The subdelegate of the Government in A Coruña, María Rivas, went today to Santiago to visit the Historical Archive of the Workers’ Movement of the Luis Tilve Foundation, where she encouraged the non-profit entities of the province that work for the recovery of historical memory to request the aid called by the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory for activities related to the restitution of the memory of the victims of the Civil War and the Dictatorship.
The subdelegate was received at the Foundation by its president, José Benito Núñez López, secretary Roxelio Pérez Poza and the Director of the historical archive Guilleme Pérez Ojo. During the visit to the archive, the subdelegate was able to appreciate the work carried out by the entity through the recovery of the documents that refer to people repressed by the Franco regime and that serve as a basis for their location and the restitution of their memory.
María Rivas reported that this line of aid, which was published on August 23 in the Official State Gazette (BOE), has a budget of 895,000 euros, is aimed at associations, foundations and other private non-profit entities, as well as universities and public research bodies that have incorporated, among their objectives or activities, those related to the recovery of the Democratic Memory and the recognition of the victims of the Civil War and the Dictatorship.
Participating entities that wish to do so may request:
• up to 12,000 euros for studies and research relating to the recovery of the Democratic Memory, as well as the moral recognition of the victims of the Civil War and the Dictatorship
• up to 10,000 euros for activities to collect, preserve, study and disseminate the written, oral, audiovisual (photographs, posters, sound recordings, films...) or intellectual (artistic, musical, literary manifestations...) heritage of the Civil War and/or the Dictatorship.
• up to 5,000 euros for publications or the organization of courses, conferences, exhibitions and other scientific and/or informative events on Democratic Memory.
The deadline for applications ends on Friday, September 13, so the subdelegate encouraged us to take advantage of these last days.
The subdelegate, recalled the importance of fighting historical oblivion, “it is a moral duty to strengthen our collective memory to neutralize oblivion and thus avoid the repetition of the most tragic episodes of our history, only by learning from our past can we avoid repeating it,” she said.
In the same vein, he stressed that this type of actions constitute “an act of reparation for the justice and dignity of all the victims of Franco’s regime, as well as their families” and are “a symbol of the freedom and democratic values that our government defends” through actions such as the approval of the “Law of Democratic Memory” there is more than a year.
In this sense, he also wanted to highlight the work of entities such as the Luis Tilve Foundation, which guards in its Historical Archive of the Workers’ Movement a very important part of the province’s union memory and which has contributed works of great value such as the “Hildegart in the socialist press”, “The purification of the national magisterium in the province of A Coruña (1936-1945), “Chronicle of the beginnings of the socialist group of La Coruña 1891-1904”, “Xaime Quintanilla. Life and work of a socialist and galleguist in the service of the republic” or “Las Misteiras Coruñesas: Struggle and associationism at the Forum Factory (1871-1936).
María Rivas recalled that from 2020 until today, the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory financed activities for more than 435,000 euros in Galicia, almost 50% through the Xunta in the Sectorial Conferences, “which means an average of 103,000 euros a year for research, publications and exhumations, money that accounts for the commitment of this Government to the restitution of the memory of the victims of Franco’s regime and dictatorship.”