The Role of Archives in the Movement for the Recovery of Historical Memory in Spain. La Rioja: A Regional Case Study

Abstract

Recent decades have witnessed the development of a grass-roots movement for the recovery of historical memory in Spain. The descendents of the victims of Francoism have organized in associations and are seeking to break the silence surrounding the repression wrought during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) and the ensuing dictatorship (1939–1975). Studies of the repression have been written and mass graves exhumed in efforts to uncover the scale of the repression and to commemorate its victims. Archives have facilitated this process, enabling the listing, location and exhumation of victims and assisting the relatives of those killed in claiming compensation. The part that archives have played has been shaped by the nature of the repression which often left no documentary trace, the legacy of the dictatorship on the archives and the slow pace of legal and political reform since the transition to democracy both in support of the recovery movement and in facilitating access to archives. The Spanish experience, exemplified here through an examination of La Rioja as a regional case study, sheds light on the ways in which archives can contribute to national reconciliation, the re-shaping of collective memory and in helping to secure human rights in post-dictatorial societies.