Spanish Civil War Memory Project

Summary

Carmen Ibañez was born in 1936 in Madrid. Carmen relates that at age eight, her father was released after being imprisoned for four and a half years in Porlier. She explains the shortages and hunger her family experienced during the postwar and the difficulties her father faced seeking employment. Carmen notes meeting Miguel Guzmán Aparicio at age seventeen, marrying him at age nineteen without having knowledge of his past, becoming a mother, and caring for Miguel until his death. She discusses how she discovered that Miguel moved to Madrid after the Falange detained him, took him to the Dirección General de Seguridad (General Security Directorate), and told him to leave Valencia. She tells that in Madrid, Miguel helped form the Unión Industrial Cinematográfica (UNINCI) that produced the films Welcome Mister Marshall and Viridiana. She indicates that UNINCI was censored after the Francoist regime banned Viridiana, but Miguel continued working in film until he reincorporated himself to teaching in the 1970s. Carmen recalls Miguel's participation in the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) and Comisiones Obreras (Labor Commissions). Carmen narrates how they experienced Franco's death, the Transition, the legalization of the PCE in 1977, and the 1981 coup d'état. Carmen recounts helping her second husband, José Barrio, to have his pension reflect his Republican Army ranking. Carmen speaks about the importance of the recuperation of historical memory