A pioneering database, the result of three decades of research, has brought Valencian science and medicine repressed during Francoism out of anonymity. The project, led by Josep Lluís Barona, emeritus professor of History of Science at the UV, and with the participation of Josep Bernabeu Mestre, professor of History of Science at the UA, reveals 400 names of professionals whose careers were cut short.
Titled "Ciència represaliada. Metges i científics valencians represaliats pel franquisme" (Repressed Science. Valencian Doctors and Scientists Repressed by Francoism), the database will be officially presented this Thursday at 5 PM in the assembly hall of the Palacio de Cerveró in Valencia, headquarters of the López Piñero Interuniversity Institute. The session can also be followed online.
The initiative aims to document the repression and reflect on the Valencian perspective, recovering the memory of doctors, nurses, practitioners, pharmacists, chemists, naturalists, engineers, and architects who suffered exile or professional purges after the Spanish Civil War.
The work, which has involved Joan Lloret, Àlvar Martínez, and Àngel Beneito, is based on the analysis of depuration files and documentation from various official archives, such as that of the University of Valencia or the General Archive of the Spanish Civil War.
The objective is to vindicate not only emblematic figures like Joan Baptista Peset or José Puche, but also all those anonymous individuals who were silenced, reconstructing their biographies and the suffering they endured.
Cases such as that of Francesc Bosch i Morata, a doctor and counselor exiled to Mexico, or Mercedes Maestre, a pediatrician and director-general who had to flee to Mexico with her husband and returned discreetly to Valencia in the 1960s, are recalled.
The project, funded by the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, seeks public participation to continue expanding the database and restore the dignity of the repressed professionals.
