On the occasion of the Day of Remembrance and Tribute to all the victims of the military coup, the war and the dictatorship, established by the ‘Democratic Memory Law’, the subdelegate of the Government in A Coruña, María Rivas, traveled today to the city of Camariñas to participate in the event “Que la historia no forget your names”, in which the inhabitants of the municipality that were repressed during the Civil War were honored. At the event, the deputy delegate was accompanied by the mayor of Camariñas, Sandra Insua.
In her speech, the subdelegate stressed the importance of holding such events, which constitute “an act of reparation, justice and dignity and which recognizes the commitment to freedom and to the democratic values of the neighborhood of this town.”
María Rivas also highlighted the opportunity that this day offers us to remember and reject the dark period that the Franco Dictatorship of 36 represented for Galicia and for the whole of Spain, which caused “many people to live in fear, condemned to hide even to forget and publicly renounce their ideology, their beliefs and their orientation”
With this, the subdelegate highlighted the Government’s effort to fight historical oblivion, since “oblivion is not an option to improve our democracy”
In this regard, the subdelegate recalled that today a year ago the approval of the ‘Law of Democratic Memory’, formerly ‘Law of Historical Memory’, which was born with the aim of complying with the principles of the International Bill of Human Rights of justice, truth, reparation and guarantees. “This law is based on the conviction that the recognition of the past helps to shape coexistence on a more solid basis; only by learning from our past can we avoid repeating it,” said Rivas.
In the act, the city council placed two plaques in two emblematic places that represent the fight against the Franco regime of the residents of the municipality.
The first was placed in the Ponte de Porto, in front of the house of Mazaeda, where lived the well-known local trade unionist Rogelio Mazaeda Novais, who spent fourteen years in hiding when persecuted for his leftist ideals during the Franco regime, until he managed to escape to Cuba and start a new life.
This first plaque was placed in memory of Ramón Carballo Tajes, Andrés Celestino Balsa Bello, Manuel Carracedo Balsa, Constant Campos Santos, Antonio Santos and Adolfo Antonio Grela; neighbors originally from the town of Buenos Aires who were killed for defending democracy and freedom.
In the case of the second plaque, the place chosen by the town hall was in front of the gardens of the dársena, where in the years before the dictatorship had been the ‘Liceo’, a society for seafarers and workers. In this case, the honorees are Jacinto Campaign Martínez, Faustino Dios Vila and Juan Morandeira Fernández, neighbors who were killed by the Franco regime and buried in a mass grave.
Tribute to Castelao
On the occasion of the Day of Remembrance and Tribute to all the victims of the military coup, the war and the dictatorship, the Government organized yesterday an event led by President Pedro Sánchez in which they honored 18 people who played an important role in the fight against fascism and the defense of their own culture in Spain, among which was the politician and illustrious Galeguista Alfonso Daniel Rodríguez Castelao.
Castelao is a symbol of Galician nationalism, which with its work in the fields of essay, novel, theatre, drawing, medicine and politics, became one of the most important figures of the 20th century in Galicia. The honoree was a historical figure who fought for a country and a more democratic and plural Galicia, and who for the defense of his ideals was forced to emigrate to Buenos Aires.