The government delegate in Galicia, Pedro Blanco, today highlighted the “inalienable” commitment of the Government of Spain to truth, justice and reparation for the victims of Franco’s regime. He did so during the commemorative act of the “democratic spring” promoted by the Cultural Association Democratic Historical Memory in the concello of Pontedeume.
The delegate took advantage of the floral offering to the victims of Francoism to highlight the duty of memory, respect and dignity that the Government of Spain has with all the women and men who fought against the dictatorship that disappeared thanks to democracy. At the event he was accompanied by the mayor of Pontedeume, Bernardo Fernández Piñeiro, and by the writer and director of the Association, Juan Manuel Galán Suárez.
In addition, he encouraged the neighborhood to continue fighting against the speeches that seek to forget “all those people, their stories and their lives, those that were uprooted by defending freedom,” a freedom that today wobbles with the “resurgence of speeches and ideas that deny the event and threaten the progress achieved as a result of coexistence and consensus,” added the delegate.
“The Government works for Galicia to advance and progress. And we do it by giving memory the importance it deserves, because our memory is synonymous with progress,” said Blanco.
In this regard, the delegate recalled that thanks to the work of entities such as the Asociación Cultural Memoria Democrática and concellos such as Pontedeume, these initiatives reach the entire neighborhood “preventing us from forgetting our past and all those barbarities that happened and that destroyed the many Galician families.”
These initiatives not only comply with the victims and their families, but also with those that “safeguard the past, the present and, above all, our future, those of our children and that of our grandchildren,” said the delegate.
Government work in Galicia
Since 2020, the State Secretariat of Democratic Memory has financed activities for more than 435,000 euros in Galicia, which means an average of 103,000 euros per year for research, publications and exhumations.
In addition, the Government concluded an agreement with the Histagra Group of the University of Santiago de Compostela. He will be in charge of preparing a state census of victims of the Civil War and the dictatorship, "a project that has three key points: research, coordination and dissemination," said the delegate.
Visit to the exhibition of Xosé Conde Corbal
The delegate also visited the exhibition of engravings by Xosé Conde Corbal: ‘El fardel de la Guerra 1936-1986’, which can be seen in the house of the Culture of Pontedeume and which includes a total of 40 pictures in which, the cartoonist, painter and illustrator, embodied the effects of the Civil War and dust