Testimony of Rufina Balbás, Interview with Jessica Cordova and Omar Pimienta; July 15, 2008
Contributor
Balbás, Rufina Cordova, Jessica Pimienta, Omar Asociación de Ex-presos y Represaliados Políticos Asociación para la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica Federación Estatal de Foros por la Memoria
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Rights Holder and Contact
Balbás, Rufina
Description
Rufina Balbás recalls that her father was banished in Segovia and Valladolid during Primo de Rivera's dictatorship. Rufina notes that during the Republic her father was a delegate for the Republican Left and Secretary of the Valle de Manzanedo Municipal Council. She remembers that at the start of the Civil War, the Falangists detained her father in Burgos before killing him in 1936. Rufina explains that after her father's death, she suffered a severe trauma, became ill twice, and had an operation. She describes the methods the Falange used to terrorize the population. Rufina expresses gratitude to President Lázaro Cárdenas and the Mexican people for their solidarity with the Spanish exiles. She recounts that when the war ended, the town priest whose brother was the head of the Falange denied subsidy to her family. Rufina narrates moving to Madrid to find employment and tells that her mother fished crabs for a living. She relates becoming a nurse in Madrid and working for the Red Cross, where she refused to reveal details about her personal life because the doctor and nurses were Falangists. Rufina details her difficult struggle to locate her father's burial place and highlights that in 1970 she discovered that he is buried in a mass grave in the Humarraña cave. She speaks about Franco's death. Rufina recites poems and songs of the Republic Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego, La Jolla, 92093-0175 (https://lib.ucsd.edu/sca) Rufina Balbás testimony was recorded in her home in Madrid Interviews in Spanish Testimony of the Spanish Civil War and the Francoist dictatorship Balbás, Rufina. Testimony of the Spanish Civil War and the Francoist Dictatorship. University of California, San Diego, 2008 Madrid, Spain : Spanish Civil War Memory Project 2008
Type
moving image
Format
3 video files : digital, sound, color
Language
Spanish; Castilian
Subject
Interviews Civil War (Spain : 1936-1939) Exiles Personal narratives-Spanish Oral history Nonfiction films History International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement Madrid (Spain) Spain Burgos (Spain)
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