Unearthing Emotions at the Mass Graves of Franco's repression

Abstract

The article analyzes, from an intergenerational perspective, the emotions that mobilize the relatives of disappeared victims and who are part of the Association for the Recovery of Democratic, Social, and Political Memory of San Fernando (AMEDE), to exhume the mass graves located in the Municipal Cemetery of San Fernando, Cádiz (Spain). Through the ethnographic method, the results show three types of emotions: grief-pain, pride-courage, and indignation-solidarity. The article concludes that through the exhumation process, family members seek to dignify the memory of the disappeared and demand payment for the social debt acquired during the failed coup détat and the years of dictatorship.