Scab. Spain will tear up the wounds

80 years after the end of the civil war, Spain still does not know what to do with the remains of the victims. A quarter of a century has passed since the death of General Francisco Franco, and families have finally dared to start searching for their murdered relatives. They are still looking for them: in roadside ditches, buried wells, in fields, in shallow common graves.

"Scab" is a story about a country that, for the sake of the future, had to forget its ghosts and failed to do so. Katarzyna Kobylarchyk traveled through Spain - along the paths of the dead, the murdered, and the missing. Martyrs and heroes. Victims and criminals. I spoke with families who want to search and those who do not want to open old wounds.

Katarzyna Kobylarczyk is a Polish writer and reporter.

Originally from Nowa Huta, the eastern part of Krakow, where he still lives. She wrote several books about her native places. Among the most famous is her debut novel "Tales from the block see Novoguta reports" (2009) and the most recent report "Women of Nova Guta. Bricks, pearls and firecrackers" (2020). From 2002–2008, she worked as a journalist in the Krakow newspaper Dziennik Polski. She also published articles in Gazeta Wyborcza, Tygodnik Powszechny, Polityka, and National Geographic Traveler.

The author of two books of reports about Spain: "Dust from land markets. Spanish fiestas" (2013) and "Scab. Spain heals wounds" (2019). In September 2020, for her second book, she received the "Crystal Map of Polish Reportage" from the mayor of Lublin. A few months earlier, she became the laureate of the most prestigious Polish award for artistic reporting - the Ryszard Kapuscinski Prize.