Spanish Civil War Memory Project

Summary

Agustina Rico was born in the 1950s in Catalonia to a family originally from Salamanca. She grew up in Santa Coloma, a post-war suburb of Barcelona originally populated by a mix of migrants from many parts of Spain. Rico was the first in her family to get a university education. As a student she became a political activist, wrote many articles for periodicals, and participated in political organizations that enjoyed the protective umbrella of the local Catholic parish under an anti-Franco priest. When she was eighteen she got into legal trouble for writing an article relating to Che Guevara. Article 2 of the Ley Fraga was used frequently during the Franco period for controlling freedom of expression of the press. She describes how progressive pro-bono anti-Franco attorneys successfully defended her against such repression. She feels fortunate to have lived through the dying days of Francoism and then the transition to democracy period. She attended many political marches in the 1970s, especially in Barcelona. She recounts the history of her uncle José Rico who was executed in 1937 for his part in a foiled plot to assassinate Franco. Her uncle's history was only recently discovered by historian Francisco Sánchez Montoya, and serves as the basis of a new historical novel by Carlos Fonseca. Finally, Rico shares her memories of Elias "Dutch" Schultz (1910-2006), an American veteran of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade during the Spanish Civil War, and who stayed with her in the 1990s during a trip to Spain