Matías Esteban Franco nació en Vicálvaro. Matías recuenta que su padre, un miembro de la Unión General de Trabajadores, trabajaba en los tejares y su madre trabajaba como empleada doméstica. Explica que antes de la Segunda República, muchos niños en su pueblo empobrecido no asistían a la escuela y sus propios padres eran analfabetos. Durante la Segunda República, cuando Matías tenía nueve años asistió a una escuela Socialista. Después se unió a las Juventudes Socialistas Unificadas. Matías relata su participación en la defensa de Madrid durante la Guerra Civil. Fue sargento en el Ejército Republicano de Guadalajara, Madrid, y Asturias. Matías recuerda que fue detenido por la Falange y fue torturado física y psicológicamente en el cuartel de la policía local en 1940. Estuvo encarcelado por los próximos once años en Madrid y Burgos. Matías cuenta que fue dejado en libertad en 1951 y encontró trabajo en una fábrica metalúrgica en Madrid. En 1957, como resultado de su activismo sindical y su participación en el Partido Comunista de España, Matías pasó tres meses en la clandestinidad. Entonces huyó a Francia y se quedó allí hasta la muerte de Franco. Matías habla sobre su regreso a España en 1976 y sobre haberse convertido en activista y miembro de la Asociación de Ex-presos y Represaliados Políticos Antifranquistas.

Matías Esteban Franco was born in Vicálvaro. Matías recounts that his father, a member of the Unión General de Trabajadores (General Union of Workers), worked as a tiler and his mother worked as a housekeeper. He explains that before the start of the Second Republic, many children in his impoverished town did not attend school and his own parents were illiterate. During the Second Republic, Matías attended a Socialist school at the age of nine. He later joined the Juventudes Socialistas Unificadas (Unified Socialist Youth). Matías relates his participation in the defense of Madrid during the Civil War. He was a sergeant in the Republican Army of Guadalajara, Madrid, and Asturias. Matías recalls that he was detained by the Falange and was physically and psychologically tortured at the local police headquarters in 1940. He spent the next eleven years imprisoned in Madrid and Burgos. Matías discusses being released in 1951 and finding work in a Madrid metallurgical factory. In 1957, as a result of his union activity and participation in the Communist Party of Spain, Matías spent three months in hiding. He then fled to France and remained there until Franco's death. Matías speaks about returning to Spain in 1976 and becoming an activist and a member of the Asociación de Ex-presos y Represaliados Políticos Antifranquistas (Association of Former Political Prisoners and Anti-Francoist Fighters)

• July 10, 2008

• Esteban Franco, Matías

• Boehm, Scott
• Davis, Andrea

• Asociación de Ex-presos y Represaliados Políticos
• Asociación para la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica
• Federación Estatal de Foros por la Memoria

• University of California, San Diego

3 video files : digital, sound, color

Interviews in Spanish

Matías Esteban Franco's testimony was recorded in his home in Madrid

Testimony of the Spanish Civil War and the Francoist dictatorship

• Burgos (Spain)
• France
• Madrid (Spain)
• Spain

• Asociación de Expresos y Represaliados Políticos Antifranquistas
• Juventudes Socialistas Unificadas
• Unión General de Trabajadores de España

• Civil War (Spain : 1936-1939)
• Communism
• History
• Interviews
• Nonfiction films
• Oral history
• Personal narratives-Spanish
• Political prisoners

• video

• Spanish; Castilian

Mms: 991002816909706535

Online exhibit

• Spanish Civil War Memory Project

Madrid, Spain, Spanish Civil War Memory Project

• Esteban Franco, Matías

Esteban Franco, Matías. Testimony of the Spanish Civil War and the Francoist Dictatorship. University of California, San Diego, 2008

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2023-10-26