Summary #8
EDITORIAL DEEP VIEW EUROPE INSIGHT INTERVIEW OVERVIEW REVIEW SIGHTSEEING
Author: EUROM
The End of Dictatorships in Portugal and Spain: Historical Contexts and Public Memories
In the 1970s, the collapse of the Estado Novo (New State) and the Francoist state took place, two of the longest-lasting dictatorships in the contemporary history of Western Europe. This year marks half a century since the military coup carried out by officers of the Armed Forces Movement (MFA) that overthrew Prime Minister Marcelo Caetano, leading to the Carnation Revolution on 25 April 1974. Next year will mark 50 years since the death of the dictator Francisco Franco on 20 November 1975, who became head of state during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the beginning of the political shift towards the transition to democracy in Spain.Â
Activating Archives Against Revisionism, Denialism and Propaganda
Archives have prominent roles in memory work. They do not preserve or carry memories per se but provide documentary and material sources for collective memory creation and, increasingly, space for memorialization. A 2020 UN report on memory practices in the aftermath of grave human rights abuses explicitly relates the effectiveness of memorializationâthe âfifth pillar of transitional justiceââto the existence of and access to relevant archives.
Hidden History, Living Memory: Antoni Benaiges in âThe Teacher Who Promised the Seaâ
By David GonzĂĄlez, European Observatory on Memories (EUROM) âThe Teacher Who Promised the Seaâ is a Spanish-produced film directed by Patricia Font, starring Enric Auquer and Laia Costa in lead roles. This fictional feature is inspired by the true story of Antoni Benaiges, a Republican teacher from the Freinet pedagogical school, who was killed by …
Shaping Revolutionary Memory
Book: Shaping Revolutionary Memory. The Production of Monuments in Socialist Yugoslavia. Sanja HorvatinÄiÄ and Beti Ćœerovc, 2023 (IZA Editions) Review by Daniel Palacios GonzĂĄlez, National University of Distance Education (UNED) Can a vast memory culture developed by thousands of people and interacting with millions over decades be fetishised and reduced to one word that strips …
The Skin of Memorials
We never quite know what to do with memorials. Sometimes we debate whether to tear them down or not, or even consider turning them into outdated memory centres which have proven useless time and time again, beyond allowing the government of the day to draw a line under the matter.
Remembering the Struggle, Learning from the Past: The New National Museum of Resistance and Freedom â Peniche Fortress
On 27 April 2024, the doors of the new national museum were opened. The President of the Portuguese Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, presided over the official ceremony as part of the 50th-anniversary celebrations of the Carnation Revolution. Half a century after the prisoners were freed, the terrible Peniche Fortress has finally become an essential museum for understanding the longest dictatorship in Western Europe and celebrating the Portuguese people’s fight for freedom.
Spanish migrant and exiled women in the French Resistance. The construction of a memory between experiences and expectations
The participation of Spanish women in the French Resistance remains one of the great unresolved issues in the historiography of Republican exile and the Second World War. For decades, researchers and activists on both sides of the Pyrenees have denounced their neglect by both academia and society, an assertion that is now largely untrue. In recent years, the growing concern for gender issues and women’s history has led to a greater public presence and their inclusion across the board in the most recent research. However, there are still no specific studies of this particular group of women, largely due to the problem of the limited availability and fragmentation of sources, as well as the way in which they have been constructed in memorials since 1944.Â
The Mosaics of Flight by Angelo Canevari in ForlĂŹ
The architectural and artistic heritage of ForlĂŹ includes a work of great value, both from a cultural and historical point of view â the mosaics in the former Aeronautical College, now a school for 11â14-year-olds. This is a truly impressive work of art dating back to the second half of the 1930s, based on drawings by Angelo Canevari and dedicated to the theme of flight. More precisely, they depict the myth of flight and the relationship between man and the conquest of the skies as interpreted by the Fascist regime. The mosaics are perhaps the most striking example of the âdissonantâ heritage of the city of ForlĂŹ â the âcittĂ del Duceâ rebuilt as a showcase for Fascism in the 1920s and 1930s, but a city awarded the âsilver medal for its part in the Resistance (âMedaglia dâargento al valor militare per attivitĂ partigianaâ) and with a strong post-war tradition of antifascism. The mosaics have an undoubted artistic value alongside a cultural and historical value as an example of the propaganda of the Fascist regime.Â
How do we tell what has happened to us?
In his work Voices from Chernobyl (2015), in the chapter âMonologue on Why People Rememberâ, the Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich presents us with the testimony of the psychologist Piotr S., who asks, why do people remember? âIs it to restore truth? Justice? To free themselves and forget? Because they realise they have been part of a great event? Or because they seek some form of protection in the past?â This is the account of an âordinaryâ man, reflecting on one of the human tragedies that, beyond the intention to quantify it through the force of its death toll, impacts as profoundly as the Holocaust, the repression and disappearance of people during the civil-military dictatorship in Argentina, or the more than nine million people recognised as victims of the social and armed conflict in Colombia.Â