The victory of the Civil War in 1939 did not reassure Franco, as in September of that same year the Second World War began and the fear of invasion became an obsession among the authorities of the Franco army. The road from Lezo to the fortress of Guadalupe of Hondarribia can only be understood in the defense strategy in the face of a possible attack. This is a path marked by military logic, since it had no value in uniting the urban centers of the area.

The road was built by the State itself, without the participation of any external private company. The workers who put the workforce to build the road were of three kinds. These are prisoners of war, condemned in the first few months by the Workers' Battalion under the theory that they were going to repair what they were supposed to have destroyed. At the end of 1940, they were replaced by the Workers Soldiers Punishment Battalions. These were the ones who had done military service in the Second Republic, but the new regime did not recognize them and had to do so again.

In addition, they were punished by the name of disaffection: they were not criminals, but they were citizens who had not shown their full agreement with the “New Spain” for family, professional or unspecified reasons, and had to pay with the work that “shortage”. From 1943 onwards, convicted prisoners will work to shorten the prison sentence. The latter ended the road in 1946, but it was not officially inaugurated until 1951, taking advantage of one of Franco’s visits.

In addition to the road, the workers were also performing other types of work, always designed in the face of this possible invasion. There are known, for example, the bunkers built in the vicinity of Gaintxurizketa and Arkale, on the route of the Vallespín line, known as the military name of avant-garde setas, or the galleries between bunker, with a length of 300 metres. There are many who remain and are in a position to visit it.

Slaves and camps

The construction of the new road began on the border between Lezo and Pasai Donibane, near Pasaia Bay, in the area known as Erroteta. The first camp, composed of ten buildings, located on both sides of the road and with a worker's bedroom, kitchen, official dwellings and several warehouses, was built. Every day they went out to work. As the road opened, Erroteta went away and the workers began to spend the night near where they worked. First on the ground and then on the holes made on purpose. They covered with branches and leaves and ferns and slept like this.

In the area that the Lezoarras call Socho, you can still see the holes made by the slaves of Franco. The winter of 1939-1940 was especially hard, it was very cold, it rained a lot and the snow too. The holes were filled with water and it was impossible to use them. Under these conditions, the workers started to get sick – typhus and flu became common – and when the one who has to get out of work gets sick, there is no good business for the authorities. That was why the second camp was set up. Although in later documents it is called Camp Lezo Alto, the locals use the name of the farmhouse next door, Iparragirre.

The inhabitants of Lezo have always been aware of this camp, but until three years ago it has remained hidden, covered by the slaughterhouses. Mikel Salaberria, a native of Martizkonia, is the son of a farmhouse near Iparragirre and a native of Zarautz. He perfectly remembers the back and forth of the workers of when he was a child and it was he who pointed out the exact place of the camp. Once the cleaning work is done, you can still see the buildings. Some are in very good condition, others are not, but in all of them you can see the size of this work.

There are also two other camps, one near the top of Jaizkibel, in the area known as Frantenea, although there is no trace of them, and the last one in the fort of Guadalupe, in a building that until recently was cantina.

From Lezo to the deceased Zumaia warehouse

Saying that the working conditions of the workers were harsh is not something new. Diseases were common and the same can be said of accidents at work. As a result of these accidents, the workers at risk of death were transferred to the hospital in Zumaia, where many of them died, with little evidence left. It was not the case of the well-known Spanish syndicalist Marcelino Camacho, who, although he was transferred from Lezo to Zumaia and from there to the deceased’s warehouse, managed to recover his health and survive, as he reports in his memory book Confieso that I fought.

We know from oral sources that there was a detachment, apparently, many workers were captured, but we have not found any written news. However, other deaths have been confirmed. According to the documents found in the Civil Registry of Lezo, "with a firearm", three people were killed: In February 1940, Ángel Fidel Martínez Posada, in May of the same year, Carlos Corral Alcalá and in September 1946, Adolfo Gutiérrez García. The documents do not indicate whether they were cases of leakage, whether they were shot or whether they died in other fights. These are the only ones that are officially mentioned.

Public sanctions in the town square

The members of the Lezo Historical Memory Group are working to know and disseminate the construction of the road and the events surrounding it. They have chosen a name that has a great symbolism in the people: Casita. The first massacre of the rebels in Lezo in 1936 took place in the dwarf of the same name, where the mother and the three children were murdered with bayonets by the troops of Tertius de Navarra a few days before the village was taken.

The memorialist group is committed to recovering the work of the workers and the mark they left in the village. In 1939, Lezo had some 1,200 inhabitants, and according to the estimates of the members of Etxetxo, a number of other workers arrived in the town.

Most lived on the mountain, but officers and senior staff were based in Calle Mayor, in the basement under the house of the famous painter Elijah Salaberria. From time to time, they took the prisoners to the church of Santa Cruz to hear Mass and on other occasions, they were punished in the center of the Plaza de Lezo for “indiciplina”. In the memory of the elders the blows and cries of the prisoners have been nailed, as well as the nickname of the military in charge of the blows: Pinocchio.

Stories of solidarity

At the heart of this dark story, nice relationships were also created between the workers and the lezoarras. For example, women living in the Gran Vía washed the clothes of inmates, dressed them up and often objectified them. You received the assignment, and because it was too much work, you were looking for help and soon you became a vast network of solidarity. The workers, of course, did not have the money to pay and in return they delivered small wooden sculptures to the women in the area. A neighbor of Lezo still remembers the scare he received when he removed the fabric he had to hook up one of those carved woods: It was written by Muera Franco.

Some of these relationships were consolidated and some prisoners, once released, stayed to live in Lezo and there are also those who married. We know that there were at least six weddings; some of today's Lezoarras, men and women, are descendants of them.

The descendants of these women of solidarity and dams, both those who live in Lezo and those who come from other places, took part in the initiative that was organized in the town on 9 October 2016. After visiting the barracks, the plate was opened in a corner on the right at the beginning of the Jaizkibel road, a work reminiscent of the slaves of Franco. There was also street theatre based on events of the time, and finally, a tribute in the town square, where the workers suffered the sanctions.

Auzolan for memory and environment recovery

Etxetxo, in collaboration with the other groups of the people, organizes community work with a dual purpose. On the one hand, to recover the barracks from the camp and, on the other, the Ekoloji Group of Lezo, through the planting of native species. In addition, special dates are chosen for these works, such as the fall of this year, in which they acted on October 12 and December 6, both Spanish holidays. They also perform guided tours, mainly with students, but also with other groups.

Lezoarras also have medium-term objectives. So far they have had the support of the town hall, but now the involvement of other institutions is being sought. The land where the barracks of Iparragirre are located is private, and as things stand, that heritage can be in jeopardy. To maintain the area, they should first declare it a Historical Heritage, and to achieve it they are in contact with the Society of Sciences Aranzadi and the Gogora Institute of the Basque Government.

The long-term goal is to buy land and build a memory center, to recognize the barracks of the time and complete a historic journey, not to forget that every time we pass through Jaizkibel by foot, by bike or by car, there is sweat and blood from thousands of workers under that asphalt.