Monumentality, Forensic Practices, and the Representation of the Dead : The Debate about the Memory of the Post-Civil War Victims in the Almudena Cemetery, Madrid

Abstract

Memorialization often follows internationally established aesthetic models to commemorate the dead after political repression, mass violence, or dictatorships: Long walls with the names of victims have become the predominant aesthetic key to these “death scapes” on a global scale. In the Almudena cemetery in Madrid, a memorial to the victims of Francoist repression after the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) had almost been completed when it was summarily destroyed by the new mayoral administration. This chapter engages with the debate around this memorial project to honor the victims of repression who were shot at the Almudena—Madrid’s biggest necropolis and the scene of mass executions after the war ended. By reconstructing the controversy sparked by this memorial, one aim of this contribution is to analyze the symbolic meaning of dead bodies—more specifically, their presence or absence—in relation to their names engraved on victim memorials. It analyzes commemorative practices in the context of local political change and the struggles around memory in contemporary Madrid.