/ Town Hall
Sunday 25th October 2020
I CALVIÀ DEMOCRATIC MEMORY CONFERENCE
Calvià held the I Calvià Democratic Memory Conference with the aim of creating a space for reflection, based on analysis studies and discussion tables, around the most tragic events in the municipality in the last century. The mayor of Calvià, Alfonso Rodríguez Badal, opened the conference after the welcome speech from the councilwoman for Democratic Memory, Marga Plomer.
At the inauguration, which took place in Es Generador, the mayor pointed out that it is necessary, more than ever, to know the history, the struggle, the defense of rights and what it took to achieve them, and the people who died to defend these rights, because we live in times of clear risk of regression in levels of equality, individual and collective freedom, and individual and collective rights, recalling the manifesto, through a technical report, that 250 historians have made against the decision to withdraw streets dedicated to Indalecio Prieto and Largo Caballero. Alfonso Rodríguez Badal has welcomed the organisation that the Department of Democratic Memory has made of this conference on the path of actions promoted by the Calvià Town Hall since 2015, which two years ago culminated with the opening of the municipality's cemetery grave.
Councilwoman Marga Plomer has pointed out that events like these help raise awareness on our history and preserve the memory of the people who suffered Franco's repression. Plomer added that we are opening the graves to close the wounds and that, with the bullets, they ended the lives of many people but they could never destroy the ideas and dignity.
Next, Dr. Margalida Capellà, an expert in the investigation of crimes against humanity and forced disappearances of the Spanish Civil War and the Franco regime, presented the Conference that continued on Saturday at Sa Societat in Calvià.
At the end of the presentation, the exhibition Memories 1936-1939, by the Manacor artist Marina Cànoves, who proposes a free photographic project that aims to sensitise the public about the unresolved problem of Democratic Memory, has been inaugurated. The exhibition consists of 47 pictures, which could be seen for the first time in May 2019 at the Porreres Auditorium, and which go through the past, present and future of historical memory.
The Exhibition comes from the hands of the Autonomous Secretary of Democratic Memory and Bon Govern of the Balearic Government. Its manager, Jesús Jurado, thanked the Calvià Town Hall's initiative, through the Department of Democratic Memory, to hold this conference as well as the work done by Town Halls and memorial organisations for the work they carry out in this area.
Rafel Sedano, Deputy Mayor of Memoria Democrática has highlighted the level of all the people who participate in this first conference, amongst them, in addition to Margalida Capellà, the forensic anthropologist Francisco Etxeberría and the historian Manel Suárez, author of the report on the Calvià grave.
