On Sunday, May 10, 2026, the Mauthausen concentration camp will host the official liberation and international commemoration ceremony. Three hundred and sixty-five days ago, the silence of this place was broken by the accent of our land. This historic journey allowed students from Manises' three high schools to follow in the footsteps of Rafael García and Francisco Cases, victims from the town.
The naming of García and Cases as Favorite Sons in memoriam was more than an administrative procedure; it was an act of poetic and political justice. For decades, their names were whispers in homes or simply blanks in the municipal register. The Manises City Council's official recognition of their place in local history acknowledges that the town's identity was also forged in resistance against Nazi barbarism.
That trip coincided with the presence of King Felipe VI at the commemoration events, a fact that lends democratic normalcy to the recognition of Spanish republicans, known as the “blue triangles,” who for so long were the great forgotten of the Allied victory. Such democratic normalcy is much needed these days.
“"Seeing students from our three high schools walk through the barracks is not historical tourism; it is a vaccine against fascism."
The most emotional and pedagogically rigorous aspect of what happened last year was the presence of Manises' youth, accompanied by the representative of the Amical de Mauthausen in Valencia, Adrián Blas Mínguez. In a time when hate speech is resurfacing with alarming ease, bringing new generations to the place where dehumanization became industrialized is an act of civic responsibility. These young people not only saw the horror but understood that their fellow citizens were people with dreams, neighbors from their own streets, who ended up in hell for defending freedom.
One year later, the echo of that journey must continue to resonate in the classrooms and squares of Manises. Remembering the Favorite Sons is to understand that democracy is a fragile edifice that requires daily maintenance. García and Cases are not just names on a list of victims; they are part of Manises' DNA. The obligation of society, which today enjoys the rights for which they lost their lives, is to ensure that the dust of the stairs and the path of Mauthausen never settles on their memory.
