In 2009 the International Center for Memory and Human Rights Studies (Centro Internacional de Estudios de Memoria y Derechos Humanos – CIEMEDH) of Spain’s National University of Distance Education (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia – UNED) began its research on the brutality of the Franco dictatorship with the project “All the Names of the Post-War Repression”. In 2017 in collaboration of the Provincial Council of Ciudad Real, the Mapas de Memoria (Maps of Memory) project was born with the goal of reclaiming the memory of all the victims of Francoist Spain.

Mapas de Memoria is a space for research, creation and social intervention that seeks to create knowledge about the recent past. Composed of anthropologists, historians, researchers and artists, its objective is to build bridges that allow us to understand memory, violence and trauma, as well as to dignify the people who were disappeared or silenced. The ethnographic methodology builds shared knowledge between researchers and families, which contributes to increased theoretical knowledge and answers a social interest that has been hidden and forgotten.

Over the past few years, the team has searched for the names of thousands of victims of enforced disappearance and their stories as well as the mass graves where they are buried. The project is currently focused on drawing attention to the victims, identifying and establishing “places of memory”, the opening of mass graves, and providing answers to thousand of families who lost loved ones.

What Remains documents this journey.