JIMENA We are a bit late with this item, but we have been asked by several readers what this monument is about. To our shame, we did not attend the various ceremonies carried out on the day that commemorates the arrival of regional authorities after almost 40 years of centralized government of the Franco regime. As Mayor Pascual Collado said at the unveiling ceremony: "This is a day of celebration." Indeed it was. The little plaza that overlooks the campsite now contains a monument to Historical Memory, a monolith that exalts unequivocally democratic values such as solidarity and social justice. The place chosen for it has a significant attachment to these principals for that very spot was the scene of several summary executions of Jimena citizens during the Civil War. The creator of the monument, architect Cayetano García Pérez, said that he had wanted to symbolically express the two sides of that wrenching conflict, for which he used two different materials. On the darker one, are engraved the negative connotations odio (hate), muerte (death) and sufrimiento (suffering), while on the lighter metal are such positive concepts as vida (life), amistad (friendship) and paz (peace). Nightime illumination intends to bring unity to the whole, which, in the words of the sculptor, "eliminates differences and brings it all together in a much stronger unit."
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