2023-04-29 00:49:49
The letter we are going to talk about was never published by ABC. It was lost among the more than 15 million documents in our archive and began with this ominous premonition made shortly after the start of the Civil War: «Dear mother and brothers: if these lines reach your hands, I will already have passed on to a better life. , so there is no reason to regret my luck ».
It was written by a man sentenced to death, although no mention is made of the slightest political or war issue, only words of thanks to the people who helped him during his captivity and farewell to his loved ones.
«Those who serve the one from Above (sic) should have nothing. I only advise them to ask for me and then be so happy, that one day we will see each other », he assures. The only specific data that appears are the signatory’s initials, although cut off at the top (‘EHG’ or ‘EAG’); the place from where the letter is written, Lorca jail; what he did until the war began, schoolteacher; the date, November 4, 1936, and the day he arrived at the prison, which he himself explains below: «They brought us here on August 1 and in these months there have been many souls who remembered. So it hasn’t gone bad.”
At no time is it specified if he came to wield a weapon before being arrested or if he belonged to the Republican or Francoist side. We must assume that, at least, he was accused of belonging to the latter, since, since the war began on July 18, 1936, and until the end of March 1939, Lorca was in the Republican zone, resisting the onslaught of the national side until shortly before Franco entered Madrid and Barcelona. He was one of the last Spanish redoubts to fall.
None of this can be guessed by our sad protagonist in those early stages of the war, but at all times he lets us see that he has lost all hope of getting out alive, as he demonstrates at the end of this paragraph, which is supported by his strong religious beliefs: «How I could not communicate with you, I have written several times to Helena, who will undoubtedly have given you news of me. Due to the circumstances I cannot be more clear or longer [ni extenderme más]Just don’t forget how many things I have told you in my letters. As you can see, what I am writing to you is from the 4th of 11 [de 1936], but I can’t give you more details, as you can imagine. Cheer up, that this land is worthless and what matters is to go where we already know ».
“Eternal Mansions”
Throughout the entire letter, the condemned man does not stop reminding his loved ones that, despite being locked up, he has had the generous help of third parties: «The family that has cared for us deserves anything, because despite of the many difficulties, they have not failed to provide us with what we have needed […]. For three months she has looked after the five teachers of the school so well that my mother would hardly have done it with more care. The head of the family is called Andrés Hernández and lives in [la calle] Matadero Viejo, 22, in Lorca».
In the end, the author once again asks his family not to worry when he dies, because heaven awaits him: «I repeat that you do not mourn my death, as there is no reason for it. I have always assumed that the three nephews who did the service have been called up and that perhaps one of them has already gone to the other world. If not, I’m very glad. The other thing I have to tell you is that this hug serve as the one that very soon we will all give each other in the eternal mansions ».
This unpublished letter is one of the many that were written during the Civil War, between the soldiers from the front or the prisoners of both sides from the jails and their families, when they were allowed to do so or when they could make them arrive secretly. Some did not even reach their destination, like the one that the collector Luis Posadas Lubeiro found by chance, in 2014, among a pile of old papers in one of the Valladolid flea markets. It was a postcard with a Republican crown printed on it that caught his eye.
New Prison of Valladolid
When he saw it, he discovered that it had been written from the Cárcel Nueva de Valladolid, a city far from the fronts and where there were no serious internal confrontations, but where Franco’s repression was very harsh. In the letter, however, none of this was reflected. With elegant handwriting and exquisite writing, a republican prisoner named Tomás Gallego simply communicated to his family the visiting hours and sent them all his love, as well as asking them to send him his watch.
Years later, Posadas Lubeiro published it in a book along with 139 photographs from his personal archive: ‘Valladolid: memories and childhoods’. Only 1,500 copies were printed, but they were enough for a woman to call the printer, surprised, that a postcard handwritten by her grandfather, who died in the war, and that her family had never received, appeared in the work. . Shortly after, the miracle occurred and the author made an appointment with the two granddaughters, the great-granddaughter and the great-granddaughter of Tomás Gallego, to deliver the letter that should have reached its destination 81 years earlier.
According to what they told him, he worked as a blacksmith for the company Caminos del Hierro del Norte de España and belonged to the CNT union, which led to a complaint from one of his neighbors. As a result, he was sentenced to death and shot on March 13, 1937 in the cascajera of San Isidro de Valladolid. An acquaintance reportedly notified the family three days before his execution, but they could do nothing to stop it, except for his wife to have a coffin built for her husband.
#reason #mourn #death