Jorge Boleas

My name is Jorge Boleas Gutiérrez. In January 1979, when I was only eight months old, my grandfather and others from Andosilla, in Navarre, travelled to Sengáriz, near Pamplona. They went to recover the remains of my great grandfather, Ceferino Azcona Medrano, and seven other people from our village. You can see my grandfather Amado Boleas in this photograph, which was taken at the time. 

The mass grave “Sengáriz 1, which was located in the “Field of the Dead” in Mezkita, held the remains of some 28 victims. A number of people from Cáseda were killed there at the end of 1936. On December 1, eight residents of Andosilla, including my great grandfather, were taken there from the jail in Pamplona and executed. There were more executions a few days later. The prisoners often had to dig their own graves before they were shot. 

Due to initiatives from local people and local governments, during the 1970s, there were exhumations of many mass graves in the region. In January 1979, the remains of the victims from Andosilla were taken to a pantheon that was inaugurated on 18 February. There will similar commemorations that year in Cárcar and Cáseda. There are moving memories of our past and of the sacrifices made by our ancestors.