Maria Martín is one of the several Spaniards in The Silence of Others seeking justice for the crimes against their families. She simply would like to have the remains of her mother who was murdered during the Spanish Civil War. Almudena Carracedo
After the Spanish Civil War ended in 1939, General Francisco Franco ruled Spain for nearly forty years in a dictatorship that saw tens of thousands of innocent people murdered, imprisoned, kidnapped, and tortured. Babies were taken from their mothers. Civilians shot in the street and buried in mass unmarked graves. Political opponents tortured for months on end.
When Franco finally kicked the can in 1975, the government (full of cronies who willingly upheld the dictator’s rule) made a pact of “forgetting”—both dissenters and regime supporters would have their slates wiped clean. This 1977 Amnesty Law prevented those who suffered under Franco’s rule from getting the justice they deserved.
