Political wall murals in Orihuela, Spain
Each March in Orihuela in the province of Valencia, Spain, there is a festival of mural painting in honour of local poet Miguel Hernández. For long the poet, who died in a fascist jail in 1942, had been publicly unacknowledged, but now his life, his work and his political involvement as a Republican political activist are openly displayed. How Hernández is remembered provides a powerful example of the struggles between memory and forgetting in post-Franco Spain. Faced with the contradiction of a Pact of Forgetting in 1977 and a Historical Memory Law in 2007, memory in Spain has to be carefully exhumed from under layers of fascist policies and culture.
Together with Amaia Alvarez Berastegi I published an article on these murals: 'Exhuming memory: Miguel Hernández and the legacy of fascism in Spain', Race and Class 60(1) 2018: 38-60.
Together with Amaia Alvarez Berastegi I published an article on these murals: 'Exhuming memory: Miguel Hernández and the legacy of fascism in Spain', Race and Class 60(1) 2018: 38-60.
Street scene, Orihuela
‘La siega. The mowing.’ Painted by Nicasio Cañaveras and Juan Miguel Rodríguez, 2013
Portrait of Miguel Hernández. Painted by Kike Payá (Kikelín), 2015.
‘Pedazos de vida mía’ (‘Pieces of my life’). Painted by Cuadernos Viajeros, 2014.
‘¿Por qué? Why?’ Painted by Ricardo Canovas Pérez and Ricardo Canovas Ballester, 2017.
‘Cantando espero a la muerte. Singing I await Death.’ Painted by M. J. Bas and Dani Muñoz, 2014
‘Ríete niño. Laugh, boy.’ Painted 2013, restored 2017 by Andrés López (pictured at work)
‘Canción del antiavionista.’ Painted originally in 1997 by Antonio Ballester, restored by Eva Ruiz, 2014
‘Pero hay un rayo de sol en la lucha, que siempre deja sombra’ (‘But there is a ray of sunshine in the fight that always leaves a shadow’). Painted by Asociación de Bellas Artes Elche, 2017.
‘Vientos del pueblo. Winds of the People.’ Painted originally by Pepe Gutiérrez, 1976. Restored by Enrique Barcala and Merche Bou, 2012.
Painted by Cayetano Ferrández, Begoña Martínez, Aurora Ferrández, Alba Ferrández and Cristian Ferrández, 2013
‘¡Sálvate despierta toro!’ (‘Wake up and save yourself, bull’). Painted by L. Piñero, Pilar, Ma Teresa, J. Vicente, Paloma, Dolo, Andrea, Cristina, Adriana, Victoria, Sandra and Victor Manuel, 2017.
