The repression of 1936 in A Limia: paseos, dead and documented victims

This page gathers the cases of extrajudicial repression in Xinzo de Limia and its surroundings that are documented in civil registers, archives and testimonies, and which Edelmiro Martínez Cerredelo studied in the book A Limia: 1931–1953. Historia e memoria. Only those who appear by name in the linked sources are cited; the overall figures are approximate because, as the author explains, some victims were not entered in the civil registers ^[1].

The setting: summer 1936

After the coup of 17–20 July 1936 (see From the Republic to the coup) bodies began to appear "in the ditches of A Limia’s roads". Cerredelo reviewed the entries for violent death in the comarca’s civil registers and concludes that the killings committed by militiamen without prior orders, though surely with the complicity of the military and Civil Guard authorities, are only a part of the total; he could not check the Trasmiras Civil Registry, destroyed in a fire in the 1950s ^[1]. The historian Xulio Prada, cited by the author, recalls that in Ourense "a shot in the nape", the so-called "Calvo Sotelo shot", was used as the sign of the paseos ^[2].

The August 1936 cases

• Benito Valencia Bouza (Farnadeiros, Muíños, 1910), a Popular Front councillor and secretary of the Souto Peasant Union, was murdered on the Boado bridge over the Limia river ^[1][6]. The date varies: the Galipedia gives 1 August 1936 and Cerredelo records the body on the 2nd. The Comité pola Memória Histórica do Val do Límia paid tribute to him on 1 August 2020 ^[6].
• Francisco Sierra Rodríguez, teacher of Mosteiro de Ribeira, was taken from his house at night by Falangists and Civil Guard after a shoot-out; he gave himself up to save his wife and daughter, and was found dead on the Allariz hillside. The Galipedia says he was "taken for a walk" on 2 August; Cerredelo, that he appeared on the 3rd ^[1][4].
• Cándido Fernández García, from Baronzás, a Socialist, president of the Workers’ Centre and deputy mayor of Xinzo, and Cándido Gándara González, of Piñeira de Arcos (Sandiás), former councillor and officer of the Agrarian Society, were arrested and found murdered in the early hours of 10 August 1936, behind a wall on the road from Vilar de Barrio to the Santuario dos Milagres, at As Maus. The death certificates say no more than "firearm"; Gándara was registered as unknown and his daughter recognised him in 1940. They were buried in the churchyard of San Pedro de Maus, in "unconsecrated" ground ^[1][2].
• Álvaro Rodríguez Feijoo "Alvarito", aged twenty-one, a taxi driver in Verín, was found dead on 14 August at Cortegada (Sarreaus). He was a native of Baronzás; a committee of women from Verín asked in Xinzo for his freedom ^[3].
• The same summer, Cerredelo also records the death of Domingo Lorenzo Sánchez, aged thirty, on 6 August ^[1].

Summary courts: Gómez del Valle

Manuel Gómez del Valle (Havana, 1906), journalist, poet and teacher, was arrested in Xinzo along with Fernando Cordón García on 21 July 1936, according to the Galipedia; according to testimonies gathered by Cerredelo, the Falangists tied the two men to a tree to shoot them, but the protest of the neighbour women made them take them to jail. Sentenced to death in a summary court martial, they were shot in Ourense on 11 August 1936 ^[5][7].

The martyrs of Xinzo (1937)

Gómez del Valle’s mother, María del Valle Lozano, was arrested for asking for her son’s sentence to be commuted and held in a prison (that of Celanova, according to the Galipedia; the improvised one in the Bande town hall, according to Vía Lethes); on 29 October 1937 she was murdered, along with Salud Torres Díaz, a UGT delegate, and their bodies were found at the Lomba de Lamas, in Mosteiro de Ribeira ^[5][8]. The Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory began in July 2019 the search for their remains ^[8]. The poet Claudio Rodríguez Fer wrote "O terror en carro de vacas" about this event ^[5][8].

The Furriolo and other places

The Celanova–Xinzo road, at the Alto do Furriolo (between A Bola and Rairiz de Veiga), was the scene of paseos from the first months; there is no single grave, and the historian Domingo Rodríguez Teijeiro notes that civil registers record fewer than thirty victims, although oral testimonies speak of many more ^[9]. In 2006 a mural by the artist Xosé Vizoso was unveiled there in memory of the victims ^[9]. See The Alto do Furriolo.

Women victims of repression

Women suffered prison, purge files and, in some cases, death; they are covered in Women victims of repression in A Limia.

Frequently asked questions

How many people were killed in A Limia in 1936? There is no definitive figure: civil registers record only a part and oral testimonies point to more cases ^[1][9].

Where are the victims Cándido Fernández and Cándido Gándara? Buried in the churchyard of the church of San Pedro de Maus (Vilar de Barrio) ^[1].

Who was María del Valle? The mother of Manuel Gómez del Valle, murdered in 1937 at Mosteiro de Ribeira ^[5][8].

Links

• History of A Limia
• Historical memory of A Limia, 1931–1953
• The anti-Francoist guerrilla in A Limia
• Notable people of A Limia

Sources

1. Edelmiro Martínez Cerredelo, «Os mortos daquel verán de 1936», Historia de Xinzo, 16-01-2015. https://historiadexinzo.wordpress.com/2015/01/16/os-mortos-de-aquel-veran-de-1936/
2. Edelmiro Martínez Cerredelo, «9 de agosto de 1936. Os asasinatos do concelleiro Cándido Fernández García e o agrario Cándido Gándara González de Sandiás», Historia de Xinzo, 09-08-2017. https://historiadexinzo.wordpress.com/2017/08/09/9-de-agosto-de-1936-os-asasinatos-do-concelleiro-candido-fernandez-garcia-e-o-agrario-candido-gandara-gonzalez-de-sandias/
3. Edelmiro Martínez Cerredelo, «14 de agosto de 1936. O asasinato de Álvaro Rodríguez Feijoo "Alvarito"», Historia de Xinzo, 14-08-2017. https://historiadexinzo.wordpress.com/2017/08/14/14-de-agosto-de-1936-o-asesinato-de-alvaro-rodriguez-feijoo-alvarito/
4. Edelmiro Martínez Cerredelo, «O asasinato de Francisco Sierra, mestre de Mosteiro, en agosto de 1936», Historia de Xinzo, 01-03-2017. https://historiadexinzo.wordpress.com/2017/03/01/o-asasinato-de-francisco-sierra-mestre-de-mosteiro-en-agosto-de-1936/
5. «Las mártires de Xinzo de Limia, asesinadas por los franquistas en 1937», Vía Lethes. https://vialethes.es/martires-xinzo-limia-1937
6. «Benito Valencia Bouza», Galipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). https://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Valencia_Bouza
7. «Manuel Gómez del Valle», Galipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). https://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Gómez_del_Valle
8. «María del Valle», Galipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). https://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/María_del_Valle
9. «Alto do Furriolo», Galipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). https://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alto_do_Furriolo