A represión franquista en Ourense: Novos argumentos contra a desmemoria da persecución sufrida polo maxisterio

Abstract

The repression against schoolteachers in 1936 was a process planned and organised to wipe out any memory of the school system during the Republic, in terms of both ideology and the methodological innovations experimented with during this short period of renewal and democratisation. Ourense was one of the most important areas in the consolidation of Republican schools –closely linked to class consciousness and an avant-garde journal–, and the response of the pro-Franco regime could be described as cruel and disproportionate.
The rigged court martial proceedings, the “paseos” or political revenge killings, dismissal and/or disqualification for exercising the teaching profession, transfers, temporary suspension of employment and salary were the main sanctions that could be imposed and one-third of the roughly 1700 schoolteachers in the province were penalized. The other two-thirds were not spared from tight control of their private lives and of the exercise of their profession. Many of the teachers who suffered the most severe persecution were able to avoid passing from dismissal to being victims of revenge murder thanks to the solidarity of the local residents, the organizations formed to help Republicans and the communities located on the Portuguese border.
Of all the accusations, the one that entailed the greatest risk was being a member of ATEO (The Association of Education Workers of Ourense); so the leaders of this organization had to use their wits to take cover. As a matter of fact, the number of Association leaders who were murdered came to a total of three people, who were not the most actively involved in its operation. Most of them managed to go into exile or remain in hiding.