Spanish Civil War Memory Project

Summary

Felicidad García Bienzobas was born in 1916 in Bierzo. Felicidad recounts that her mother's family were Republicans and her father was the sole Republican in his family. She notes that her family did not go to Church and, according to their official sentences, she and her sister were imprisoned for not going to mass and for painting their fingernails red. Felicidad recalls first being sent to prison in Salamanca and then to a women's prison in Guipúzcoa with her sister. Meanwhile, her father and her brother were detained in the Burgos Prison for four and a half years. She describes her experiences inside Guipúzcoa , a monastery that was converted into a prison where the nuns were the guards, and tells of the hunger and typhus inside the prison. She remembers that the nuns were sympathetic to the Basque nationalist cause and did not mistreat the prisoners. Felicidad was released on July 30, 1941, and subsequently reunited with her family in Madrid. She speaks of her family's life and comments that her father returned from Burgos a psychologically broken man. Felicidad relates her and her family's relationship with the Azaña and Unamuno families. She discusses her son and husband's experiences as political prisoners. As a result of her life experiences, Felicidad has recently asked for the annulment of her baptism