The reports that reconstruct the society that Francoism destroyed in the Balearic Islands

PalmaWhen the contract for the IV Trench Plan was awarded to the archaeology companies Atics and Aranzadi, it was their representatives, Cesc Busquets and Almudena García, respectively, who proposed to historian Jaume Claret that he coordinate the twenty or so reports that the Government had commissioned on the democratic memory destroyed by Francoism. Thus, Claret took on a giant challenge and began to select the most suitable researchers for each study, “some were already given, because they were the people who had already been working on them and in other cases it was my job to think about who could do it best,” he points out. “I began to coordinate their preparation and ensure that all the works maintained the same scientific and formal criteria,” he adds.

The premise was simple: that each topic be developed by those who knew it best. For this reason, historians with a long research trajectory were combined with specialists who were already conducting very specific research in certain areas. Among the names were David Ginard, Manuel Aguilera, Margalida Roig, Antoni Janer, and Guillem Mir. The psychologist Anna Miñarro, who was already working on this issue, was also incorporated to prepare the report on trauma and memory in Mallorca.

Claret explains that his job consisted of distributing assignments, controlling deadlines, and ensuring a certain homogeneity. Most of the reports were prepared by one or two people — never more than three — and all had to be in a scientific report format, so that they could be subsequently validated by the Technical Commission of Trenches. Furthermore, some of these works were not to remain solely as academic publications. They also had to serve as a basis for the museography teams to transform them into future educational exhibitions.

One year stopped

Therefore, the publication of the studies is considered particularly positive after they have been held back for more than a year. He explains that the delay was not so much due to the content of the reports as to the desire for them all to be published together. The victim census, one of the most complex works, delayed the schedule and he considers that the Government opted to wait until the entire collection was finished.

Despite everything, the historian acknowledges that it seems a great coincidence that the Executive has made the studies public hours after the Constitutional Court has annulled the repeal of the Democratic Memory Law and that it did not do so, for example, within the framework of the commemoration event for the approval of the Pits Law that took place in Parliament a few weeks ago. “It would have been a good moment,” he points out. Nevertheless, he prefers to think that the chronology has been the result of circumstances and not of a deliberate political decision: “I don't see the reason, the work has been done and when it was time,” he comments.

In this regard, she defends that the Law of Pits continues to function independently of political debates on democratic memory. She recalls that it was a broadly agreed-upon norm and that, in fact, the current president of the Government, Marga Prohens, negotiated it with the promoter of the Law, Margalida Capellà, when she was a deputy of the Popular Party. "Perhaps this also makes her have a certain respect," she points out. She also highlights that the outstanding invoices for the work have been paid and that the archaeological interventions have continued normally with visits from government officials, such as the last excavation carried out in Son Servera, where the remains of two militiamen were being sought. "We have never had any hindrance," she says and considers that whoever truly has an obsession with this issue is Vox. "I believe that the PP here is quite clear that it is a matter of human dignity, beyond political issues," she points out.

Beyond the trenches

For the coordinator, one of the great values of the collection is that it goes beyond the strictly focused view on mass graves. Of the 20 reports, 15 address very diverse aspects of the contemporary history of the Islands.

Among the works he considers most relevant is the census of victims of the Civil War and Francoist repression. He highlights that, for the first time, a much more complete approximation is available of the number of victims there were on the Islands. "Counting the victims with names and surnames is an essential step to dignify them and understand the magnitude of the repression," he points out.

It also values the study on places of memory and repression that identifies execution sites, prisons, and other locations linked to Francoist violence. It considers that it offers a global vision that did not exist until now and that can serve both for research and for future memory policies.

Another of the works that stands out is the census of the associative fabric prior to the coup d'état of 1936, carried out by Bartomeu Garí and Jaume Sansó. According to his explanation, the research shows to what extent Francoism dismantled the associative life of the Mallorcan towns and dismantles the idea of Mallorca as the "Island of calm". In very small municipalities, there were several athenaeums, community centers, workers' societies, and cultural entities that disappeared after the repression. "There was a lot of activity in this regard, some more political and others less so," he points out. "The fact of having the State away also meant that there were more citizen initiatives to have spaces like libraries," he comments. Through scattered documentation—from archives to tools like Google Maps to locate old buildings—the researchers have been able to reconstruct this map.

Also highlight the reports dedicated to the anti-aircraft shelters in Palma and other municipalities, in which Bartomeu Fiol, an expert in the field, among others, has participated. He recalls that practically all towns had shelters and that some were surprisingly complete infrastructures, with bathrooms and water tanks. Beyond their architectural value, he considers that they explain very well the impact that the bombings had on the civilian population and the fear that settled on the island, a fact that was decisive regarding Mallorca's positioning towards the fascist side.

A story connected with Europe

The reports also show that the Civil War and its consequences in the Islands cannot be explained in isolation. Some analyze the presence of Germans and Italians linked to the fascist regimes established in Mallorca after the Second World War, research that, as it progresses, will even lead to an exhibition.

Other studies document the Balearic Islanders buried in the Valley of the Fallen and the connections with Bayo's landing, where Catalans and Valencians were fighting, which demonstrates that the Balearic Civil War was deeply related to the entire conflict throughout the State. He recalls that the fighting was not only experienced during the 15 days of the landing in the East of Mallorca, among others, but also because many Majorcans fought in the Peninsula.

For Claret, this is precisely the main contribution of the project: to demonstrate that democratic memory goes far beyond the location of people in mass graves. “It is about rebuilding a society, understanding how it changed after the war, and recovering stories that help to understand the complexity of events and to rebuild all that the War and Francoism destroyed”.