Families Receive Fusilados' Remains in Castro

Ángel Víctor Torres presided over a ceremony on June 3 in Castro Urdiales where relatives received the remains of three local Republicans shot in 1937 and buried in a common grave in Mirones, according to EFE and Spain’s Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory. The three men — Cecilio Romaña, Alejandro Miquelarena and Luis Portillo — were identified after exhumation work carried out last year in the cemetery of Mirones, in the Cantabrian municipality of Miera. Their families received the remains in three closed urns at Castillo-Faro, nearly 90 years after the killings. Torres said the handover ended “decades of injustice and silence.” ### Who were the three men whose remains were returned? Cecilio Romaña, Alejandro Miquelarena and Luis Portillo were Republican combatants from Castro Urdiales who were killed on September 6, 1937, as they returned home from the front, the ministry said. The official account said they were detained, beaten and killed at Alto del Machorro in Mirones by Falangists. (efe.com) Luis Portillo was 22 when he was killed and came from a fishing family in Castro Urdiales, the ministry said. Alejandro Miquelarena, also a fisherman, had served as a councilor in Castro Urdiales and was 27 when he was killed, according to the same statement. Romaña was a fisherman, father of five and affiliated with the CNT labor union, the ministry said. (mptmd.gob.es) ### Where were the remains found, and how were they identified? Mirones cemetery in Miera was the burial site where the three sets of remains were located last year, EFE reported. Lourdes Herrasti, who led the exhumation team, said two bodies were found face up and a third was found embracing the other two. She said all three showed gunshot wounds to the head, which led the team to conclude they had been killed. (mptmd.gob.es) The Association Héroes de la República y la Libertad had promoted the search and recovery effort, according to local reporting ahead of the ceremony. The identification process combined exhumation and later forensic work before the April notification to relatives, according to the ministry and local reports. (efe.com) ### Who attended the handover in Castro Urdiales? Castillo-Faro in Castro Urdiales hosted the ceremony attended by Torres, government delegate Pedro Casares, Mayor Susana Herrán, Cantabria heritage director Eva Guillermina Fernández, Democratic Memory prosecutor Carlos Yáñez and exhumation team director Lourdes Herrasti, EFE reported. The ministry also said subsecretary Berta Pérez and victims’ affairs director Zoraida Hijosa were present. (elfaradio.com) Susana Herrán described the event as both institutional and human, saying the three men were returning to the place they should never have had to leave, according to Europa Press and local radio coverage. Torres said confronting the past was “not only a legal duty” but also “a moral duty.” (efe.com) ### Which relatives received the urns? Ernestina Olabarría, Luis Portillo’s niece, received his remains from Torres and Herrán, EFE reported. Eduardo Lazcano, Romaña’s grandson, received Cecilio Romaña’s remains, while Alejandro Miquelarena’s namesake great-nephew received the third urn. (europapress.es) Ernestina Olabarría said the families felt “agridulce” — bittersweet — because the return brought happiness but also revived what the men and their relatives had suffered, EFE reported. She said the three had been fishermen and Republicans and said they were killed out of “venganza,” or revenge, by people from Castro Urdiales. (efe.com) ### What did Torres say about the broader effort? Ángel Víctor Torres said in April he had personally phoned the families to tell them the remains had been identified, according to the ministry and Europa Press. At the June 3 ceremony, he said the work formed part of recovering “each one of the stories that make up the mosaic of our country’s history.” (efe.com) Europa Press quoted Torres as saying 9,000 bodies had already been exhumed and that more work remained. He said, “El olvido nunca es la respuesta,” or “Forgetting is never the answer,” and added that the government would continue because “we still have a lot of work ahead.” (mptmd.gob.es) Luis Portillo’s remains will now rest in the Castro Urdiales cemetery alongside those of his parents and brother, Ernestina Olabarría said, according to EFE. The families were expected to decide the final burial arrangements for the other two urns after the handover in Castro Urdiales. (efe.com) (europapress.es)