Mirador de la memoria

Stories

A tribute to all the victims of the Spanish Civil War

The Silence of Others

The Silence of Others, filmed over a six-year period, reveals the epic struggle of victims of Spain’s 40-year dictatorship under General Franco, as they organize a groundbreaking international trial and fight a “pact of forgetting” around the crimes they suffered. The film offers a cautionary tale about fascism and the dangers of forgetting the past.

When clicking on the stills of the movie here below, you will guided to the website of the film, including a short trailer.

Our modest tribute

We watched this movie maybe a year ago. The film touched us deeply, and we had great respect for the victims. We found out, through the film, that a monument to the victims had been erected in the Jerte valley in Extremadura. A monument, that takes your breath away. In 2018 we were in the Jerte valley, but in our travel books at that time there was, incomprehensible actually, nothing or very limited written about the monument. It was important for us to visit the monument on our recent trip to Spain. Our modest tribute to all the victims of the civil war in Spain.

You are in our memory

The monument has a name that lives up to it: Mirador de la Memoria. The location does the same, in the Jerte valley, at a viewpoint with the Sierra de Tarmontas in the background. Francisco Cedenilla is the creator of the sculptural work. The monument, consisting of four human figures, was inaugurated in January 2008. A woman and three men, two young men and an old man, were placed on huge granite stones.

The four figures focus their attention on different places in the valley, but their gaze is lost. It makes them feel confused, lost, abandoned. Cedenilla took this work as a tribute to all the disappeared of the Civil War, especially his grandfather, who died by firing squad in October 1936. “Leonardo Cedenilla, you are in our memory”, can be read in the figure of the old man. Three of the figures have bullet wounds, because someone shot at the monument in the days after the inauguration. It could have been restored, but Cedenilla did not want this, for there was no better way to complete the meaning of his work.

Our photo series

We have made a selection of the photos that we made and publish them here in black & white. More photos will be published later when our series of our travel to Spain will be published.