Half an hour’s drive uphill from the busy beaches of Nerja, on Spain’s Costa del Sol, lies the isolated village of El Acebuchal, pretty but spookily quiet, apart from the birdsong, on a summer’s morning. Seventy five years ago, its people were victims of a grievous injustice.
In August 1948 Francisco Franco’s Guardia Civil exacted a cruel and unusual punishment on every man, woman and child by summarily ordering them out of the pueblo in eastern Andalucía. Given no time to prepare, the 250 villagers fled on mules or on foot, leaving their belongings behind. Already poor and struggling to survive, many had nowhere to go.
