Spanish Civil War Memory Project

Summary

Sastre López was born in Madrid on September 11, 1923. His father was a carpenter, and although his parents leaned to the left politically, they were not active party members. One of his earliest memories during the Civil War is of a republican militiaman on his way to the front telling him "we're going to fight for you." During the war Antonio and his sister were evacuated from Madrid and placed with a family in Catalonia. After the war his family's dire economic situation caused him to seek work at the age of fifteen. He remembers an instance when Falangist soliders forced their way into the family home, and used physical violence against his mother and father, calling them "rojos." Antonio joined the Communist Party in 1939, and engaged in underground activities while continuing in his job as a metal worker. In 1944 he entered compulsory military service. In one anecdote he describes transporting copies of Mundo Obrero under the seat of the car he chauffeured for a Francoist military governor. Detained and tortured in 1947, he was sentenced to death. Through a family connection Eva Peron interceded on Antonio's behalf and his sentence was reduced to twenty years. He was incarcerated a total of six years at Ocaña and then at Burgos. Antonio describes life in prison, including the educational opportunities of the "University of Burgos," where many fellow prisoners were professionals who taught courses in all manner of subjects. Antonio learned French while at Burgos prison. He also helped make the handwritten clandestine newspaper which was circulated among the prisoners. In another anecdote he got into trouble at Burgos for reciting memorized poems by Antonio Machado and Federico Garcia Lorca. Released in March 1953, Antonio describes problems adjusting to life in Francoist Spain after six years of imprisonment. Despite his militant political background Antonio was able to build an automobile shop with forty employees, only to lose the business during the transition to democracy. Antonio went into partial hiding during the coup attempt of 1981 (23- F). He applauds recent efforts to restore historical memory of the Francoist period