Cuban writer, revolutionary Pablo de la Torriente Brau

Catalonia, May 5 (RHC)-- Catalonia authorities have begun excavation of a mass grave, which according to witness testimony could contain the remains of Cuban writer Pablo de la Torriente Brau, killed in the Spanish Civil War on December 19, 1936.

Pablo was killed in Majadahonda, near Madrid. He was first buried in Chamartín Cemetery, but in June 1937, his remains were transferred to Montjuic Cemetery in Barcelona, pending their transfer to Cuba.

However, the unexpected turn taken by the war prevented this from happening and in 1939, the remains of the Cuban journalist and revolutionary were thrown into a mass grave along with those of 11 other unidentified people.

If the testimonies of witnesses prove right, Pablo’s remains would be recovered and submitted to a thorough DNA identification process, before transferring them to a final burial site here in Cuba.

Pablo de la Torriente Brau is an emblematic figure among the Latin-American correspondents during the Spanish Civil War.

After his untimely death at the age of 35, he became a myth that, apart from generating a large number of tributes in his memory, gave origin to a stream of chronicles, elegies, poems, and all sort of texts from several authors.