In Paterna, Spain, Josefina Fortea, now 92, was only seven when her father, Jose, a farm laborer, was executed by soldiers sent by General Francisco Franco. Although she didn't know him well, receiving his remains 85 years later has brought her some solace.
The remains of 18 individuals, including Jose, who were executed and buried in a mass grave during the repressive years following Spain's 1936-39 civil war, were recently returned to their families in the era of Franco's fascist dictatorship.
"I have this at least," Fortea said, holding a box containing personal items found alongside Jose's bones, such as a button and a belt buckle, as a way to remember him.
She expressed her intention to lay his remains to rest beside those of her mother, fulfilling a promise made before her mother's passing.
The circumstances surrounding her father's execution remain vague, as with many victims, due to lost or destroyed files. He was identified as a sympathizer of the Republic and therefore an opponent of Franco's Nationalists.
During Sunday's ceremony at the cemetery in the Valencia suburb of Paterna, urns draped in the tricolor flag of the Second Spanish Republic, which Franco had overthrown, were featured.
Recent estimates suggest that Spain has the world's second-largest number of forcibly disappeared individuals after Cambodia. However, the widely-cited figure of 114,000 bodies in over 2,500 mass graves is debated due to insufficient data.
Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of about 1,500 out of the 2,238 people executed in Paterna by Francoist forces between 1939 and 1956 from numerous mass graves.
The individuals honored on Sunday were from a grave labeled 114, known as the "Grave of Culture," as it contained artists, writers, teachers, and other workers, including Fortea's father, interred there in 1940.
Although bones from 176 people have been recovered from Grave 114, only 30 have been identified through DNA analysis thus far.
Alex Calpe, the co-director of the excavation with ArqueoAntro association, highlighted the importance of raising awareness about the events, stating that individuals of political significance were targeted, unjustly tried, and killed without due process.
Many families sought to view their relatives' remains to gain insight into their loved ones' deaths, according to Calpe.
Carmen Contreras, 65, from nearby Godella, held the skull of her grandfather, Juan Manuel, while Calpe pointed out the entry point of the bullet.
Reflecting on the past atrocities, Carmen's brother, Juan Carlos Contreras Vergara, 56, emphasized the need to learn from history's "savagery." "It is good to see what happened or what can happen if things are not handled with a little calm and moderation," he remarked.