On the W@terfront (Apr 2012)
2000-2011 place of memory
Abstract
The history of Spain during the twentieth century is marked by a series of dramatic episodes, which produce a very complex social distancing. The long period of Franco dictatorship that follows a three-year fratricidal war is not judged and reviewed by democratic institutions until 2004, when the public demand calls for the need to restore the memory of more than 30,000 missing people. This will start a political, cultural and social process which produces a “second transition period”, about historical memory, thus overcoming the forgetfulness agreed after the death of the dictator. The powers of legal development that make this second transition are addressed at regional scale, producing a regional imbalance in the grip of political interests. In Catalonia, it is created a new public institution devoted to the development of historical memory: the Democratic Memorial. We are especially concerned by the interest paid by this institution to the so-called places of memory, whose singularity is signaled and dignified, understanding the territory globally and locally.
