History and Memory intersect in an exhibition on the Madrid campus

Raul Garcia Hemonnet

Last Friday, an exhibition was inaugurated on the Madrid campus that analyses in detail the ETA attack on the Rolando café in Madrid, which took place on September 13, 2024 and was the first attack by the terrorist group with civilian victims.

The exhibition, designed by the Memorial Centre for Victims of Terrorism, consists of a total of 23 posters on which a large amount of information can be found about the attack: the planning, the details and the police investigation.

On the other hand, another important aspect of the exhibition is the one that has to do with the memory of the victims of this attack, which is why a large part of the documentation includes both their testimonies and their stories. In the words of Rut Bermejo, Coordinator of Transparency, Good Government and University Environment of the Faculty of Legal and Political Sciences, this initiative is “a tribute from the faculty to the victims and an exercise in remembrance. It is in the library, which we think is a very appropriate space to make it known to students, so that the new generations know what terrorism was in Spain.”

It was precisely Memory that was the focus of the exhibition's opening, which took place last Friday. One of the survivors of the attack, retired Commissioner of the National Police Corps, Marceliano Gutiérrez, took a tour of the exhibition's posters, explaining to those present: "It was very striking how he continued to live it and how the attack had marked his life," says Rut Bermejo.

'Rolando 2:15-2:45. 50 years since the first ETA massacre' will be on display at the Madrid campus library until the end of March. It has previously been shown at universities such as Navarra, Burgos and Salamanca, among others.

The inauguration was attended by María Enciso, dean of the Faculty of Legal and Political Sciences; Florencio Domínguez, director of the Memorial Center for Victims of Terrorism; and the aforementioned Marceliano Gutiérrez.

A perfect opportunity to learn more about an episode of ETA terrorism, a gang that has forever marked the history of Spain.