They were taken out at night and thrown into the sea. Most inside sacks full of stones to make sure they sank into the depths. Sometimes, the sea returned a body, which no one dared to touch due to the possible consequences. The seafront of San Andrés, in Santa Cruz, is the great pit where the reprisals of the Franco regime ended up after the military uprising against the Second Republic, which this Friday marked the 92nd anniversary of its proclamation. It is this point, along with that of Bermeja Cavethose who give the most oral testimonies about how they got rid of the detainees, who previously passed through the prison of fyffes or the High Pass Castle. But it also talks about caves of María Jiménez, Santa María del Mar, El Tablero, or the Santa Lastenia Cemetery, where the bodies of those shot during the Civil War are. All of them are likely to be investigated, almost 90 years later, thanks to the Historical Memory Strategy that came into effect this Easter, and which, among its 32 lines of action, provides for updating the map of graves in Tenerife, and the beginning of analysis of the points susceptible to carry out archaeological excavations that confirm or banish the existence of reprisals.
As they point from the Historical Memory Association of Tenerife (AMHT)Although these points are located in the capital, or in other places on the Island, it is necessary to start almost from scratch to update this map of graves, since the existing preliminary work was done more than 10 years ago and in very difficult conditions. precarious In 2021, it was updated with The preliminary study for the location of graves on the island of Tenerife, prepared by Nuria Álvarez and Laura Bencomo, which refuted some of the points made in the first study and estimated at 182 the people who died at the hands of the Francoists in Tenerife.
Map
In the map of graves that must be ratified, or not, through the Historical Memory Strategy, it is pointed out that the area of San Andrés has been highlighted because it is an area of disappearance of prisoners. One of those cases is the one collected by the AMHT, which tells the story of some fishermen who, one night, began to hear the engine of an approaching boat. As a precaution, they turned off the engine of their boat, and they waited. They began to see how from the other ship that was arriving, they threw sacks tied with stones to the bottom of the sea, which began to sink. Once the ship dumped all the sacks and left, they lit one of the sacks and opened it, seeing that a person was still alive inside. After talking with him, they secretly took him to the coast of Anaga where they sheltered him in a cave and fed him for months, until he finally turned himself in.
Another of the areas is Cueva Bermeja, highlighted as a possible place of disappearance both in personal testimonies and in some bibliographic works. One of these cases would be that of Antonio Montelongo Morales, who apparently disappeared in 1937, where, according to his son’s testimony, he could have been released from prison, taken to the Cueva Bermeja area and from there out to sea to an area known as La Cordillera, thrown there inside a sack.
Another of the points located in the municipality that includes the map of graves is the one located in María Jiménez, a cave. There, according to documentary work and oral information, it is believed that the remains of the victims of reprisals during the Civil War could be found.
The map of graves also refers to the cave of Santa María del Mar, where, according to oral references, it could be another of the areas where remains of the disappeared could be found, and that, therefore, it would be necessary to carry out archaeological studies to corroborate the existence of such remains.
The last point is located in El Tablero, again, a cave. Oral testimonies also place possible remains here, but without a detailed study, the existence of this point cannot be verified. Reference is also made to the La Calera cave and the Bocacangrejo cave.
Saint Lastenia
The cemetery of Santa Lastenia, as was already done with the one in San Juan in La Laguna, is the point at which a study can be started with greater certainty, given that according to documentary work and oral information, it is believed that the bodies of those shot in the battery of the El Hierro ravine, in Cueva Roja, could be found there. The work carried out in 2021 by Álvarez and Bencomo includes the names of 68 executed and their location in a common grave in the cemetery. They point out that, since they are people who were shot, the way to identify them in the mass grave could be through the bullets that could still remain in their bodies.
But as the president of the AMHT recalls, Mercedes Perez Schwartz, there are others that, unfortunately, cannot even be studied, such as the point where the Fyffes warehouses stood, converted into a prison, in the middle of Avenida de Asuncionistas, where it is believed that there could be remains of the prisoners imprisoned in it, but that urbanization makes it impossible to find. And of course the sea. At these points it only remains to remember the victims.
The Historical Memory Strategyseeks to confirm or rule out the existence of these graves, because uncertainty continues to be the worst evil that surrounds the families of those who were retaliated for their political ideas, their sexual or religious condition, or their defense of current legality, which had a special incidence in Tenerife, as recognized by the researchers.
The Masonic Temple as a memorial to victims persecuted by Francoism
The Canary Islands Historical Memory Strategy provides for the recognition of the masonic temple Located in Santa Cruz as a memorial to all the victims persecuted by Francoism, Freemasons and non-Freemasons, so that it constitutes a permanent public recognition of the Canarian victims. For this, it establishes 339,209 euros, divided into four annuities. As stated in the strategy document, the memorialist associations work to promote, in the declaration of monuments of Historical Memory of the Canary Islands, all those places or monuments that are linked to especially relevant events that occurred during the military rebellion, the civil war and the Franco dictatorship.
The two Associations for the Historical Memory of Tenerife and for the Recovery of the Masonic Memory of the Canary Islands, through their presidents, Mercedes Pérez Schwartz and Emilio Fresco, respectively, have wanted to “thank” and “congratulate” the Canary Islands Government teams for said recognition, “and very especially to the Minister of Public Administrations, Justice and Security, Julio Pérez; the Minister of Education, Culture and Universities Manuela Armas Rodríguez; and the Deputy Minister of Justice, Carla Vallejo Torres”.
“For our two associations -they continued- it is important to locate in the same emblematic place, the victims persecuted by the Franco regime, whether or not they are Freemasons, for their recognition and dissemination.” They added that “at the same time that this declaration contributes and enriches the future uses and activities of this monument.”
Congress
As a sign of the importance that this recognition has for Freemasons, as well as the beginning of the rehabilitation works of the Masonic Temple, from the Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree, Jesús Soriano, Sovereign Grand Commander, advanced to DIARIO DE AVISOS in the last visit he made to Tenerife, which is already working so that one of the first acts to be held in the Masonic Temple is the Ibero-American Freemasonry Congress.
