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Cited by 59Spanish Culture and IdentitySpanish History and PoliticsMemory, violence, and history

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 56 of the 57 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Unburials, Generals, and Phantom Militarism: Engaging with the Spanish Civil War Legacy

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Ferrándiz, Francisco·2019·Current Anthropology
DOI 10.1086/701057
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Abstract

This paper is based on a 16-year-long ethnography of mass grave exhumations in contemporary Spain and deals with the tortuous, painful, much-disputed, and incomplete unmaking of a concrete and massive militaristic inscription of Spain: that related to its last internal war (1936–1939) and subsequent dictatorship (1939–1975). To understand this process and its historical roots, the paper first dissects the formation of a “funerary apartheid” in the country since the end of the war. Second, it analyzes the impact on the social fabric of the mass grave exhumations of Republican civilians that started in the year 2000. Third, it traces how these disinterments have intersected with Spain’s most prominent Francoist stronghold, the Valley of the Fallen, and threaten the dictator’s burial place. Finally, it discusses the parallel dismantling of the dictatorship’s official statuary that once presided over prominent public spaces in many cities and some military quarters. It argues that rolling back militarization by dismantling war-derived cartographies of death, challenging military burial arrangements, or degrading statues of generals necessarily involves a certain level of remilitarizing by other means. I call this mirroring and deeply embodied memorial backfiring “phantom militarism.”

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Crossref · 10.1086/701057

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56 of 56 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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  • With the new progressive government that came to power in 2018, the Valley became the object of an ambitious program of resignification in which archaeology has an important role.

    “with the new progressive government that came to power in 2018, it has become the object of an ambitious program of resigni fi cation in which archaeology has an important role to play.”

    From Excavating Europe’s last fascist monument: The Valley of the Fallen (Spain) (2022) · cites this paper as Ferrándiz, 2019

  • A legal ruling authorized the disinterment of the Lapeña brothers, but the families encountered religious, bureaucratic, political, and legal obstacles that prevented the exhumations from being carried out.

    “a firm legal ruling authorized the disinterment of anarchist brothers Manuel and Antonio Ramiro Lapeña, executed in 1936 and transferred to the monument in 1959. The families, however, encountered a Kafkaesque labyrinth of religious, bureaucratic, political, and legal obstacles, which have prevented the exhumations from being carried out”

    From Excavating Europe’s last fascist monument: The Valley of the Fallen (Spain) (2022) · cites this paper as Ferrándiz, 2019

  • In 2018 the new progressive government decided to undertake a radical transformation of the complex, including the exhumation of Franco and plans to exhume Republican victims and resignify the monument.

    “In 2018, a new progressive government decided to undertake a radical transformation of the complex. The first move was the exhumation of General Franco, who was reburied in a family mausoleum elsewhere in Madrid. Other plans include the exhumation of some of the Republican victims”

    From Excavating Europe’s last fascist monument: The Valley of the Fallen (Spain) (2022) · cites this paper as Ferrándiz, 2019

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Research works printed but not linked: 31

  1. Alija Fernández Rosa Ana, La muerte del verdugo: reflexiones interdisciplinarias sobre el cadáver de los criminales en masa
  2. Barenblit Ferrán, Más allá: monuments and other coincidences. Pp. 247–255. Móstoles
  3. ———. 2007. LEY 52/2007, de 26 de diciembre, por la que se reconocen y amplían derechos y se establecen medidas en favor de quienes padecieron persecución o violencia durante la Guerra Civil y la dictadura. Madrid: Presidencia del Gobierno, May 28, pp. 53410–53416.https://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2007/12/27/pdfs/A53410-53416.pdf(accessed April 30, 2018).
  4. 2011, May 28, 53153
  5. Box Zira, Políticas de la muerte: usos y abusos del ritual fúnebre en la Europa del siglo XX
  6. Box Zira, España: año cero
  7. Casanova Julián, Víctimas de la Guerra Civil
  8. Casanova Julián, 2001, La iglesia de Franco
  9. Crossland Zoë, 2015, Santa Fe, NM: SAR.
  10. Davis Elisabeth A, Unfinished: the anthropology of becoming
  11. de Greiff Pablo, Justice, Reparation, and Guarantees of Non-recurrence.
  12. Dziuban Zuzanna, 2017, Pp., 7
  13. Ejerique Raquel, 2018, November 15, historical memory sec. https://www.eldiario.es/sociedad/Nieta-republicanos-Lapena-Valle-Caidos_0_572892959.html (accessed
  14. 2018, October 18, Cataluña sec. https://www.eldiario.es/catalunya/barcelona/Fundacion-Francisco-Franco-exhibicion-decapitada_0_570793690.html (accessed
  15. Ferrándiz Francisco, Literature review report on Spain. Research report for H2020 UNREST Project
  16. Ferrándiz Francisco, 2015, Robben
  17. García Alonso María, ¿Qué es lo que quieren ahora si nosotros ya les habíamos perdonado?
  18. Gibson Ian, El asesinato de García Lorca
  19. González-Ruibal Alfredo, Volver a las trincheras: una arqueología de la Guerra Civil española
  20. Juliá Santos, 1999, Víctimas de la Guerra Civil. Santos Juliá, ed. Pp., 11
  21. Junquera Natalia, 2018, December 14, Sunday sec. https://elpais.com/diario/2008/09/14/domingo/1221364353_850215.html (accessed
  22. Labanyi Jo., Introduction: engaging with ghosts
  23. Labrador Germán, Culpables por la literatura: imaginación política y contracultura en la transición española (1968–1986)
  24. Lutz Catherine, Homefront: a military city and the American 20th century
  25. Mateo Lidia, 1877, “pact of oblivion
  26. Mosquera Gerardo, Más allá: monuments and other coincidences
  27. Sánchez Castillo Fernando, Más allá: monuments and other coincidences. Móstoles
  28. Sánchez León Pablo, La guerra que nos han contado y la que no
  29. Silva Emilio, Las fosas de Franco
  30. Verdery Katherine, The political lives of death bodies
  31. Vicent Manuel, 2018, June 10, opinion sec. https://elpais.com/elpais/2018/06/09/opinion/1528551194_758513.html (accessed

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Metadata

Authors
Ferrándiz, F.
Corresponding author
Ferrándiz, Francisco
Venue
Current Anthropology
Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Published
2019-02-01
Volume
60
Issue
S19
Pages
S62-S76
ISSN
  • 0011-3204 (ISSN-L)
  • 1537-5382
DOI
10.1086/701057
OpenAlex
W3195960822
Cited by
59
References
57
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 4
FWCI
42.59
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
other-oa
Locations
  • Current Anthropology (publishedVersion, public-domain)
  • DIGITAL.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Current Anthropology
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Spanish Culture and Identity
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Spanish History and Politics
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Memory, violence, and history
Keywords
mass grave exhumation, Francoism, Spanish Civil War, Valley of the Fallen, militarism, remilitarization, memory politics, commemoration, Spain

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