Memory politics at memorial sites: Experiencing Valle de los Caidos

Mourning and collective memory are culturally mediated practices, tightly connected to a society´s ways of giving meaning to the past vis-à-vis present and future challenges. This paper forms part of a broader research project focused on the two-way dynamic between mourning and memory, particularly at memorial sites. Analysis of situated experience in two modern memorials –Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin and the September 11 Memorial in New York– is set against visitors’ experience in a more traditional and controversial memorial site: El Valle de los Caídos. Built after the Spanish Civil War to commemorate Franco´s victory, this site is a paradigmatic case of memory politics, and one that has recently come under the spotlight after the decision by the Spanish Parliament to remove Franco´s corpse from the site, thus reopening a political debate about what to do with this fascist memorial. Results feature participants’ ongoing and dynamic relating to the site, gathered by means of a ‘walk-along’ interview – in which participants share their thoughts, sensations and memories as they move through the site with the researcher (wearing glasses with a subjective camera built into them that records audio and video). Thus, the paper aims to develop an experience ecology of memory at memorial sites.