The Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, will today sign with the President of the Cabildo of Fuerteventura, Lola García, the grant from the Government of Spain for the Tefía Agricultural Penitentiary Museum Project.
This was recalled yesterday by the ministerial department, which points out that this facility was a centre where the Francoist dictatorship imprisoned and sentenced homosexual individuals to forced labour. The signing will take place this Monday, starting at 12.00 noon, at the majorero Cabildo headquarters.
The Tefía Agricultural Penitentiary Colony was a concentration camp during the Francoist dictatorship, located in the village of Tefía, part of the municipality of Puerto del Rosario. Active between 1954 and 1966, it was used for the imprisonment of common and political prisoners, and for the supposed “re-education” of homosexuals. Today, this facility operates as a youth hostel.
“The inmates were subjected to inhumane conditions, work until exhaustion, beatings and other punishments”
The repression of homosexuality, a behaviour that Francoism considered undesirable, was legalised by the 1954 amendment of the Vagrancy and Offensive Behaviour Act, through which people were persecuted based on their actual or presumed sexual orientation, allowing the imprisonment of homosexuals for one to three years, who were deemed a social danger.
Under this law, homosexuals and transgender individuals were confined in what were known as “work centres” and “agricultural penitentiary colonies”, true forced labour concentration camps where they were subjected to inhumane conditions, work until exhaustion, beatings, other corporal punishments, and hunger.
The Tefía Agricultural-Penitentiary Colony was established by ministerial order on 15 January 1954, in an old Legion barracks, which had previously been an aerodrome during the Civil War. The facilities were opened on 11 February.
While it housed between 80 and 100 homosexuals during its existence, it also interned some common prisoners and political prisoners. The land surrounding the location is rocky desert. Life in the labour camp was harsh, ranging from agricultural work to forced labour and military training, along with torture, hunger, and sexual repression. During its existence, it was overseen by a military Carmelite from Vitoria. The confined individuals were made to work until exhaustion and were subjected to regular mistreatment.
