Weavers of Memory: Unearthing Life Stories from Francoist Graves in Galicia (2021-2024)
Uxía Otero González and Conchi López Sánchez, PhDs in Contemporary History and part of the HISTAGRA research group were invited by the Mariña Social Forum to talk about the Democratic Memory Plan (DMP, 2021-2024) from a gender perspective.
Within the framework of the Democratic Memory Plan (2021-2024), a transdisciplinary team from the University of Santiago de Compostela is working on recovering victims of Francoism in Galicia. From History, Archaeology, Forensic Anthropology, and Genetics, we excavate graves, identify remains, weave life stories, and mark places of memory. As historians of the HISTAGRA research group, we want to share our scientific method and the sources we draw from, emphasizing the importance of oral testimonies and focusing on sartorial traces, material remains linked to clothing. What do shoe soles, buckles, or buttons tell us? How do they help us understand the impact of violence, gender differences, class distinctions, or religiosity? In this guest lecture, we will pull the thread of “sartorial memories” to approach, in a close and corporeal way, an uncomfortable, painful, and bloody past, of which much still remains to be investigated and disseminated.