Ceasar R.

, The science and soul of exhumations

For families and forensics, the exhumation process has become a particular form of
remembering in Spain today.

Over 130,000 people are still officially missing from the Civil War of 193639, their
absence invoking fuzzy facts and memories caught between the past and present. Unlike
other exhumations before it, Spain is unique because the past has just begun to resurface
70 years after the fact, complicating the corpses presence as objects of history,
evidence, science, power, memory and truth.

It was not until 2000 that the impetus to exhume, backed by the media and the Law of
Historical Memory, became a way to remember in Spain through which families, NGOs,
exhumation experts and volunteers could begin to relocate their dead.

Rather than try to uncover emotions or truth, anthropology can provide us with the tools
to understand things-in-the-making, such as history and the exhumation of the dead
(Haraway 1997; El-Haj 2001).

Elkin M., Opening Franco's graves

Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory (ARMH in its Spanish initials)
A typical execution was called a paseo, or a stroll, where prisoners were taken to
secluded areas and shot in the head. The bodies were then dumped into freshly dug
graves.
I like to call this exhumation with archaeological methods, Etxeberra says.
People knew what happened, but it wasnt spoken about for a long time, says
Francisco Ferrndiz, a cultural anthropologist from the Deusto University in Bilbao
who films the excavation and collects the oral history from the bystanders.
Leave the dead where they lie, shouted a man from a motorcycle, as Silva, four
archaeologists, a forensic anthropologist and Etxeberra dug at the spot []
We were searching for three days and then a boot appeared, Silva says. It was an
emotional moment and I immediately thought of my grandmother, who died five
years before. This would have been important for her. The tragedy began with the
murder of her husband, but it continued for decades afterthe killers were town
officials, representatives of the regime, and she had to see them in the streets every
day for 40 years. For many people it creates a feeling of guilt; you begin to question
whether your relative deserved what happened. That is why these excavations are so
therapeutic.
In Spain, the excavators are trying to revive the past to ensure those 46 years of
repression and two decades of collective amnesia do not become permanent.

I think there is willingness for amnesty, not amnesia... To settle scores with the past
is not the way forward. There were repressions on both sides. We must study and
investigate more. And the recovery of the bodies of those killed is very important.
Its completely untrue when people say that this opens old wounds, says Rivero.
No one is looking for the guilty parties, this is about recovering the history. The
exhumations bring the subject out into the open and provide closure after many
years of silence. The only question really is why wasnt this done earlier?
del Rio Sanchez A., Gordillo Giraldo C., Deriva e institucionalizacin de la
memoria

La irrupcin social del fenmeno que hemos denominado de Recuperacin

de
la Memoria Histrica (RMH), que hace referencia al descubrimiento de realidades
histricas negadas y olvidadas y a la dignificacin de las vctimas de la
guerra civil y la represin franquista en todas sus dimensiones, ha supuesto un
paso de gigante para la progresiva desfranquistizacin de un Estado y una

sociedad con evidentes dficits democrticos por esta causa.

La RMH ha posibilitado la creacin de un novedoso movimiento social con una
extraordinaria capacidad de movilizacin de colectivos muy heterogneos:
familiares de vctimas de distintas generaciones y gentes procedentes de los

ms diversos mbitos de la ciencia, la poltica y la creacin artstica.

Nuestra reflexin nace desde la experiencia colectiva en el grupo de trabajo
RMHSA de
CGT.A, que viene funcionando desde 1998 y ha desarrollado desde entonces una
intensa
actividad memorialista en Andaluca en materia de investigacin, de
dinamizacin social y
divulgacin, pero principalmente de denuncia pblica.
En cualquier caso, nuestra labor en este campo la entendemos siempre desde
una
perspectiva plural y creativa que entiende la memoria de los vencidos de la
guerra civil como patrimonio colectivo y no partidista y como recurso esencial
para la identidad y dignidad de la sociedad