Just over a week ago, Gandia and the cultural world bid farewell to the poet from Beniopa Josep Piera. However, his figure remains more alive than ever. His fifty or so works fill library shelves, and many readers are visiting bookstores these days to acquire some of his books. Furthermore, his readers will still be able to posthumously enjoy an unpublished book about Garcerán de Borja and his testimony in a work that gives voice to a series of accounts addressing Francoist repression in the region.
Specifically, the Casa de la Marquesa hosts this Tuesday, April 14, the presentation of Memòria de l'oblit. La repressió franquista a la Safor, by photojournalist Eva Máñez, which gives voice to 48 silenced victims of Francoism in the region.
“"We lived with this continuous feeling of sin. We learned to be silent. In my house, it was said: 'You, child, listen, watch, and be quiet.' We grew up and became teenagers."
Piera narrated his experiences during those years throughout the account, not only as a resident but also as a writer. In the text, the poet recalled in the present tense that at the Escola Pia "they kill and they execute. Many people are imprisoned." "The repression is very harsh," he noted. However, the Favorite Son of Gandia showed through his words, as he did throughout his life, hope. "Among the losers of the war, there is a hope that the allies will intervene and kick Franco out. That doesn't happen, but the repression loosens. They no longer execute, but a sociological fascism and strong moral repression persist," he explained.
In the work, published by the Centre d'Estudis i Investigacions Alfons el Vell and supported by the Department of Historical Heritage and Democratic Memory of Gandia, the poet also addresses the 1960s, a time when "we began to oppose Francoism with culture," although "always with a secret police watching what is said and what is not said." Despite the repression, he acknowledges that "there are already some bookstores in Gandia where one can get these books that previously had to be brought from abroad."
Piera also pointed out that his generation had been "touched by fear," which also extended to the linguistic sphere. As he himself noted, "we didn't know how to speak Valencian in public because Valencian was useless. They would erase you if you spoke our language in public." However, and fortunately, "we have all learned to speak," especially writers. "You knew how to speak Valencian if it had been spoken in your home, and even so, they spoke a popular Valencian, but you didn't know how to speak it in a cultured way."
