Shadow of a Pilgrim

FRANCO'S VICTIMS

Coming to a clearing, I make an abrupt and total stop at the Monumento de los Caídos (“monument to the fallen”)—a stark gray stone stela commemorating the slaughtered victims of Franco’s madness.  Spain’s history and soil are covered with innocent blood.  I stand here, hands folded, in five minutes of complete stillness and silence.

I remember the father of a very close friend, who was one of the last surviving members of the Abraham Lincoln brigade.  Those were brave young American men who came here almost a century ago, with no support from their country, in a futile effort to stop the tide of fascist hatred that engulfed the world.  All humanity suffered so much because of their defeat.  Franco and the church that supported him moved the entire world into the abyss.  After saying a few words to the earth that holds their victims’ blood, and the wind that spreads the memory of the fallen, I move on.