Paco Roca – illustratör

In the years following the Spanish Civil War, tens of thousands of Spanish civilians were unjustly executed by the brutal Franco regime. One of these poor men was Jose Celda, who faced the firing squad in 1940 and was buried in a mass grave in Valencia. Over seven decades later, his daughter Pepica, through years of persistence, convinces the government to exhume his grave and restore his dignity. Amidst Pepica Celda's personal battle against oblivion, she discovers the crucial role of Leoncio Badia. The local gravedigger during those tumultuous years, Leoncio risked his life to help the widows of those killed in the war and after to identify their late husbands' bodies, record the location of their graves, and hide messages among their remains for future identification. Small acts of kindness and humanity that gave hope in a bleak era. A powerful collaboration between the award winning cartoonist Paco Roca and notable journalist Rodrigo Terrasa, The Abyss of Oblivion is a vital work of historical memory.