Prison graffiti Cangas de Narcea (Asturias)

In the building in Cangas del Narcea, Asturias, that used to house the old jail for the Cangas de Tineo judicial district, the walls of numerous cells still carry a series of graffiti that offer exceptional testimony to the lives and deaths of those affected by Civil War and post-Civil War Spain. In purely military terms, the war in Cangas lasted barely a month, until the entry of troops from Galicia on 22 August 1936, but the capital of the largest district in Asturias then became the site of one of the rebels’ military tribunals. Here, the process of persecuting pro-Republicans began very early, and this gives the site special historical and documentary importance. 

In what we call the first jail, located on the ground floor, are calendars that the prisoners drew on the plaster in charcoal between 1937 and 1938 in which they marked. The building also houses maps—some of them surprisingly detailed and precise. Perhaps they were drawn by an imprisoned Republican school teacher or, less likely, by someone who had road maps they could copy. They could possibly be maps of battles. There is also a striking text: “I do this in perpetual memory of the fact that they are executing me/I had bullets to draw and write a sad and painful event”. 

There are a number of drawings on the walls of another, larger cell, on the second floor. The painstaking representation of an aerial battle that has been connected to José Otero Abeledo, a painter from Galicia known as “Laxeiro”, who seems to have been imprisoned here in 1937, is particularly noteworthy. So is the appearance of “Felix The Cat”, the American cartoon character who had already become a popular cultural icon in Spain. If you look carefully, you can see the number 7 on the ground as he strides ahead with “1938” in his paw, thus marking the start of a new year.  There are some less interesting, poorly-preserved drawings in another cell. 

The Civil Death Registers document forty-eight death sentences handed down by the Permanent Military Court between 10 April 1937 and 19 February 1938. Checking the names of those brought to trial against the graffiti has revealed definite connections: Ramón Uría López, Manuel Rodríguez Queipo, Jesús Fuertes Berguiño, alias “Capuchas”, among others.