RT Journal Article
T1 The challenges of identifying juvenile soldiers in the Spanish Civil War.
A1 Benito Sánchez, María
A1 Mezquida Fernández, Miguel
A1 Iglesias-Bexiga, Javier
A1 Calpe Vicente, Alejandro
A1 Martínez Vallejo, Azahara
A1 Fortuna Murillo, María
AB Every conflict referred to as a war results inthe horror of loss and death. This is true ofany war, and the Spanish Civil War is agood example. Many people disappeared andwere never found again, mainly because nobodyever looked for them. There were severalcounteroffensives on the eastern war front inSpain’s Levante region during 1938, which,although ending in Pyrrhic victories for theRepublican Army, were forgotten for years, aswere the bodies of the soldiers abandoned tothe elements on the battlefields. In 2014, thisresearch project was developed to locate, exhume,and identify four graves containing thebodies of Republican soldiers found at the siteof Peña Salada, Spain. The graves were foundto contain five individuals, including someconsidered to be juvenile soldiers, aged between14 and 20. They displayed many signsof violence, and it was possible to infer differencesin injuries from bladed weapons andfirearms. There was also evidence of the pillagingand desecration of the burial site. Thegenetic profiles of the five individuals were obtainedin order to create a DNA database,which would make it possible to comparetheir profiles with those of potential familymembers who still live with the uncertaintyof not knowing the whereabouts of their lovedones. This study offers the first scientific evidenceof the participation of juvenile soldierson the Levante Front, within the context ofthe Spanish Civil War.
PB Wiley | American Anthropological Association
SN 2153-957X
YR 2021
FD 2021-11
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/99539
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/99539
LA eng
NO Benito Sánchez, M., Mezquida Fenández, M., Iglesias-Bexiga, J., Calpe Vicente, A., Martínez Vallejo, A. and Fortuna Murillo, M. (2021), The Challenges of Identifying Juvenile Soldiers in the Spanish Civil War. Annals of Anthropological Practice, 45: 175-192. https://doi.org/10.1111/napa.12165
DS Docta Complutense
RD 26 feb 2026