The Councilor for Culture of the Dénia City Council, Raúl García de la Reina, has presented today, November 7, the entire programming of 'Democratic Memory, Historical Memory Days, 2023', articulated from the Municipal Library and Archive.
The City Council has organized a new edition of Memory and future, a conference dedicated to democratic memory, which will take place between November 10 and 22, 2023. The activities that have been prepared by the Library and Archive include conferences and presentations, and educational versions with the collaboration of the IES Sorts from the Mar de Dénia and the IES of Teulada.
The opening of the events will be on Friday, November 10, at 19:30 p.m., in the Library, with the conference Close the memory in the record. 38 anys between xifres, dades and fosses taught by Vicent Gabarda. Vicent Gabarda has a doctorate in History from the University of Valencia. As Raúl García de la Reina has indicated, Gabarda is a pioneering authority in the study of repression, “since from his native Paterna, known by all as the wall of Spain, Gabarda will tell us his personal experience, at the beginning of the investigation of such a complex and terrible topic. “We will know, with verified data, the true human cost of war and post-war repression in Valencian lands,” declared García de la Reina.
On Wednesday, November 15 at 19:30 p.m., the graphic novel will be presented in the Library Lead and Gualda. Azaña's Mexican burial in France, by Josep Lluís Mas, José María Azcárraga and Manuel Granell. As Raúl de la Reina has related, more than half a million people formed the republican exodus in 1939, when the Spanish Civil War ended. These people, who moved on foot in France, along what were called “roads of withdrawal”, were housed in concentration camps. Mexico opened its arms to all the refugees that Europe refused to welcome. Thousands of people saw an opportunity to live in peace.
On Thursday, November 16 at the House of Culture From 19:30 p.m., the educational day focused on the deportation to the Nazi camps of Mauthausen and Gusen will take place. The day will have three parts, the first will be the opening of an exhibition Art and Democratic Memory, carried out by the IES students of Teulada, from November 16 to 28. Afterwards, the students of the IES Sorts de la Mar de Dénia will tell us about the Memories and experiences from the trip to Mauthausen 2023.
To conclude, Josep Antoni Ahuir, archaeologist and relative of a Dianense deportee, will tell how “Valuing democratic memory in the Marina Alta. “The deportees in the Nazi camps of Mauthausen and Gusen.”
On Wednesday, November 22 at 20:00 p.m., the presentation of the documentary will take place in the auditorium of the Social Center The last train of Bouarfa scripted and directed by Rosa Brines, and produced by the Coordinator of Associations for the Democratic Memory of the Country of Valencia with the sponsorship of the Generalitat Valenciana.
The Cultural Councilor explained that the documentary narrates the trip of a family from Banyeres de Mariola, to the Moroccan desert to exhume the remains of their grandfather, who died in 1940, and repatriate him. Vicente Mataix Ferre, passenger 416 of the ship Stanbrook, went into exile in North Africa and suffered the same fate as most of the 12.000 republicans who sought refuge in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. He was part of the forced labor camps in a semi-slavery regime to build the colonial chimera of the Vichy government (France), known as the “Trans-Saharan” railway.
The event will be presented by the municipal archivist, Rosa Seser, and with the participation of Ángel González, president of the coordinator of associations for the Democratic Memory of the Valencian Country and Josep Mataix, grandson of Vicente Mataix. Rosa Seser, in her presentation, will relate a little-known topic, referring to some Dianense exiles in North Africa.
BIASED AND SECTARY democratic memory?