MACMILLAN Producing History in Spanish Civil War Exhumations: From the Archive to the Grave (World Histories of Crime, Culture and Violence)

This book reflects on the new histories emerging from the exhumation of mass graves that contain the corpses of the Republicans killed in extrajudicial executions during and after the conflict, nearly eighty years after the end of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). In the search for, location and unearthing of these unmarked burials, the corpse, the document and the oral testimony have become key traces through which to demand the recognition of past Francoist crimes, which were never atoned, from a lukewarm Spanish state and judiciary. These have become objects of evidence against the politics of silence entertained by national institutions since the transition to democracy. Working alongside archaeologists, historians, memory activists and families, this book explores how new versions of the history of the killings are constructed at the cross-roads between science, history and family experience. It does so considering the workings of truth-seeking in the absence of criminal justice and the effects of the process on Spanish collective memory and identity. Review “In this timely volume, Zahira Aragüete-Toribio examines civil society forensic exhumations of Spanish Civil War dead in Extremadura, the region of western Spain where the author grew up. … a major ethnographic contribution to the ways forensic science prompts new historical imaginations in the twenty-first century. Anthropologists, human rights scholars, and anyone interested in the increasingly contested terrain of historical production will find many provocative insights throughout this compelling text.” (Jonah S. Rubin, EuropeNow, europenowjournal.org, October, 2018) From the Back Cover This book follows the efforts of different groups of families, historians, memory activists and forensic experts to assemble information about unatoned mass crimes committed during and after the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), in order to attain their recognition by the Spanish state in the present. It examines how the exhumation of mass graves containing the corpses of Republican victims killed in extrajudicial executions by Francoist supporters has created, in the last years, new forms of historical and political enunciation which did not exist before. During the exhumation process, the study argues, the corpse, the document and the oral testimony have become key traces through which to discern the extent of Francoist repression. Analyzing familial and expert exchanges with these artefacts, between the archive and the grave, the volume considers how new versions of history are constructed in a landscape of distinct and complex generational experiences, memory politics and enduring silences. About the Author Zahira Aragüete-Toribio is currently Postdoctoral Researcher in the ‘Right to Truth, Truth(s) through Rights: Mass Crimes Impunity and Transitional Justice’ project funded by the Swiss National Fund and hosted at the Law Department of the University of Geneva, Switzerland.