Seventy years later, every night, the train journeys through the peninsula, the fingers of the corpses surfacing in the mountains, the shrapnel grazing his body, the nights of vigil, and the fear of "the reds", return to the memory of Manuel Díaz. This resident of Teguise left Lanzarote in 1937 to fight with the national army. "When the war started, some were in some provinces and others in others, and everyone had to fight with what they had, and so it happened, that in the end brothers ended up fighting against brothers." From the Island, the Lanzarote recruits traveled by boat to Las Palmas, and from there, to Ceuta, before crossing the strait towards Algeciras. Once on the Peninsula, they traveled through the southern half until they reached a small town in Teruel. "We traveled by train at night, all piled up", Manuel recalls.
This trip was the beginning of an odyssey where surviving was the miracle of each day. An advance towards the North of the Peninsula, until reaching the banks of the Ebro, where from July 25, 1938, and for four months, one of the bloodiest battles of the Spanish Civil War was fought, which would be crucial for the victory of the National side. "Where I was most afraid was in that part of the Ebro, it was horrible, it was very hard", Manuel explains. Fear that, unintentionally, is inherent in all wars. "At night they put us on "listening" duty, watching so that "the reds", as they said, wouldn't come, and one day I was at the exit of a tunnel, and there was a hillside; I thought: "if the "reds" climb up the hillside, I'll stay here", recalls the former combatant.
Manuel was lucky. But many of his companions and enemies were left behind. "Many people from Las Palmas died; from here, from Lanzarote, seven from La Vegueta died; and from Teguise, only one." Manuel's eyes are tinged with sadness. "Do you know what I think? That there are still bodies in those mountains", he assures. "I remember when there was a dead person, we would throw a little dirt on top of them, and their fingers would come out of the ground. Many people died in the war", he repeats, and his gaze returns to infinity.
The Civil War brought with it destruction, death, torture, and also uprooting. Many families did not know the whereabouts of "their men". A large part of the soldiers left home as just children and returned three years later. Three years that made them age more than they should have. Manuel was 22 years old when he left Lanzarote, and giving signs of life to his family was not easy: "I wrote to them, but since we were always walking, many letters didn't arrive". Nor did the news. Franco was like a ghost for these battalions whose exploits were difficult to integrate into the course of a war they did not know. "Yes, they say that Franco fought, but I never got to see him", says Manuel. This war veteran also does not remember knowing about the fall of Madrid, or even the announcement of the end of the War. "You could hardly hear any shots, or the aviation, and it was said that the war was about to end, and we were happier... We were advancing and we didn't find anyone anymore." The end of the Civil War also meant the return of thousands of people in search of their home. "I remember that people came in groups, walking along the road, looking for the towns, which were all destroyed", Manuel continues.
And if the Civil War was characterized by anything, it was by a nomadism that affected both soldiers and the rearguard. Thousands of exiled people and very harsh conditions for the combatants who remained. Days of hunger, thirst and disease. "We spent a lot of time without eating, sometimes up to two whole days. Afterwards they gave us a can of sardines, "cold ration", they called it, and we cleaned the plate with a piece of bread, because there was no water in those mountains".
In the 23 months that Manuel Díaz fought in the Peninsula, he only returned to Lanzarote on one occasion. "They gave me permission because I had been shot behind the ear, look, I still have the mark here", he shows us. "And when I had to go back to the war again, I didn't want to, because I already knew what it was like". The return made him walk hundreds of kilometers in search of his battalion, together with other Canary Island companions who were also returning from the islands. "And I found it!", he says proudly.
"War stories are for oneself". Manuel has two grandchildren, but he doesn't usually talk to them about those distant days. Now he lives peacefully with his wife, Rosario, in his house in the Villa. "My wife laughs because I always say that if I had rejoined the army after the war, I could have been a sergeant, or a commander, or...(laughs) But I didn't want to, I wanted to be more peaceful with my people, in my town". Manuel did not become a general, it is true. But at 92 years old he manages to transmit wisdom with his gaze. A gaze whose retina retains the most tragic moments of the recent history of Spain.