The 13 Roses

"Mother, my dear mother, I'm going to meet my sister and dad to the other world, but keep in mind that I die for an honest person, goodbye, dear mother, goodbye forever, your daughter who will never be able to kiss or hug you ... You cry that my name is not erased from history. "

These were the last words that a 19-year-old girl called Julia Conesa would address to her family. It ran on the night of August 4, 1939. The Civil War had been over for four months. Madrid, destroyed and defeated after three years of harassment, bombings and resistance to the rebel army, tried to adapt to the new order imposed by General Franco, a regime that was to last four decades.

In the atmosphere of that post-war summer - very sad for some and glorious for others - the ruins of the buildings and the poverty of its inhabitants mixed with the painful physical and psychological consequences of the conflict. And, above all, propaganda and repression abounded. The day to day life of the capital was marked by constant complaints from neighbors, friends and family; by the delation, the processes of purification in the Administration, in the University and in the companies; by raids, spies infiltrated everywhere, arrests and summary executions. In June, even the shooting of women had begun. "Spaniards, alert, Spain is still at war with all enemies of the interior or exterior, perpetually faithful to its fallen, Spain, with the favor of God, is still moving, one, great, free, towards its undeniable destiny ..." , the radios of Madrid shouted. "I swear to crush and sink anyone who gets in our way," Franco warned in his speeches.
It would be the last letter of Julia Conesa. And she knew it. Because, along with fourteen other prisoners of the Madrid prison of Sales, had been judged the previous day in the court of Las Salesas. "Meeting the Permanent Court Martial number 9 to see and rule the number 30,426 case that by the summary procedure of urgency has been followed against the defendants (...) responsible for a crime of adhesion to the rebellion (...) We fail to condemn and We condemn each of the accused (...) to the death penalty, "says the sentence. Julia was accused of even being a "streetcar collector during the Marxist domination".

And just 24 hours later, 13 of those women and 43 men were executed before the walls of the eastern cemetery.

Fifteen of the executed ones that 5 of August of 1939 were minors, then established in the 21 years. Because of their youth, these women were called "the thirteen roses", and their story soon became one of the most moving of that time of fratricidal hatred and fascism. An episode that will never have been written much. It was investigated by the journalist Jacobo García, already in 1985. He was novelized by the writer Jesús Ferrero in his book Las trece rosas (Siruela, 2003), in which he dedicates a chapter to each of the girls and with his literature endows them with life and word, of feeling and pain; puts him face to his executioners ... He documented it for two years, without fictions, and therefore even more crudely the journalist Carlos Fonseca in Thirteen red roses (Temas de Hoy, 2004)

In his book they hurt the testimonies of the families, the moment of the sentence, the departure towards the death, the later madness of the mothers of the executed ones before their loss, the indifference of the regime.

The story of the thirteen roses is now taken up by the production company Delta Films in a feature-length documentary titled Que mi nombre no erare del historia, as Julia asked in the last minutes of her life. The film shows the personal drama and the social, political context (its militancy in the Unified Socialist Youth, JSU) and the war in which the protagonists move.

The sad fate of these women who could not grow old has also been quoted in books by Dulce Chacón or Jorge Semprún, and this same autumn has just been staged by the dance and theater company Arrieritos. It has also been an inspiration for a newly created socialist organization, the Thirteen Roses Foundation, "aimed at projects and initiatives that deepen equality and social justice." And even more: his life and death is the plot of the next film by Emilio Martínez Lázaro, with a script by Ignacio Martínez de Pisón and advice from Fonseca.

They were called Ana López Gallego, Victoria Muñoz García, Martina Barroso García, Virtudes González García, Luisa Rodríguez de la Fuente, Elena Gil Olaya, Dionisia Manzanero Sala, Joaquina López Laffite, Carmen Barrero Aguado, Pilar Bueno Ibáñez, Blanca Brisac Vázquez, Adelina García Casillas and Julia Conesa Conesa. They were dressmakers, pianists, sastras, housewives, all militants, less Brisac, of the JSU. His is considered one of the hardest punishments to the vanquished of the postwar period.


#tammywhite photography ?
#heartxheart ?
GIVE ❤ TO RECEIVE ❤
I will only #supportonlyoriginalcontent ?