Spanish Civil War Memory Project

Summary

María Socorro González remembers being sixteen years old when the Civil War began. María tells that at the end of the war, one of her brothers was detained in a concentration camp for forty days and was imprisoned for three years. She notes that upon being released, her brother went to the mountains and was killed by Francoist forces. María recounts her detention in Madrid with her husband and their young son. She describes being beaten although she was pregnant and had her son in her arms, before being put in the dungeon overnight. Her husband was sent to prison that same night. María explains that after being taken to the Civil Guard headquarters in Jaén, she was placed in a prison where she found her mother, her husband, and one of her brothers. She reiterates that the Francoists treated her mother with cruelty, putting her in the dungeon and imprisoning her for almost four years in Málaga, although she was elderly. One of María's brothers was incarcerated for over seven years in the Santa María harbor and in Alcalá de Henares. She relates the humiliating treatment of women, the conditions inside prison, and the physical abuse suffered there. María and her husband were imprisoned again in 1948, were released between 1950 and 1951, returned to Madrid, and reunited with her mother three months later