The first of the 126 of Paterna: They find twelve bodies in the largest grave of the Community

VALENCIA."When they removed the cemetery slab it was very symbolic, as if I took it off literally, because I feel that I have part of the responsibility in which the shot do not forget, since it is one of the messages that most repeated in the lettersto their families ".This was what María Navarro, president of the Association of Paterna Fose 126 in her.

In just twenty days, specifically between August 27 and September 14, 1940, these people were shot and buried by the Francoist side.Eight decades later and after many mobilizations by the families, last week the first results of the investigation were known: twelve bodies of the last release of September 14 have been found..

In this way, the archaeological company in charge of the investigation, Atics, has located twelve of the bodies, which will be screted and analyzed for identification, of which two has already been exhumed to take the DNA samples.In addition, nine coffins have also been extracted that had been deposited in the pit after a first intervention in 2012.With these figures and if the remains of the previous action are discounted and those that were already separated from the pit, currently they hope to locate 170 victims of five sacks of different executions.

Now, the Association and Desellery of Democratic Quality are immersed in a family search process through the different municipalities, the mouth -to -mouth dissemination and the public networks publication of the names of the victims."We want to create a network and the more we are, the better.Success is to have the living family, take out the shot, make a comparison of the DNA, identify and return them to their relatives so that they can have the remains.And if they do not have a family or do not find them, the association will take charge of them, "explains Navarro.

At the moment they have already located 102 families.To keep them informed of the advances in the pit they have a WhatsApp group in which Maria and other people of the Association indicate at what point the exhumation is.As they point out, in the group there are many who are not direct relatives because those who remain are very old, so it is their sons, daughters, nephews and nieces that keep them up to date with everything.

Los vídeos explicativos, un canal propio

When starting with the first exhumations and seeing that the interest is increasing.Therefore, Nathalie Martínez, a great -granddaughter of Francisco Arnal Moreno, one of the shot at 126, has begun to make explanatory videos with archaeologists and archaeologists to spread them by the WhatsApp group and that all families can see them."We coordinate with atics and agree to come one day a week to talk to some of the experts of exhumation, so that they tell us what they have discovered, how they are doing the job, etc.."Martínez says.

She emphasizes that, although they have just started with the initiative, for families it is very important to be aware of first hand."Above all, it is valuable because there are very old people who would like to come to the cemetery and see how work is being done because they have been waiting for this, but they cannot, so the videos are a fairly direct way of making them participants and theanswer is being very pretty, "he details.

Moreover, the intention is that these audiovisual pieces not only remain in families' chats, but also spread through social networks "to find more relatives and for society as a whole to see what it consists ofan exhumation of these characteristics ".Therefore, the association has already begun in this digital diffusion work, since the first installment of 'Diaris Per a la Memoro' is now available on the YouTube channel of the Association.In it, part of the Asics team explains that in these first works they have removed the lime and have discovered the first remains, which will later be screening to separate the bones from the rest of materials such as buttons or belts.

Descansar con los suyos

"I just want to comply with what my father could not in life, which is to dignity his brother's remains.That is why we are going to put them in the grave along with my grandfather in our town, in Riba-Roj.As he has gradually discovered for his family's stories, one day his father received a letter to pick up his uncle from jail."He was waiting for hours to come out my uncle, and after asking several times they told him that his brother was not going to leave," concludes Elvira, who shows a photo and one of his last cards excited.

However, Rafael did not have the same fate as Elvira and does not retain any photo or any object of his father, Juan Mollà Gandía, executed when he was barely 5 years old.He remembers, despite being very small, that the day they went for his father to imprison him they also threw their entire family in thestcho in which they worked and lived in Ontinyent.Thus, after the murder of the father figure, his mother, two of his brothers and Rafael moved to València."Yes I would have liked to recover something from the tobacconist, even if it is symbolic, because it is the little I remember from my father," Rafael recalls.

Along the same lines as Rafael, the president of the association explains that the loss not only of the father figure, but of the main economic support of the family, has made many people drag the duel for how he affected the sons and daughtersof the reprisals."In my case it was like that, when they arrested my grandfather in Picanya my father was 11 years old, but at that time he stopped being a child because he had to get to work to help my grandmother and the whole family," he says.

A similar story has described Nathalie, who explains that when they went for his great -grandfather Francisco, shot in the third bag, they actually went for his son, but since he was not at home at that time they took him to him."My grandfather was a lifetime trying to get his father out of the pit and when he died we buried him with his mother, so the intention is that the remains of my great -grandfather rest next to those of his wife and son in Bétera,"details.

'La fosa de la Terra'

Currently, the Association of the 126, called 'The Terra Tax', is quite numerous and there are many families that know their victims.But it has not always been like that.In 2012, a first performance was already promoted by Josefa and Carmen Celda Soler to exhum.However, it was not until 2016 when the association was born through María Navarro.

For her, the turning point to create the group was to see a news in which Santi Vallés, president of the Association of Foss 113, denounced that the bodies had signs of violence and that they were reprisposed of Francoism.At that time he contacted him and launched to carry out the statutes of the group and look for more relatives.As stated, in the process of constitution Sergio García also joined, of the Association of Victims of Llíria, "who was like me with the issue of the statutes," he recalls.