About Remember Spain

When Spanish-American filmmaker James Mercé Edwards sets out to discover the “truth” about the Spanish Civil War, a period in his family’s history filled with secrets and hyperbole, he discovers a global movement struggling to come to terms with the same history.  Remember Spain, is a multimedia chronicle of James’ journey and the people, movements and events that he discovers as he joins a process some call “la recuperacion de la memoria historica” or the recovery of historical memory.  Work-in-Progress episodes from Remember Spain will appear as a series of online multimedia presentations.

As we pass the 70th anniversary of Spain’s Civil War, the country is filled with reminders of its violent past.  For thirty-six years the victors fiercely repressed all dialogue.  After the 1975 transition to democracy, the chill remained for decades more in a “Pact of Silence”.   Now the silence has shattered.  Provocative stories come to light daily, but not everyone wants to hear them.  “That’s ancient history, they should just leave it alone,” says one young professional. “Nothing good can come of dredging this up,” echoes another.

Perhaps they are right:  as the Spanish Parliament struggles to implement a Law of Historical Memory, the resulting acrimony leads an elder Spaniard to comment, “The climate today is just like in 1936.  Just like the months before the war.”   An exaggeration?  Perhaps, but obituaries in today’s newspapers announce murders from the 1930’s as if they had happened yesterday, and mass graves are discovered regularly.  For many, the war will not be over until justice is served.   But what justice can there be for crimes committed seventy years ago?  This question lies at the heart of Remember Spain: Conversations from the Front Lines of a Un-Forgotten War.