The government delegate in Galicia, Pedro Blanco, put in value the recovery of the historical memory and the dignification of the victims of the dictatorship through literature and the performing arts. He did so in the presentation of the second of the Dialogues with which the Government Delegation joins the commemoration “Spain in Freedom. 50 years”, and that starred the Galician writer and playwright Paula Carballeira.
Pedro Blanco congratulated Paula Carballeira for her work’s approach to this historical era and to the figures who defended during the dictatorship the recovery of rights and freedoms and suffered Franco’s repression for doing so. In this case, the teacher and teacher from Cordoba, María Barbeito, who indirectly stars in her creation ‘Las Alumnas’. A work that, said the delegate, “has a lot to do with the celebration that we are commemorating this year and with the recovery and dignification of the victims of dictatorship and repression that are axes of our government action” and that, in addition “also ties in with our feminist essence, of a government that bets on equality in all areas of our society”.
Paula Carballeira and ‘Las Alumnas’ Paula Carballeira (Fene, 1972), is a writer, narrator, actress and theatrical director. As an author, she has an extensive production in narrative, poetry or theatre. It has an extensive literary production that was largely translated into different languages.
In the year 2022 he published the theatrical work ‘Las Alumnas’, with which he achieved in 2023 the National Prize for Dramatic Literature. This work, which is currently represented by the company Culturactiva Producciones, tells of the reunion of two women: Elvira Fontao and Rosa Lires, former students of the pedagogue and teacher María Barbeito from Cordoba, on the date of the teacher’s death, in 1970.
On this dialogue, he makes an approach to the figure of María Barbeito and education as a fundamental piece in the development and freedom of people, especially women.
The work dignifies and recovers the figure of the Coruñese pedagogue, who was separated from his positions by a Francoist Educational Commission in 1937.
Commemoration in Galicia
The Government agreed to promote this year 2025 the commemoration of the “50 years of Spain in Freedom” to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of the dictator Francisco Franco and the beginning of the Democratic Transition process.
Within the framework of this commemoration, the Government Delegation develops its own programming that brings us closer to this historical era from different perspectives, such as feminism, archaeology and today, literature.
Thus, in coincidence with Women’s Day, a dialogue was held with women who lived through the dictatorship and the changes in equality brought by democracy.
Later, in April, the archaeologist Alfredo González-Ruibal opened the series of Dialogues in the Delegation to detail his investigations around the archaeology of conflict and contemporary archaeology, in which the Civil War has a prominent place.
For the organization of these activities, the Delegation has the advice of a working group composed of representatives of groups of historical memory in Galicia.