HE DEAD IN VILLAFÁFILA AS A CONSEQUENCE OF THE CIVIL WAR 1936-1939. QUANTITATIVE STUDY

 

 

 

 

A history conference in Zamora can be a good opportunity to try to approach the dead of the Civil War in the province of Zamora, a topic that has been little and partially discussed [1] . I only try to contribute a grain of sand to the matter, through a review of those who died during the fratricidal conflict in a town in Zamora, specifically in Villafáfila.

The impossibility of managing the judicial sources because those corresponding to the Judicial District of Villalpando are not found among the AHP's available funds, the partiality and subjectivity of the oral sources that are increasingly scarce due to the death of the witnesses who lived through those days, and the difficulty of finding written sources that deal with the details of the repression, does not allow me to do a complete work on life and death in this town in Zamora's Tierra de Campos during the years of the Civil War, but with the data collected from some testimonies of people who remember those years, together with the consultation of the Civil Registry and the Parish Registries, it is possible, at least,make a fairly exact list of those who died as a direct consequence of violent acts of war and rearguard repression.

The first problem that arises is how to select the dead that should be included in a local study, since the diversity of the sources can lead, on the one hand, to omissions by not containing the people who were killed in the first days after the uprising, or on the other hand to duplicities for including the same person among the victims of his neighborhood or nature, and in the place where he was killed. In this quantitative work I only include the deceased who lived in Villafáfila in 1936, whether or not they were natives of the town. To know their names we have the data from the Book of the Dead of the parish of Santa María [2]. By a General Provision of the Very Illustrious Mr. Provisor and General Vicar of the Bishopric of Astorga, dated 8-X-1937, Bulletin of the Bishopric of Astorga of October 10, so that all the parishioners who died as a result of the war, whether they had died in the parish or outside it, the parish priest at the time, D. Francisco Lera, noted in the Book of the Dead of the parish of Santa María de Villafáfila, those who had died, both in the front as because of the repression. However, not all priests put the same diligence. In the case of Villarrín, only those “fallen” were noted down on the front, a total of 16, in patriotic and grandiose language, leaving no record of those who were executed in the Zamora prison a few days before those of Villafáfila.

 We do not know what sources of information the parish priest used, and if all the parishioners who died were actually registered. In the case of some of those who died on the front, he indicates that he knows about it “by communication from the captain of his company”, and of others he had direct news from his relatives. Those who were executed in Zamora after the courts martial are buried in the capital's cemetery and their names appear in the lists of those buried in the cemetery, so their names could be notified to the parish priest by the cemetery chaplain or for their relatives. The news of a parishioner who was executed in Benavente was public in the town. Regarding the two people who were persecuted through the fields of Villafáfila, where they were hidden,

I do not include other deceased in the war who were natives of Villafáfila but who had previously emigrated from the town. This is how the doubt has arisen about the inclusion of 3 young natives of Villafáfila: Felipe Fernández del Río (b.1915), Justo Gutiérrez Escudero (b.1914), and Julio Ruiz de Uña (b.1918), who died in the front and that were included in the list of the fallen on a tombstone installed in the Cruz de los Caídos that was attached to the church until the 1980s, but that are not recorded in the parish register, either due to carelessness of the priest, or surely because Before the war began, his parents had emigrated from the town, so I do not include them in the figures of deaths that I use to make the numerical averages, but I do relate them in the table with the names.

Cross of the Fallen that was attached to the tombstone until the 1980s

 

 

Cross of the Fallen that was attached to the tombstone until the 1980s

 

There were also three deceased natives of Villafáfila of whom I am aware that they had emigrated to the town a few years before the war to seek their lives in other places where they met their deaths, although their families later returned to Villafáfila. Thus Felipe Tejedor Torío died the first days of the war in Puentedeume, being a municipal policeman. Martín Rodríguez, “El Rojote”, was killed in the Bilbao Hospital where he was wounded in the war after the entry of the national troops, and his four children were War Children evacuated to the Soviet Union and Belgium. Fabriciano Sevilla Beltrán, was a field guard in a town in the Judicial District of Toro, and they arrested him in August 1936 and later killed him in Zamora or in Toro, and his wife returned to Villafáfila, where in 1937 his three young daughters died of scarlet fever, but surely indirect victims of hunger and misery caused by his orphanhood. These data, apart from oral references, have been taken from the typed and unpublished book by Alejandro Tejedor Gómez (RIP): “Rutas de Mártires”, where, in the form of verses, he gives an account of the sad episodes of the repression that took place in Villafáfila those months of 1936. In addition, I have the written testimony of Ladis Fernández Pascual: “How I lived it”.

Another different case are the victims of the repression in the republican zone, such as that of Don Ismael Rodríguez Orduña, magisterial canon of Malaga, who presented himself as an independent candidate in the elections to the Cortes on February 36 in the province of Zamora, originally from de Villafáfila, who died in October-November 37, along with two of his brothers, Fernando and José, who were teachers [3] , in the Usera Tunnel, in Madrid, when, deceived by members of the 36 Mixed Brigade of Madrid, they tried to move to the national zone fleeing from the terror caused in the capital against right-wing people.

CHART I

Nominal list of those who died in Villafáfila as a result of the Civil War (1936-1939)

 

DATE

NAME

SURNAME

SURNAME

AGE

PLACE

CONDITION

August 12, 1936 Vincent FERNANDEZ RODRIGUEZ

46

Villafafila. Jana Widower, 2 daughters

August 12, 1936

Philip

MARTINEZ

NAIL

28

bridge of fifths

Single

November 12, 1936

Joseph of the

FIGURE

RODRIGUEZ

23

Benavente

Single

November 13, 1936

Florentine

RODRIGUEZ

ASENSIO

23

On the front

Single

November 17, 1936

Gracious

from the river

GARCIA

22

On the front

Single

December 20, 1936

Angel

CAULDRON

BOOTS

37

Zamora

Single

December 20, 1936

Joseph

SQUARE

FERRERO

26

Zamora

Single

December 20, 1936

Richard

SQUARE

FERRERO

24

Zamora

Single

December 20, 1936

Cecilia

GALICIAN

SQUARE

24

Zamora

Married, 2 children

December 20, 1936

Martin

RODRIGUEZ

ZAMORANO

twenty-one

Zamora

Single

December 21, 1936

Stephen

ALONSO

GARCIA

36

Zamora

Single

December 21, 1936

Thomas

ALONSO

PALACES

twenty-one

Zamora

Single

December 21, 1936

florence

BARRIER

COLINO

28

Zamora

Married, 1 child

December 21, 1936

Gervasio

BARRIER

COLINO

23

Zamora

Single

December 21, 1936

Santiago

FERNANDEZ

MARTINEZ

twenty

Zamora

Single

December 21, 1936

Gregory

GALICIAN

FRAMES

fifty

Zamora

Married, 2 children

December 21, 1936

Nicostratus

LAWRENCE

RODRIGUEZ

18

Zamora

single, orphan

December 21, 1936 Leonides BUTTER ALONSO

28

Zamora Married 2 children and one posthumous

December 21, 1936

Gregory

MARTINEZ

CELA

24

Zamora

Single

December 21, 1936

Manuel

MARTINEZ

NAIL

22

Zamora

Single

December 21, 1936

porphyry

RODRIGUEZ

TIGHT

44

Zamora

Single

December 22, 1936

restitute

GARCIA

TORIO

27

Zamora

Single

December 22, 1936

Richard

LAWRENCE

of FIGUERA

40

Zamora

Married, 2 children

December 22, 1936

emily

MIGUELEZ

of FIGUERA

30

Zamora

Single

December 28, 1936

Diego

RODRIGUEZ

of the FIELD

25

On the front

Single

February 25, 1937

Thomas

RYE

CAULDRON

23

On the front

Seminarian

March 02, 1937

Angel

THISTLE

RUT

23

On the front

Single

April 1, 1937

david louis

ROAD

GOMEZ

25

On the front

Single

June 17, 1937

Alfonso

WEAVER

GOMEZ

22

On the front

Single

July 09, 1937

Eulogy

BENAYAS

ALONSO

28

On the front

Single

September 28, 1937

Jesus

GONZALEZ

BASQUE

18

On the front

Single

April 29, 1938

albert

LEDESMA

DURING

25

On the front

Single

May 18, 1938

Luis

GARCIA

GALICIAN

25

On the front

Single

May 29, 1938

Hermenegildo

ZAMORANO

FERNANDEZ

twenty

On the front

Single

July 23, 1938 Angel ALONSO MARTINEZ

25

Zamora Military Hospital Single

July 23, 1938

Dictinium

LEDESMA

DURING

22

On the front

Single

July 23, 1938

Martian

RODRIGUEZ

NASAL

28

On the front

Single

March 19, 1939

Santiago

THISTLE

RUT

29

On the front

Single

not included or provided

Philip

FERNANDEZ

river of

1915

On the front

Single

not included or provided

Just

GUTIERREZ

SQUIRE

1914

On the front

Single

not included or provided

July

RUIZ

ONE OF

1918

On the front

Single

 

 

David Luis Calzada Gómez, died at the age of 25 in the war

 

According to INE censuses, at the beginning of 1931 the de facto population of the town was 1640 inhabitants. I have not found the annual corrections of the municipal register for the years between 1930 and 1940. At the end of that year the Census data is 1642 Hb.

The population increase in the period 1921-1930 was 42 Hb., with a natural balance of 180 people, so I calculate that between 1931 and 1935 the population increase would be about 12 Hb., although the natural balance in those years was of 53 people [4] .

Therefore, 1652 would be the most approximate number of inhabitants that Villafáfila had at the beginning of 1936.

However, for the decade 1931-1940 the official number of Hb. it is 1640, so I calculate the rates based on these figures, which, on the other hand, hardly vary if they are calculated on the 1652 Hb.

The total number of deaths in the five-year period 1931-1935 was 180 people with an average annual rate of 21.9 per 1,000 Hb.

The total number of deaths in the period 1936-1940 was 203 people with an average rate of 23.2 per 1,000 Hb., of which 38 (18.72%) died as a direct consequence of the civil war.

In 1936, 54 people died (32.9 per 1,000 inhabitants), of which 25 died traumatically, 22 (40.74%) as a direct consequence of repression in the rear, and 3 died on the front lines. That year more than 1.5% of the inhabitants of Villafáfila died as a direct consequence of the war.

During the years 1937, 38 and 39, the fatalities as a result of the war were 13 men, all at the front.

The total of those who died throughout the war as a direct consequence of it were 37 de facto inhabitants, which represents a rate of 22.5 per 1,000 Hb., corresponding to 2.25% of the de facto population of Villafáfila .

CHART II

Deceased in Villafáfila 1931-1940 from all causes and from violent death caused by the Civil War

 

YEAR

Deceased

Rate per 1000 Hb.

Deaths due to the Civil War

Rate per 1000 Hb.

killed by repression

Rate per 1000 Hb.

Dead on the front

Rate per 1000Hb

1931

37

22.6

 

 

 

 

 

 

1932

41

25

 

 

 

 

 

 

1933

3. 4

20.7

 

 

 

 

 

 

1934

37

22.6

 

 

 

 

 

 

1935

31

18.9

 

 

 

 

 

 

annual average 1931-1935

21.9

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1936

54

32.9

25

15.2

22

13.4

3

1.3

1937

39

23.8

6

3.6

 

 

6

3.6

1938

43

26.2

6

3.6

 

 

6

3.6

1939

29

17.7

1

0.6

 

 

1

0.6

1940

38

23.2

 

 

 

 

 

 

annual average 1936-1940

24.7

 

4.5

 

 

 

 

 

 

A review of the list of the deceased allows us to make some considerations. A distinction can be made between those who were victims of the repression in the rearguard, who have not had any public recognition; and those who died on the battle fronts, either as a result of combat (including one of them in the Zamora Military Hospital) or due to accidents, who were considered "fallen for the country."

Not all those who “fallen” on the fronts died in combat, because from the oral testimonies that I have collected and from some verses by Alejandro Tejedor, the suspicion is deduced that some of those who fell on the front were killed by the ironically called “friendly fire”. ”, reported as red by some countrymen, or assigned by their commanders to the most dangerous positions. Specifically, some young men who before their enlistment were known for republican ideas, such as Eulogio Benayas, who died in Brunete in circumstances that raised suspicions in his two brothers, Claretian priests, who tried to investigate the details of the death of the; or Diego Rodríguez del Campo, about whom Alejandro Tejedor in his book states that he was killed by a Villafáfila requeté; or Hermenegildo Zamorano,

The young people who died on the front had an average age of 24 years, the oldest of all was already 29 years old when he died a few days before the end of the war, and the youngest was only 18. In this group all were single and between They include two pairs of brothers, Ángel and Santiago Cardo Rodera, belonging to a family of day laborers, and Alberto and Dictinio Ledesma Durantes, the only children of a small farmer from the town, who was detained in the Zamora prison for his socialist affinities. but was not executed.

As for those who died in the rear, all of them were men, who were affiliated with the House of the People. Women with leftist ideas were not subjected to arrests, probably because they were not affiliated with political or trade union organizations. Five of the victims were married and 1 widowed, leaving a total of 12 fatherless children. The remaining 16 were single, some older, and others with brides to marry. The average age of those executed was 29 years, the oldest was 50 and the youngest, who had lost both his father and mother and lived with his grandmother, was barely 18. Many of the dead were relatives of each other. , counting three pairs of brothers.

The repression against people affiliated with left-wing parties or unions was particularly harsh in Villafáfila, compared to other towns in the region, and began in August 1936. The days following July 18, some of the people most significant for their ideology from the left, or because he had held positions in the manager of the city council, they hid to avoid reprisals. Faced with the danger of remaining in their homes, they chose to hide in the corralones that were in the vacant lots and in the mountains of Villaveza and Barcial. Specifically, Vicente Fernández Rodríguez, Felipe Martínez de Uña and José Barrera Colino were on the run for several days. The latter was advised by his companions that, because of his visual problems, that the best thing he could do was to get away from Villafáfila, and, After remaining in hiding during the August days when other colleagues were arrested, including his two brothers, he got on the train to Astorga at the Santovenia stop and got off in the province of León, where he was arrested and imprisoned. After several years in prison he returned sick to Villafáfila where he died in 1950.

During the second week of August, many left-wing people were arrested by the Civil Guard at the Villafáfila post, aided by the Falangists, in their homes or in the threshing floors where they worked on harvesting. The detainees were transferred to the town hall where many of them were subjected to beatings to make them declare where they hid weapons, beaten by guards from the Villafáfila post and by Falangists from Villarrín. Some were released because of friends they had among the repressive elements, and others were taken in trucks to Benavente. I still do not know the criteria that was followed for the arrests, since the oral testimonies that I have collected go back to the arrest of the members of the Casa del Pueblo,

On August 12, a party of Falangists from Villafáfila and Villarrín, knowing where Vicente and Felipe could be hiding, after having beaten up the guard who lived on Mount Barcial, left the town in the morning in search of him. , finding them in the payment of the Jana. Vicente possibly shot himself with a pistol he was carrying and could not be captured alive. His corpse was taken to Villafáfila in the Factory truck, amid signs of joy from his captors, who attacked his already dead body. When the Zamora authorities were consulted about what to do with the body, he was buried in the Villafáfila cemetery, in the place reserved for the unbaptized, without a religious ceremony. Felipe suffered worse luck, who, pursued across the field, He was reached and subjected to atrocious torture on the Puente de Quintos, throwing his body into the Esla. His sisters, unaware of the fate he might have suffered, sent packages to the Benavente and Zamora jails, in order to find out if he was being held there, along with another brother who had been imprisoned. The packages were returned to their destination with no news.

Meanwhile, the detainees remained for some time in the Benavente prison and were later transferred to the Zamora prison, except for one of them, who was killed in Benavente. In Zamora they were tried in one of those War Councils and sentenced to death for Military Rebellion. During their time in prison they were visited by their relatives and some friends who dared.

The petitions for pardon from their mothers and wives to the active forces of Villafáfila, which some out of cowardice and others out of conviction refused to sign, were worthless. Neither did a mass for the Heart of Jesus that some of the condemned say, nor the desire expressed by some of them to enlist "volunteers" in the Tercio. All were executed and buried in the Zamora cemetery on Christmas Eve 1936, mourning the lives of many families in Villafáfila.


Author:

Elijah Rodriguez Rodriguez.

The dead in Villafáfila as a result of the Civil War 1936-1939 Quantitative study.

Elias Rodriguez Rodriguez [1]

[1] IEZ Florián de Ocampo

Second Congress of Zamora History: [Proceedings], Vol. 3, 2008, ISBN 8496100154, pgs. 373-380.

villafafila.net: http://villafafila.net/guerra/guerra.htm

 

Photographs:

Jose Luis Dominguez Martinez.

 

Transcription and montage:

Jose Luis Dominguez Martinez.

 

All text, photographs, transcription and montage, the rights belong to their authors, any type of use is prohibited without authorization.

 

All text and photography has been authorized for storage, treatment, work, transcription and assembly to José Luis Domínguez Martínez, its dissemination on villafafila.net, and any other means that is authorized.


[1] A study on the repression in Sanabria has recently been published ( Political and economic repression during the Civil War in the province of Zamora. From the war councils to the Court of Political Responsibilities in the Judicial Party of Puebla de Sanabria (1936- 1945)  .Institute of Zamorano Studies "Florián de Ocampo".Research Notebook nº 20. Zamora 2002.), based mainly on the judicial sources preserved in the AHP of Zamora. In Volume III of the History of Zamora, corresponding to Contemporary History, Professor Miguel Ángel Mateos dedicates a chapter to the Civil War, where he succinctly deals with repression, pending a monographic publication on that period.

[2] Villafáfila Parish Archives. Book 28, folios 67-72.

[3] Their names appear in the list of "Assassinated in Madrid and province under the government of the Popular Front (July 1936-March 1939)" Appendix IV of the book by César Vidal, Checas de Madrid. Republican Prisons Uncovered . Madrid 2003.

[4] The data of deceased and the vegetative balance taken from the books of the Civil Registry of Villafáfila and the books of baptized and deceased of the parish.