My grandmother´s memories of the Spanish Civil War and postwar period by Ana Navarro

My name is Ana, I´m 16 years old and I made an interview to my grandmother about the Civil war period in Spain. She told me her experience in those hard times.

1)      How old are you? …When were you born?

I am 79 years old so I was born in 1934.

2)      Where did you spend your childhood?

My childhood was so hard.  The period of Civil war was so complicated and dangerous, there were shelling all the time, we didn´t have much money and it complicated our situation.

3)      How many brothers or sisters have you got?

I have got five siblings: three sisters and two brothers. In that period it was so common to have got a lot of siblings. When I was eight years old we were orphaned.

4)      What did your parents do? What was their job?

My father was a miner and my mother was a housewife. My dad died in the mine, and my mum got sick and died one year later.

5)      What did you play in that period?

We usually played at jumping the rope, marbles and especially we loved to play at being different roles that we could choose from, such as doctor, detective or pilot.

6)      How old were you when you left school?

I left school when I was approximately ten because I had to start to work to support my family because we didn’t have any source of income.

7)      How was the school at that time? Did you have books, notebooks, etc.?

At school there were few books, maps, a blackboard, desks and chairs and nothing else. We didn´t have computers, projectors or other digital devices.

8)      When did you start working? What was your job?

I started working at 13more or less, and for my first job I worked as a babysitter with two children in Murcia City and I earned 500 pesetas, (3 euros)

9)      What can you remember about the Spanish Civil War?

I don´t remember many things about the Civil war. One of the things that I remember is all the bombings because when a plane passed on with bombs, we usually went with our neighbours in a refuge.

10)   And about the Post-War period?

I don´t remember a lot of things of the post-war because I was working in this period. However, I remember that there was a hostile environment:  many families were dying of hunger… It was so difficult for all the people who lived through it.

11)   What did you dream of at those hard times?

I wasn´t mature enough to decide anything about my future but I only wanted to get out from there and live in another place with a better situation.

12)   What did you expect from the future?

I dreamed of changing my fate and the fate of my siblings because my aunt wanted to give us for adoption but we prefered to stay together.

13)   Did you have the opportunity to travel?

Yes, I travelled to Ibiza when I was working as a babysitter with the family because they had relatives there. I never visited Ibiza again, but I have very good memories of this trip.

14)   When did you meet your husband?

I met my husband when I was walking with my friends along the main street of the town. He went to me to introduce himself. In this period it was so common to do this to seduce girls.

15)   How long were you engaged?

We were engaged during six years.

16)   What was your husband’s job?

My husband worked in a mine, on the washing site. Afterwards, he worked in other mines but in the washing site too.

17)   How was the relationship in the neighbourhood, with your neighbours?

With my neighbours I had a trusting relationship. We met together in my house to talk or go out with our husbands frequently. My neighbourhood was so quiet, it was a good place to live in.

18)   What are the best memories of that time? And the worst? Do you remember a special moment, good or bad, that you personally lived?

The best memories of these years were when my husband and I got married and we had our house. We were really happy in that moment. The worst memory was when my parents died. The best memory of my life was the birth of my children.

19)   What were the differences between young people then and nowadays?

Nowadays young people have different values, different education, different studies, different relationships… Everything is different now.  Above all they have a lot of opportunities and they must appreciate it.