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The Government Delegation recognizes the social and democratic advances of the last decades with four murals created in the streets of Vitoria

02/12/2025
Murals Spain in Libertad 2025

· Marisol Garmendia: “We want to celebrate these fifty years by valuing the people who have built this democracy, often anonymously.”

· The delegate of the Government of Spain in the Basque Country invites young people “not to blind you or confuse the messages of hatred, violence, negationism, racist intolerance to the different ones spread through the networks by the powerful who control the algorithms. Know the past, talk to your elders, inform yourselves and have your own opinion, critical, but democratic. And sing, paint murals, film a movie, write… Don’t give democracy or rights for conquered forever”

The Government Delegation in the Basque Country has inaugurated in Vitoria-Gasteiz four murals commemorating the 50 years of Spain in Freedom created in different streets of the city. The event took place in front of the mural that reflects the achievement of social and trade union rights in Human Rights Street No. 28 in the neighborhood of Zabalgana.

The delegate of the Government of Spain in the Basque Country, Marisol Garmendia, and the second Lieutenant of Mayor, Borja Rodríguez, have discovered the mural together with representatives of different Vitorian, Alava and State institutions, such as the Subdelegate of the Government in Álava, Mar Dabán, as well as Alava civil society and the Deputy Mayor for Sustainable Mobility and Road Infrastructure, Jon Nogales, among others.

Marisol Garmendia has explained the reason why she has promoted the ceration of these four murals: “We want to celebrate these fifty years by valuing the people who have built this democracy, many times anonymously, many times since the silent effort. That is why we have chosen mural art as a language: because it is direct, accessible, community and deeply democratic.”

The government delegate has described the reasons that each of the murals launches to conclude that “this set of murals is, in short, a journey through our own democratic history. A story that is not written in offices, but in neighborhoods like Salburua, Zabalgana, Judimensiondi or Adurtza; in the squares where we meet, in the neighborhood centers, in the streets through which we walk every day.”

Garmendia wanted to make it clear that the celebration of these 50 years in Libertad are a point and followed in the advancement of society. “Now that these murals are finished and we celebrate their inauguration, we are not looking only to the past. We are also reaffirming an intergenerational commitment: to continue building a society in freedom, with rights, with diversity and with real equality,” he said.

It is necessary to focus on the dangers that lurk in the Democracy built in recent decades. A message aimed at the whole of society but especially at young people. “We have to say it loud and clear to the new generations that you live in democracy: with Franco you did not live better; it is a lie. It was a dictatorship. This mural could not have been painted and we could not be on the street in a citizen’s act like this.”

And a tip: “Don’t be blinded or confused by the messages of hatred, violence, negationism, racist intolerance to the different people who spread the powerful algorithms through the networks. Know the past, talk to your elders, inform yourselves and have your own opinion, critical, but democratic. And sing, paint murals, film a movie, write… Don’t give democracy or rights for conquered forever.”

For his part, Borja Rodríguez recalled that Ensanche 21 ceded the premises where the commemorative murals that will accompany this 50th anniversary will be held and that “this cession is not only a symbolic gesture, but a sign of our commitment to creativity, neighborhood participation and the strengthening of the cultural fabric of our city. We want these murals to reflect the shared history of democracy and freedom, but also the challenges and hopes of the present.”

After the discovery of the mural and the words by the delegate of the Government, Marisol Garmendia, and the councilor of the city model, urbanism and president of Ensanche 21, Borja Rodríguez, the act has ended with an urban dance performance of the Noralai Dance School and a lunch for the attendees enlivened by DJ GEL.

The authors of the four murals are Aratz Ruiz and Miguel Ángel Medina (‘Kapone’). The situation and motives of the murals are:

· In the district of Salburua, (C/ Avda Warsaw 10), WOMEN, EQUALITY / EMAKUMEAK, BERDINTASUNA.

· In the neighborhood of Borinbizkarra, (C/ Jerónimo Roure 39), DEMOCRACY AND RIGHTS / DEMOKRAZIA ETA ESKUBIDEAK.

· In the neighborhood of Zabalgana, (C/ Avda. United Nations 49), CULTURE AND DIVERSITY / KULTURE ETA ANIZTASUNA.

· In the neighborhood of Zabalgana, (Avda. Human Rights 28), FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION/ASKATASUN SINDICKALA.

Carmina Gustrán, commissioner for the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Spain in freedom, protects the program and the series of activities that will take place these months in the Basque Country and the rest of Spain. “Celebrating half a century of freedom is also celebrating the plurality that defines us as a country. Spain is a diverse state, rich in territories, languages, traditions and cultural expressions. That is why it makes sense for the commemorative program to be decentralized, so that every corner of our country participates and contributes its voice to this celebration of the democratic values we share,” he said.