, as with other respondents, there is a clear differentiation between direct historical experience
-that leads to indexical forms of memory- and the mediated forms that belong into what has been
labeled as post-memory which, in this particular case, are seen as less “real” and somewhat
hierarchically inferior.
“(…) what happens is that a generation might have lived an event that another didn’t get to
live, then it’s not the same to say “I’ve suffered hunger” than actually having suffered it. In
this sense I think that there might be not so much as discrepancies, but versions more…I
don‘t know how to describe them, it’s not exaggerated…more “lived” about the issue”
(G3).
There is also a presence of what we could call indirect memory transmission, carried out not
directly through conversations or any form of interaction between generations, but through the
observation of other’s interactions and the specificity of the narratives expressed.
“(…) [My friend] came home very often, he had lunch with us. I guess [my children] heard
us talk. This friend thought just like me (…) and at home he told me these things, and he
would expand on it, and possibly my children heard us talk and, obviously, they saw more
or less where his father stood, but I never tried to hide it either. Now, instilling in them?
No, no” (G1).
d) Family of Laia
After the death of Franco in 1975, Laia’s grandfather (G1) decided to start, with other families of
killed Republicans, the first historical memory related organization in Spain. Among other things,
the association tried to recover the common graves of executed Republicans - including one where
Lais’s great-grandfather was buried -, organized tributes and commemorations, and tried to annul
the summary trials.
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After these traumatic experiences and the fact that this family was on the losing side of the war,
they could take one of two options: be silent about what happened, and do so in a context of fear
and heavy fascist repression, or to be active in recalling the events and paying homage the figure of
the martyr. This family chose the latter option. The presence of the figure of the executed family
member was present in daily life of the family. Laia’s grandfather explained how once a year they
paid tribute to the deceased. He was always present with pictures and conversations within the
family. They also had the last letter he wrote in prison in which he said his farewell to his family
before being executed (see the appendix). The support to the Republican government and the
Catalan identity has been continuously present in the bosom of the family. However, this familybased transmission was in the private sphere during the dictatorship. Laia’s grandfather explained
how within the family the memory of his father was present:
“RES The figure of my father was always present at home. Once a year we met all
members of the family and we did one minute of silence. Every year we did the same. In
July 16th, every year.
INT: July 16th was the day that he was executed?
RES: Yes, July 16th of 1939.” (G1).
For Laia the main mechanism of transmission was family testimony and since she was a child she
visited many memory sites and was involved in activities through the association lead by her
grandfather. About her father and grandfather’s roles within the family she explained:
“My father, I guess in contrast a little within the family, where my grandfather was
supposed to be so active in different fields of politics and history, my father was the
opposite. He did not want to know anything or go to demonstrations. He has his thoughts,
but he does not like other people to know what he thinks. But with what is happening
lately with the issue of independence and such, he is becoming more active“ (G3).
Finally, we can see from Laia‘s statements, that the interconnection between the family-centric and
the popular memory is a key issue in keeping the awareness of the period alive. And indeed, it is
these tales, of family members having significant connections with public figures that have a vital
place in the cultural memory of Catalans, which is then associated with various family-centric
memories but also with the public issues of the time.
“To me it‘s that I was a little surprised, for example, one of the stories that my grandfather
had told me, of course, my great-grandfather was in the Catalan Republican Left and of
course, having studied Mr. Macia [Francesc Macia Was President of the Government of
Catalonia Between 1932-1933] at school and then to be told that he had been to our house,
then ... and it typically explains that "it had been in her lap". Sure, it surprises you at first?
But it's those things that make it funny. Oh, then, what memories? Well, remember that the
typical pictures of my grandmother, those still in black and white, and lived ...” (G3).
4. 2.3. Effects of historical memory on political awareness and participation
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a) Family of Lluc
Among the first generation, there appears to be a willingness to forget or, at least, a willingness to
avoid participation based on any historical recollection of political memory or identity. This is a
well documented phenomenon in current Spanish political culture, shaped by the seventies “full
stop law” (as Espinosa Maestre (2012) has called it), and the “Transition Consensus”, a political
pact among elites based on the equating of victors and defeated which denied full restoration to the
later and resulted in decades of effective silencing.
The memories of those members of the first generation who can be identified with the losing side of
the war -even in a somewhat loose sense, with no strong political affiliations present but having
suffered the effects of the defeat- show the effectiveness of the dictatorship in suppressing not only
political participation or affiliation directly, but also the very internal links between personal history
and any sort of historical vindication of a common political past.
“I don’t wanna get involved [in politics]. My grandchildren get involved, and my sons-inlaw but…I respect that.“ (G1).
“ I’d say they are right in remembering [past conflicts] but they should look forward rather
than backwards concerning certain things” (G1).
The remnant of fear from past conflicts permeates the whole family narrative and affects the
perception of both historical and current events, if not actively preventing then at least indirectly
discouraging participation and involvement in public political endeavours, which are seen as
potentially dangerous behaviour.
“This fear, do not say anything,... Although we were a family without people in prison, or
in the exile or neither...the fear of being aware, take care of what you say, we have a
business, do not be different, take care of what you say....So, this perception, these
subliminal messages of take care, you never know what might happen.” (G2).
An important fear that is expressed as being constitutive of the narratives is the fear of historical
animosities from happening again. This process takes place where the contemporary political
processes are decontextualized and compared with those that exist in the general narrative of
conflict.
“The Transition was problematic, tumultuous. I remember it with a certain excitement but I
also remember the family’s anxiety, and comments like “what’s gonna happen, what’s
gonna happen?” “Let’s hope there isn’t another war”, you know? I remember this kind of
comments too, just like now, right? Now things are getting tense and thereare moments
where you think “how is this going to explode? How?” (G2).
The second generation, after being involved in activism during the Transition period and being
quite critical of its historical development, appears now somewhat sceptical regarding institutional
politics, yet capable of critical participation. It appears to be an increasing appreciation for political
options outside the perceived “institutional parties”.
In this case, we see how the third generation does feel a strong connection with the historical past
that is mediated through family mechanisms of transmission and post-memory but that is also
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strongly linked to the political connotations of historical events that relate directly to individual
political beliefs.
“ Yes... it’s possible to feel closely tied to past events]but on a cultural level, on a sociopolitical level, on a historical level, you know? Like, there’s a relation between what
happened and the policies of the moment and history...I mean, the kind of politics we drag
depends on history too. I feel tied to the war because it was a turning point in the politics
of the Spanish state” (G1).
The family’s historical political involvement, especially of the second generation during the
Transition period, appears as a strong mechanism in fostering the social and political engagement of
the third generation.
In any case, the link between different forms of historical memory (leaning more towards a
political, academic or post-memorial side) appears as an undeniable reality for the third generation,
though the order of causality between interest and participation seems blurred and seems to be
pointing at a bi-directional relation.
“(...) One thing lead to another. If you are more into politics is because you’ve analyzed
the past. They are two quite intrinsic things. If you are into left-wing politics most of all I
mean, you’ve analyzed the past of the left-wing...” (G3).
b) Family of David
The second generation respondent showed a significant interest in politics during the Transition
(without actually committing to any political project but actively participating in politically
significant cultural activities such as the creation of an amateur magazine), a fact linked to the new
possibilities which the political scenario opened with Franco’s death and the subsequent democratic
reforms that were opened. Though he identifies himself as belonging to “the left”, during that
period he admits interests ranging from anarcho-syndicalism (CNT) to the far right (Fuerza Nueva),
and identifies himself as a volatile voter.
The absence of a coherent internal narrative within the family due to the deliberate suppression of
memories of the war and the immediate post-war period as well as the conflicting positions of close
relatives during the Civil War might have contributed to the creation of a somewhat erratic political
behavior which might have in turn been transferred to the following generation, which is highly
apolitical.
There’s a strong belief in the second generation in the role that history and the way it’s portrayed
play in the way current political events unfold. The view of historical memory more as a politicized
tool in the hands of interest groups rather than a neutral academic effort to establish a consensual
unified interpretation of history is seen as contributing to the radicalization of political groups and
the general political situation.
In general, there is a great scepticism when it comes to historical narratives that come from any
public actor that is perceived as having a political interest (institutions, parties, media, etc.), as well
as fear for the possible reproduction of historical patterns and conflicts.
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“ (…) I think some patterns are repeating. I’m not talking about religious hate or any other
issue, but you do hear, for example, politicians nowadays are sending messages which, if
you look for messages from the years [19]34 or [19]35 you can see that they are identical.
We are talking about the right-wing from that period, from Calvo Sotelo or Jose Antonio’s
time, or the left-wing of the time. They are identical messages” (G2).
c) Family of Angel
A belief in correlation between historical knowledge (or “awareness“) and participation can be
noticed in the respondents discourse, however, there isn’t any form of activism in any of the three
generations, something coherent with a family from the side of the “victors”. There is, as expected,
an emphasis for the second generation (that is the generation born after the war and during the
Francoist dictatorship) on participation seen as a “messy”, dangerous activity that should be
avoided.
“Well, it’s the time of don’t get involved in politics, don’t get yourself in trouble, that
would be the argument” (G2).
The third generation respondent shows a tendency to avoid what are perceived as extremist
ideological options and shows a strong preference for the ideological centre and for political
“neutrality”. This tendency also appears in the respondents appeal to the memory of non-conflictive
historical periods.
“(…) it is advisable too to remember that there are other quieter periods. Certain situations
happened that also have an influence on the country. If it has been at peace for the whole
period, that doesn’t take away interest from it, right on the contrary, it gives it the interest
of neutrality” (G3).
According to the respondent, the suppressed past can (and often will) then have a strong impact on
political mobilization around certain causes and/or issues. A good example of this phenomenon
might be provided by the “national issue”, which would be linked to long time suppressed
nationalistic aspirations.
“(…) I think many of the things that are happening right now, the independence thing for
example, they happen because in the past maybe something happened, because an opinion
appears that had been shut up. It has to be taken into account, undoubtedly” (G3).
Historical memory –in the politically and context-specific sense of the term- is seen by the
respondents not so much as a mechanism for the recuperation of the past and the rehabilitation of
the memories of significant parts of the population but as a tool in the hands of interest groups to be
used in the promotion of their own political agendas.
Finally, radical movements are seen essentially as phenomena linked to the present socio-political
situation and not so much to historical issues. Even though these movements might have links with
historical narratives, their triggers have been activated by current events (such as a high
immigration, as would be the case of PxC, Platfor for Catalonia).
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d) Family of Laia
At the level of political involvement, Laia’s grandfather said that they had internalised their
Republicanism which was present constantly. They never silenced the fact that they were
Republicans and fought against Franco. After the Civil War, the new fascist government in the town
wanted to send Laia’s grandfather and his sister to an orphanage but the mother of the executed
(their grandmother) resisted to them. Having said that within the family the discourse was clearly
politicised, outside of the home environment they decided not be active as they were a part of the
losing side (obviously, to be active in the framework of the dictatorship meant to be active
clandestinely). The reason from the widow’s (Laias’s great-grandmother‘s) point of view was clear:
“I was not so active because I had a superior risk than my colleagues. I was under
surveillance. Moreover, at home, my mum... My mum was scared when I talked with her
about politics. She was really scared. And she did not let me participate. You know why...
She told me, if you participate, they will kill you. She said that there already was a martyr
in the family and she did not want to have two. No, I did not participate in politics during
the dictatorship. Indirectly, when I was going to work to Barcelona [they lived in Mollet], I
did my things and I had my contacts but officially I have not done anything“ (G1).
During the 1960’s, Laia’s grandfather was active in a leisure organisation for young people,
organising cultural activities and indirectly doing political socialization as well. He supported some
strikes but always being less active than the rest of his colleagues. About the association of
historical memory of which he is the president he said:
“We do not want revenge, we want justice. And this justice has to be to repeal all ilegal
summary trials that were organised during the dictatorship. What seems curious to me
[ironic tone] is that with the Law on Historical Memory approved in 2007 by the Spanish
socialist government, with the promise that they would repeal the procedures, this has not
be done.” (G1).
About the so-called democratic Transition, the three interviewees are very critical, in particular,
Laia’s granfather and Laia. From Laia’s grandfather the Transition, with the Amnisty Law and the
continuity with the Franco’s period and was a fail of the democracy. “We had a lot of hope and it
was a disaster”, he noted.
Laia’s father has been less active than her grandfather or herself in terms of activism. Only now, in
the context of mobilisation for the self-determination of Catalonia, he has started going to
demonstrations and activities in favour of the self-determination of Catalonia. When he was at
school, in the 70s, he had some progressive teachers who were active in the protest against Franco.
He recognised that the family traumatic experience can partially explained the fact that he has been
less active than his father:
“I would say yes, because since my childhood I had always heard that both my
grandmother and my aunt... my aunt, and my mother in our family had already paid a
price, and therefore this had made way for other people to get involved in political issues. I
do not know if this ... see, inside me I have always been aware of it, but nonetheless I think
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it also has to do that I have not been involved directly or meaning because of my character,
my character to my way of being“ (G2).
Even so, he recognised that within the family they received a very active memory transmission. In
fact, he has gone to lot memory activities giving support to the family but leaded by him. He had a
particular memory of February 23rd of 1981 (when there was an attempt of coup d’état by a group
of militaries in Spain) as a very critical moment and with fear to go back to the past.
Laia’s is very active in the association created by her grandfather. She does all the administrative
tasks and has been to many activities since she was a child. When she was 17 years old, for the
research work of the last year of non-compulsory secondary education (prior to university) she
decided to research oral history of the Civil War and the dictatorship in Mollet and interviewed
around 15 families who lived those periods from both sides of the conflict. Her research won a
award in the field of oral history and was subsequently published by a Catalan university. She is
very interested in history:
“I am interested in politics and history as a consequence of what happened to my family,
during the Civil War, before and in the post-war period, in particular the years of Franco’s
dictatorship. I am also interested in the Transition period and in contemporary history. I
like to know what is going on everyday life and see the implications for the future” (G3).
5. Conclusions
It is possible to see from the cases presented that the family-centric memorial space is a highly
diverse one, which owes in large to the diverse experiences of the various generations (primarily the
first and second) of the events that are considered as significant in the cultural memorial space. As
such, it is very difficult to speak of any large similarity of the micro-level mechanisms or narratives.
Having said that, the cases may be considered as representing all the memorial processes that occur
in relation to the Civil War, francoist dictatorship, and the Transition, from highly public and
politicized events (Laia and her family) to entirely apolitical experiences with little social
interaction (David).
Particular attention needs to be placed to the interaction between memorial narratives and the
ideological position of the specific generations. In the broadest sense, this phenomenon can be
described with the simple statement that the narratives of the third generation do not deviate from
the ideologically constructed narratives of the first. Looking at our respondents, we can see that
there is not a deviation from the ideological context of the narratives of the third generation that
would be present in the stances of the first, and indeed, that the ideology of the third generation is
largely in tune with that of the third - except for the case where this generation was not present.
This phenomenon can easily be described with the fact that the specific content of a narrative (the
way that a story is told) is ultimately dependent on the ideological position of the individuals or
entities involved in the memorial discourse. As political socialization of generations with a
politicized family background doesn‘t usually instil opposing values, this transmission and the
predictable nature of the narratives are expected. Indeed, this is present as well where the political
socialization is de facto non-existent, or rather, where the socialization is into apolitical views, as
we can see from the example of David. As such, intra-family memorial processes become the
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primary domain of political socialization, and can indeed in no way be separate from it.
Remembrance or deliberation, two of the most common micro-level memorial processes, occur
always in the context of political socialization - the act of receiving, enforcing, or reshaping ones
political views.
When considering the specific periods or events of particular importance for the narratives, one
clearly stands out, which is the period of the democratic Transition. As was very evident from the
respondents, the Transition is considered an important point in Spanish history for both those on the
political left, but also for those on the Nationals side. This period has a two-fold character, though,
with one being the publicly-visible change that was occurring and the other the political agreements
that fostered a culture of non-questioning in relation to the years between 1936 and 1975. Indeed,
those on the political left see this as a highly volatile act, which can be defined as a memorial
challenge - an act where the awareness of an issue and its revisiting is increased in intensity due to
those holding a specific memory perceiving their narratives as being challenged or threatened.
Indeed, this can be true of both sides, where those on the political right, eager to hold on to their
positive views of the period, saw the challenges to this that came with the newly granted freedom of
expression as being threatened as well. What emerged are parallel processes that are present on both
sides - the maintenance of that side‘s specific narrative of an event, era, entity, or individual as a
response to the other side‘s challenges, and the simultaneous challenge of the other side‘s narratives
of the same element. Indeed, a further important contemporary event which finally challenged this
stalemate was the Historical Memory Law, which was clearly designed to be an institutional-level
challenge to one of the narratives that was based on the unwillingness to concede historical
injustices. As such, this invoked a large politicization of historical narratives which for the first time
came from the side of the state, and as we saw from one of the respondents, came as a significant
threat to the narrative of the heirs of the ideology.
Also, when considering the respondents and their everyday interaction with politics, it is important
to consider that contemporary political cleavages, especially in the context of the secession
movement in Catalonia, are having a strong impact on memorial processes. Namely, if we consider
processes as dynamic reshaping and recontextualization, and not only recall, then these memories
are impacted by general social attitudes and changing stances towards an event or entity. This is
intimately tied with processes of the politicization of memory. When we consider these processes as
occurring in Catalonia, then the beforementioned processes are influenced by direct political
cleavages that are symptomatic of the entire political spectrum. For instance, the designation of an
entity or individual as Francoist has a special connotation when expressed in a context of
heightened anti-Spanish sentiment. Invoking that label when referring to a contemporary entity or
individual, or the comparing of such contemporary elements with francoist ones, is as such a
process that has a strong connection with memorial processes, in two ways. First, as it invokes a
remembrance of the atrocities committed or ascribed to that label previously, and second, as it adds
to the recontextualization of elements of historical elements from that specific period.
Furthermore, we need to address the other dominant context currently in existence in Spain and
Catalonia, which is that of the economic crisis, which permeates daily life. When compared with
the other dominant context, which is the Catalan-Spanish tension regarding the independence, then
it‘s clear that this issue does not feature as prominently. Indeed, this is largely expected, as in the
case of the secessionist tendencies the roots of the problem are significantly related with the
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memorial plane, and as the central issue of contention is the perception of historical injustices done
against the Catalan people. On the other hand, as we noted in Deliverable 5.3 and elsewhere, the
issue of the crisis and the conflicts stemming from that are mainly a proxy, through which
underlying identity-driven conflicts find an outlet. Considering the economic crisis, the only topic
of consideration which emerged in our intergenerational interviews was the consideration of the
repetition of past events (as defined by the respondents) in the context of the tense social relations
that exist in Spanish and Catalan society nowadays as a result of the crisis. While this was a minor
topic, the views can clearly be divided between (a) the sceptics, who see a potential for a resurgence
of political violence and oppression, especially when considered in parallel with the rise of far-right
movements and parties across Europe, and (b) the optimists, who see the social relations having
changed so profoundly in the course of the past generations, that a return to large conflicts is not
considered an option. However, we wish to note, that on both sides of this divide, the respondents
considered a strengthening of the institutional politics through more representative democracy a
vital contribution to guaranteeing a peaceful future.
To conclude, we can note that it is very clear that the answer to our question at the beginning of this
report (are family narratives related to the political participation of the youngest generations?) is an
affirmative one. These narratives do not directly influence the participation - and indeed, no-one
was expecting them to. They are indicative of ideological and political socialisation processes that
occur between family members, where the narratives being transmitted are segments of political
socialization. Here we distance ourselves somewhat from Hirsch‘s concept of postmemory, where
she clearly defines it as not an identity position, we still recognize the mechanism behind the work,
primarily in light of the understanding of the inter-relationship between familial narratives and
cultural ones, which we have set at the centre of our focus at the beginning of the report by
presenting the dominant narratives in Spanish society. As Hirsch (2008, 112) states: “even the most
familial knowledge of the past is mediated by broadly available public images and narrative” and
“as public and private images and stories blend, distinctions and specificities between the mare
more difficult to maintain - and the more difficult they are to maintain, the more some of us might
want to reassert them so as to insist on the distinctiveness of a specifically familial secondgeneration identity”. What we wanted to show in this report is that the continuity of the narratives is
strongly present in contemporary Spanish society, which was evident both from the
intergenerational interviews as from the findings in other WPs.
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References
Aguilar, Paloma and Humlebaek, Carsten (2002) “Collective memory and national identity in the
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Assman, Jan (1997) Das kulturelle Gedächtnis: Schrift, Erinnerung und politische Identität in
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Fortunati, Vita and Elena Lamberti (2008) Cultural Memory: A European Perspective. In: Astrid
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Graham, Helen (2002) The Spanish Republic at War, 1936-1939. Cambridge: Cambridge
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Hirsch, Marianne (2008) “The Generation of Postmemory?”. Poetics Today, 29(1): 103-29.
Langenohl, Andreas (2008) Memory in Post-Authoritarian Societies. In: Astrid Erll and Ansgar
Nünning (eds.) Cultural Memory Studies. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Espinosa Maestre, Francisco (2012) “Reino de España: la guerra en torno a la historia que ha de
quedar”. Hispania Nova, Revista de historia contemporánea, 10. (Accessed April 15 , 2014:
http://hispanianova.rediris.es/10/dossier/10d021.pdf)
Lipset, Martin and Rokkan, Stein (1967) Party systems and voter alignments: Cross-national
perspectives. Toronto: The Free Press.
Olick, Jeffrey K. (2008) From Collective Memory to the Sociology of Mnemonic Practices and
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Gruyter.
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Appendix
Photo 1: Identification of a grave by the previously discussed memorial organization, where Laia‘s
family has strong ties and she is active. Photograph of family album. Photograph by Mariona
Ferrer-Fons.
Photo 2: Flowers laid by family members at the grave of President of Generalitat of Catalonia
Francesc Macià (ERC party) at Christmas in 1981. Photograph of family album. Photograph by
Mariona Ferrer-Fons.
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Photo 3: Photograph of Laia‘s great-grandfather with a tribute written after his death. Photograph
of family album. Photograph has been redacted to remove name for anonymization purposes.
Photograph by Mariona Ferrer-Fons.
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Photo 4: Photograph of Laia‘s great-grandfather when he was younger. Photograph of family
album. Photograph by Mariona Ferrer-Fons.
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Photo 5: Laia‘s grandfather, the co-founder and president of the discussed memory organization,
showing his father‘s letters, written in prison before his execution. Photograph by Mariona FerrerFons.
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Photo 6: Last letter written by Laia‘s great-grandfather to his family on July 16th, 1939, before his
execution. Scan of original.
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