Today I spent most of the day walking around the enormous Cementerio de la Almudena. The cemetery lies on the eastern side of Madrid and is one of the largest in Europe. There are an estimated 5 million people buried there which is larger than the population of Madrid. I am pretty sure I walked at least 5 miles today as I visited numerous graves of famous Spaniards, most of them involved in the Civil War. I found the graves using Google Maps which had them marked online. I wouldn't have been able to find them all without it. Love technology. Anyway, the most moving spot for me was a spot along the western wall of the cemetery where there were several memorials to people shot during Franco's post war repression. One of these involved picutres hanging from string against a wall where at least 3000 were shot during the repression. Each picture was laminated and had a QR code that I could scan with my phone and then read about their life. I did this for several. I also tried to say as many of the names outloud as I could because if I'm ever shot against a wall I hope someone will remember my name. Adjacent to this was the memorial to las Trece Rosas (13 roses), 13 very young (some teenagers) members of the socialist youth who were executed against this wall shortly after the fall of Madrid. I stayed in this area of the cemetery for sometime. While there, I noticed a flowere stall just outside so I walked over to it and bought some carnations to leave by the wall. There were many flowers and other makeshift memorial. I also saw numerous graves of Franco's fellow conspirators. other leaders of the Republic, Spanish singers Lola Flores and Cecilia, and Dolores Ibarurri, la Pasionaria, wartime leader of the Communist Party of Spain and fanastic orator who fled in 1939 for exile in the Soviet Union and then returned to Spain in 1978 and took up her same seat in the Congress of Deputies, representing Asturias as she had before the war. She died the year before I studied here. At the time, I had never heard of her. You can see a short clip of one of her speeches here. I actually listened to that on my phone while I stood there. Fortunately, there was no one around in this part of the cemetery which is set apart for all non-catholics, mainly atheists and protestants; the small adjacent Jewish cemetery was closed.
After about three or four hours of walking (and I forgot to put on the sunscreen that I brought), I took the Metro back into the central part of the city and ate lunch at a sidewalk cafe in Madrid's gay neighborhood, Chueca. About 30 minutes after sitting down, I was afraid I would fall asleep. I hadn't walked that much in a while as my exercise routine is still out of whack since the pandemic (what that really means is I haven't been very good about exercising lately; I know; I know). Fortunately, I didn't fall asleep and had a lovely slow late lunch while I read the Economist and watched the crowds walking by. I got back to my hotel with enough time to rest before meeting up with my friend Almudena Cros who had given me a tour of Civil War sites in Madrid back in May and arranged my visit to the Jarama Battlefield. Since tourism has picked up, she has been very busy but we were able to spend about an hour togehter catching up. I would have loved to have had more time but I am also happy that her work is going so well. We will see each other again I am sure and we text all the time on WhatsApp.
And that's basically it for today. I am exhausted and going to bed early. I am really enjoying seeing some of the not so familiar parts of Madrid that I heard about when I lived here but never visited, such as the cemetery. More to come. Hasta luego!
Bill aka Carey aka Guillermo
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