Cultural Event #5

On November 13, 2007, I went to see a documentary/presentation of Christina M. Hardt. Her documentary is called “Death in el Valle.” It is about the massacre of Franco during the Spanish Civil War. My Spanish teacher, Char Prieto, put this event on because it shows a family importance to those involved in the Spanish Civil War.

Christina, or CM, grew up in New York, and her father died when she was very young. Her mother was the first out of her family to move to America. Her grandfather and great grandfather were both murdered by Franco’s police.

CM went to Spain to find out how and why her family was murdered and how come nobody was doing anything about it. Her family was not very supportive of CM’s video, because they “didn’t want to remember what happened.” It was very dramatic and horrible that the relatives and especially CM’s uncle did not want anything to do with it.

After much research and interviewing, CM found legal documents of how her grandfather was killed. The papers said “Hemorrhage to brain.” But how did this happen? She went further into research.

CM found out her grandmother and grandfather allowed people to hide in their home so they wouldn’t be killed by Franco’s Regimen. When the Civil Guard came to their house they threatened and eventually set the house on fire to get the people out of the house.

They took CM’s grandfather, when he was only 35 years old, to prison and used the “Law of Escape” on him and many others. The “Law of Escape” was they put people in prison for hiding others, and then eventually let them flee for their freedom, but shoot them and murder them as they attempt to escape. The hemorrhage to the brain was from 10 gunshot wounds.

CM found one of the killers of her grandfather, Keeko Lopez. He wouldn’t say anything to her and was very rude and harsh. All CM wanted to know was who betrayed the family. Why did the Civil Guard come and how did they find out they were hiding people? CM never found out the answers to these questions, because nobody wants to remember this experience.

This event was very important to me because I have studied the Spanish Civil War and I recently studied in Madrid, Spain. Franco has been in power for so long and this is all very recent news. People are dying for no reason, very similar to Hitler’s massacre. I feel sorry for CM because all she wants to know is why her family member’s had to die. But because of the threats and intensity of Franco, to this day, many people will not speak up about this historical event.






This is CM's documentary Website:

http://www.deathinelvalle.com/EN/Home/Home.html