Casilda Revesado

My wife Casilda Bosch Vergara has a handkerchief that belonged to her mother. It has an image of the Virgin of the Pillar and, curiously, a border of Republican flags. It reminds us of a time when not everyone saw the Republic and religion as enemies. 

My mother in law kept the handkerchief for years protected in a wrapping of silk paper. Neither she nor her husband had contact with any political or union organizations. They lived in Almenara de Tormes, a small village in the province of Salamanca that was never directly affected by the war. They were people of the land, whose lives were totally dominated by their masters. They could have been characters from the novel The Holy Innocents by Miguel Delibes. He died thirty years ago, she twenty. I have the feeling she kept it out of sheer innocence since it had been a gift from a relative of the “masters”.  

During the dictatorship, both my wife and I were clandestine members of the Communist Party of Spain. 

Mario Bosch Vergara & Casilda Revesado Ralero