The young 'Maqui' of Granada's Moclín castle

The body of a 15-year-old anti-Franco soldier, who still had his shoes and belt with four bullets in his holster, shows that he died after being beaten in the late 1940s

Jorge Pastor

Friday, 6 December 2024, 15:37

It is nine o'clock in the morning in the physical anthropology laboratory of the University of Granada (UGR). Professor Inmaculada Alemán Aguilera measures the remains of a skeleton that arrived at the department a few days ago from the excavations that have just finished at Moclín castle. But what is the story behind this skeleton?

The year is 1947. The place, Castillo de Moclín, a site of execution during Spain's Civil War - the bullets can still be seen in one of the walls. A boy of between 14 and 16 years of age, captured near Moclín and probably part of the resistance groups against Franco's troops who were taking refuge in the Sierra de los Olivares, was taken there. He was beaten to death.

And at this point the two stories connect, that of the laboratory and that of the young Maqui of 1947 in Moclín castle. Yes, they are the same person. However, the name of the boy is not known. That could only be established if there was a match between his DNA and one of the samples in the Democratic Memory database.

This mystery will not be solved - if it is ever solved - for some time. Yet it is possible to extract a great deal of information about the individual thanks to the analysis of the bones and above all thanks to the knowledge of prestigious professionals such as Inmaculada Alemán, professor in Physical Anthropology at the UGR who collaborates regularly with the Barranco de Víznar and who is also coordinating the anthropological studies in the Valle de Cuelgamuros.

He was not shot. He died after receiving a blunt impact that fractured his right femur, which at the time led to a lethal haemorrhage of the femoral artery. "He also has defensive marks on his right hand," says Alemán. In other words, he protected himself from blows to the face. His death did not occur immediately.

And why around 1947? Because of another important relevant fact: from that year onwards autopsies became compulsory. And an autopsy was carried out on this boy, who was buried in a modest wooden coffin, as can be seen in the marks on the frontal and occipital bones and the ribs.

They sawed through the cranial vault and opened up his chest cavity. "It was done quickly," concludes Alemán. It is a theory that is reinforced by the fact that the clothes were not removed. The biological profile, which was more complicated to carry out because he was still growing, reveals that he was a male due to the characteristics of the pelvis. His age, "fifteen years old with a margin of error of more or less a year", can be deduced from the state of development of the third molar, the wisdom tooth, which is not formed at its root. "There is also evidence of rickets in the forearm," says Alemán.

Material remains

What is impressive - and humanising - are the material remains. The team led by archaeologist Ángel Rodríguez has located, in a reasonable state of preservation, the 'albarcas' (a traditional type of shoe) that the boy was wearing at the time of his death. They were made of fabric with rubber soles fastened with studs. On the left is the heel and toes. A shirt button, two buckles and a belt with a cartridge case containing four seven-millimetre bullets from a Mauser rifle were also found.

Manuel López Moreno works in the culture department at Moclín town hall. He is also a historian and co-author of the book 'Guerra Civil en los pueblos de Moclín' (Civil War in the villages of Moclín), together with Andrés Fernández Martín and María Isabel Brenes Sánchez. Manuel has researched in depth everything that happened in the area between 1936 and 1939 and the subsequent dictatorship. At the end of the conflict, a contingent of three thousand soldiers loyal to the overthrown Republican government fled to the nearby Sierra de los Olivares.

Many of them ended up in the Búcor concentration camp located between Pinos Puente and Moclín, and others organised themselves into parties to continue fighting. One of the best known was Ollafría. It is quite possible that the soldier who has appeared in Moclín could be him. The date - eight years after the end of the war - is also plausible. The orders were precise. From 1947 onwards, no prisoners were to be taken and no one was to leave the sierras alive.

According to Manuel López, between 1936 and 1939 the castle was used by the rebels to protect the town from Republican attempts to recapture it, the last attempt took place on 18 January 1939. Soldiers who were arrested in the course of these skirmishes were shot in the fortress, usually at dawn. "I heard from our forebears that they were buried in a mass grave, although we have not yet been able to verify its existence," says López.

According to López, Moclín did not show much opposition to the occupation by the Brigada Mixta de la División número 32 (mixed brigade of the 32nd division) under the command of Colonel Lorenzo Tamallo on 4 October 1936. The battalions of the Republic crossed the River Velillos and fled to the Sierra del Marqués, located on the other side, to join the front, whose base was at Iznalloz.

The Francoists, after taking Montefrío and Puerto Lope, didn't take long to join forces in Pinos Puente and advance to Moclín, which was the natural exit to Alcalá la Real and to the western part of Andalucía. In order not to lose positions in Moclín, which was geographically a strategic location - it has been throughout history - they established a network of trenches in the castle, taking advantage of the pre-existing construction, in the quarries of the Cerro de Pital and in Tózar.

This is a story that, from now on, is also the story of a fifteen-year-old boy who was involved in Spain's Civil War and who was beaten to death in Moclín castle.

Top 50

Esta funcionalidad es exclusiva para suscriptores.

Reporta un error en esta noticia