Spanish Civil War Memory Project

Summary

Carles Vallejo recounts the repression his family endured during the Civil War and the Francoist dictatorship. Carles notes that his father was a member of the Juventudes Comunistas (Communist Youth, JC) in Madrid and the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (National Labor Confederation) in Barcelona. He describes his own early political involvement with the Boy Scouts and the Sindicato Democrático de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Barcelona (Democratic Students' Union of the University of Barcelona), and his subsequent militancy in the JC and the Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreras (Trade Union Confederation of Labor Commissions, CCOO). Carles tells of working for SEAT and joining the workers' movement in 1970. He details his activism in the Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya (Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia). Carles relates being arrested and imprisoned in the Modelo Prison, specifying the torture he endured and the effects of his incarceration on his family. He explains that he was arrested again after his release and later continued his political activity clandestinely. Carles speaks of going into exile in France where he worked with the French delegation of CCOO, and in Italy where he collaborated with the Italian International Brigades and the Communist Party of Italy. He discusses connecting with the Spanish community in exile and returning to Barcelona in 1976. Carles comments on the Transition and the recuperation of historical memory