Ascención Mendieta
Ascención Mendieta Ibarra (29 November 1925 – 16 September 2019), was a Spanish activist for Historic Memory. She became a symbol of the struggle for historical memory in Spain for the struggle she maintained for the recovery of the body of his father, Timoteo Mendieta, killed in 1939 by Francisco Franco's troops, branch of the Spanish army raised against the legitimate government of the Second Spanish Republic, and buried in a mass grave in the cemetery of Guadalajara. Ascension Mendieta starred in the first case of what was called "Argentine complaint" against the crimes of Franco and as a result she managed to exhume his father in 2017.[1]
Ascención Mendieta | |
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Born | |
Died | 16 September 2019 93) Madrid, Spain | (aged
Known for | Activist for Historic Memory |
Biography
Ascension Mendieta was born in the town of Guadalajara Province in Sacedón on 29 November 1925.[2] Daughter of the marriage formed by Timoteo Mendieta, a member of the General Workers Union (UGT),[3] a socialist syndicate union attached to the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), and María Ibarra, a member to a conservative family and good social position. The marriage had seven children, four of them men and three women, being Ascension the youngest of the brothers.[4]
In 1939, after the arrest of Timoteo Mendieta and leaving the family without resources, they moved to the Madrid town of Puente de Vallecas to the house of Timoteo's mother.
After the death of Franco, Ascensión and her sister Paz began the work for the exhumation of her father. When Paz dies, it is Ascension, supported by her family, who continues the same until, first in 2013 and then in 2017, that the exhumation and identification works that conclude with the delivery of the mortal remains of her father and is buried in civil cemetery of Almudena in Madrid.[5]
References
- Muere Ascensión Mendieta, símbolo de la lucha por la memoria histórica Archived 2019-09-20 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)
- Ascensión Mendieta, una hija coraje de 91 años, que luchó hasta encontrar el cuerpo de su padre, fusilado injustamente al terminar la Guerra Civil Española Archived 2019-12-05 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)
- Ascensión Mendieta: la incansable búsqueda de la mujer que encontró los restos de su padre 78 años después de ser ejecutado (y hoy comparten tumba) (in Spanish)
- Entrevista con Ascensión Mendieta Archived 2019-11-27 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)
- Ascensión Mendieta entierra por fin a su padre, fusilado en 1939 (in Spanish)