Spanish Civil War Memory Project

Summary

Francisco "Paco" Marín was born in 1923 in Sevilla and is the oldest of seven children. Paco describes his close relationship with his father. He tells of starting to work in a factory with his father at age thirteen. Paco recounts his father's abduction by Francoist forces and the discovery of his murder years later. He discusses living in poverty throughout much of his youth and working long shifts at the factory to support his family. Paco avoided becoming politically involved so as not to abandon his family and did not join the Communist Party of Spain until after Franco's death. He explains the psychological effects that the Francoist repression had on his mother and younger siblings, who were traumatized by the loss of his father and the continued violence after the Civil War, and on his own two children, born after he married in 1951. Paco recalls many different examples of the repression and the struggles between the rich and the poor. He details the history of the Falange and the key figures of the Civil War, including the role of the church and the U.S. government. Paco comments on the problems that Spain continues to face, among these the lack of a formal recognition of the Francoist repression and the government's relationship with other countries