Not such an innocent corner of Spain, then...

In my recent post about Lorca's remains I referred to the Alpujarra being practically oblivous to the civil war and the horrors of the Franco dictatorship. I picked that up from a number of literary sources and readily accepted it like many (including local PP supporters and ex-pats attracted to what they see as a bucolic paradise) who find benign ignorance the most acceptable explanation for the Alpujarra's absence from the written history of the period. It seems it doesn't stack up. As an article here in the Olive Press (in English) details, the Alpujarra is dotted with mass graves of people murdered by the Nationalists, including a burial site at the El Carrizal barranco between Lanjaron and Orgiva said to contain up to 4,000 corpses. If true, that would make it the biggest of the killing fields in Spain. Incidents of Guardia Civil murdering "Reds" in Torvizcon and Castaras are reported here too. For any English-speakers interested in Southern Spain, The Olive Press is worth a bookmark. Home page here.