Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
There is a valley In Spain called Jarama.
Is a place that many people know very well.
A place where there was a fight against fascism.
A peaceful valley that became hell.
When i was a child
at the age
of six, more or less, in the 50s, year 51
i went
collecting, with my parents and a brother of mine, that also came with us,
the pellets, scraps of metal,
or the cartridge cases, that were scattered
in the olive groves.
After that, these things were sold, so we can buy
the daily bread.
That so bad period of the postwar is ended.
now you are grown up,
you come back to the fields
where your compatriots have been fighting, your parents, your grandparents.
there are still so many objects,
and is then when one thinks, well,
all these things could be collected, keep it in some place, and when possible,
make a museum, in order of not forgetting
the hardships that all these people suffered
fighting
for a better life for us, or simply because
hey thought they had to do it.
Goyo Salcedo HOLDER OF THE MEMORY
A little bit later, i started
collecting the objects,
and also started to make the museum.
There were problems to make it,
even political problems. I should say that i spoke with the owner of the resort
we have here in Morata,
Pilar Atance
and she said to me that whatever i would need she would do
they confronted her with all the problems
hat exist and even more.
Certain authorities of the village demanded from her
until the smallest paper they have to demand.
So, she said:"well, you demand this from me, i will do it, but, at the end, it will be done"
and this is what has been done.
All the pieces that you are going to see, or that are exhibited, the ninety
or ninety five per cent of it
, are collected from the very heart of the battlefields, the olive groves
of flat ground,
also in Morata de Tajuña. The rest of it, five per cent,
are donations
or exchanges.
The paperwork,
newspapers,
safe-conducts, etc..
mostly was
acquired in the "Rastro" of Madrid. Also there have been donations.
Here,
as you enter, at left hand., we have the chronology
of the battle.
It have beeen written for the museum by Jesús Gonzá*** de Miguel,
an important
contributor
of what this museum is.
And, as you enter, at the right hand, we find
the empty cartridge cases, after they have been shot.
With these
cartridge cases and other scraps of metal, many families
from this village, i dare to say, lived
to the 60s, selling them later on,
in order
to survive.
Long time ago, people came here without these devices,
but nowadays, so many people come here researching
these things,
that make it difficult to find a thing, unless it is buried.
There is a market, I have spoke with many people about this,
there is a market, for this
Not all people
use these things for histories
but rather keep it to themselves
Shnarpel, ....
aken out .....
of bombs
and projectiles...there are thousand and thousands of kilograms of it buried.
Is a pellet,
a russian pellet. There has to be thousand of this kind buried.
We are not lack of newspapers.
The ABC was edited
in both sides. In the one from Madrid,
under the letters ABC it is written "left republican daily".
The other one, in Sevilla,
as one can see from the pictures, is the national one.
Religious medals,.
cans
food cans
there are millions of cans, rotten cans, spread throughout the olive groves.
I have only collected for the exposition those ones that have the year written on it.
Look..........
it is a russian cartridge case.
It isn't...
It isn't shot,
but the pellet
has gone.
Well,.....
his objects, if they are in good condition, i keep them for the museum, o
but if not, it can be sold as scrap, and after a year,
you have enough money to buy an old newspaper.
Kitchen equiments,
dishes, glasses, spoons,
forks...
As something very curious,
we have here women's objects.
Women's objects that have been recovered from trenchs.
Perhaps the women
lost it, but it is also possible
that the soldier himself
carried them as fetishes,
or reminders
As part of History, is very beautiful
to find them.
All the valleys or ravines that ends up
in the valley of Tajuña
had been taken over by the Republicans
We are going to see now a cave where
the troop
slept
After
the war
it was used
to sow mushrooms.
Here is the bedroom.
Is one of the most amazing caves of this area,
in front of the "Pingarrón"
In all the caves, without exception,
we find this kind of "basal", as it is called:
is a hole in the rock
of about 100 milimeters,
where the lamps
were placed,
in order to see.
The lamps:
we have industrial ones,
but there are also lamps made in the trench,
generally made with russian ammunition cases.
With a bit of oil and any cloth as fuse,
they had enough lighting.
This place is full of caves,
walkways, that ends up in another hilltop that we have 50 meters from here.
There we have the walkway that ended up in the other hilltop. It is completely sunk.
You could pass through here with
one or another danger.
This is
the main room of the museum,
where we are not lack of war details.
Nor are we lack of human details too, which are the most important ones for me.
It is full of photographies of that time,
algunas posando.. Hemingway posando
because, as they say, he never
fired a single shot. However, here he is with a gun.
You can see
different kind of mortars,
projectiles, rifles,
some watch..
rings,
some awards...
................
This has to be
some pellet...
yes..oh, i know what this is.
It is part of a case,
it is a kind of safety closure of a case,
of a cartridge of some soldier.
This at least tell us certain story...
some human being
had carried this
to lock in his case something good, not only
things for killing.
We have to keep it safely.
Look, here we have the original map....
.... of the military Republicans that were here
during the battle of Jarama.
It still
have the little holes that the little flags
they had.....
on it made.
Behind me
is the valley of Jarama.
This natural spot where we are now recording,
is called the hill of suicide.
It is called that way
because what military,
high ranking
republican commanders, did here,
was a suicide.
.... The ammunition was not ready,
nobody was ready, this was a disaster. 200 english men died
in a matter of hours.
On my right hand
we have a little popular monument
constructed by people, who
have gone putting stone by stone.
eh.....
They set it up, and others knocked it over,
five times has happened this:
some people have destroyed it and others of us have built it again.
Now is there, for every one that come here
to remember, relatives of those who fought,
so they can keep at least a memory.
One of the curious things you must see
is the olive tree.
The olive tree, beyond feeding us with its olives
and its oil, saved many lives.
The soldiers, being behind them,
were protected,
because the wood of the olive trees
stopped the bullets,
and in that way many lives were saved.
....I would take it out with patience, but now, for the moment, i can't, it's impossible
to take it out.
We also have
the health sector during the war.a
I think the first blood transfusions took place here
during the spanish civil war.
Here we have an original stretcher, with certain stains on it...
although it could be glum to say so, but that's the way it is.
This is similar to a little shelter,
you know. In the shelters you could find typewritters,
certain arms..
We have here the graffitis
made on the walls by the republican soldiers.
Some of them ....
are international.
Here i see one that says:
"long live to JSU",
... 1938
Here "long live to myself",
bad written
We can find this kind
of walkways in several places,
and they are architecturally equal.
When you arrive to the end, there is a bifurcation to the right which leads you to the exit.
Another bifurcation to the left was leading you to another cave.
This one is covered.
It has been covered for not letting rabbits and little animals enter here, so they can´t eat the mushrooms.
........
This one
simply covered, but it was leading to another cave...
a bedroom
cave.
One of the objects that struck me the most
is the inkwell,
what it represent,
or what the person that writes can do
with the ink that is inside.
He can write about his feelings,
about loves or dislikes, or hates...
or death penalty.
This little satatue is made from pieces of the battle of Jarama,
pieces of projectiles, about
3000 pieces.
It happened to be that
in the years of the war,
there was a poet here fighting.
He made a poem asking the people to collect
and then asking them to made a monument
with all those things.
The AVI
the association, noticed
that i was doing this, they asked me if i had hear about that poem. I said
"no", and they inmediately made contact with a relative of the poet,
telling him: "listen,
there is a man
that is building a
little monument out of shrapnel".
So they came
here to read
the poem.
There were about 300 persons here,
and it was very curious to see, not 300,
but 200 of them crying.
I can believe in the paranormal, but with the quote marks.
I am not much of a believer of those things. Being in the 700 mark,
upon one
of the fortress
that are there,
i felt
a thrill through my body.
The hairs,
The hairs, the ones that i still have,
stood up.
I think that something happened to my body, i dont think that somebody came and touched me
I dont believe in those things,
but.. i have to tell this story.
These are from Brigade members, very old ones that have visited us.
They have signed these little pages. I have this
as if it were a jewel. It is indeed a jewel,
none of them is alive..
but they have come here to see it,
they have feel themselves almost as spanish people.
They came here, and it was
like children, crying.
They came back to their countrys
with the hope of seeing this again,
many of them haven't succeed, because they were very old and now they have died.
The project
of the museum is going ahead
I have help in doing so. In first place
i have to thank the Atance family,
specially Pilar and her sons,
owner of the resort of Morata de Tajuña.
I also thank the Ikenmeyer family, germans,
that have come here from so far away
to help me.
I must thank Miguel Vázquez, from Rivas-Vacíamadrid
i want to thank him for all
that he is doing.
Juanjo Sánchez Salcedo, cousin of mine,
that come here and encourage me to search for things, he also gives out every thing that he finds.
I also thank some other people that dont wan't to be mentioned.
Many thanks for everything.
We will continue working to make this going the same way,
in order to have here in Madrid
best museums of the world.
Now we are far from that valley of pain
...but we never should forget their memory.
So before we continue with this meeting...
let's stand up for our glorious dead.